Шоро Q: Американдық Penny Racers ойыншықтарының тарихы

Japanese toy line released in the US as Penny Racers

Choro Q (チョロQ, Choro Kyū) is a line of Japanese 3–4 cm pullback car toys produced by Takara. Known in North America as Penny Racers, they were introduced in late 1978 and have seen multiple revisions and successors since. Choro Qs are stylized after real world automobiles, with real rubber wheels and a pullback motor that makes them move. Each car has a coin slot at the back, where inserting a penny will make it perform a wheelie when the car is released. Takara created the Choro Q line after noticing the popularity of miniature car toys in Japan. They are based on an earlier Takara toy line called "Mame Dash", which only lasted a few years before being discontinued in 1980. A wide variety of car models was chosen to make the Choro Q series appeal to everybody, ranging from sports cars to formula racers. The name comes from the Japanese term choro choro, meaning "dash around", as well as an abbreviation of the Japanese borrowing from "cute" (kyūto) to connote their petite size.

Most Choro Q feature real rubber tires (usually with larger ones on the rear) and the characteristic coil spring pullback motor. Also, each Choro Q is a "cute" squeezed design caricature of the actual vehicle it represents. This type of caricature is also known as "deformed scale" as it gives the car a foreshortened or deformed appearance. What is also distinct about the cars is the slot at the rear, where a small coin can be inserted for the wheelie effect. The toy line is highly popular and has become collectible, even outside Japan, due to its low price and its merchandising line which includes JGTC and various licensed car editions and has also spawned a series of videogames bearing the same name. The toy line has also lent its moulding to the Micro Change and Transformers line of toys. In addition to "Penny Racers", Choro Q pullback cars were also marketed under the Tonka branding in the late 1980s as "Tonka Turbo Tricksters". "Penny Racers" in the US are still marketed by Funrise, but are less popular for collectors compared with their true to life counterparts marketed elsewhere, and versus the ones formerly sold by Tonka. "Penny Racers" tend to be garishly colored and given silly names, ignoring the actual names of the makes and models, and marketed for US children, whereas the Choro Q in the far East are made to a much higher quality standard and many are specifically designed for the adult collector, with high detail and/or tiny, incredibly detailed racing graphics and occasionally other realistic gimmicks such as fold out headlights. Originally produced in Japan, the manufacture subsequently has occurred variously in Taiwan, Macau and China. The models represent various makes and models of all kinds of actual cars, trucks, trains, and even planes and military and construction vehicles. There are even versions representing just about every bus and train line in Japan. Choro Q are also produced in limited special runs for promotional purposes. Models are licensed and produced for automotive manufacturers and dealers, or as tchotchkes for marketing of other products and services. They even released a Major League Baseball line. The first Choro Q cars were more geared toward children, with primary colors and low detail. They have grown more sophisticated over time and now are for the most part cast in a uniform clear, colored or smoked resin plastic which is then painted, thus leaving the windshields and headlights, etc. transparent for added realism. From early on, Takara offered accessories and various spare parts and modification parts, including different motors to give a higher speed. Recently the newer Choro Q are sold from the factory with various styles of spring wound motors, including slow (for trucks and machinery), normal (for normal cars), and fast (for sports cars). There is even a 2 speed motor that starts out slow and then shifts to a higher gear.

The Choro Q toy line was produced by Takara, a Japanese toy manufacturer best known for producing Transformers and B Daman. To make the toys appeal to a wide audience, Takara chose to make several varieties of models, ranging from formula racers, to buggies, to stunt cars, to sports cars.

Dozens of Choro Q video games using the Choro Q brand and themes have been released. These games, which have been released on many platforms, are racing genre with varying customization and RPG elements. Many of the games have been ported and translated with moderate success internationally, sometimes under the Choro Q name, but also under other names such as Penny Racers, Gadget Racers and Road Trip.

The Choro Q brand briefly sponsored a motorsports team, the Choro Q Racing Team, in endurance racing in 2004. The team entered the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (996), driven by Manabu Orido, Kazuyuki Nishizawa, and Haruki Kurosawa. Choro Q Racing finished 2nd place in the GT class and 12th place overall. Orido, Nishizawa, and Kurosawa also raced for the team in the Le Mans Endurance Series. In the 2004 series, Choro Q Racing finished in 5th place for the GT class.