When I got a hold of the Red Bull Honda by Tomica, right next to it was this beauty: the iconic McLaren MP4/4 from its Formula 1 championship in 1988. Needless to say, modern day niceties has stripped the car of its tobacco sponsorship but can it be anything other than Marlboro in those colors?
With none other than Aryton Senna behind the wheel of car No. 12 (and Alain Prost in No. 11), McLaren won all but one race and claimed all but one pole position. There wasn’t much coverage on TV back then but the sheer dominance of McLaren in their white and red livery cut through to the mainstream newspaper’s sports section.
I didn’t have a pen or pencil that was quite as hot or winning but I thought the Sailor F-1 JR Rolling No. 500 at least had the right name and colors. This was a ‘capless’ rollerball that you retracted by pressing the red rubber dot in the clip. For the curious, Sailor also made a more premium version that came in stainless steel.