6 ms·

Toyota Children's Web Site (1995)

92 points by petepete 5y ago

1cvmask 5y ago
This site is just such a throwback to a different era. Feels vintage. Wonder when they will "update" it.
- petepete 5y ago
  It looks like it's still being maintained, there are some newish articles on environmentally-friendly cars that are inkeeping with the old style. I really hope they don't replace it with something modern, or if they do at least keep an archived version of it somewhere.
- beardyw 5y ago
  Interesting, would children see it as out of date I wonder? As a child I read old books and it was only as an adult I realised they were out of date in style at the time I read them.
- pjerem 5y ago
  There even are YouTube videos from 2016 : https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html At this point, I'm even starting to think that (c) 1995 in the footer is just a joke. Did anyone remember seeing this website in the 90s ? Anyway, nice website
ricardobayes 5y ago
As we got dev documentation from Japanese OEMs in post on a CD-ROM (in 2020), this doesn't surprise me one bit.
setgree 5y ago
Today the most visually and child unfriendly aspect of the website is the dropdown asking you to approve cookies :)
- chronogram 5y ago
  The only cookies it sets for me are the AWS load balancing cookies, which should not need a cookie dropdown.
city41 5y ago
Poking around it looks like it is using jquery, which initially came out in 2006. So I'm guessing it has been updated over the years. I wonder what it looked like in 1995.
- tubbs 5y ago
  It has pictures of a clay model of a production-looking Scion FR-S as well, so I can assume it has been updated at least as late as 2012.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  Yeah, looking at the internet archive it seems this version came about in late 2017ish with additional changes since. Prior to that it was using Flash. The page itself seems to be based on the original table based layout but everything in the actual cell that replaced the flash version seems to have been made in ~2017 with div based layout and JS based interaction. The images assets themselves look like they might have carried over from the Flash based version though. Interestingly they stopped doing 1995-<current year> in the copyright banner only recently. So outside the containing <table> nothing seems to be from 1995 and outside the image assets nothing seems to be from prior to 2017.
kazinator 5y ago
There were no mouseover effects in the Web rendering stack in 1995. Copyright date != Creation/Modification date. Archive.org offers no evidence that this page existed prior to 2008; between 1995 and 2008, it didn't manage to find that page. The Archive's 2008 fetch serves up a blank page, with a Copyright 1995-2010 date: two years into the future. Unless the Archive screwed up, it shows that in 2008, this existed as a blank placeholder page only, whose purpose was to make a falsely dated copyright claim over an expressive work that is blank.
- Nition 5y ago
  The cars shown on the Inspection page[1] are certainly not from the 1990s. [1] https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/inspection.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/inspection.html
- jchw 5y ago
  Internet Archive is not comprehensive; it’s missing boatloads of stuff from the early 2000s. This page was updated to migrate off of Flash Player sometime in 2017, as far as I can ascertain, which is probably why it appears “blank” before then.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  It's not a blank canvas in 2008 you just can't view Flash content. Similarly the copyright wasn't placed 2 years early Archive.org is just pulling the copyright banner image from it's 2010 store instead of 2008 (why I have no idea but the URL of the image for the 2008 archived version is pointing at /web/20101205090521...). Archive.org isn't exhaustive, especially for foreign pages in decades past, so that isn't reason to suspect the copyright is backdated. You're right that this version of the page is not at all from 1995 though it seems to be from a Flash -> HTML 5 rewrite in ~2017 with updates since. They just stopped updating the copyright line with -<current year>.
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    Can confirm, there's an swf file that was captured in 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080226073834oe_/https:/www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/kids_new.swf https://web.archive.org/web/20080226073834oe_/https:/www.toy... I was able to download and run this in Flash Projector, and it appears to be identical to the current site.
balozi 5y ago
That site serves up a strange experience. What age-group children were they targeting, 8-12 or 48-62 year-olds? The designed and graphics says pre-teens, the copy suggested pre-retirement. My guess is that the site is localized and something got lost in translation.
- carstenhag 5y ago
  Not sure why you are having this impression, seems just fine for kids interested in tech
mmcgaha 5y ago
Looking at the site in the Wayback machine, it was flash in 2008. I would love to see what they were doing in 1995.
speedgoose 5y ago
Why do companies feel the need to say such bullshit to kids though? Will the kids repeat that to their parents when they want to buy a car, or will the kids buy a self charging Toyota 30 years later because they remembered old propaganda?
- TeeMassive 5y ago
  In Canada advertising targeting kids is illegal. This is why you get a lot of SUVs and diaper ads targeting adults on cartoon networks.
  - Causality1 5y ago
    Untrue. It's just regulated: https://adstandards.ca/about/childrens-advertising-initiative/self-regulation-of-childrens-advertising/ https://adstandards.ca/about/childrens-advertising-initiativ...
    - TeeMassive 5y ago
      My mistake
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
  > will the kids buy a self charging Toyota 30 years later because they remembered old propaganda? This is the hope... "brand affinity" it's why Facebook started focusing on kids, so they could get them into the ecosystem over their lifespan and avoid "facebook is for old people" issues. And anecdotally it probably works, I remember toy ads from 30 years ago quite well. Kids do engage in this stuff themselves though, I wrote a letter to Sega at one point to point out a typo in the Genesis manual and they sent me a bunch of stickers and stuff. I was genuinely curious about how their company operated, how games were made, etc... so informational content might be satiating general curiosity from kids they've noticed, but it's a thin line.
- KennyBlanken 5y ago
  A ten year old kid will be a driver in ~6-8 years so it's a fairly short payback. This is just one of Toyota's many prongs PR-wise. Right now they're full-bore trying to fight the electric vehicle movement because they are dead-set on hybrid cars being the "future" even though it's plain as day that they won't be except for most consumers. Hybrids will likely only see use in commercial applications, or sales in areas with poor electrical grid infrastructure.
lqet 5y ago
While this is clearly not from the 90ies, it reminded me of the first website I have ever visited, as a kid on my uncle's Windows 95 machine. I had read about this Internet thing in the German Micky Mouse magazine, and naturally, this was the first (and only) site I tried (this version is from 99, but it looked similar around 1996). https://web.archive.org/web/19990508195133/http://www.disney.de/micky-maus-magazin/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990508195133/http://www.disney...
- Tijdreiziger 5y ago
  So there is/was a Mickey Mouse magazine in Germany? Interesting, in the Netherlands we have a Donald Duck magazine. Also interesting that Mickey Mouse is spelled without the 'e' in German.
lxe 5y ago
https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/index.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/index.html great "how it's made" material into a car's manufacturing process
vijaybritto 5y ago
Incredible how everything we try to do as part of modern web development like no layout shifts, less JS and many more were the default of those times. I have this opinion that the more constrained we are, the more useful things we produce.
sn_master 5y ago
Can't be forgotten since the 90s, it has YouTube videos uploaded in 2016 here https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html
kiririn 5y ago
Annnd it’s gone >we have closed the site as of November 30, 2021

92 points by petepete 5y ago

1cvmask 5y ago

This site is just such a throwback to a different era. Feels vintage. Wonder when they will "update" it.

petepete 5y ago
It looks like it's still being maintained, there are some newish articles on environmentally-friendly cars that are inkeeping with the old style. I really hope they don't replace it with something modern, or if they do at least keep an archived version of it somewhere.
beardyw 5y ago
Interesting, would children see it as out of date I wonder? As a child I read old books and it was only as an adult I realised they were out of date in style at the time I read them.
pjerem 5y ago
There even are YouTube videos from 2016 : https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html At this point, I'm even starting to think that (c) 1995 in the footer is just a joke. Did anyone remember seeing this website in the 90s ? Anyway, nice website

ricardobayes 5y ago

As we got dev documentation from Japanese OEMs in post on a CD-ROM (in 2020), this doesn't surprise me one bit.

setgree 5y ago

Today the most visually and child unfriendly aspect of the website is the dropdown asking you to approve cookies :)

chronogram 5y ago
The only cookies it sets for me are the AWS load balancing cookies, which should not need a cookie dropdown.

city41 5y ago

Poking around it looks like it is using jquery, which initially came out in 2006. So I'm guessing it has been updated over the years. I wonder what it looked like in 1995.

tubbs 5y ago
It has pictures of a clay model of a production-looking Scion FR-S as well, so I can assume it has been updated at least as late as 2012.
zamadatix 5y ago
Yeah, looking at the internet archive it seems this version came about in late 2017ish with additional changes since. Prior to that it was using Flash. The page itself seems to be based on the original table based layout but everything in the actual cell that replaced the flash version seems to have been made in ~2017 with div based layout and JS based interaction. The images assets themselves look like they might have carried over from the Flash based version though. Interestingly they stopped doing 1995-<current year> in the copyright banner only recently. So outside the containing <table> nothing seems to be from 1995 and outside the image assets nothing seems to be from prior to 2017.

kazinator 5y ago

There were no mouseover effects in the Web rendering stack in 1995. Copyright date != Creation/Modification date. Archive.org offers no evidence that this page existed prior to 2008; between 1995 and 2008, it didn't manage to find that page. The Archive's 2008 fetch serves up a blank page, with a Copyright 1995-2010 date: two years into the future. Unless the Archive screwed up, it shows that in 2008, this existed as a blank placeholder page only, whose purpose was to make a falsely dated copyright claim over an expressive work that is blank.

Nition 5y ago
The cars shown on the Inspection page[1] are certainly not from the 1990s. [1] https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/inspection.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/inspection.html
jchw 5y ago
Internet Archive is not comprehensive; it’s missing boatloads of stuff from the early 2000s. This page was updated to migrate off of Flash Player sometime in 2017, as far as I can ascertain, which is probably why it appears “blank” before then.
zamadatix 5y ago
It's not a blank canvas in 2008 you just can't view Flash content. Similarly the copyright wasn't placed 2 years early Archive.org is just pulling the copyright banner image from it's 2010 store instead of 2008 (why I have no idea but the URL of the image for the 2008 archived version is pointing at /web/20101205090521...). Archive.org isn't exhaustive, especially for foreign pages in decades past, so that isn't reason to suspect the copyright is backdated. You're right that this version of the page is not at all from 1995 though it seems to be from a Flash -> HTML 5 rewrite in ~2017 with updates since. They just stopped updating the copyright line with -<current year>.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  Can confirm, there's an swf file that was captured in 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080226073834oe_/https:/www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/kids_new.swf https://web.archive.org/web/20080226073834oe_/https:/www.toy... I was able to download and run this in Flash Projector, and it appears to be identical to the current site.

balozi 5y ago

That site serves up a strange experience. What age-group children were they targeting, 8-12 or 48-62 year-olds? The designed and graphics says pre-teens, the copy suggested pre-retirement. My guess is that the site is localized and something got lost in translation.

carstenhag 5y ago
Not sure why you are having this impression, seems just fine for kids interested in tech

mmcgaha 5y ago

Looking at the site in the Wayback machine, it was flash in 2008. I would love to see what they were doing in 1995.

speedgoose 5y ago

Why do companies feel the need to say such bullshit to kids though? Will the kids repeat that to their parents when they want to buy a car, or will the kids buy a self charging Toyota 30 years later because they remembered old propaganda?

TeeMassive 5y ago
In Canada advertising targeting kids is illegal. This is why you get a lot of SUVs and diaper ads targeting adults on cartoon networks.
- Causality1 5y ago
  Untrue. It's just regulated: https://adstandards.ca/about/childrens-advertising-initiative/self-regulation-of-childrens-advertising/ https://adstandards.ca/about/childrens-advertising-initiativ...
  - TeeMassive 5y ago
    My mistake
micromacrofoot 5y ago
> will the kids buy a self charging Toyota 30 years later because they remembered old propaganda? This is the hope... "brand affinity" it's why Facebook started focusing on kids, so they could get them into the ecosystem over their lifespan and avoid "facebook is for old people" issues. And anecdotally it probably works, I remember toy ads from 30 years ago quite well. Kids do engage in this stuff themselves though, I wrote a letter to Sega at one point to point out a typo in the Genesis manual and they sent me a bunch of stickers and stuff. I was genuinely curious about how their company operated, how games were made, etc... so informational content might be satiating general curiosity from kids they've noticed, but it's a thin line.
KennyBlanken 5y ago
A ten year old kid will be a driver in ~6-8 years so it's a fairly short payback. This is just one of Toyota's many prongs PR-wise. Right now they're full-bore trying to fight the electric vehicle movement because they are dead-set on hybrid cars being the "future" even though it's plain as day that they won't be except for most consumers. Hybrids will likely only see use in commercial applications, or sales in areas with poor electrical grid infrastructure.

lqet 5y ago

While this is clearly not from the 90ies, it reminded me of the first website I have ever visited, as a kid on my uncle's Windows 95 machine. I had read about this Internet thing in the German Micky Mouse magazine, and naturally, this was the first (and only) site I tried (this version is from 99, but it looked similar around 1996). https://web.archive.org/web/19990508195133/http://www.disney.de/micky-maus-magazin/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990508195133/http://www.disney...

Tijdreiziger 5y ago
So there is/was a Mickey Mouse magazine in Germany? Interesting, in the Netherlands we have a Donald Duck magazine. Also interesting that Mickey Mouse is spelled without the 'e' in German.

lxe 5y ago

https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/index.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/car/index.html great "how it's made" material into a car's manufacturing process

vijaybritto 5y ago

Incredible how everything we try to do as part of modern web development like no layout shifts, less JS and many more were the default of those times. I have this opinion that the more constrained we are, the more useful things we produce.

sn_master 5y ago

Can't be forgotten since the 90s, it has YouTube videos uploaded in 2016 here https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html https://www.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/man/active.html

kiririn 5y ago

Annnd it’s gone >we have closed the site as of November 30, 2021