The pop-up headlight was, for many years, a simple yet awesome pleasure. It took the car’s most anthropomorphic feature, those eye-like headlights, and made them even more human, allowing them to open and shut like drowsy lids.The 1936 Cord 810 was the first car to have this feature. There was a supposedly aerodynamic advantage with the headlights down and the car had a sleeker appearance.

I have four cars in my collection with the pop up headlights. Pictured from left to right: Lamborghini Silhouette (Shinsei Mini Power), Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (Corgi), Oldsmobile Tornado (Corgi) and Lamborghini Countach (KingStar). The headlights are operated by a lever, on the base of the car or in the Oldsmobile‘s case at the side. I think it is a pretty cool feature to have on a diecast model.

Nowadays because of safety regulations new cars don’t have pop up headlights, one of the last production cars with this feature was the 2004 Chevrolet Corvette C5.