They’re iconic, recognizable at a glance, and tough as nails.

Road play mats.

A distinctive part of my formative years was a road play mat, its obnoxiously verdant green hue is burned into the deepest recesses of my adolescent memory (One not too dissimilar from the one pictured above).

What started out as a simple city layout and some well-loved hot wheels cars quickly become a springboard for my imagination. This small stage and its cast members rapidly grew; With butcher paper, markers, and tape, my at first limited driving space spiralled out into a cityscape of drawn streets and buildings; Becoming an eclectic collage of destinations all over the floor of the lounge room.

As the years passed, the collection grew, adding firetrucks, vans, sports cars, and a few looped-a-loops to the city; eventually, we had to start folding up the city layout, which had (much like a real urban sprawl) spread out of the lounge room and well into the wilderness that was the rest of the house.

But like all people, I too had to grow up eventually. I don’t remember when, but one day, cars weren’t all that cool anymore, and my attention moved on to other things. This isn’t to say it was wasted by any means, years and years of play came out of that mat and the ideas it spurred on. Even now I can trace back my love of machines, town planning, and all things industry related to that one little patch of carpeted streets.

And to think, all of these memories from what was likely an impulse buy of an inexpensive play mat. If you have a child of your own, or perhaps a niece or nephew, or any other kind of kid that is important to you, I cannot recommend anything more than getting them a road play mat. Available in a diverse range of settings from the racetrack to a concrete urban city sprawl (Both pictured below), There is surely a road playmat suitable as a gift for any kid.

As always, we at the Scattermats Team thank you for reading. Feel free to send us an email, give us a call, or visit us in our Welshpool showroom for all your rugs and runner needs!