History Novelty Hot Rods - Post any pic's.

Here are some relics that were unearthed and on display at the Radir Wheels Party last August.....

 

I was there at Beeline Dragway that day. I'll try to find my picture of it in the pits. John

 

Some history + opinion:

Ed Roth probably deserves credit for starting this fad. Ever the promoter, he started with show cars, which he got paid to exhibit, and licensed the designs to Revell for broader awareness. His T-shirt art undoubtedly influenced the cars and kits as well. Ed Newton had a hand in much of Roth's work, and is a fine designer with a wicked sense of humor.

George Barris, Dean Jeffries and others got on the bandwagon when they figured out that TV and film production companies would pay good money for custom cars that would appear in the media, and again were spun off as licensed model kits. Munsters, Monkees, all that kinda stuff.

Tom Daniel figures prominently here, because he developed a deal with Monogram Models to do exclusive kits based on his designs. I believe the Red Baron was the first and best of these, but he did something like 30 designs altogether. He has a website where you can see all of these. The fullsize Red Barons (I believe that there have been 3 or 4 of them) were built after the kit, and only one -- if any -- were authorized by Monogram.

Hot Wheels were introduced in 1967 ('68 toy year), and although the first of them were basically tweaked stockers and copies of existing show cars, they quickly picked up on the kid appeal of the novelty designs. They bought Monogram around '70 in order to gain access to the library of Tom Daniel designs, and did very well with some of them: Red Baron and Paddy Wagon were the most successful.

Somewhere around '73, the fad just kinda wore out. People were designing cars (fullsize, model kit, and toy) based on mailboxes and bathroom plumbing, and the overall level of design degraded a lot. I think the proliferation of this style of cars tapered off around then.

There are still a few practitioners of the art, and some of the work is pretty neat. Mark Moriarity has carried on the Roth tradition like no other, and there are still occasional showbiz vehicles that are big fun: the Batman movie vehicles are probably the best current examples.

Today, economics are a much bigger factor than back then. Mattel can still afford to do novelty stuff for Hot Wheels, and do, as they appeal strongly to little kids. There will still be an occasional Batmobile or something of that ilk. The model kit business is essentially dead in the mass market, so that's unlikely to happen again.

I think it was fun while it lasted. I personally think that the Red Baron is the masterpiece of this type, and I like some of Tom's other stuff a lot -- the Pie Wagon, for example. I think the newest Batmobile, a Sci-Fi HumVee on steroids, is a blast. Moriarity and a few others will keep us entertained with an occasional show rod that has a sense of humor.

They're all just toys, after all.

 

Just found a bunch of photos on line, but the only Fahrner car I've seen has been the Boot Hill Express. Oh well, for your viewing enjoyment:

 

and some more.....

 

good GAWD! That Rick-Shaw was FUGLY!!!! LOL

 

About this thing: I don't know the guy's name, but I believe that it was built by a sculptor in the LA area. His real business was building fanciful vehicles in smallish size (a few feet in length) out of found objects like vacuum cleaner parts, pressure vessels, kitchen appliances and stuff. Most of the pieces were highly polished, and represented submarines, rocket ships, fanciful boats and so on. His outlet for these things (which were quite expensive decorative objects; multi-hundreds or thousands of dollars) were some specialty galleries in Venice, CA. Sorry I don't have any pictures, and sorrier still that I never had the money to buy any of his stuff.

This car, as I understand it, was his driver, and he drove it around town from time to time. I haven't seen his work in several years, so I don't know if he retired or passed on. If any HAMBers know more about him, I'd love to hear it.

 

These are fun to look at...brings back memories. They made great AMT models, but for a guy who likes to drive his cars they make me think of WC Fields comment: these are like elephants, nice to look at but I wouldn't want to own one.

 

The modern day show rod now seems to be the Monster truck. Outhere engines, oversized bodies and cartoon names.

 

Great thread! Here's one of my projects.. A little off topic I suppose. And a couple of pics of a Dragon Wagon T Bucket I took a couple of months ago...

 

Another round....





From the Bewitched TV show, a car by Winfield...

 

And more shots of the "Ace & Gary" rocket car:

 

Long ago I had the model cars of these two show cars.

L'IL COFFIN and the Beatnik Bandit

I looked and looked for the PHONE BOOTH model T custom that was a popular show car, but couldn,t find any pics.

It was a T with the top raised instead of chopped, and made to look just like a phone booth for a cab on a Model T. I built a model car of that one too, back in the 60's


Anyone remember the PHONE BOOTH? Anyone able to find pics?

 

Damn, I really am liking these rocket cars...!!!!!

 

Q, you've collected some cool pictures of this stuff. A few questions for you:

1. You mention the "Ace and Gary" car. That's the same vehicle that I wrote about in post #130, but maybe I have it wrong. Who are Ace and Gary? And, do you know anything more about the car?

2. The two bare aluminum cars in your post #134 look like they might have been built by the same sculptor, especially the first one. Know any more about either of those?

3. The second car in your #137 is the Hungerford Rocket Car. I wrote some stuff about it in the "Cool Pictures" thread; did you see that? I particularly like that the builder, who was unsuccessful in finding investors for his project, lent it to a young college student in the '40s who used it as his daily driver!

Thanks for this stuff!

 

He was kidding with you. Ace and Gary are from a tv bit called the "ambiguously gay duo",

I was just looking through some pics from about 1999-2001, and I found some of his 3 wheeled rocket car. Ill try and scan them..

I met him at a carshow in Glendale, and I think I remeber him saying it was a tank from a f-14 or some other fighter plane and the engine was a Datsun or Mazda rotarty engine. It was registered as a motorcycle since it was 3-wheels so he had to wear a helmet. That thing sure caused a stir when he drove it away! I havent seen anything from him since then.

 

Ya mean this one?

 

I should have a picture, give me a little bit to find my pictures.
George

 

These cars certainly represent alot of manhours and imagination.

At the end of the day I have to imagine it would be like being married to a stripper though,....fun and exciting but is it really what you want at home?

I'll keep lookin though. Does any one have a photo of the HOT WHEELS Corvette with twin engines?

 

Here is one of my father's toys. We know every person that has owned it since the owner built it in around 1972. We do drive it on the street, haven't had any problems with it. We guess the police would get tired of writing tickets.

 

thats a wild ride your dad had there kmajka. looks like a blast

 

Thanks. It is a lot of fun and drives really well. I've driven down the highway at 70 mph and been able to take both hands off the wheel. It tracks straight as can be. You see some great reactions on the road and putting around at shows.

 

got any more pics of the "t" far right the black one?

 

woops cocked that up its the t at the top of page 2 on this thread!

 

you mean the "Twin Mill"? Here's what I found...

 

My father used to test drive and review cars for the newspapers and had a few radio spots back in the '80s. He actually took the 80's version of the Weinermobile out and ran it around and wrote a review. He had a kinda twisted sense of humor.

 

I'll bet there is some serious flex in that chassis!!!! Thanks, Mike

 

A lot of rat rods a just novelty cars... without skill or imagination

 

The Zippo car:

The famous Zippo® car was commissioned by founder George G. Blaisdell and used in parades and special events in the 1940s and 1950s. The original 1947 Chrysler Saratoga disappeared in the 1970s; however on the 50th anniversary of the car, in 1997, Zippo recreated the Zippo car. The new Zippo car was fabricated from a similar 1947 Chrysler New Yorker.

Lots of pics of the Zippo Car II

http://www.simpson260.com/hosting/zippo/zippo_car.htm