The Wacky Races, pt. 2 - The Projects

On to the "good" stuff. . . 

 

The driving force behind this hobby detour was reading the six issue mini-series, Wacky Raceland, as well as the background info, which was fascinating. The corporate collaborative effort aside, the success of this particular undertaking is due to the creative rendezvous of individuals invested in the project and at the top of their game! In a word . . . BRILLIANT!!

 

What followed is still a bit of a head-scratcher to me: the racer that appealed to me the most, while being realistically achievable, was the post-apocalyptic Compact Pussycat (#5) belonging to Penelope Pitstop!

By way of introductory background, Penelope Pitstop was quite literally the 11^th driver in WR, added by Joseph Barbera as an afterthought in order to have the fairer sex represented on the grid. In WR, Penelope Pitstop drives the Compact Pussycat – a mostly pink, stereo-typically feminine car that is essentially a beauty parlor on wheels. Consistent with this theme, she is described by the race announcer as the "Glamour Gal of the Gas Pedal". The Wacky Raceland version – of both car and driver – is, not surprisingly, quite different. . .

 

As of this writing, the Compact Pussycat is over halfway done, but the serious mods are about to slow things down dramatically. . .  If I can get through this next phase, it should be a largely unchallenged dash to the finish line. . .

This should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, but there are an additional two projects sharing space on an increasingly crowded bench: the Creepy Coupe (#2), my absolute favourite of all the Wacky Racers; and the Arkansas Chugga-Bug (#8).

The Creepy Coupe was driven by the Gruesome Twosome: Big "Tiny" Gruesome, and Little "Bela" Gruesome. "Tiny" was the oversized lurching 'monster'; "Bela" was the diminutive, purple-skinned vampire behind the wheel. Joining them was their faithful companion dragon, as well as a host of ghosts, witches, etc., all of whom resided in the belfry of the Coupe.

A brief modelling sidebar, if I may. . .  MPC released 4 Wacky Racers in 1969. These were of the no-glue, no-paint model "toy" snap-kit ilk. I don't know if MPC intended to continue the series, but Aurora had also developed prototypes of 6 prospective WR releases as "simple" model kits (for a nice histo-  rical overview of the WR kits, click here). Earlier this year, Round 2/MPC announced the re-release of 3 of the four Wacky Races model kits. There has not been much information regarding the re-releases. . . in fact, the only concrete information is that the three are now available for pre-order!

Back to the projects. . . My goal for these two projects is to create non-cartoon versions of the respective Wacky Racers. To this end, I am creating my version of the Creepy Coupe using George Barris's Munster Koach kit (AMT) as the conversion base; while the Arkansas Chugga-Bug will be based on the Beverly Hillbillies' truck kit (orig. MPC/AMT-Ertl).

 

More to follow. . .

“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003