Mel Birnkrant's
Copyright Acknowledgment: All images of MONSTER TRUCKS and other
Products and Images, created by Mel Birnkrant, are Copyright
(c) BIRNKRANT KISCOM/ The OBB
Products and Images, created by Mel Birnkrant, are Copyright
(c) BIRNKRANT KISCOM/ The OBB
This project was a quickie, a couple of pull cord wind-up vehicles was all it took to get it on the road. The fact that one of them was already called “Big Foot” made it easy to decide what kind of creature to cram inside.
Below is a Demonstration Video, including segments in slow motion. For lack of a handy immovable object to encounter, the Monster Trucks perform head-on collisions with a telephone.
Below is a Demonstration Video, including segments in slow motion. For lack of a handy immovable object to encounter, the Monster Trucks perform head-on collisions with a telephone.
"MONSTER TRUCKS", Wow! That was a name just too good to pass up. What were called “Monster Trucks” were big, or, at least, their tires were! But there weren’t any Monsters…. yet! What a Natural! The name alone told me what the toy would be: a series of innocent looking vehicles with Monsters, seemingly too BIG to hide inside, that Pop-Up when two or more collide.
The two vehicles in the video were done without any preliminary sketches. Once the tops were chopped, the interior space available determined what and how big the monsters would be. The idea was to make them appear as large as possible. And therefore, like a circus clown car, cause the viewer to wonder how they ever fit inside. Although it doesn’t show well in the video, the creatures telescope, and actually grow taller, as they rise.
To flesh the concept out, and whet the imagination, the following drawings accompanied the presentation. Whether they were practical or possible is another matter, but they were fun to do. The “Van-pier was a natural.
To flesh the concept out, and whet the imagination, the following drawings accompanied the presentation. Whether they were practical or possible is another matter, but they were fun to do. The “Van-pier was a natural.
Before we got a chance to show this concept, a similar one appeared. I don’t recall what they were called. They were much smaller and more vehicular. Their front ends opened to reveal teeth. Thus, these prototypes and sketches remained in their presentation case, out of sight and mind, for over 20 years. I had forgotten they existed until I literally stumbled across them while doing some spring cleaning, just the other day.
I like them better now than I did then. So they will have their moment on the Internet, before they sink beneath the Sands of Time again.
