Early Christmas Post - Jeff DeGrandis/Ed "Big Daddy" Roth....

As a kid growing up in Fort William, Ontario, the 1:25 scale model cars you got for Christmas were the closest thing you had to having the real thing.  You could build those models and learn from them, later to apply your hopeful talents to the 1:1 cars that you might some day afford to build.  It takes a whole lifetime and then some to learn from your mistakes.
Here is a very cool Christmas post. These first two renderings were done by none other than Jeff DeGrandis. You can read Jeff's bio further down, but Jeff's talent here, emulates that of an incredible artist and car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, the creator of "Rat Fink".
........Click on all pictures to enjoy them larger! 

The custom cars that the kid is asking Santa Fink for were all designed and built by none other than "Big Daddy" Roth himself.  Also every one of these cars were also recreated in 1:25 scale for the kid in me back then and are still available to this day for all us plastic bashers.

The first one here noted in the cartoon is The Beatnik Bandit.

This one is The Outlaw.

This picture and the next shows a photo of The Outlaw at The Fort William Gardens right here in our home town of Thunder Bay....well it was called Thunder Bay by then, as the photo was taken in about 1980.  If you click on this, you can see my red/black 1932 Hudson Terraplane off to the left behind the kid standing there.

This is another shot actually taken from the same spot.  The Outlaw was on a turnable to show off its incredible lines.  This same car was here before in the 1960's when one of the "Northern Ontario Timing Association" car shows was held at the Port Arthur Arena, and yes, Thunder Bay was called Fort William and Port Arthur until 1970.

This on is Big Daddy's Mysterian.

This strange one with the clear orange plastic dome is Road Agent.

Here is Big Daddy himself in his Orbitron!

This final one is a rail dragster called Yellow Fang

Its hard to believe that Jeff was only 3 or 4 years old when Big Daddy was doing these custom cars.

BE SURE TO GO TO JEFF'S SITE as follows  http://dragfink.com/ to view Jeff's incredible talent!

 

Finally...the creator of all this Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.  You can read all about Big Daddy if you click on this link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roth

Ed Big Daddy Roth March 4, 1932 – April 4, 2001

My heartfelt thanks to Jeff DeGrandis for keeping the memory of Big Daddy and Rat Fink alive!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012