Car Toons Week Day 5: Come on, Get Involved 'til the Mystery is Solved!

Well kids, it's Friday, and that means the end of Car Toons week. So to wrap things up, we're presenting one of the most recognizable cartoon cars of all time, The Mystery Machine!

This Mystery Machine, like the Incredobile and Ecto-1, is four wheels of an action figure sized fun.

I originally bought this, as well as the whole Mystery Inc. gang, for myself. But my kids commandeered it a few years back, and have literally played with it until it's doors fell off! Fortunately, they are designed to reattach easily, and the Mystery Machine is no worse for years of play wear. That's one sturdy toy!

When I asked my oldest daughter where the characters were, she replied "I don't know." Which in kid speak can mean everything from "In the bottom of my toy bin" to "In my left hand" but unfortunately I was not able to locate them for the photo shoot. Sounds like the perfect Mystery for Mystery Inc!

Both doors open to allow all the characters to fit inside the cab.

And the back is hinged to open up wide for more mystery solving fun.

This thing really is a beauty. It was made by Equity Marketing Inc, and was released in 2000. I think it went through a couple decal decos as well, but this is the show accurate one, and therefore the best!

But wait, there's more! Released originally in 2001 as part of their Hollywood on Wheels series, Johnny Lightning first entered the Car Toon ring with this little 1:64 scale Mystery Machine!

This little guy is insanely cute.

And extremely accurate.

The deco is perfect, and while the wheels aren't the exact same as the cartoon, their at least a nice green instead of the wildly inaccurate chrome of the Flintstones' Sports Car.

I love all the cast in details, like the handles and door lines.

Here they are together. No mystery is too big...

...or too small.

Finally, I leave you with a local celebrity, Felton's own real life Mystery Machine!

Roooby roooby rooooo!

Car Toons Week Day 3: A Day At The Races

The Wacky Races that is!

Based loosely on (or a blatant ripoff of, depending on your POV) the 1965 movie The Great Race, The Wacky Races pit Hanna Barbera characters new and old against one another in animated automotive mayhem!

The villainous Mean Machine was driven by Dick Dastardly and his giggly pal Muttley.

As you can see it is very close to the cartoon. I love Muttley, and no matter how hard I try to imitate his laugh, in all these years it still ends with a coughing fit.



I only wish these cars had tiny cartoon drivers.

"Muttley, you fool!"

Next up is Penelope Pitstop's Compact Pussycat.

Another amazingly accurate casting, all the way down (or up) to the bow-topped parasol.

"Hayulp! Hayulp!"



Like the Flintstones' Sports Car from yesterday, each of these are 1:64 scale Johnny Lightning releases from 1998, and each one is a beautiful representation of it's cartoon counterpart.

Sadly Johnny Lightning only produced two of the race cars from the Wacky Races cartoon. They did however release at least two more Hanna Barbera themed cartoon cars (the final one will show up later this week.)

The coolest one of all, in my opinion, being Speed Buggy!

I never would have expected to see an accurate Speed Buggy toy, especially so far from the series' release. I guess I'm not the only one with a fondness for the old motor head.


Voiced by the incomparable Mel Blanc, Speed Buggy was pretty much just Scooby Doo on wheels.

Speed Buggy was a living car who drove around with a group of teenagers (all of which were also based on the Mystery Inc. formula...which in turn was based on characters from The Many Loves of Doby Gillis.)

"putterputter vroom vroom pfffffffppppptttttttt!"

"putterputter hey babe putterputter goin' my way? putterVROOMputter"





And here they are all together. Amazingly, in my quest for cartoon images on Google, I discovered that there are actually real Wacky Race vehicles running around out there in the world! How cool is that?




Watch out Penelope, I wouldn't be surprised if Dastardly dropped an oil slick on that straightaway!

Car Toons Week Day 2: A Gay Old Time

In 1994 Mattel, in conjunction with Pebbles cereal, produced one of the most unique Hot Wheels to date. Not unique because we've never seen a vehicle like it before, on the contrary, we'd been seeing it for decades. Unique because it was such a departure from regular Hot Wheels fare. Which may explain why it was a mail away cereal promo and never released as a mass market casting.

I speak of course of the famous free-wheeling Flintmobile!

The gaudy colors are due to this toy's "changes color in warm and cold water" feature, which is such a lame idea that I will speak of it no further.

The design, however, is excellent and very cartoon accurate. There's great attention to detail all over it, from the ties holding the canopy together to the shell steering wheel to the stone wheels.

"Ugh...traffic. I better take the expressway..."

Not to be outdone, Fred's neighbor Barney finally got a toon accurate ride in 1998. This car is from Johnny Lightning, and although it is officially christened the "Flintstones' Sports car" we all know that it was Barney that drove the log.

The details are limited, but then it IS a log. The steering wheel looks like a stone, and the license plate says "75 BC."

The interior also has a hole in the bottom for the driver's feet to go through. Unfortunately the wheels are standard Johnny Lightning wheels and the chrome is not cartoon accurate, but at least the tires are a rock-like grey color.

"I hate tailgaters!"

"Ahh, much better. I'll be home for dinner in no time."
" Wiiiiiilllllllllllmmaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Although these vehicles come from dueling die-cast companies (and dueling neighbors,) The Flintmobile and Rubble-log are perfect companion pieces. They're a page right out of history.

They're both pretty much the same 1:64 scale, although the log may be scaled up a bit (or maybe the Flintmobile is a little small in comparison.)

A modern stone-age mini van, next to Rubble's swinging chick magnet.

"Hey Fred...wanna race?"

Car Toons Week Day 2; I bid you adieu with a Pterodactyl's eye view.

Yabba Dabba Doooooooooooo!