Years ago, my daughter, Jessica, was involved in AWANAS at church. One of the yearly events was a pinewood derby race. Now, as you know, I am totally into Hot Wheels. What you don't know is that at the age of about nine, so was Jessica! (Hey, she's always been a cool kid!) Therefore, when it came to building a pinewood racer, you know where we went for inspiration...
Actually, I ended up buildind four cars with her over the years. Each one got a little closer to a real Hot Wheels car. This is the last in the series, when pinewood derby crashed head on into plastic model building and Hot Wheels collecting...I present to you, Jessica's Paddy Wagon!
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| The car uses plastic model parts on a pinewood chassis. |
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| The wheels are official pinewood derby wheels with painted hubs. |
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| The plastic parts were glued directly to the wood base. |
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| The bottom of the engine was cut so it would sit correctly on the wood slab. |
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| The panel on the back can be opened so you can access and adjust the weights. |
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| The inspiration- my mint 1970 Hot Wheels Paddy Wagon! |
Jessica actually did a lot of the work on the car, although I helped. She took first place in the "Design" catagory! I think she may have won one race.
Now, Jessica is 27, so her pinewood derby days may be in the past. However, her kids (and my grandkids) Ayden and Kyrie are 7 and 5, so there may be racing yet to come!
Until next time keep searching for (and maybe building) treasure!
This is a work of art, Stu. We never, ever came anywhere close to something like this with our Pinewood Derby cars.
ReplyDeleteOne year, my younger son actually raced an unpainted, unshaped (but properly-weighted and balanced) block of wood. He wasn't protesting anything or being lazy - he thought it was funny and would be unique. Each artist expresses themselves differently, I guess.
That's great Chuck! I love that idea!
DeleteAnd thanks for the comments on the "Wagon." It was mainly "show" and fairly little "go", lol!