Last week I shared the Tom Daniel model, "Fast Buck." Hot Wheels had several cars that Tom designed. He never designed Hot Wheels directly, however. He designed all of his cars for Monogram Models. So how do we have Tom Daniel Hot Wheels?
As it turns out, Mattel owned Monogram Models. Monogram was more than happy to share popular model designs with the little metal cars. These designs included The Red Baron, The S'Cool Bus, The Paddy Wagon, and...this?
And the "Funny Money" name on the base.
So what gives? Did Tom refuse to let Hot Wheels clone this one? Was there some big falling out between them?
Apparently not. There were more Tom Daniel releases later.
And there are differences, of course. The Fast Buck is a hot rod, the Funny Money is a dragster. The Funny Money's body raises to show a driver roll cage and two, not one, engines. The body style in front is much more realistic. The top has no turret or huge wing, but rather a rectangular driver escape hatch.
So, here is my take. Two designers came up with the idea independently. It happens. There were all kinds of vehicles being converted into hot rods and dragsters. Maybe it was just time to do an armored car.
Or maybe Larry walked by the Monogram department and happened to see a Jinx Express and just went with it. It's not exactly plagiarism, especially since they're really the same company. Or maybe he didn't even remember seeing it. It's possible.
The long and short of it is that, apparently, the two cars are not directly related. The exact reason for the similarity may never be known.
But it's a really cool Hot Wheel...
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
Hmm, that combination lock on the back panel can't simply be a coincidence... can it? On the Fast Buck, the lock is functional. On the Funny Money, the lock is just a molded decoration, right? Nope, I'm not buyin' it. Somewhere down the line somebody copied from somebody else. But like you said, it's pretty much the same company, so... meh. It does look nice though. And considering the small size of Hot Wheels cars, they managed to get a lot of detail in this version.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the lock is kind of a dead giveaway. I've never seen a real truck with that setup (although it would be cool). Larry Wood designed a ton of cars for Hot Wheels, so maybe they just let him do his interpretation of Tom Daniel's idea. It is a cool car, though. Big and heavy! That makes it fast!
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