Matchbox 1963 and Johnny Lightning 1966 Cadillac Hearse's
One of the most strange car culture's out there that has been recently adopted is the Hearse. No one wants to remember the last ride most of us takes before going six-feet underground, but apparently most do. Good for cruising or scaring the heck out of people for Halloween the Hearse is the perfect tool. Plus, some models you cannot get a wagon in stock form, like Cadillac for example, so the Hearse fits the bill perfectly, and in the onslaught of popularity with diecast hearses two 1:64 scale models have been the most popular by far: the Matchbox 1963 Cadillac Hearse and the Johnny Lightning 1966 Cadillac Hearse.
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Matchbox 1963 Cadillac Hearse
Matchbox arrived on the scene in 2006 to the growing hearse culture that was making the JL version hard-to-find. The 1963 was based on Felix Holst's own hearse, right down to the lowered stance. The front has the quad round headlights that flank the eggcrate grille and the bumper that contours the shape of the front. You can see on the front fenders the chrome strips on top, the wraparound windshield, the chrome trim on the sides and around the window trim, right down to the S-shaped trim on the rear 1/4 window panels; the nub on the roof that is used as a light for special purposes, and even the rear fins still protrude despite the wagon look. The rear has the pointed fins with taillights and exhaust just below in oval housings and a typical side-opening rear door to load/unload caskets and a large rear window. It's inside that rear window that you can see a casket inside and, look close, a large creepy hand starting to come out!
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The base underneath shows off the drivetrain inside the X-brace support frame and the exhaust system. Powering this beast is the 390 CID Cadillac V8 that produces 350 hp. through a 3-speed automatic. The interior has a bench seat for three people, and if it's not carrying a casket can unfold the second row for three more passengers. The dashboard has a driver-oriented setup with speedometer, large deep-dish steering wheel, and radio controls to the left. After the black version the 2007 goes for a white version, and then finally to a silver with red interior for 2008; at that time there was complaints from parents in other countries about having a hearse as a toy car for kids was against their religion, so to satisfy demands and keep the 1963 Cadillac Matchbox released the revised Ambulance in 2009. The new Ambulance rides higher and has the Cadillac V emblem on the hood. the rear windows return and the roof raised for more clearance in the back, aided by roof lights and the rotating one on top that is part of the windows. The base is the same, as for the front seat area, but the back area removes the hearse for a stretcher and seating areas for EMS personnel to attend to the injured person. Before vans this was the only way to transport a patient to a hospital. The Ambulance underwent a change of cost-cutting with a large window on the roof added in 2012, while the Hearse made one last appearance with a metal base in the Lesney series before hiding away from the spotlight.
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Johnny Lightning 1966 Cadillac Hearse
On the other hand Johnny Lightning was the first on the Hearse scene when their 1966 Cadillac debut in 2000 alongside a dual-engined dragster version called Hairy Hauler. Since then it's been a very popular casting and very hard to find one in a clean appearance, which appeared on its last release in the Hearse Haulers series around 2007. White and the black one, shown here, were the colors offered, and unlike the others (the Universal Monsters version in black and the X-men version to which I based my custom dragster) this was the cleanest you can get. The front has Pontiac-style vertical-staked headlights with signal lights on the large grille and on the front fenders on the other sides of the headlight. The hood has two versions: one with a domed scoop and the other just stock, thankfully this black version has the latter. The sides, long devoided with graphics, has returned to chrome trim, window surrounds, and S-shaped rear window. Even the roof gets a nice split outline with the silver chrome trim. Chrome hubcaps with white walls and narrow tires make a nice return to this wagon.
The rear has split taillight design on the fins, detailed trim around the doors, gas filler cover to the left of the door, and the rear plate area also serves as the rear base support. One nice touch is the use of window curtains for the three rear doors that, when added to this nice clean black version, represents the beauty in this Cadillac and deserves it well. The base shows off the stock frame with engine and drivetrain details and this time just one exhaust pipe instead of two (also note the lack of the X-brace support frame.) The engine is a 429 CID Cadillac V8 that produces 340 hp through a 3-speed automatic transmission. The Monsters version looks cool in black with red bats on the sides and roof, Dracula on the roof, and the Universal Monsters logo on the hood scoop. Heck, even the Mag wheels look cool here.
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Before I realized that there was a dragster Hearse made by JL I made my own custom by getting rid of the horrific X-men deco on a 1966 Cadillac Hearse and transforming it into a dragster. Trail and error from trying to fit the dragster frame from a Hot Wheels Funny Car did not work meant some cuts to the rear wheelwells which really wasn't needed. Instead the funny car chassis was cut off so that the only remaining items are the engine and the rear seat. This duo then was glued on the base where the interior used to be. The windshield was cut out to allow air flow to the engine and the rear curtains were retained (though they had to be painted red over the pink). Wheelie bars from a metal paper clip was added to the rear, along with a spare cylinder eraser that I used as the parachute bag. Finally the vehicle was painted black with hand-painted red blood flames and a silver ghost on the roof to finish off the Hearse dragster. Not the best, and I admit I could've done better, but this was one of my first few tries at customization (which really didn't work out.) Cool thing is that the body can be separated from the base to show the engine and then reattached to the body, and as for the large holes at the rear wheelwells I got the idea of concealing them with vertical quad exhaust pipes used from paperclips.
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Even more cool is the support truck that I made from an extra Muscle Machines Dodge Ram 3500 Duallie from the Jesse James series. This custom dually has the Cummins turbodiesel I-6 to a 4-speed automatic, a lowered stance that features a suspension that you press down on the vehicle to raise or lower the truck, on nice chrome 5-spoke wheels, and a topper over the bed. The dashboard, which used a 2001-2004 Dodge Dakota/Durango dashboard, was used in a proper Dakota, which in turn the Ram used the older dashboard that looks similar to the original Ram's dash. To match the paint the white truck was painted black, and that's when the blood red flames take over. Since there was enough room to work with I added the flames around each wheelwell, over the tailgate, and over the front where the grille gets a viscous sharp teeth with blood dripping from it. Finally I added labels as the Hearse Transporter to the topper on the sides and rear from printer paper and Monster Customs was my initial customization shop until I decided to stop after a while. While the Hearse is cool, the Ram is way cooler with one of my best hand-painted art skills to date.
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While we may never see another Hearse in diecast again if politics keep getting in the way, the premium diecast lines will keep making them, though not as often. Heck, even Johnny Lightning might revive the Hearse for their new line...just as long as they keep it as clean as the black version shown with no graphics.
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Are you telling me that Matchbox has not released a funeral coach model since 2008(?) because some overseas parents were not raising their children properly???
ReplyDeleteOne definition of "properly" would be my own. I don't find it proper that parents should raise their children in such a manner that they instill their own irrational fears in their children, which can only be detrimental, and serve no benefit to the children, for it will assuredly reduce the children's ability to cope successfully with living in the real world as adults. Further, I had thought that Americans were the culture that fear death the most, and therefore, had always hidden it away in an attempt to avoid it, and thereby, not having to admit, and accept, their own mortality, acting like an ostrich with its head in the sand. "If I can't see it, then it doesn't exist!" The western culture is the one whose members allegedly fear death to such a degree that they are unwilling to face it, and talk about, and work to accept it as a natural part of life . . . it is in fact, the only guarantee anyone receives in life! Beyond that, I do not condone any form of censorship imposed on adults, and I am adamantly oppose to it in all of its wicked forms. However, children are quite another issue, yet in regards to the topic of death, or a toy diecast model of a funeral coach, I see no reason that children should be sheltered from such items. The smaller of a bubble you raise you child within, the less their ability to be a successful member of society, and deal with everything that they will be exposed to in adult life, the less ability that child will have to survive and cope as an adult. Additionally, are these complaining parents not aware how making anything forbidden to someone, regardless of age, often can result in that restricted person simply developing a stronger desire to access what is being forbidden?
If preventing your child from being exposed to death-related images, and/or object, such as a toy hearse, is of such vital importance to a parent, then it is that parent's duty to raise their child in a manner suitable and conforming to that parent's standards. I don't agree with the tactic of preventing one's child from ever being exposed to items related to death, or funerals, for any reason, yet if you as a parent believe raising a child in that fashion is beneficial, then that is on you as a parent to ensure that they are not exposed. It is the parents' responsibility alone, and nobody else's. They can NOT expect to push that responsibility onto others, including toy manufacturers! However, to claim that it is against their religion for their child to have a toy diecast model of a funeral coach is utterly ludicrous! I have never heard of any such religious text that would condemn such behavior, nor would I maintain my faith in such a religion should I ever come upon such scripture. "Thou shalt not suffer thy children to hold or sport with instruments of death, nor to make merry with that which pertaineth unto burial." I am extremely grateful that I was not raised by such parents!
DeleteSo, for a child to come into possession of a toy that they were not permitted to have, the parents had failed in that responsibility, and no blame can be placed upon the manufacturer of that toy, for they did not sneak the toy into the child's bedroom, in the cover of the dark night when not a creature was stirring! Either the parent purchased the toy for the child, not paying attention to what they were purchasing. Maybe the child pestered the parent for a new Matchbox car at the grocery store, and they gave in, not paying attention to what their child had just tossed into the shopping cart, or more likely, what the child was carrying with them all the way to the cashier, and would only discover the true nature of that toy after bringing it home. The child could have their own money to spend from an allowance, or other known sources which the parents would be aware, and with said money. The parents might have not known the child had purchased a toy hearse until after the fact, and thereby had failed to monitor the child's spending habits properly. Yet again, no fault of the toy manufacturer!
DeleteThere are other scenarios in which a child living overseas with religious parents, who have an irrational fear of death. (I had thought that a main function of religion was to help its followers come to terms with death, and to accept it as a natural part of life, often claiming that there is nothing to fear. Wanting to be closer to God, yet having such fears that contradict one's religion implies a significant lack of proper faith from which one could logically conclude that said religion has failed them.) Yet, I can not think of a single one where the child would come into the possession of a toy hearse and blame could not be placed on the parents for allowing that situation to happen. Additionally, I could not imagine any specific scenario, within the realm of plausibility, where the manufacturer could share even the smallest fraction of blame for a child to come into possession of a toy hearse. For the parents not to accept the responsibility for failing to raise their child under such maniacal conditions is delusional. One can not impose conditions onto others and expect those conditions to endure without taking the proper course of actions to maintain those conditions. To attempt to point their fingers at someone else rather than take responsibility for their own doings is what pisses me off the most!
DeleteA handful of miserable, useless people who have nonsensical beliefs, and use such beliefs to impose specific unjustifiable restrictions onto certain people, then upon failing to maintain those restrictions, they refuse to admit responsibility, and instead they foolishly attempt to shift the blame from themselves, where it truly belongs, and onto others, wrongfully accusing the innocent to be at fault for their own failures!!! This, right here, these rather insane beliefs and behavior are the dominating reason for me to expect realistically, and in all likelihood, never to come across a Matchbox, and by extension, or a Hot wheels, model of a funeral coach in their mainline and hanging from a peg in any of my local retailers!!! I grow so exhausted from the potential joy and love within my experience of life to be reduced by idiotic failures who know not what they do, and probably would not care even if they did!!! Screw them!!! I'm sure they would blame me for their little demon spawn becoming a Satanist, and in the eternal darkness of night, decides to prove their love for Beelzebub via a sacrificial act through which they gift their parents their greatest fear, and achieves retribution for that they had done to them.
DeleteHowever, with all of that said, I can place a little blame on Mattel for something . . . that being their lack of integrity, and huevos, allowing a handful of Karen-like parents to push them around, and influence their business decisions, decisions which should be kept within the business, and sheltered from outsiders opinions! Such is life at the exit of the alimentary canal!!!