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One of these days |
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What do “Robosaurus” and a special group of three and a half inch long ’59 Cadillacs have in common? Correct, if you answered flames, but that’s not the whole answer. What do some airplane seats and some automobile door handles have in common? Okay…….I don’t want to bore the seasoned collectors, or aggravate those who have only recently discovered the pleasures of little metal toy cars. The answer to both of the questions above is: “They all started with concept drawings by Larry Wood. Mr. Larry Wood, the Wizard of Zamac, has worn out quite a few pencils, and undoubtedly gone through several acres of paper during the course of his career. He admits that he is not a “computer guy,” and still brings his ideas to life with a fury of pencil strokes at the drafting board instead of “clicking and dragging” them out of a CAD program. [I don’t mean to belittle modern technology. If it weren’t for the automobile, I’d probably be walking five miles through thunderstorms and blizzards to get to work like my grandparents did]. Chip Foose is also a paper and pencil guy. Why, I don’t know. There might be something magical about the immediacy of a quick sketch. Or maybe the use of natural materials like paper and pencil lets a design flow smoothly from the brain to the fingertips, without having to fight it’s way through the microchips, mouse and monitor. Regardless of drafting techniques, we diecast collectors are lucky that Larry Wood realized early on, while working at Ford Motor Company, that he would have to “pay his dues” and put twenty-five years or more into their design department before he would be allowed to move up from door handles, and onto whole automobiles. Unwilling to wait that long, and anxious to return to California where he had received his design training, Larry accepted a designer job at Lockheed. As a teenager in Connecticut, he devoured Hot Rod magazines, marveling at what George Barris and “Big Daddy” Roth were doing with sheet metal and old cars out on the West Coast. He even purchased his first car, a 1929 Model A, before he could legally drive one, hiding the fact from his parents for as long as he could. This should not have come as a surprise to them, since Larry’s mother says that his first word as a toddler was “car!” Not long after returning to California, Larry met a Hotwheels designer at a party, and as the saying goes…”The rest is history.” The Mattel design studio is well populated with Detroit ex-patriots like Mr. Wood. Indeed, the original Hot Wheels designer, Harry Bradley, was a refugee from GM. Larry Wood is a true gear head, not just a toy designer. When not at work designing miniature cars, he is at home working on full size vehicles. Some of his favorite projects have been a 1914 Harley Davidson, a ’32 Nash and a ’38 truck. His love of automobiles is evident in the Mattel releases, where little known automobiles are brought to palm-sized life right along side their more popular muscle car / hot rod cousins. For every Camaro or Purple Passion Mercury [BTW, his favorite self-designed casting] that appears, a unique “one-of-a-kind” vehicle also arrives. Sometimes it is a small-scale version of a “real” car or it may be something that sprang to life inside the head of somebody on the Hot Wheels design team. Examples are the 1938 Phantom Corsair, a car with a fascinating history, that was technologically decades ahead of its time; or the thinly disguised 1958 Pontiac Firebird III concept car [2004 Fast-Fuse]. Larry admits to having a fondness for “Classic” cars, either in their natural form or in a slightly altered “Hot Rod” state. This surely has had an influence on the longevity and popularity of the Hot Wheels line. Mattel’s cars don’t merely mirror what have been mass-produced on the assembly lines over the last few decades, or what may be the latest fad in the entertainment world today. A 1939 Bugatti 57SC given to the Shah of Iran as a wedding present by the French government has made an appearance. Duesenbergs and Auburns and Cords, gone from the highways before most of us were born have been incarnated and re-incarnated over the past 35 years. Did somebody say ’32 Ford Coupe? Although never produced as a casting itself, the Bugatti Atlantic 57SC has lent styling cues to such disparate fantasy castings as the ‘I Candy,’ ‘Low Flow,’ and ‘Ozzenberg’. I look back to when Larry was “The” designer and had a handful of 1:64 castings coming out of the molds and compare it to what Hot Wheels offers today. He supervises a staff of over 30 designers, who can draw on a palette of hundreds of un-retired castings ranging in size from ‘Micros’ to 1:18 [when they’re not dreaming up new ones]! I only recently started collecting diecast cars and didn’t personally watch the evolution of the ‘coolest car company in the world,’ so most of my knowledge comes from what I’ve seen on ebay and read in different interviews and articles. Given my zamac addiction, I’m really glad that a man like Larry Wood has been at the helm of Hot Wheels for the last three decades. By fostering a culture of respect for what has come before in the automotive world, and not being afraid to take risks with the crazy “invented” cars that Mattel puts out every year, Mr. Wood and his staff have given me a wealth of castings to choose from, and have inspired numerous competitors to pitch in what they can. Among Larry’s heroes are Harley Earle and the Fords, and it shows in his work. While most people might think that Figoni and Falaschi is a boutique on Rodeo Drive, I’ll bet you a paycheck that Larry knows that they are forever remembered as one of the premier coachbuilders of the early 20th Century. However, in the back of my mind a tiny voice has started to say, “One of these days, Larry Wood is going to retire.” It won’t be this month, or even this year, but some day, he’s going to be less of an influence at Mattel. Will the diversified design culture that he has fostered at Hot Wheels survive? Will the bean counters take over and only produce the latest flavor of the month in order to optimize their short-term return on investment? We all hope not. Happy Anniversary Mr. Wood! May your pencil glide over your drafting pad for many years to come. --Phil Kowalski (oldpole) |
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