Ed "Big Daddy" Roth Tribute Thread!

[Hepcat]

Actually, Rob Mattison, who produces the Monster Model Review series, has that one.

Okay. I've corrected my post above.

[Hepcat]

Mark McGovern built this fabulous Scuz-Fink for model kit collector Mike Blanchard who owns The Core comic shop in Cedar Falls, Iowa:

[Hepcat]

Here are some pictures of a wildly colourful Mother's Worry kit built by our own rkoenn:

[Hepcat]

Here's a neat magazine ad for the Revell Brother Rat Fink model kit:

[Hepcat]

A close examination of the ads for other kits on the sides of the Revell "Big Daddy" Roth kit boxes reveals that unlike Hawk which released the Weird-Oh kits in groups, Revell released the "Big Daddy" Roth kits individually. Here is the order in which they were released:

Custom Hot Rods

1962

H-1282:198 Outlaw

1963

H1286:198 Tweedy Pie

H-1279:200 Beatnik Bandit

H-1277:200 Mysterion

H1274:200 Road Agent

1965

H-1240:200 Surfite

Finks

1963

H-1301-100 Mr. Gasser

H-1302:100 Mother's Worry

H-1303:100 Drag Nut

H-1305:70 Rat Fink

1964

H:1304:100 Brother Rat Fink

H-1306:100 Surfink

H 1307:100 Angel Fink

H-1308:100 Superfink

1965

H-1309:100 Scuz-Fink

H-1310:100 Fink Eliminator

H-1270:200 Outlaw with "Robbin Hood Fink"

H-1271:200 Tweedy Pie with Boss-Fink

Once again the last number indicates the suggested retail price of each kit, e.g. 198 translates to $1.98. Note the inconsistency in the format of the serial numbers from one kit to the next which also serves to indicate that the kits were released one at a time. Nor are the kits consecutively numbered by the apparent order of their release.

Now the final two kits listed, Outlaw with "Robbin Hood Fink" and Tweedy Pie with Boss-Fink, may have been released at the same time. The others though appear to have been released individually.

It's interesting that Revell released no more "Big Daddy" Roth kits after 1965. Part of the reason is that the whole Fink/Weird-Oh phenomenon had run its course. "Big Daddy" Roth's own T-shirt designs had by the late sixties evolved away from finks and more toward featuring a specific make and model of a car.

But custom show car kits remained very popular until the mid-1970's. After all Monogram released a whopping 77 model kits based on show car concepts by Tom Daniel between 1968 and 1975. The other reason that Revell stopped releasing "Big Daddy" Roth kits was that Roth started to do more custom motorcycle designs by the mid-1960's while Revell wanted cars. Moreover he then started to associate with the Hell's Angels. This didn't exactly jive with the kid friendly corporate image Revell was trying to present. A scruffy beatnik who designed wild show cars and even wilder fink T-shirts was fine with Revell; an outlaw biker was not.

Pity. Roth's Orbitron and Druid Princess custom cars would have made for great model kits.

[Hepcat]

Here's a pic of a great Robbin Hood Fink assembled by our own Jim Bertges:

[Hepcat]

Customers responding to "Big Daddy" Roth's T-shirt ads before 1963 got a T-shirt individually air brushed by "Big Daddy" Roth himself:



By early 1963 the T-shirts "Big Daddy" Roth was offering through magazine ads featured standardized images applied to the T-shirts by a silk-screening process. Many/most of the designs pictured in the ad below were line art renderings by Carl Kohler who together with Pete Millar had founded CARtoons magazine in 1959. These early finished renderings for silk-screening purposes are quite crude by later standards:

Car Model (April 1963)



By late 1963 artist Wes Bennett who did work for Petersen Publications (e.g. CARtoons, Hot Rod, Car Craft) was turning "Big Daddy" Roth's designs into far more sophisticated line art renderings. All the T-shirt designs in the following two ads with the exception of "Rat Fink", "Mother's Worry", "Pray for Surf" and "Genuine Junk Parts" were rendered by Wes Bennett:

Hot Rod (March 1964)



Ed Newton was then hired by Roth in 1964 both to design show cars and to create magazine ads for Roth's T-shirt line. The first ad designed by Newt was for the August 1964 issue #6 of Drag Cartoons. The same ad was featured again in the next two issues. Almost all of the designs displayed in the ad though had been drawn previously by Wes Bennett: 

Drag Cartoons 8 (October 1964)





But Newt quickly leaned on Roth to be allowed to turn Roth's airbrushed concepts into finished line art for T-shirts. The ads designed by Newt soon began to showcase his own T-shirt renderings. Here's a great double page ad from early 1965 where all the T-shirt drawings are by Newt with the exception of "Chevy 409" and "Cherry Picker" which had previously been done by Wes Bennett:

Big Daddy Roth 4 (April-May 1965)







The quantum leap in the quality of the T-shirt drawings between 1963 and early 1965 is very apparent.

The T-shirts and sweat shirts came spray painted with fluorescent colour streaks as pictured in this Ed Newton ad where all the designs are drawn by Newt with the exception of "Rat Fink" and Bennett's "Mad Dragger", "Drag Lover" and "Big Bad Dodge":



The popularity of wild custom cars faded in the late 1960's due to cultural factors and Ed Roth himself made some questionable life choices which compromised his popularity with kids. Therefore I'm not entirely sure whether Ed Newton continued with Roth Studios right to the end of the 1960's. In any event Roach Studios hired Ed Newton in 1971 to work with their commercial artists as the Creative Director for their custom car and other t-shirt designs. That's why so many of the Roach T-shirt designs advertised in hot rod magazines thereafter such as the two below looked very much like those previously offered in "Big Daddy" Roth T-shirt ads:





Roach T-shirt ads were omnipresent in car mags through the 1970's and the company dominated the wild custom T-shirt market in this period. I bought these two myself:





Here's a picture of Ed Newton in 2004:

[Hepcat]

Here are a couple of nifty "Big Daddy" Roth designs (likely executed by Ed Newton) for the Blue Fox nightclub in Tijuana, Mexico:

[Hepcat]

Here's a wild and crazy Mother's Worry model built and customized with "real" hair by Weldonmc:

[Hepcat]

Revell reissued the Rat Fink kit with a cardboard "diorama" included in 2013:





While the diorama concept was neat, using cardboard instead of styrene plastic for the garage and signs really cheapened the idea.

[marsattacks666]

Revell reissued the Rat Fink kit with a cardboard "diorama" included in 2013:





While the diorama concept was neat, using cardboard instead of styrene plastic for the garage and signs really cheapened the idea.

I purchased this kit years ago.

[Hepcat]

Here's a swinging ad from 1963 for Revell "Big Daddy" Roth custom car kits:

[Hepcat]

In 1963 or so Revell released at least 36 Custom Car Part Kits:









Revell quickly began to employ Ed "Big Daddy" Roth as their pitch man for the new kit line:

[horrorhunter]

I ordered a couple of Roth German Surfer Helmets from Roth artist Mark Harmon and we exchanged a few eBay messages. Mark's a friendly guy and he sent me the pics posted below. I've included a portion of the accompanying message in which he explains the pics. Following are Mark's words:

That's some pics of me with Ed "Newt" Newton at the Corvette museum opening of Roth cars. I got to do the art on the signage for the Orbitron, which was the first vehicle Newt designed for Roth! The other pics are me airbrushing toons on the Roth museum gift shop walls several years back and Ilene Roth with me and my girl Linda there at the reunion. Thought you might dig seeing them. Welcome to the Roth Army! Thanks, Mark

[horrorhunter]

Couple of old Roth German Helmet ads: