Ed "Big Daddy" Roth Tribute Thread!

[Mike Scott]

1st post here

Welcome to the UMA, Ash! 

[Hepcat]

1st post here, I'd like to thank the members and site for this thread, Big Daddy was a bit before my time but I'm familiar with it from the car shows in the 70's my dad took me to when I was a kid, use to love those shirts and I remember all the knock-off stuff too.

Do you have any of the T-shirts? "Big Daddy" Roth T-shirts are still available here:

"Big Daddy" Roth T-shirts

[horrorhunter]

Some of my Rat Fink stuff including some Martian Fink charms and the original vending display card:



The red Rat Fink charm with painted eyes is just like the one I had as a kid. Loved that little charm! 

[Hepcat]

The classic Rat Fink image always brings a smile to my face!

[dandy201]

I recently re-discovered the work of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I am a huge fan. I remember seeing his work when I was a kid. I was born in 86'.... I remembered it vividly, but I never knew who the artist was. Recently I saw some work that reminded me of those images I saw when I was a child. Through a little research, I quickly found him. I drew his "Nitrous Nut" in Pen and Ink as a tribute, and wanted to share it! Love his work! It has been a huge inspiration to me....https://instagram.com/p/BmomutDFf65Ohq7wvseTyJCM-D9VNQCwi05boI0/

[Mike Scott]

Welcome to the UMA, dandy201 

If you want to share pics in messages, you need to have your photos in your own web space and link to them in a message. Or, if you have your pics on a page, somewhere, you could just put a link to the page.

[dandy201]

Thank you. I am new. I just re tried. Not sure if that worked.

[Mike Scott]

I just re tried. Not sure if that worked.

All I get is "Sorry, this page isn't available." Don't know if Instagram is restricted to members?

[Hepcat]

I recently re-discovered the work of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I am a huge fan. I remember seeing his work when I was a kid. I was born in 86'.... I remembered it vividly, but I never knew who the artist was.

I must admit that I simply don't remember my precise first exposure to "Big Daddy" Roth. It may have been an ad for one of his Revell custom car kits or fink kits in Boy's Life magazine in 1963 or so:



I do clearly remember looking at the Revell Beatnik Bandit model kit at the Tuckey Hardware store two blocks from my house in around the year 1963:



This is not to say of course that I hadn't admired the same Beatnik Bandit or an earlier Revell Roth kit at Cowan's Hardware on Dundas Street in downtown London, Ontario. I later bought his Revell Mysterion kit at Tuckey's and sometime thereafter a Revell Rat Fink kit at the Coles bookstore on Dundas Street downtown.



In the summer of 1965 I bought a Revell Brother Rat Fink T-Shirt Iron-On Transfer at Seven Mile Hobby Shop in Detroit and successfully applied it to one of my T-shirts. My very old-school father though took one look at it, confiscated it and used it for a rag in the garage. Very sad. The same fate befell the Rat Fink sweatshirt I ordered up and received from "Big Daddy" Roth's shop in the winter of 1965-66.

Whenever that first exposure of mine to "Big Daddy" Roth's designs was, I was absolutely captivated from the get-go. This stuff I knew was absolutely outta sight wild cool (and something my parents just couldn't understand of course)!

By 1983 I was buying up whatever MIB Revell Roth kits I could find. At the time they were surprisingly cheap in comparison to the Aurora monster model kits. And here I am today still a wild-eyed drooling fan of "Big Daddy" Roth and his custom rods and finks! (Don't you just love those happy endings?)

[Hepcat]

Some of my Rat Fink stuff including ... the original vending display card:

Have I ever told you that I love those vending cards?



Not surprising perhaps. Bubble gum vending machines were a big part of my life when I was a kid! A big honking grape or cherry flavoured gumball for a penny, mmmmmm, mmmmm!

[jimm]

Not Roth but definitely inspired SoCal car culture Dave Deals design... both Revell Deals Wheels cars and planes. This one a rare politoys diecast, 1/24 or so

[Hepcat]

Here's "Big Daddy" Roth's not often seen Wes Bennett rendered Surf Nut design:



Colouring by noted Roth disciple Johnny Ace.

[Hepcat]

There are of course Rat Fink Wacky Wobblers:

[Hepcat]

Funko has evidently produced hundreds and hundreds of different variants of Rat Fink:









A properly dedicated enthusiast/collector would of course need to get them all.

[Hepcat]

Here are a couple "Big Daddy" Roth themed Funko Wacky Wobblers that have yet to be made:



There is a Surf Dude Wacky Wobbler though: