Grandpa's wild ride

Radio Control Car Action, Dec 1999 by Conrad, Paul

To make some "Munster-ized" hubcaps and other details, I picked up some little black bats from a card store to enhance the vampire motif (you know, those annoying little plastic pieces that people put inside Halloween cards to be cute that inevitably wind up on the floor and keep turning up until New Year's). I also used the bats as valve-cover insignia and headlight emblems.

In keeping with the drag theme of the "real" Munsters' car, I fabricated a parachute from some scrap cloth. I also raided my wife's fabric basket for the red velvet interior. An RC airplane canopy was perfect as a bubble windscreen. And, last, the front-mounted gas tank and steering wheel were robbed from a plastic toy. I pillaged the lights from the Hemi-Coupe kit and finished the coffinmobile with some gold Pactra* pinstriping and Autographics* lettering.

GO. GRANDPA!

I usually keep the car in a showcase at my hobby shop (Xtreme R/C in New Milford, CT) posed with a Grandpa Munster action figure, and everybody seems to dig it. I do take it out for a run occasionally; while the 4-cell-powered Munster car won't set any speed records, it is the fastest couponbox conversion I've ever driven!

*Addresses are listed alphabetically in the Index of Manufacturers on page 241. 0