Limited Edition release: 1 of 10,000 Brand New in Box
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is best known for his grotesque caricatures — typified by Rat Fink — depicting imaginative, out-sized monstrosities driving representations of the hot rods that he and his contemporaries built. Roth began airbrushing and selling "Weirdo" T-shirts at car shows and in the pages of Car Craft magazine as early as July 1958. By the August 1959 issue of Car Craft "Weirdo shirts" had become a full blown craze with Roth at the forefront of the movement.
In 1959 Roth created The Outlaw. This fiberglass Kustom hot rod was featured in the January 1960 issue of Car Craft. The car was covered in Car Craft and Rod and Custom, and appeared at custom car and hot rod shows. Other hot rods include The Beatnik Bandit (1961), The twin Ford engined Mysterion (1963), The Orbitron (1964), and The Road Agent (1965) among others.[2] In 1965, Roth's surf buggy, the Surfite was featured in the film Beach Blanket Bingo starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and also in Village of the Giants, featuring Beau Bridges and Tommy Kirk. One of Roth's personal drivers was a tangerine orange 1955 Chevy 2-door post with a Ford 406 cu. in. engine under the hood...he drove this car to his shop every day for years.
In 1962 the Revell model company began selling plastic models of Roth's cars and from 1963 to 1965 Revell also manufactured plastic models of many of Roth's monsters, including Rat Fink, Brother Rat Fink, Drag Nut, Mother's Worry, Mr. Gasser and other weird creatures created by Roth. Revell continues to re-issue Roth's Monsters and Kustom Car kits.
This is the Hot Wheels Limited Edition and Most Collectible Version of the Roth Beatnik Bandit Bandit 1/18 renditions. The model is mint in the box and has never been displayed.
