Monster Trucks

Hematocyte

I guess they're probably still around today, but back in the mid-80's they were a phenomenon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xvE1R45H4

Primarily there was rallies in America (which generally involved two of these trucks crushing a row of cars in a drag-style race). The star of the show was a truck called 'Bigfoot'. It was basically the Hulk Hogan of the monster truck world and all the media attention and most of the merchandising was directed at it. It even had a short lived animated show.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Qu_DEo6MY

I don't think I ever actually saw one of these live full race events on tv (apart from maybe a segment on the news or whatever). However I felt familiar with them mainly due to the toys matchbox made at time. I thought they looked briliant and were also great fun to play with.



Why I found these trucks fascinating was because they summed up to me as a child what I imagined that glamourous country across the ocean (aka the USA) was like. Everything there was probably bigger and showier and anything was possible for them. There was no was no limits to what one could do if only you could imagine it. When I saw a photo of vid of one of these trucks I just thought 'America'.

Anyway, I found a great site dedicated to the trucks. For instance, here's the page for 'Rollin Thunder' (which was my favourite as a kid.)

http://monsterphoto.iwarp.com/rollthundr.htm

greenman09

Seen monster trucks in Derry yrs ago. 15 maybe. And Bigfoot was there also. Long after they hey dey it appeared