Nice Ride
July 2, 2007 8:35 PM   Subscribe

 
Sorry for the excessive use of caps. I'm not sure what came over me.
posted by serazin at 8:39 PM on July 2, 2007


Wow.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:51 PM on July 2, 2007


Trucks.
posted by Eideteker at 9:05 PM on July 2, 2007


Er. Yeah. "Wow" sums it up nicely.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:06 PM on July 2, 2007


This post is neat, too.
posted by mediareport at 9:12 PM on July 2, 2007


I hope this catches on big time in the US. By November. With the tailgating crowd. I feel strongly that a coolersful of cheap lite beer is in order before I can get a proper handle on these, uh, vehicles and their uh, artwork.
posted by carsonb at 9:12 PM on July 2, 2007


I wonder why they all have very similar fins. If you're going to go through that much trouble, why not make it unique in that respect, too.
posted by stavrogin at 9:17 PM on July 2, 2007


Someone is probably selling some prefab designs at a discount.
posted by IronLizard at 9:37 PM on July 2, 2007


Dekotora!
it's fun to say.

It's like the Las Vegas strip on wheels.
posted by ninjew at 9:43 PM on July 2, 2007


Or perhaps, all is van-ity.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:08 PM on July 2, 2007



I wonder why they all have very similar fins.


There seems to be a small subculture for custom vans like this, and that particular style of fin became the norm for whatever reason.

It still cracks me up whenever I see one of these randomly while driving around. I was at a rest area somewhere in Kyushu a couple months ago with friends, and we saw one of these with airbrushed portraits of Ayumi Hamasaki all over it. My friend got out and asked to snap a few pictures, to which they obliged. They were just leaving though, and as they passed us leaving the parking lot, I was expecting to see some thugged out trashy wannabe gangster looking types, but instead it was a fairly normal looking couple with two 8-10 year old girls in the back seat smiling and waving out the window at us.

Also funny, Japanese "Art Trucks" (sort of the semi-truck version of these vans).
posted by p3t3 at 12:05 AM on July 3, 2007


Disney characters and Japanese pop stars? Plus all the body work looks very similar and unoriginal. Pretty disappointing.
posted by rsanheim at 12:09 AM on July 3, 2007


Flamboyant.
posted by pracowity at 1:30 AM on July 3, 2007


Disney characters and Japanese pop stars? Plus all the body work looks very similar and unoriginal. Pretty disappointing.

I think the Disney and pop stuff is what stops this from being disappointing - it's such a strangely soppy aspect to what you'd assume to be a hugely macho practice. The identical body kits do seem to run against the grain of customisation, though.
posted by jack_mo at 1:38 AM on July 3, 2007


As far as the customization goes, as far as I know, it's not hand-made stuff, like someone modding a computer case, but someone buying custom parts from a manufacturer. The manufacturers make more money with mass production, so there tend to be relatively few variations.

Now, the Disney and Ayumi stuff? I think that part is just because yankee are so conformist.
posted by Bugbread at 6:53 AM on July 3, 2007


What a fun post, thanks serazin.
Those are wild. Yeah, the similarity of fins puzzled me too. But maybe there is this one fin maker and he does most of the fin work? And it's his style?

The Japanese truck art rocks. wow.

Art Car Museum.

Always loved the truck/transportation art in Afghanistan and India. Delicious and raw kitsch.
posted by nickyskye at 8:41 AM on July 3, 2007


ps, the Pink Tentacle site is also awesome, love that spect of your post.

Like some of today's posts there are:

Chernobyl Household Nuclear Generator

Peanuts as business cards

Cellphone recycling bins at Tokyo convenience stores

blue-collar robot

Strange clouds over Sea of Okhotsk

This older deep sea creature post of theirs has some cool pics too.

That site has tons of fun/quirky stuff.
posted by nickyskye at 10:06 AM on July 3, 2007 [1 favorite]


« Older “Now go down to the doctor's office and get a...   |   Roswell Redux Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments