Turn a Bullhead into Crusher from 'Blaze and the Monster Machines'?

[beefmuffin 1156]

You may not know this, but there is a kids show out now about monster trucks called 'Blaze and the Monster Machines'. It's on Nick Jr, also know as being the dimension from which Dora the Explorer emanates. Here is a promo pic, click to check out their website (u can watch episodes too):

The hero of the show, Blaze, is the egomaniacal red truck on the left and to the right is the primary big bad guy of the show, Crusher. Well, Crusher is pretty close to being a dead-ringer for a Bullhead. My 5yo son loves the show and I've been trying to get him more interested in R/C so I've gotten it into my head to finally build the re-re Bullhead kit I have and try to make it look as much like Crusher as possible. I think he'd flip over that. Of course a large part of approximating Crusher or any other of these anthropomorphized monster trucks is in the face... I'm not sure how easy or difficult it would be to convincingly recreate the face on a Bullhead. I might try to do it, or at least, alternatively just do the rest matching Crusher's coloring, etc. I guess if I did the face I'd have to paint the eyes and mouth freehand. I guess either that or find some self-adhesive material in white and different colors that I could cut out and apply layer by layer. What do you guys think??

On a mostly unrelated note, this show - other than the fact I love that young kids will get into monster trucks and probably R/C as a result of this show - has a number of ... hmm ... quirks I guess. Here are a few:

• None of the monster truck characters seem to have any sort of drivetrain
• The catchphrases from the show are the following, among maybe a few others:
  • "Let's blaze!"
  • "Gimme some speed!"
  • "1, 2, 3, 4, put the pedal to the floor, 7, 8 (?), let's blaze!"
  • part of one of the theme songs has the line "we're moving at the speed of light"
• Of all the monster truck characters only Blaze has a driver (why???)
• Crusher, the resident antagonist, is basically always trying to cheat to win in races against Blaze... which firmly establishes him as the bad guy. Meanwhile, Blaze is unique in that he has afterburners he uses in every race to help him win. How is that not cheating???
• Other than Blaze's driver and the young babe mechanic there appear to be no other humans in the Blaze universe. All other characters, right down to all the animals encountered, etc are also monster trucks mutated into whatever form is needed. Behold:

• The show routinely defies the laws of physics ostensibly in order to teach kids about the laws of physics. For example, starting from a standstill and accelerating down a slope with a ramp at the end, you cannot reach a greater altitude than the one you dropped from initially. Well, I guess they forgot that detail when trying to teach kids about exactly that sort of mechanical system.
• The trucks eat bananas.
• Monster truck animals are shown to hatch from eggs... RTR with tires and everything!

[Sayer 742]

That picture with the caption "BAA" is the best thing I've ever seen.

[Sayer 742]

On the topic of the ramp, were they using just gravity or was there some sort of power added to increase speed beyond terminal velocity?

[beefmuffin 1156]

On the topic of the ramp, were they using just gravity or was there some sort of power added to increase speed beyond terminal velocity?

I was able to find the exact scene I was talking about. Blaze's driver is trying to rescue him and needs to cross over gaps between islands by sliding down ramps on a banana leaf. In this pic he started off at the top of the farther back of the two ramps.

[Sayer 742]

I was able to find the exact scene I was talking about. Blaze's driver is trying to rescue him and needs to cross over gaps between islands by sliding down ramps on a banana leaf. In this pic he started off at the top of the farther back of the two ramps.

Lol fair enough. Why do I get the feeling that in the scenes before the jump they had to painstakingly rule out the other ramp next to it?