Separated at Birth Part 4 - A Pair of Skates

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Awhile back we introduced you to the Skateland USA Skate Car:
That one was located in Anderson, SC but I recently stumbled across a similar one in my own backyard:
The Aloha Skate Car lives outside the Westlake Skate Center in Mesquite, TX.
According to their MySpace Page it used to look like this:
Or it's possible that this picture is of a completely different car that they had in the past. It's interesting to not that this one has a top/cover so it could be driven in the rain.

How many of these Skate Cars exist? Is it possible that a fleet of these skates exist with a different one parked outside of every small time roller rink? Do people really still go roller skating? We may never know.

Blizzard Mobile Tour Wrap Up

As summer comes to a close another Product Mobile Tour winds down. This time it's the end of the 25th Anniversary Blizzard Birthday Tour conducted by the Dairy Queen Blizzardmobile. Here are some highlights from the tour:

Hopefully, unlike so many other product mobiles that ended up in mothballs, the Blizzardmobile will one day ride again bring frosty treats to the masses.

Wiener Check

Even the Wienermobile needs a check up from time to time. And no one considers the toll this takes on the poor Hotdoggers. Here's a look at the process:

Flipped Out Award Winner

We've mentioned Ben & Jerry's Flipped Out Sample Vehicle (and its twin, the Topsy Turvy Bus) before, and recently the eight wheeled wonder rolled up and down across the EX Awards.
The Vehicle is the winner of the Best Vehicle Design (18 Wheels or less) in Event Marketers Magazine's EX Awards. Congrats to Ben & Jerry's and to Turtle Transit, the designers of the vehicle.

Hipster

I'm still trying to piece this all together via the interwebs. From what I can gather, Kabaya is a Japanese candy company that makes cool weird Japanese candy like Green Tea Chocolate."Kaba" also seems to be Japanese for Hippo. So if your candy company was named after a Hippo and you wanted a promotional vehicle...well, you can see where this is going.

So the Kaba Car is a hippo shaped ambassador for the candy company. One of the first pictures I found of it is a bit of a downer:
This is the Kaba Car in front of the Hiroshima "Atomic Dome" which is the central area where the atomic bomb was dropped at the end of World War II. I'm not sure if this is meant to be ironic juxtaposition or if there is a cultural significance that is lost on the Western world.

A slightly cheerier picture is below:
I don't know if this vehicle is still touring but it is now officially on my radar in the way that only a bright red hippo car could be. For more wacky internet fun check out Kabaya's surreal website:

http://www.kabaya.co.jp

And what appears to be the car's web page:

http://www.kabaya.co.jp/kabacar

We'll leave you today with a fairly disturbing Kabaya commercial which may or may not include a cartoon hippo:

See the Zippo Car Next Month

Flicking Fans will get a chance to see their favorite product mobile next month when the Zippo Car makes an appearance at the 2010 Case & Zippo Swap Meet South at Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee.
Here are the details from Zippo's website:

Smoky Mountain Knife Works and the National Knife Museum are hosting the 2010 Case & Zippo Swap Meet South at Smoky Mountain Knife Works retail showroom in Sevierville, Tennessee on September 24, 25 and 26.

Weekend-long activities include Case and Zippo collectors/dealers from across the country displaying their treasures under the tents, the traveling Case Event Trailer and the Zippo Car. There will also be one-of-a-kind Zippo and Case exhibits, raffles, and giveaways.

There will be limited edition Swap Meet products available at the event including a Smoky Mountain Knife Works Click Zippo lighter available on a first come, first served basis. Sale tables in the showroom will feature Case and Zippo red tag items.

More details, including registration and table reservation information, are available at http://www.eknifeworks.com/events/SWAP_MEET_SOUTH.html

Make Your Own Kissmobile

It's still a little irritating that the Kissmobile is staying put at the Antique Auto Museum in Hershey, PA instead of traveling. Kissmobile fans have to take what they can get when they can get it.
(Picture courtesy of The Hershey Insider)

So it's no surprise that some people try to fill the kiss shaped void in their hearts any way they can. This is a video of the museum's "Make Your Own Kissmobile" activity from 2008 from WHP-CBS. It was a part of "Chocolate Covered February."

Now go grab some candy and a glue stick and get to work.