Only four were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I had all four. They were super creative "cars" made by Hot Wheels, that had people as the bodies of the vehicles.
You can learn more about them at Toy Car Collector here.
Now, though, I can only put my hands on one of my old FARBS, whose name was Hy Gear.
He seemed like the perfect subject for my next "heroic" drawing--taking something small and drawing it at much larger scale.
Since I recently gave oil pastels a try doing a sketch of a vintage Matchbox fire chief car, I thought I'd try them again with the FARB.
I set this up as a "portrait," focusing on the face of the character, and enough of the car aspects so that I could tell what it was.
I guess if you had never seen a FARB before, you might not realize this is a person/car...
What I like most about the sketch is the volume I was able to capture, particularly in the tire and the gearshift.
1 comment:
I had a Hy Gear in the early 70's and it was my favorite of the Hot Wheels, Matchbox and similar toy cars I had. While a real car represented freedom for us youngsters with our neighborhood-bound AMX Stingrays, FARBs offered the fantasy that you could turn yourself into a race car and have the freedom of the open road, and do it just by glueing an engine and wheels on yourself, like Icarus with wax and feathers. Hy Gear's legs were like the extended forks that kids wanted in order to make their bikes into "choppers". I feel you've captured the expression of manic daredevilry of Hy Gear, the kind of character who is certainly going to drive too fast. Sadly, my own Hy Gear and all my car toys were stolen in the mid 70's.
Post a Comment