This card shows the Volkswagen Camper, which really popularised the camper van. They were first thought of in 1947, and were based on a rather cute motorised trolley which shuttled parts etc around the factory floor at one of the VW works. The first one was made in 1949 and launched at the Geneva Motor Show. This era of camper vans can be instantly spotted because they have a windscreen in two halves, rather than the sort of one we are more used to which wraps seamlessly around the front of the vehicle. This idea lasted until 1967, but later on some people replaced the splittie with a standard new screen, and devalued the van in the process.
In 1979 the design was modernised and squared up, and given a watercooled diesel engine. Purists objected, but the camper van kept on changing, and some feel it never looked so cute as it did to start with. Today there is an all new and fully electric Kalifornia camper, which could have been the start of a return to the old style, but is somehow still too angular.
This very striking artwork is often thought, and said, to be by Ed Roth, also known as "Big Daddy"; a cartoonist and also a custom car artwork designer, who created the characters called "Rat Fink" and "Mr. Gasser". However this set was not his work, instead it was R.K. "Bob" Taylor, leaning on Mr. Roth for inspiration, and certainly putting his love of art and cars together in this set, or rather this group of sets, because there was a whole string of them, starting in 1969 with the original "Odd Rods".
The basic idea was simple, soup up some cars and give them maniacal monsters to drive them. That first set, issued in 1969, was just forty-four stickers long. The following year gave us "Odder" and "Oddest" Odd Rods, which were each sets of sixty-six but actually combined to make one long series numbered from 1-132.
After that it got really complex for the cartophilist, because in 1971 there was an "Odd Rods All Stars", sixty-six cards, but selected from the first three sets.Then, even more confusion, for in 1973 the original second set "Odder" was reprinted in its entirety, under the new title of "Fabulous Odd Rods", and "Oddest" was also reprinted, as "Fantastic Odd Rods", in two series, though series one now contained cards 67-132 and series two was 1-66.
I am unsure why the reprints were done, but they certainly muddied the waters. Donruss had other ideas for new cards, using monsters and motorbikes for "Silly Cycles" (a set of sixty-six, issued in 1972) and also "Fiends and Machines" (another set of sixty-six, issued in 1970). The latter was really fun too, for there were thirty-three cars and thirty three monsters, so you could have endless fun putting one above the other and making any monster drive any car.
At this point we add more confusion, as in 1980 Topps came along and made a similar set, of fifty-five, called "Weird Wheels". They are pretty easy to spot though as the artwork fills the card more - and there is a Topps credit line along the bottom. Topps stalwart Norm Saunders and Gary Hallgren supplied the art for these cards, so if you look closely you can spot that they are slightly differently drawn to the originals.
Subsequently there was a battle as to who owned the trademark, and you can read all about that at IPTrademarkAttorneys
Anyway this definitely gives us loads of scope to see many more of these cards featured in our gallery, and I, for one, look forward to that immensely.