Life Size (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Hot Rod to the Core: The Bone Shaker - full transcript

- We all have Hot Wheels as kids,

and dreamed about what it would be like

to really drive them,

to sit behind the wheel
of these impossible,

fantastical powerhouses.

Well now I have exclusive access

to Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.

Over 20 life-sized,

drivable Hot Wheels.

These are one of ones,

cars that almost no one
else has gotten to drive



on the open road.

So it's time to hop out of my drag car,

and into a car that screams Hot Rod,

a car that just like the
hot rods that inspired it,

is just as fun as it is scary.

On this episode of Life Sized,

we're going back to Hot Wheels roots,

down and dirty Hot Rods.

This right here's the Bone Shaker.

This is the Bone Shaker.

It came out in 2006,

but quickly became a favorite
amongst kids and collectors.

How could it not?

Thanks to its throwback design,



the Bone Shaker joined
the Garage of Legends

when Hot Wheels built this
life-sized version in 2011.

This thing's got a fiberglass skull,

metal hands,

fuel injection,

and a Chevy 350 short lock

with ITB's cranking out
over 400 horsepower.

And it's got zoomie headers.

Clearly this thing screams,

"Get out the way."

If I see this car comin'
I am hopping up curbs.

Okay, first of all,

what am I sitting on here?

What is this?

Now I'm seein' why
this is called the Bone Shaker,

because I'm already scared.

I'm scared to death!

Okay, clearly, this car was made

for one type of individual.

I'm feelin' like I'm going
to need to get a phone book,

and actually sit on that.

But I'm definitely going to
take Bone Shaker to the street.

But first I wanted to get an idea

of how something as bone
shaking as this came to be.

So I turned to the man
who actually designed it,

a man who spent his entire career

studying and designing Hot Rods.

I'm here with Mr. Larry
Wood, AKA Mr. Hot Wheels.

Larry, it's a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you so much for havin' me.

But I have to know,

where did you get the
nickname Mr. Hot Wheels?

- Well, I got a few years of experience.

In fact, 50 years experience.

I was there 20 years by myself,

designing Hot Wheels in the beginning,

and then they exploded,

and they started hiring other people,

so I'm the only one with 50 years.

- Coming from you, what is Hot Wheels?

- Well, I think the cool
thing about Hot Wheels is,

from day one, it was always a cool car.

It looked good.

It would go down the track really fast.

Now, through the years,

one of the things I've tried to do

is make a Hot Wheel as
accurate as possible.

If you flip it over,

it's got the headers,

it's got a oil pan,

it's got a transmission pan,

as much details I can put in it.

So I think that's what a Hot Wheel is,

it's a car you can play with

and still play with for years.

A collectors, of course, they
put it on the wall.

You just start collecting 'em,

and you have dozens of them.

Got a bunch of signatures on some.

People who... Carroll Shelby,

I worked for him for a while.

- Nice.

- So that was pretty cool stuff.

Gas Monkey Garage car.

So we've got stuff!

- How did Hot Rod culture
influence Hot Wheels?

- Well, in the very beginning,

in the late '60s,

they were trying to come up
with a gimmick for Hot Wheels.

They hired a designer out of Detroit.

And Harry Bradley was drawing sports cars

and dream cars and everything,

and they couldn't figure out

what the theme was for Hot Wheels.

They didn't even have the name yet.

Well, one day the boss was walking in,

and he looked around,

and Harry Bradley drove a '68 El Camino,

and it was rigged.

It had five spoke Americans on it.

It had redlined tires.

It was a nice paint job,

and it had a couple things
sticking up through the hood.

He said, "Now, that's a Hot Wheel!"

And even today,

you get the five spoke wheels,

you get the red lines,

you get the big engines and side pipes,

and everything that was
on that one El Camino,

is still being done 50 years later.

A lot of these are handmade
models from friends of mine.

These are an award I got
for X amount of years there.

- Not a billion years.

It says, "Thanks a billion," but

- Yeah, a billion years!

Yeah, that's how long I'd been there.

- Not quite a billion years.
- Yeah.

- This is my Hall of Fame ring.

And my Hall of Fame car.
- Wow.

What influenced you to
build the Bone Shaker

and design that?

- Funny you should ask that,

because the original
sketch I actually wadded up

and threw it in the trash.

I liked the car.

It had a great feel to it,

but it was not a different
enough Hot Wheel to

blew in the line.

We had done plenty of Hot Rods.

And I was reading some
biker magazines at the time,

and they were doing some
beautiful airbrushes.

Skulls on a bikes, and I said,

"You know what?

"There's got to be a way to
put a skull on this car."

And I did some sketches
with it on the side

and a few other things,

and then I put it on the front,

and, "Hey! That's pretty cool!"

So... And then what we do
when we get all these ideas,

we put 'em on the wall.

- So why did they pick the Bone Shaker?

- Well again,

it was a Hot Wheel
because it was a Hot Rod,

and then with the skull in the front,

it made a statement,

you know, the meanest,

I got the hands holdin' the...

- Yes.
- Headlights

and that kind of stuff.

It had a great feel to it.

And when they built a full size,

of course it blew me away
how good it came out.

Let me show you the...
- My gosh.

- Original sketch.

This is not a drawing you show anybody.

This is for myself to figure
out how I'm going to make this

to do the next drawings,

which are a little more
engineering drawings.

- It's absolutely amazing.

- Yeah, most people think
you just do a sketch,

and it automatically
- Right.

- becomes a toy.

But there's a lot of steps in between.

- What was that first feeling like,

to see your car become a full size?

- Yeah, it was very cool.

The Bone Shaker probably is the best.

- So it's like bragging rights, right?

You just--
- Exactly, yeah.

Everybody tries to get
their own car in there,

so that's half the fun.

- And it seems the
fun of the Bone Shaker

isn't seeing it sitting alone in a garage,

but to see just how it stacks up

amongst some other real-life Hot Rods.

- We've got it
out here at the show!

- Amazing.

- Yeah, this thing's great.

We going to really blow
people away, ain't it?

- Yes.

Something about the Bone Shaker

really brings the inner kid back in me.

- Yeah, I wanted the attitude of a...

almost a monster, y'know,

comin' at ya down the street,

and the cool thing about Hot Wheels is

you get to do this kind of stuff.

- Can you walk me around and
just tell me about the car?

- Now you got to understand
that when I built the car,

it was only this big.

So I had to exaggerate
things like the skull

and the hands on the headlights.

- And they are exaggerated.

- Exactly.

Got to have the engine sticking through,

and pipes coming out the side.

- Yeah!

- Now this version we did as a Rat Rod.

It's got the flat paint.

It's got white wall tires.

So this one's got a...

This cool part is the skull and the...

- I love that.
- Shifter in here.

They really did a great job on that.

And then the graphics on the side,

we change that every once in a while.

And then I made a model T body,

which doesn't have a pickup bed on it,

but I added the pickup bed

so I could put some detail in the back.

- Yes.

- The battery and the gas tank,

and the graphics and everything.

- But how does
the Bone Shaker stack up

against similar cars?

- So, the Bone Shaker is a model T.

Now if you go down the list here,

look at these.

Now this is a '32 Ford.

- Okay.

- The '32 Ford is the pure Hot Rod.

It's the one that everybody
wants and everything.

We wanted to do something...
- It's a staple.

- A little different than everything.

- Yeah.

- And this one, of course,
has got a blown Hemi in it

so this car would beat the Bone Shaker

with no problem at all.

- That's some horsepower in that one.

And then this one here,

kind of a traditional.

It's got a big, black 409 Chevy in it,

which is pretty cool.

- You don't see that too often.

- Yes.

- And the headlights are
mounted nice and low.

You know, the smoothness
of the grill and everything

compared to the T's which are all square

and everything, so.
- Gotcha.

- Beautiful car.

Well, let's go for a ride!

- I want to.

- You drivin'?
- I will!

- 'Cause I fit

- I know!

- I'm 'about to get in this Bone Shaker.

I've got myself an open patch here.

I'm a little nervous,
though, my bones are shakin'!

So let's see if we can kick this off.

I feel cool.

I'm feeling real cool in this car.

That's a perfectly placed telephone poles

'coz it get a little S-swerve on.

I feel the wind!

Smell the fumes!

Rock out!

I love this car!

Yeah!

Never felt so free.

I had heard

that some of the life size Hot Wheels cars

didn't always stack up when
it came to hitting the road,

but this beast?

It handles,

it corners

and it accelerates!

It's quite a bone shaking surprise!

Ooh!

Back when Hot Wheels began,

they had big engines,

crazy headers

and plenty of speed.

Over 50 years later,

that still lives on in
cars like the Bone Shaker.

It's a Hot Rod to the core.

So next time you see that
skull rolling down the street,

don't hop out of the way!

Hop on in.

But that's it for this
episode of Life Sized.

Hey, you.

Look at how I love how
things work like that.

'Cause I can't quite reach the pedals.

Let's put this underneath me.

Thank you, thank you guys.

Let's see.

Try to get some...

Thank you!

You know they just
don't quite design stuff

for the little 5'5",

short-legged girl.