Remembering The Man Who Gave Us The Red Baron

Monday evening the news began to spread that Tom Daniel, a prolific designer of model and toy cars who was one of the most imaginative and distinctive figures to come out of the 1960’s car culture, had passed away after a series of illnesses. He would’ve turned 90 in December, and he was “the last man standing” from a legendary collection of custom car designers that included George Barris, Dean Jeffries, Ed Roth, and Bill Cushenbery ,

Daniel was an industrial designer with a keen interest in automotive design when he was tapped to join the model design team at Monogram Models, where he created 75 memorable model cars, many of which were later turned into Hot Wheels, when Mattel bought Monogram in the late 1960s.

Chief among those designs, and quite possibly the most famous custom car that wasn’t designed for a TV show or movie, is The Red Baron. Daniel’s second design for Monogram sold over two million model kits, and was later turned into an iconic Hot Wheels car that made such an impression that it was used in the first Toy Story movie.

That was just one of Tom Daniel’s famous design. Prior to joining Monogram he designed vehicles for NASA, and was hired by George Barris to design Munster Coach and Dragula cars, which Barris was contracted to build for The Munsters TV show. He also designed The Bat-Cycle for the Batman TV Show.

His model kit designs were so influential that custom car builders sometimes built full-sized versions of his famous creations, often commissioned by show promoters.

Tom Daniel was the last of his breed. We simply don’t have superstar designers creating fantastic and original vehicles like his anymore. Today’s customizers seem content to just take a stock car, slap on some paint, trim and fat tires, and maybe some LED lights, and pretend they did something original.

Tom Daniel created some of the most iconic car designs of the 20th century, with The Red Baron, The Beer Wagon, The Tarantula, S’Cool Bus and dozens of others.

About twenty years ago, a company called Toy Zone released an entire line of 1/43 and 1/18 scale diecast cars based on his designs, and even used his name for the brand’s logo. I’ve got probably a dozen of those in my office, and many more diecast examples of his work in my toy collection.

I would imagine that almost anybody born after 1960 who owned a toy car or model has owned at least one car designed by Tom Daniel.

PopCult salutes this custom car design legend.