Bigfoot, Monster Wars and the 1993 season

[Cale Putnam]

I'm gonna ramble a bit here but I'm trying to get some stuff straight. I've been thinking a bunch during the last few weeks about Bigfoot's lone appearance on Monster Wars, the ersatz mid-season "Invitational". A few things strike me as odd about it. It's an "Invitational", which insinuates an all-star race, and yet Overkill and Rambo both make their only appearances during the season (and furthermore, the superheros all make fun of Overkill's name). So we can surmise that the "Invitational" billing is simply a quick way of explaining why Bigfoot is on this episode but no others. But then this brings up another question: why would they have scheduled Bigfoot, who was still the highest profile truck on the circuit at that time, for a show they planned to air when it wasn't running the full schedule? Now we all know that shows on MW were not aired in order - save for the finale, the season schedule was jumbled up to make more intriguing television - so could that Pontiac show have actually been one of the first weekends of the 1993 season? And if so, why didn't Bigfoot show up at more events? The team's decision or USHRA's decision? Or, could it have been a nod to Ford, a series sponsor, that Bigfoot made an appearance at the company's "hometown" show in Pontiac?

Now, what's bringing this up in my mind is this: I had made the assumption when I was kid that Foot skipped running with USHRA that year for whatever reason but got a couple of token appearances at a couple of shows. Bigfoot was not at Worcester that year, the only show I was at, so I had no evidence to the contrary. But since then, it's now obvious that Foot was running some kind of schedule with USHRA that season. At http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...e=reader_vault is the well-known Sports Illustrated article from 1993, which shows a racer-scheme Bigfoot at Madison Square Garden with the Monster Wars-look Crusher and Predator, albeit their B-teamers. So what type of schedule did Foot run with USHRA that season, and why didn't they get to run for the championship?

[carcrusher]

I think I can answer many of your questions Cale:

First, the Monster Wars Invitational was actually the Red Man Pulling Invitational - this event was not part of the Camel Mud & Monster Series tour in 1993, and Bigfoot did not run the 1993 Camel Mud & Monster Series points season, for whatever reason. The "Invitational" was indeed one of the earlier shows they shot in the season (the Invitational was the January or March show), which explains why Andy refers to 11 as the "new" truck during the show. My guess is that the absence of the truck in the series was SRO/Pace's decision, since they held the booking cards.

Fast forward to October, and the season finale in Pontiac. This was a Camel event, the last of the season, and they did run two divisions of monsters at the show like they did in '92 at many events. The difference is that Bigfoot was in the 2nd tier group with the trucks like Dodge Express, Hyperactive (the old Predator), Boogey Van, Black Stallion, King Krunch and others. In fact, Bigfoot's 1994 yearbook picture was from the '93 Finals.

I don't know this to be true, and it's purely speculation, but Bigfoot finished last out of the 6th truck 1992 series, perhaps that didn't earn the team the booking spot to come back and race for the title in '93?

Kyle or Doug - you'd be the man to go to for this stuff, can one of you dig through the booking records and see what the '93 USHRA schedule was like, or if the trucks were doing more events than usual elsewhere?

[Cale Putnam]

The pulling invitational thing makes a lot of sense. I wonder if they figured that they'd have most of the main MW lineup their so they might as well film it. I have trouble imagining that SRO/Pace would demote an obvious draw like Foot from the main series because of it's 1992 finishing position, though, considering Invader was 5th on the B tour points that year and still ran Camel in 1993, and newcomers like Tropical Thunder ran most of the schedule as well. Did Foot still have the licencing deal with Mattel at that point? Maybe that had something to do with it?

And to further muddle things: A presumably 1993 ad (though the 1994 ads used this format as well) for an October Pontiac show billing 18 trucks, but Bigfoot vs. Snake Bite. Is this the "World Finals"? Did Snake Bite appear in the B division at that show?


...aaaaaand here's the March show, and it's the Invitational, so that clears that up:

[DiggerFan]

And to further muddle things: A presumably 1993 ad (though the 1994 ads used this format as well) for an October Pontiac show billing 18 trucks, but Bigfoot vs. Snake Bite. Is this the "World Finals"? Did Snake Bite appear in the B division at that show?

Just looking at the dates, I'm thinking that may have been for the October 1992 event. In 1994, October 17 was a Monday, and that date was a Sunday in 1993. Since the main-event stadium shows were usually held on Saturdays, I'm thinking it's from 1992. Most of the footage used in the commercial looks to be from 1991-early 1992, also.

[carcrusher]

Yeah the first commercial is for the '92 fall show, which only has very few snippets of footage available throughout the years. It looked to be a killer event however, and Bigfoot 10 was there with I'd assume Snake Bite on #9.

[Tim Dudley]

Only thing I can think of is contract, maybe they could not come to agreement and also Hot Wheels contract too...

[superinsane]

I think it might actually be because of Bigfoot's Hot Wheels deal. Matchbox made a line of toys of the 6 trucks that had characters on the show (First Blood also briefly had a character, but wasn't around the whole season) and were also in the Game Boy video game. Could have been a contractual conflict between the parties of Bigfoot/Hot Wheels/SRO Pace/Matchbox.

[DEATHxMACHINE]

But doesn't Mattel own Hot Wheels and Matchbox? ...I'm guessing at the time they were seperate company's?

[carcrusher]

Well yeah, they were competitors. In '93, Hot Wheels was owned by Mattel and Matchbox was owned by Tyco Toys.

[RnW 13]

Around 97 i believe was when Mattel bought tyco and in turn owned matchbox, thats when you started to see more MBX packages with mattel wheels printed on them.

Useless fact, RBC owns the rights to the use of the ford body used on the bigfoot champions line, which is why hot wheels hasnt used it on any of the retro style trucks.