Food Trucks

Before they became trendy, food trucks were often referred to by the unflattering nickname of "roach coach".

Chef, 2014

I used to think the name was unique to Hawai‘i, since that was where I first heard the term, but apparently it had been used on the mainland since the 1960s.

The Manapua Man

Wikipedia claims that food trucks originated from chuckwagons, but I prefer to think that they evolved from the food cart, as does this post from Cheapism.

Both Hot Wheels and Matchbox make models of food trucks, though none are truly 1/72 scale.

Hot Wheels produced food trucks in various liveries, based on their Good Humor Truck.

I don't have a model with the Good Humor tampos, but i do have a generic ice cream truck with scary clown tampos, and what I presume to be a Rasta bowl truck.

Around 2014, it seems that the base and interior were retooled, resulting in the ice cream man turning into something closer to an ice cream ghoul.

Quick Bite, 2017

Finally in 2018, the metal body was replaced with an all plastic body.

The Hot Wheels models are all similar in dimensions to the Combat Medic, which is to say they're very wide.

The Matchbox vehicles I have are the Ice Cream Van, and Chow Mobile.

The Ice Cream Van looks like an old style Bedford van, while the Chow Moblie is similar to a coffee/canteen truck, except without the quilted stainless steel body. Both models are all plastic.

A comparison of the metal and plastic Hot Wheels models with the two Matchbox models reveals they are all similar in size. The Chow Wagon might pass for 1/72 scale, but the Ice Cream Van is definitely overscale.