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News
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Still powering on |
Roll on with the
recession that’s all I can say after the first three official months of
the latest World recession all I can say is can we PLEASE keep it.
Crowds are definitely way up this year. Merchandise is up over 30%,
advertising rates are at realistic prices and on a selfish basis its
even possible to find workers to travel on the road which is always a
problem for a major touring road show like the Monsters Tour of
Destruction.
I spoke with USA monster truck driver Paul Shafer when he was in the
country last year voicing my concerns about the impending bad economy
and his suggestions were that people really start to believe all the
media doom and gloom, stop travelling away for the annual holidays etc.
So when an annual type spectacular like ours hits town they figure what
the hell its a reasonable priced night out. I do believe he’s right
virtually everywhere we’ve gone this year has been a sell out and we now
have most venues locked up on five year deals to ensure we will be
heading back on an annual basis for a while to come.
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National Coverage |
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We are also
really stepping up our marketing this year, here in Australia you
will see a lot more of Scooby, Batman, Outback Thunda and co. on TV
starting with a live broadcast from Movie World at Easter for the
Bat and Scooby then from there our own TV show will definitely
appear on a monthly basis on FOX, SBS and on Bi Monthly on Noontime
slots on National TV9 |
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New look for Merchandise |
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Merchandise has a new manager Ken Houston has taken
over and will be working hard on not only uplifting quality and
variety at the venues but also a huge push into national outlets
around Australia.
Phil Whitaker from Warner Brothers has been working
tirelessly on our National DVD release at least three Major
retailers around Australia and keeping on the DVD scene YET another
DVD Monsters Tour of Destruction NATIONAL CARNAGE will hit the
stores by June.
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Still Growing |
Jane Simmons has left
her promotional position at the Macquarie Radio station Network to
assist in Promotions and will be a great asset as major expansions
continue in our attack into the world of monster truck that brings
us to yet even more big news lots more new bodies and new trucks are
explained later in this edition of the monster monthly and this is
all part of a serious attack that will finally see this company
seriously invade the likes of NEW ZEALAND, CHINA and various other
ASIAN countries. We are rapidly tying all our venues in long term
contracts in this country and now see it as a perfect time to expand
into the Asian market. The New Zealand Tour will commence in
Auckland in October this year and again will be an ongoing
relationship that will then happen every two years.
Once upon a time we had this dream of working with the Americans
nowadays I believe we can take our trucks and produce a family style
show that includes a wide range of entertainment that in time can be
a better product. Certainly we can’t and don’t want to try to match
their VEGAS show, who would want to the costs would be horrifying
and human nature then expects every show to be as good as that.
No, we have a great product that we are refining that will continue
to grow and is already a major highlight on many towns around
Australia’s calendar each year.
We do have to continue to address spectator safety, lack of seating,
better catering, better production of the actual show, and better
ticketing not dramatically but certainly these are area’s that we
and a lot of other event organisers suffer in but rest assured over
the next few months HUGE changes will occur.
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A New Beginning for
Motorstorm |
That’s right once the
trucks return from their current Western Australian and Southern
Australian adventures the Sony Playstation truck Motorstorm will be
NO MORE. Once there was management changes at Sony last September
all interest was lost in the Motorstorm truck and we were basically
going through the legal motions to keep the company happy but no
matter how many times we called them to let them know the progress
of their truck they would never show interest or even return calls.
However we decided to keep faith and although they had not really
kept up their end of the deal we honoured ours and now we can
finally move on and with some regrets we say farewell to Motorstorm.
It’s had some great victories including Dan Patrick’s win in the
Racing at Last years World Finals event at the Brisbane
Entertainment Centre. That was followed up on the same night by Kreg
Christensen with a Freestyle victory in the same truck. It has been
Jaye Featherby’s regular truck for the entire season, has featured
on hundreds on TV shows some more for the unfortunate reason as this
was also the truck that TV personality Grant Denyer mysteriously
injured his back in at Dapto Showgrounds last year. All in all
Motorstorm will certainly be remembered for a long time to come but
GUESS WHAT???
MOTORSTORM TO BECOME THE NEW BUGS BUNNY TRUCK…….
That’s right keeping with the 3D Warner Brothers/Looney Toons
cartoon trucks what better way to say goodbye to a Champion than to
replace it with one of the most famous cartoon characters ever
created. Under licence from Warners again Bugs will be designed and
built by Lindsay Houston from L.D.I. Kustom Signs and Designs and
should be released at the Cairns Show on June 6. If this fails due
to design approvals from Warners then its release will be at Dapto
Showgrounds in September. Many names are being thrown around for the
new truck. Bugsies Revenge being one of the favourites at present
and rest assured this truck is set to be just as popular as the
Scooby Truck which would have to be one of the World most popular
characters. Lindsay says the design for the bugs truck is going to
be his best yet and will be a real crowd favourite . Yet another
fantastic asset for the Monsters Tour of Destruction in 09 and 2010.
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But that's not all Folks |
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BUGS is set to get a new friend because he is going to be joined by
another well known kids favorite TAZ. That’s right still keeping
with the kids theory. We will be saying farewell to Thunda 2 and
replacing this body with an all new, style TAZ body that will NOT be
a direct copy of the American one in fact it blow theirs away just
as Batman did. Everyone said when we built our latest Batman that
we would just copy the USA one. Not a hope in hell ours is far
nicer and that’s exactly what Lindsay has promised with TAZ.
Anything we do from here on in has to be better and it will be, TAZ
will definitely be in Cairns for the June 6 show and it was one of
the stipulations from Warners that we don’t directly copy the Feld
one and why would we want to.
Just when you thought
every USA design was sacred well its not Monster Patrol is coming
off the circuit for awhile after Mt Gambier and is set to get a
whole NEW facelift and will return to the public arena as the K ZONE
MONSTER PATROL with a whole new Police look, gone will be the
current Sheriff. In its place will be a more kids friendly themed
truck, still similar to CARS Sheriff, again targeting the 3 to 13
year age group. The flashing lights will stay as will the green
colors, but that’s about the only resemblance you will see to the
old Monster Patrol. We are currently talking to the Police forces
about using the truck for various promotions in certain states which
will also be good for branding and could even lead to sponsorship
through the drink driving campaigns.
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The original Thunda gets a
new look |
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That’s right after 22
years of twisting oddly over the cars with its giant coil spring out
dated chassis over the next couple of months poor old Thunda as we
know it will be NO more Thunda will get a Brand New Chassis from
James Tigue and Rich Inman. New sheet metal housings, new Coombes
shocks, new Profab transfer case new poweglide transmission, all
Patrick sway bars and accessories basically the lot, then it will
get the Thunda 2 Body and will all be reassembled by one of Kreg
Christensen sons in time for the July shows. Basically a complete
new truck. The Old Thunda will be repainted and will be kept as a
display item at the new permanent Souvenir Shop opening at the Big
Kart track later in the year on the Sunshine Coast in Sunny Qld
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More still to come |
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There’s still more the
brand spanking State of the art truck that Dan Patrick is currently
building us to head over to our shores will be a complete replica of
his very own SAMSON truck right down to the bulging muscle arms that
have made the truck famous in the USA. No expense will be spared on
this brand new truck that will also come with a full toy range.
These should hit our shores as early as mid April. Dan is planning
to spend more time here again in June upgrading more of the current
fleet of KC’s trucks and in another first Clive may head over to the
States to drive his Samson truck at the same venue. This truck will
be equivalent to any of the Grave Diggers or Blue Thunder trucks of
the Feld Entertainment World and continue to bring Australian
efforts up to yet another level. |
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Another addition to the
line-up |
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Well its NOT exactly a monster truck
but it will be joining the Monsters Tour of Destruction. Paul
Shafer has been helping us to acquire a 2007 Hummer vehicle with Mag
Spinners, the works, that will shortly travel to Australia then have
its interior removed and will then be re modified and will be our
own very spectacular VERY COOL HUMMER JET VAN. Also equipped with
life kits, this is certain to be yet another absolute hit with the
kids in the later part of this years Monsters Tour of Destruction.
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Western Australia it's a
long way from Home |
It’s 4500 kilometres
from Qld’s Sunshine Coast and a bloody long way for Barry, Ken and
the team to travel to W.A. for our Bi Annual Monsters Tour of
Destruction jaunt and I have to say although the crowds have been
huge now having added up the costs will probably not rush to bring
such a large scale show back to the West in a hurry. After great
shows in South Australia at Adelaide and Whyalla we headed to the
very Southern part of W.A. to Albany, a very beautiful part of
Australia and to the local trotting track where the club manager
Colin Parks and his team were some of the nicest people we have ever
encountered. Saturday February 28 saw the show go ahead under
threatening skies and blustery conditions all trucks with the
exception of Thunda that was suffering mechanical problems ran well.
But as has been the norm right around Australia we had the usual
complaints about people not being able to get a good viewing spot
and rightly so. I really don’t know how we keep the price down to an
affordable level for families yet keep to venues that won’t cost a
fortune and put the tickets up in the Crusty’s bracket. It is a real
problem. From here on we headed up the highway to Perth Motorplex,
this venue has to be one of the most up market Speedway complexes in
the entire World, it reminded me of driving into the Brisbane
Entertainment Centre, nice fully asphalted car parks, lighting
everywhere, the grounds were impeccable just like a NASCAR circuit.
The promotional team were on another level as well Gary Miocevich,
Kevin Prendegast and Gavin Migro are all very switched on hard
working Promoters set on making sure they hit a winner wherever
possible. We were on a hire deal to them and charged them fairly
serious money but thankfully this was to all work out good for them
in the long run. On the night of the show they had gone all out.
They had so many freestyler Motorcross riders I actually thought
they were running a supercross, they had the car crane drop,
hilarious demo derby football, Tractor Pull, and stunt acts, the
trucks ran great. Darrel went out in his very first jump of the
night in Thunda 2 and proceeded to hit the cars then try to wheelie
off just to end up on his roof. Jaye then went out cleared the
entire row of cars in Motorstorm in a Huge jump bending a torsion
bar that was later replaced, however not to be outdone Billy went
out in Scooby and launched just as high with another great wheelie.
It’s really sad that Billy won’t be around as much this year due to
his studies as he has now become a very reliable driver, who always
entertains yet still bring the truck back in one piece on most
occasions. Even the Grand daddy of them all Barry in the Batman
truck let lose with a great wheelie of the cars and then the
original Thunda hit the cars for its first jump snapped the rear
heim joints and tipped off the cars completed on its tyre walls
before Clive drove out of it only to find it had sheared every
bracket off the rear diff to put Thunda out for the rest of the
night .
All In all the Motorplex management put the money up and they got a
record crowd and they deserved it. They ran the show how it need to
be run if promoters want crowds to keep turning up in big numbers.
Now it is just Bunbury left and tickets are selling well for this
Saturday, then the trucks head back across the Nullabour to Mt
Gambier in South Australia for a final show there on April 4th.
Other dates for Geraldton and Wanneroo were cancelled, Geraldton
simply because we found it too hard to deal with the club and will
not ever contemplate going near the speedway ever again and Wanneroo
because of promotional difficulties which really makes us seriously
consider whether next time around do we go to W.A. where authorities
drive you nuts for just three shows or ship four trucks to New
Zealand for eight shows and do a deal with the promoters over there.
Authorities in W.A. are truly 15 years behind the times and most
make life so difficult it has not been a very nice experience in
this state and even with the money the Motorplex has paid us in all
honesty we are a promotions company so we can do that ourselves
quite easily without going on a 9000km round trip…. Time will tell
but in the meantime we have been there, done that for another season
and hopefully left a lot of families in this part of the world a bit
happier
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Fuchs oils are Great |
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As we’ve travelled around Australia this year we have all had a
chance to meet a lot of the Fuchs oils rep from various towns and
have been thrilled to see the response we’ve gotten from parking
trucks at their locations, inviting them to shows etc. Fuchs are the
only sponsor that the Monsters Tour of Destruction has and we
sincerely grateful for their valued support
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Roly Poly Nervous Moments |
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One of the more amusing moments of our recent tour of W.A. was after
Darrel McLeary rolled the New Thunda truck. Firstly Darrel was
worried about what we would say being the brand new truck and to
make matters worse it was Darrel’s first EVER Rollover. Then when
it was time for the finale he got all nervous and wouldn’t get in
the truck for the end of night train so we had all the drivers
sitting in their trucks yelling at Darrel, C’mon Darrel and holding
up the show until he finally got in and went out and did a good set
of jumps. We all told him it was because only the day before he had
gone onto Kreg Christensen Website and looked at his rolling
progress. Kreg of course being a good friend to us all, so since
that we have banned old roly here from looking at any of Kreg’s
action plus driving activities in Max D.
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