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Car of the Day: February 3, 2016; McDonald's '86 Ford Aerostar monster truck
Topic Started: Feb 3 2016, 04:40 AM (808 Views)
Dean-o-mite
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Today's car of the day is McDonald's' 1986 Ford Aerostar monster truck.


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Wikipedia
 
The Ford Aerostar is a minivan that was manufactured and marketed by Ford for the 1986 to 1997 model years in the United States and Canada; a limited number were exported outside North America. The Aerostar was produced in both passenger and cargo van bodies in two body lengths and it was available with both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive powertrains. Introduced shortly before the Ford Taurus, the name of the Aerostar was inspired by its distinctive slope-nosed design; in spite of being over six feet tall, its body had a drag coefficient of 0.37, making it one of the most aerodynamically sleek vehicles sold by Ford at the time of its introduction. During most of its twelve-year production run, the Aerostar was marketed as part of the Ford light-truck model line. A total of 2,029,577 Aerostars were produced from 1985 to 1997. All production was sourced from the St. Louis Assembly Plant in Hazelwood, Missouri; this facility was closed in 2006.



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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Ford Aerostar


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The McDonald's fast food chain has commissioned countless toys over the years, for use in their Happy Meals, and many of the toys are never identified as to who the true maker was. Such is the case for the Bigfoot series of plastic monster trucks, from 1987. As such, McDonald's has become the accepted brand name for these toys. I got a red Aerostar, like this one, in a Happy Meal when they were new, and liked it more for its minivan features than for its monster truck features. Today's COTD is an upgrade to my original. All these years, I believed the red and white scheme was authentic for a Bigfoot Shuttle, but as I was looking around online to research the real thing, I found that the real Bigfoot Shuttle was a blue Aerostar, and I can find no evidence of any real red Aerostar ever officially wearing the Bigfoot name (nor a black one, which had also been released by McDonald's in this same series). Oh well; my ignorance of that fact had kept me entertained for decades, and I doubt knowing it now will cast too dark of a shadow on all the memories of playing with this "Bigfoot Shuttle."


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Wikipedia
 
During the early 1980s, as information became known about the development of the Chrysler minivans, Ford began development of its own minivan in response. The energy crises of the late 1970s made fuel economy a high priority of vehicle design; as such, simply downsizing the Econoline was not a competitive option for Ford. To lower weight, the new minivan would use plastic in the bumpers, fuel tank, rear door, and hood with aluminum used for the driveshafts, axles, and wheels. While the new Ford minivan would be built on a dedicated chassis (unlike Chrysler or GM), the launch of the Ranger for 1983 allowed for the use of shared chassis, suspension, and powertrain components to cut development costs. The use of Ranger/Bronco II parts would also make for major fuel economy gains over a vehicle based upon the F-Series/E-Series trucks. Unique to the chassis was the rear suspension, a 3-link coil spring suspension with a live rear axle; it was designed specifically for the minivan (four-wheel coil springs were only seen in the Renault Espace at the time). To reinforce the chassis for towing and overall rigidity, the dedicated platform was designed with full-length integrated frame rails. The addition provided the Aerostar with the same 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) tow rating as the Astro/Safari, 2½ times the capacity of the Chrysler minivans.



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pjedsel
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I have always thought of blue when I thought about the Big Foot Monster trucks. Used to drive by their base of operation in St. Louis back in the early '80's. I never was much into the monster truck thing and I am thinking my son, who was, was to young at the time these would have come out - especially since we were not ones to go much to McDonald's. It is a unique piece for a collection - especially since few did the Aerostar in small scale.
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Hobie-wan
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Hmm, I guess I've only really had the name brand stuff. Hot Wheels (real and chapies), the mini Schaper Stompers, and the Ertl pullbacks that were like Penny Racers with characters on them. This looks like a pretty good toy even if it isn't a name brand thing.
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cody6268
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Looks great! One worth tracking down. Interesting that McD's took a bit of artistic license and did not use blue plastic instead of red and black.

The majority of Matchbox and Hot Wheels released in recent times by McDonalds (except the early McD's HWs which were actually mainline models) are awful, however the non HW and MBX stuff they've done is quite nice--among them the mini Stompers, Hummer Series (my favorite being the H1 in tan with a functioning winch!), and the Euro-only (Germany?) emergency vehicles (which I'd like to get a hold of).
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Dean-o-mite
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pjedsel
Feb 3 2016, 08:16 AM
- especially since we were not ones to go much to McDonald's.
My parents did not like McDonald's at all. But, when they advertised toy cars as the toy in the Happy Meal, mom would take us as a special treat. Up until I was in high school and had some extra freedoms, it would be no exaggeration to say that my parents had let us get McDonald's fewer than 6 times.
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zzziippyyy
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Drive it like you stole it!
I actually like the wheels on this one.
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Hobie-wan
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Dean-o-mite
Feb 3 2016, 02:57 PM
pjedsel
Feb 3 2016, 08:16 AM
- especially since we were not ones to go much to McDonald's.
My parents did not like McDonald's at all. But, when they advertised toy cars as the toy in the Happy Meal, mom would take us as a special treat. Up until I was in high school and had some extra freedoms, it would be no exaggeration to say that my parents had let us get McDonald's fewer than 6 times.
Went to McD occasionally when I was younger, though I only ever had a Happy Meal once or twice. I did get some of the earlier mainline type cars though, usually just purchased outright while eating other things there.
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
Crazy.
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poorvanner
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*In Memory Of*
Cool pic for COTD.
I remember when this one came out. All McDonalds everywhere did not carry these, they were regional. It did not appear here.
I happened to be going to Florida while it was out, we drove all over hitting many McD's, bought more than a few Happy Meals.
Flew home with a few.
Many years later, I was going through a flea market down there, Lady selling McD toys. I left with a bag full of red & black ones. It is still unfound in my storage.
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microbuss
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cool
Will look for this sometime :thumbup: :thumbup:
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Dean-o-mite
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Apparently, there was a set issued only in a few states, Florida included, with the golden arches logo on the back window of the vans & SUV, and on the bedcovers of the pickups.

I have only seen the ones without the logo in person.
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