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One day I hear about this blog called Daddy Types which is sort of daddy/designer oriented blog filled with content that I find interesting. That is almost worth my own blog post but let’s get to the issue. So Daddy Types mentions this contest over at Kid Robot (a site that I already knew about) involving the customization of the Mini Munny Mobile. So I headed over to Kid Robot to check out the contest details, became smitten with the idea of entering, and did something I rarely do with situations like these. I whipped out my credit card, made a personal vow that I would enter this contest and then made my very first purchase from Kid Robot; the blank, white Mini Munny Mobile which would be my foundation for my contest entry in the Mini Munny Mobile Custom Car Show.

Several idead popped into my head about what my customized Munny would look like including turning him into a sweet version of “Ocho”, a.k.a. Herbie the Love Bug. Good thing I didn’t go that route because someone entered a Herbie-inspired entry ahead of me. Then I thought what would be the first thing I customize on my own car? Duh, the wheels! I thought 22″ spinners might do the trick, but then thought probably lots of others would share this idea. Then I thought, instead of going lower, why not higher? Yes, I knew I had found my idea.

So as I got to the task of cannibalizing a toddler’s Tonka toy for a chassis and wheels for my Munny Mobile, I started to think of colors. That is when it occurred to me that I had been seeing a lot of black-on-black trucks lately and they always manage to turn my head and put envy into my heart. I figured it would be a gamble to have everything on the truck painted solid black, but I figured if any of the contest judges caught my vision, it would be well worth it. I added contrast by using both flat and gloss black appropriately (flat on the tires and chassis, gloss for the body, etc.).

Next I had to think about my Munny character. My first idea was mullet, cowboy hat and a Def Leppard t-shirt. I almost went that route until I envisioned hand painting Old English text across his back in the form of a tattoo. I ditched the mullet and cowboy hat idea but not before purchasing fake hair and a miniature black cowboy hat from the local crafts store. While painting the eyes, I decided that pupils are totally overrated. It’s all about the whites of the eyes, and I do mean ALL.

One interesting situation came up with one of my sons when he saw that I had painted the previously stark white Munny with a coat of glossy beige. “Dad, why did you paint Munny brown?” he asked. I told him that some people have brown skin. His reply was “Oh, we have brown skin dad!” We are as caucasian as caucasians can be, but we have been swimming quite a bit this summer and the Arizona sun has baked us to a golden tan. Looking at mine and my son’s arm, I said, “why yes, yes indeed.” I decided to skip the lesson on society’s labels, political correctness and diversity. To my kids, skin color is like hair or eye color. Some people just look different, end of story.

Back to Munny, check out the pictures and leave a comment or two. Win or lose, it was still such a nice change to work on something tangible and totally non-digital for once. I will admit that I wished for an ‘undo’ button on more that occasion while I was doing all of the hand-painting. Licking your finger and trying to rub out your mistake is much less effective.

I will admit that watching this on TV was a slight disappointment given that the game was played in the stadium that I pass every day going to and from work. I had looked into getting tickets the week before and even though the cheap seats (and eventually the entire stadium) were sold out, I think I could have still gotten tickets then. Such is my life. Anyhow, as it worked out, I had a fever, chills, coughing, etc. and was not much for moving around anyway so watching the game in my recliner at home turned out to be alright.

Traffic from this event turned my normally 1 hour or so commute into almost 2 hours even with my carpool buddy, Ben, but not even this would dampen my excitement for the game. The only difficulty was splitting my viewing with the new LOST episode (I need a DVR!) but I managed to catch most of the excitement including both goals scored.

This game was radically awesome. Landon Donovan’s goal in the 90th minute had me yelling out loud, much to the displeasure of my wife (Shh! The kids are sleeping!). That game-clinching goal was enough for me to not even get too upset by the cheap shot the Mexican goal keeper threw at one of our boys after getting schooled by Donovan. That goal was amazing though. After his break away Donovan kept looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was close enough to get him but he was way out in front.

I do not care if soccer is the black sheep sport here in the U.S. and I do not care for those soccer snobs who insist that the U.S. is inferior to the Europeans or the South Americans or whatever and how we are lame because we are the only ones that call it soccer, blah blah blah, waah waah waah. Someday when we take the world cup, I will claim true fan status and heap scorn on the fairweather fans that cannot even get excited over wins like this one against Mexico (fairweather fan says “well Mexico is not really a powerhouse these days.”). I just hope that I am not heaping scorn on the fairweather fans from the afterlife.