Bob Koenn’s Silly Surfers
The silly surfer models hold a special place in my memory. They were released in 1963 and 1964 when I was about 10 years old. It was after the Beach Boys popularized the surfer lifestyle and music and obviously Hawk decided to take advantage of this phenomenon. As I heard it they even had an album of songs released based on the silly surfer model kits. Woodie on a Surfari, and Hodad Makin’ the Scene with a Six Pack were released first in 1963. To keep things in the approval range for the targeted audience that six pack as pictured on the box was cola. They didn’t need to have the problems that the later monster scenes would have in corrupting our youth. Then in 1964 they released the final three kits, Hot Dogger Hangin’ Ten, Beach Bunny Catchin’ Rays, and Hot Dogger and Surf Bunny Ridin’ Tandem. From what I recall I built Woodie and Ridin Tandem back in those days and added them to my model shelf over my bed. But I was only interested in the model kits and never tried or desired to try my hand at surfing. Besides we lived on the Gulf coast of Florida and the Gulf never has very big waves.
About five years ago I decided to build a surfer kit for my older son for his birthday, something special and not just simply something I bought. He had spent some time surfing in Cocoa Beach which is just 5 miles from where we live. He had moved to Austin, TX after college to work and so wasn’t surfing any longer. I picked out the Hot Dogger Hangin’ Ten kit as most appropriate. After that I didn’t build any more or buy any more until last December. Looking around eBay I saw the entire set available delivered for less than $20 so I ordered the set.
There are three contests down here in Florida each year and after I bought these the next contest on the schedule was the annual Jaxcon in Jacksonville in February. They have a large number of categories and one was humor so I decided to build Woodie on a Surfari for the contest. I did it in less than two weeks and entered it with all my other entries but it didn’t place. However I enjoyed the build and felt I had produced a very good model. With that one completed I decided to tackle the other four to take to Wonderfest as a group entry in the humorous and deformed category. I did them all, along with a couple of other builds, during March, April, and May and finished up the last one at the end of May in time for Wonderfest. At Wonderfest they did take a third place which made me feel my task had paid off. I did have fun doing it and that is what really counts.
Being 1960s technology kits the moldings aren’t very detailed and the fit is decent but hardly up to present standards. I didn’t have to do too much work in preparing them but there was the obvious seam work and some puttying work but the fit was reasonable. The one odd one was the Hot Dogger and Surf Bunny Ridin Tandem as they suggested you build the wave around the surf board. That would have made painting very difficult so I cut the board at the location where it is inside the wave and placed it that after all the painting had been done. In the end I had fun with these and also remembering building a couple over 50 years ago. They make a nice addition to my display shelves and I have gotten numerous compliments as well as other modelers deciding they are going to pick them up for themselves.
Bob Koenn
