Vw Bugs Made For The Sand

1:18 Retro Volkswagens represent 60's Surfer Style without the Sand

Indianapolis, IN (August 16, 2011) GreenLight has put a retro spin on two iconic automobiles of surfer hippie folklore; the 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and 1962 Volkswagen Bus.  Both have been released with throw-back body paint schemes for the 1:18 Special Edition, reflective of a totally tubular tale of transportation.

Hippies and surfers both have similar lifestyles in behavior and philosophies.  Their simple, peace, love and green way of life was represented in every aspect of their existence, including the automobile that they choose to drive.

The Volkswagen had the reputation in the counter-culture as "people’s cars", they were designed to be mechanically simple and reliable so that anyone with a basic set of tools could learn to be his own Volkswagen mechanic. By the sixties, the Beetle had been sold for almost twenty years with few design modifications. This enabled the hippie surfer mechanic to easily mix and match parts from different vehicles made in different years to keep at least one VW running. This design conception fit well into the surfer hippie’s simple subsistence.

The Volkswagen provided mobility and, in the case of the Bus, an instant flop house, the room to transport groups of people and of course a surfboard or two!  

GreenLight’s Exclusive 1:18 Retro Volkswagen offerings will include:

(12837) 1962 Volkswagen Micro Bus – Retro Paint Scheme

(12838) 1967 Volkswagen Beetle – Retro Paint Scheme

These 1:18 die-cast replicas feature detailed engines, opening doors, real rubber tires, metal body and plastic chassis, detailed graphics, custom license plates and are officially licensed. Their release is scheduled for August 2011 and 2,500 pieces of each color will be produced.  Both models will be available through official GreenLight hobby shops and wholesale dealers.

Sculptures of the abyss: the art of Jason deCaires Taylor | Fotorater ...

“Imagine going to the Tate and floating in mid air, it’s a bit like that.” – Jason deCaires Taylor

In Molinere Bay on the West coast of Grenada, is the world’s first, underwater sculpture park. Established in May 2006, the park is home to a collection of 65 sculptures created by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor. The works act as artificial reefs that help to promote coral growth and regenerate marine life in an area devastated by the  impact of Hurricanes Ivan and Emily in 2004/5.

Since their installation the sculptures have mutated dramatically, a result of the kaleidoscopic array of coral that has attached itself to them. Their cement surfaces no longer visible; subsumed by the creeping algae and lichen. A plethora of tropical fish and crustaceans have made homes within the crevices of the sculptures, who stand eerily still in the fluctuating waves of the abyss. Taylor’s work is located at an extraordinary confluence, where art develops from the effects of nature on the efforts of man. By bequeathing his sculptures to the sea, he stimulates an intriguing process; Taylor’s figurative work becomes subject to the abstract metamorphosis of the underwater environment.

Taylor is currently Director of MUSA, (Museo Subaquatico de Arté ) in Cancun, Mexico where he has recently installed his most monumental work to date,  The Silent Evolution, a collection of 400, permanent, life size statues. His latest works, include a submerged cast of a VW Beetle, (Anthropocene) intended to act as a habitat for marine life and a man burying his head in the sand, (The Promise), which seek to explore the relationship between art, science and the environment.

As a teenager he began writing graffiti, spurring his interest in art as a response to its environment. He graduated from Camberwell in 1998, living in Brixton and Vauxhall for 12 years. During that time he “was working in urban spaces, taking art out the galleries and putting it in different environments, seeing how the relationship to the object changed… I made a collection of figures, took them on tour of London and photographed them in different areas. On bridges, rooftops,  wasteland, a bit like Gormley a few years ago.

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