Built by: Mike L. Scott in West Allis, Wisconsin

Around 1980, there was a model shop in the Milwaukee area that had a Dragon Wagon Monogram factory build-up on display in the big vac-form bubble. I asked the owner for years to sell it to me but to no avail. Then one day he sold the store and all his stock with out notifying me! I was crushed and a bit pissed off. I had taken a good look at the build-up in the past, and except for the cool bubble display, it wasn't a very good paint job so I figured I could do the ultimate D-wagon myself.

I bought a glue-bomb Dragon Wagon at a local model show in the mid '80s and went to work painting and restoring it just like the box art. I then added foil and adhesive mylar to all the metal work. I added a piece of gold chain for the step boards at the rear but other than that, it's pretty much a box stock build.

If I had it to do today, I would probably make all the doors open and light up the dragon's eyes so I'm glad I did a good enough job so I'm not tempted to hyper-detail the thing.

I have seen a few 1:1 show rods of Tom Daniel's cars built in the past--the Beer Wagon and lots of Red Barrons to name a few. So here's my 1:1 Tom Daniel show rod fantasy if I had crazy-Bill-Gates-money:

I would build this as a running car, compete with a fire-breathing animatronic dragon! This would be really cool for car shows and I'm sure the kids would get a kick out of it, not to mention the traffic I would pass on the highway as my on-board Dragon would spit fire at the stunned drivers that tried to cut me off!

Click on the image above to SUPERSIZE it!