| K.A.R.R.
(DIE-CAST)
PROJECT #490 "I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot—'K.A.R.R.,' if you prefer. I am the prototype of the car of the future." Preamble: K.A.R.R. was the original vehicle created by the Knight Foundation, whose self-serving programming led him to being locked away in storage in favor of creating a second car (K.I.T.T., naturally) with a stronger focus on the preservation of human life. After his inadvertent rediscovery, K.A.R.R. proved most adept at manipulating humans into working with him, though of course he was capable of operating independently as well. K.A.R.R. encountered K.I.T.T. twice, during the first and third seasons, and was beaten by him both times. However—despite being a tired retread of the "evil twin" motif—K.A.R.R. remains an enduring part of the Knight Rider legacy. Despite how immensely easy it would be for manufacturers to create merchandise in his likeness (he's essentially identical to K.I.T.T. only with a slightly different color scheme), there has been very blessed little in the way of officially licensed K.A.R.R. toys. I made this one out of the Hot Wheels Knight Industries Two Thousand die-cast car released in 2012 by Mattel. Construction: The die-cast metal of Hot Wheels cars is an aluminum-zinc alloy that's difficult, but not impossible, to cut through. I drilled through the two rivets in the bottom of the car that held the metal body to the plastic chassis so that I could separate them, allowing me access to the interior and the window assembly (which was also the part to which K.I.T.T.'s front sensor was attached). About halfway through K.A.R.R.'s second episode, "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R.," he suddenly appears with grey-colored bumpers and rocker panels. I had always assumed that this was some sneaky trickery on the part of the producers in order to allow the audience to more readily tell K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. apart; I've read that there was a deleted scene in which K.A.R.R. seeks out a new paint job in order to distinguish himself from the "inferior production line copy" that he believed K.I.T.T. to be. Anyway, I carefully scored the side panels with a knife to serve as a painting guide and used enamel model paint to add K.A.R.R.'s secondary color. I also took the opportunity to address some other minor improvements. Mattel tampographed a design on the dashboard, but the rest of the car's interior was still tan (including the steering wheel and console), so I painted these to make them a little more screen accurate. I also gave K.A.R.R. a new custom license plate (grabbing a screen shot from the episode and printing it at high-resolution) as well as some rear and front directional signals for an extra touch of authenticity. K.A.R.R.'s front sensor glows with a more orange glow than K.I.T.T.'s traditional red one, so I repainted that as well. Due to the toy car's design, the sensor is all but hidden inside the tiny slot cut into the die-cast metal (Mattel really should have taken their cue from ERTL's version from the 1980's) so I carved out the gap, making it a bit wider so the sensor would be more visible. |
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This Page Created 3/11/2012
Last Update: 3/12/2012
©2012 Inspiration Studios
Knight Rider and related characters
are the property of Universal Studios
How's the pacemaker, Eddie?
