Superbug, a 1970's German B Movie, the death of the Gadget Car Genre, Etc.

[RJBowman]

Dudu #4 Superbug Craziest Car In The World

The trailer for a "Superbeetle", B movie that I saw as a child. An English language dub played matinee shows in America in the 1970's. I remember must of the gadget features of the car, but I have no memories of a lot of other stuff in the trailer. The movie seems to have been a 1970's contemporary version of films like "Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies" and and similar films. I guess that that makes it of peripheral interest to steampunk fans.

The movie is pretty terrible from an adult's perspective, but if you are fatigued of CGI effects, you may be pleased to see that this film was done almost entirely with practical effects.

Superbeetle, the Herbie movies, Speed Racer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Wonder Bug Saturday morning show, and the Roland Emmett kinetic sculpture that I saw in a museum in Chicago all combined to fill my childhood daydreams and drawing with gadget equipped cars. This might be a factor in why I find steampunk appealing.

In the 80's Transformers type robots seem to have taken the place of gadget cars in the imaginations of children; nothing like Superbug or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang seems to have been produced since.

[The Bullet]

Oh yes!
Being German, Dudu was all I wanted as a car.......
Herbie is cute but Dudu is cool.
Sideways parking could be useful in this city.

I particularly like the firm where he takes part in that race with the two nuns who cannot drive backwards and have been given two 2CV back-to-back.

Childhood memories.....

[chironex]

Superbeetle, the Herbie movies, Speed Racer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Wonder Bug Saturday morning show, and the Roland Emmett kinetic sculpture that I saw in a museum in Chicago all combined to fill my childhood daydreams and drawing with gadget equipped cars. This might be a factor in why I find steampunk appealing.

In the 80's Transformers type robots seem to have taken the place of gadget cars in the imaginations of children; nothing like Superbug or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang seems to have been produced since.

Actually, there have been a lot more, given the various attempts to resurrect Knight Rider, the Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 CG cartoon, M.A.S.K (the Transforming Vehicle trope is too a gadget!) and actually quite a few more if you count works where characters have such vehicles and use them commonly, such as the Gadgetmobile, comic book characters' more distinctive rides and The Rustbucket of Ben 10.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponizedCar
And who says transforming into a giant robot isn't a gadget?