Uh-uh. I guess when your dad's the CEO of a giant transportation conglomerate like Telstar Logistics, you can get your Tonka trucks in any damn color you choose. In little Miel's case, that was Hello Kitty Pink. [Though I suspect the name on the Krylon can was different.]
The Pink Tonka Jig, originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics.
Like many a successful concept car, the Hello Kitty Kustom Tonka went into limited production at Telstar, part of a joint venture with Unibody Collision Repair. The result is as awesome as a garageful of diesel station wagons.
Pink is the New Yellow [telstar's flickr stream]
I guess no one told them that Tonkas are "built for boyhood"
[... -ed.]
This family (including Miel and her pink Tonka) were featured in a House Tour on Apartment Therapy a few months back, and were also in the AT House Tour book that was recently published.
[sure enough, just added the link. I see the affinity with Mister Jalopy. -ed.]
My brother made pink and purple Tonkas for my girls out of vintage Tonkas he restored. They are pretty sweet.
He's thinking of putting them on etsy if he gets time to do more.
Krylon doesn't work well, it peels really fast. The trick is to make friends with someone who does custom bikes and will spray the Tonkas while he's doing that colour anyways.
[just what Telstar figured out, too. -ed.]
Thanks for the posting! The Tonka in the top photo was built as a prototype for all the professionally painted ones in the lower image. I plan to publish a how-to on creating Kustom Tonkas soon, so kids of all ages (and genders) can have tricked out Tonkas of their very own. Cheers!