Thanks! This cluck’s for you!

September 14th, 2008

First, thank you to our sponsor, Plum!  We couldn’t have made such a radical soapbox without your help!

Next, thanks to the following people and companies who kindly offered their products or services:

  • A certain Aunt & Uncle (& parents of a certain team member) for surrendering their garage for the summer, once again 😉
  • Our team’s parents for humouring us on participating in another wacky Red Bull event
  • Perceptus Solutions for hosting this blog (aka shameless plug for Leonard)
  • Marathon Wall and Ceiling for providing miscellaneous drywall screws
  • Pro-Bel for the ‘pivotal’ bolt
  • Rain Forest Pet Spectrum for the styrofoam (again!)
  • Melissa for printing the iron-ons for our team’s t-shirts

Finally, wing-pumps to everyone on team You’re not sushi – you’re chicken!  THIS. WAS. AWESOME.  First the sushi, then the chicken.  We can’t possibly out-do this, right?  Right??

Chicken sighting on TV

September 14th, 2008

Our team made the CTV news on soapbox day! Albeit briefly…

Click on the link to view the video: Reporter Shannon Paterson in the Red Bull Derby

It’s official: Best crash at Red Bull Soapbox Vancouver!

September 14th, 2008

Watch this short video of the Top 5 crashes at the Red Bull Soapbox Vancouver event.  Again, major props to Elizabeth & Jenny – if you gotta crash, do it in style!

Chicken Dance: You’re not sushi – you’re chicken! style

September 14th, 2008

Here’s a video of our skit.  The person in the chicken costume is really givin’er.  The knife, on the other hand, is woefully uncoordinated 😉

Video courtesy of Melissa.

Because we can’t get enough of those chicken crash pics

September 13th, 2008

This awesome photo set is courtesy of Alicia.  “Poultry in motion”.

The chicken is approaching!

Here comes the crossover…

Uh-oh is right.  The bird flipped.

Road kill.

“Hey – are you guys alive in there?”

Yes! The Cluckmeister & Eggo will live to bok another day!

This production guy transported the road kill chicken to the soapbox graveyard.

The chicken and egg call a truce on the argument over which came first as they triumphantly walk across the finish line together.


These fabulous close-ups are courtesy of:

Vince Piva Photography
1160 Slocan St.
Vancouver, BC
604-253-0653

A Public Service Announcement from You’re not sushi – you’re chicken!

September 13th, 2008

Moments after the Great Chicken Crash of 2008, drivers Elizabeth & Jenny could be heard saying, “Thank goodness for seatbelts!”

Yes, we installed seatbelts in our soapbox.  They weren’t mandatory, but if you’re going to be building a soapbox cart and it’s feasible, install them.

Ours were pretty simple.  Just a carabiner attached to rope that was tied in a knot on the underside of the cart, with light foam padding around the rope (to prevent rope burn on the stomach).

Depending on your soapbox design, you could also consider a firewall.  Think about installing a proper roll bar, which we sacrificed in our design due to weight restriction considerations.

Oh, and even though helmets, gloves, and long-sleeve shirts & pants are mandatory according to Red Bull’s rules, make sure you actually wear them.  Seriously.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll walk away from a soapbox crash in pristine condition like Elizabeth & Jenny did!

If anyone from ICBC is reading this, we’re available for commercials. 🙂

Happier times with the Chicken

September 12th, 2008

The day before the soapbox derby, we loaded the chicken onto an F150 to get it to Kitsilano.

Here we are driving down Lougheed Highway with a giant chicken in the back.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

Drive slowly, Leonard!  The drumsticks are jiggling!

Deviled Egg, Knife, Fork & Chicken chill before the gates open to the public.

The chicken soapbox tries to relax before the big race (and subsequent crash).

What would a big event be without Hot Cops!  (It’s an Arrested Development joke – just watch the DVDs already!)  Our team traded stickers with this policeofficer.

This photo of Jensen Ackles is here to make me happy.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet him. He was there to participate in a celebrity charity race with Jared Padalecki, both from the tv show Supernatural.

Photo courtesy of Ianiv & Arieanna.

CHKN SASS 4EVR

September 11th, 2008

So the *ahem* back-end of the chicken has been immortalized in this Red Bull video clip “Twas the night before soapbox”. It’s a video of set-up day. Watch for CHKN SASS! The video clip can also be viewed and downloaded from the Red Bull Soapbox site.

Chicken sightings online

September 11th, 2008

Blogs

  • Jenny’s devil horns in a photo on the metro babel blog

Photos

flickr links:

This is an amazing set of 17 photos of the chicken crash, flip and cleanup from Mark Klotz on flickr.

Chicken sightings in print media

September 10th, 2008

See a picture of our “nasty spill” in the September 8, 2008 edition of 24 Hours.  Thanks to everyone who pointed this photo out to us!

See a picture of the chkn sass in the September 8, 2008 edition of the Sing Tao.  According to my Dad, the caption says something like “Home-made vehicles compete in a race down a slope”.  Probably sounds more poetic in Chinese.

Our chicken was so nice we made the Sing Tao twice!  The September 14, 2008 “Community Images” section has a sweet pic of our chicken soapbox.  According to my Dad, the caption says something like “Soapboxes show off wild, crazy & imaginative ideas.”  The red inner caption says “Tremendous creativity”.  We’ll take that 😉

This article from August 30, 2008 in the Burnaby Now mentions our team.