As of this writing the Shake 'N Go brand has worked its way into fun vehicle and track play for Pixar's; Cars, Toy Story, and other licenses including Spongebob Squarepants and Thomas the Tank.
..Whatever the license, its appeal as a brand is ultimately rooted in the fun simplicity of the mechanism and its endurance as a line seems indefinite. In its early stages, however, it wasn't quite so simple. In fact, when I was called in by Fisher-Price to help the design, it wasn't the cars that were shaken but a pretend 'impact wrench' that would then be used to wind up the vehicles.
My role was in designing a fold-up drag race set that stored everything needed, including the 'Drill 'N Drive' tool used, which is what the concept was called.
Here is the board I initially generated in illustrating the look and function of the Shake 'N Go drag set;
In this early form the cars were scaled smaller and had recessed lug nuts on the roof, which was where the impact wrench would charge up the cars. There were a couple of parts that popped up for play, and lanes of track that pulled out from the base, rolling up inside when closed for storage.
Conceptually, it was pretty solid and I was eager to eventually see it in the toy stores.
..But, always being ones to refine beyond 'cool', the creatives at Fisher-Price figured a way to eliminate the impact wrench entirely and embed the wind-up mechanism into the cars themselves. And while it required scaling the vehicles a little larger, it ultimately made the play even simpler and more self-contained.
Many months had passed when I was tapped again to generate what would be this final drawing revisiting the original concept, now officially the 'Shake 'N Go' Dragsters;
..and here is what it looked like when it was produced by Fisher-Price;
YEAH! Check it out! ..
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