History

It started out simply enough. It was July 2003, and "Herman" and I ("Ophelia")had taken a trip to the local Wal-Mart to look around and to escape the Kansas heat. As we passed by the Hot Wheels section, the little group of Hot Wheels Monster Jam Trucks caught Herman's eye. He had always enjoyed Monster Trucks, and suggested that we buy one of the little 1/64 scale trucks. I was new to the world of Monster Trucks, but thought that they looked rather entertaining. Out of the wall of trucks, he chose the infamous Grave Digger. We brought our new truck friend home, set him free and drove him all around the living room. After tossing ideas around for a bit as to what we could do with just one truck, we decided that in Grave Diggers best interest (and for our entertainment) he needed 'friends'. The following week we made multiple trips back out to Wal-Mart and other stores and picked up Bulldozer, Power Forward, Blacksmith, Dragon Slayer, Avenger, Wild Thang, The Monster Bus, Gun Slinger, Tuff-E-Nuff, Wild Hair, Bounty Hunter, Jurassic Attack, Backdraft, He-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Grave Digger 20th, Blue Thunder, and Team Meents. (This group became known as the "Classic 19", as they are the trucks that started everything).

We took our little group out to the back yard and attempted to construct dirt ramps for the trucks to run on. It was then that we held the very first jump-off of the July series. After debating further on the "rules and regulations" of these jump-offs, we decided on bringing the tournaments indoors, and using a make-shift ramp out of the monster trucks packaging (for more info on our "rules and regulations" of jump-offs go Here ). We had a total of 19 trucks, but our collecting was far from over. We had found a new hobby, and were on a mission to 'rescue' as many trucks as possible. Herman and I continued to hold our jump-off events through July until I had to return to Washington for a few months. All the while Herman and I have been adding more and more trucks to our collection.

Even with my absense, Herman has continued with the September/October series jump-offs, and the "Fright Night Finals" event held on Halloween with the original 19 trucks. Between the two of us we have a total of 38 new and unopened trucks that await the November Nationals, which will be held upon my return to Kansas on the 9th. The November Nationals should prove to be a truly exciting event, as we are adding an entirely new cast of trucks into the mix of things. Rivals will be made, the weak will be eliminated, the strong will go on...and I'm betting on Digger crashing at least once.