Hi Guys,

Does any one know about an auction of an original movie used herbie in Sydney, during the early 80's and what ever happened to that car?

No there never were any original Disney Herbies auctioned in Sydney in the '80s. In fact, to my knowledge, there have never been any genuine Disney Herbies in Australia at all. There are only replicas here.

In 1984 the Greater Union cinema company re-released Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo for general release (originally released in 1977). It was shown at the old Lyceum Cinema in Pitt St - where the Wesley Centre is now. To coincide with the release, GU's public relations department organised a 'Herbie Fun Day' in May 1984 at the Rocks, in Sydney. They contacted the VW Club of NSW for help - I was their editor in those days. We ended up with a street parade and display and around 20 VWs on show.

GU organised a Herbie replica as part of the display and they contacted a business called 'Rent-A-Bug' which in those days was located on Parramatta Rd Croydon, opposite where Maccas is now. 'Rent-A-Bug' provided a white '69 Beetle (yes, the wrong year model), and red/blue stripes in electrical tape. It even had genuine NSW 'Herbie' number plates! GU was able to supply genuine '53' decals (!) I took delivery of the car, but had to reapply the stripes as they were wrong. That done, it was put on display at Westfield Miranda and then the Herbie Fun Day.

After the day was over, Rent-A-Bug took the car back and returned it to their rental fleet. I did hear that it was turned into a chop-top convertible a year or two later. Rent-A-Bug went out of business around 1988, so I suppose the car could have been auctioned off. The 'Herbie' plates still exist and are now owned by someone else and are on a different car.

This photo was taken in my backyard in 1984 - the Rent-A-Bug Herbie replica with genuine Disney '53' decals, with my brother Si and my sister Em (and family dog).

Well done Phil and love the photo. The only thing is, who is the big dorky looking bloke standing at the passengers door And, where have you been hiding your sister

Hope you had a great Chrissy and HNY, Kev

Phil,

Didn't rent - a - bug reappear near West Ryde on Victoria road as, rent - a - bent - bug?

The idea was mechanically sound but rough looking rental cars at dirt cheap prices.

I think later they dropped the bugs and called themselves rent - a - bomb.

Or was that a different business altogether?

Regards,

Matt.

Kev the big dorky bloke on the right is me, looking a lot younger than I do now. I will tell Em that you are a big fan but I don't know what her husband will think...

Matt, I'm not familiar with a Rent-A Bug at West Ryde but it's probably a different business. The Croydon Rent-A-Bug business was run by a fellow named Paul Bijkirk. They rented Beetle sedans, and chop top convertibles, 'roll back roof' convertibles and 'roadster' conversions. Their cars were converted in-house by a subsiduary called 'Softop Conversions', the first NSW company to be given type approval for VW roof chops.

They had a display at the Knox Motor Club Show at the Macquarie shopping centre in 1984, where I grabbed this flyer.

Thankfully the 'chop top' craze has since died out, probably because there are so few good VWs left now. It's the 'Herbie replica' craze that seems to be keeping on. If you want to make a Herbie replica, please try to do it properly! Have a look at this US site for more info on making your own Herbie replica:

http://www.herbiemania.com/build.html 

heres a picture i found of a drive in movie.
almost 500 vw's turned up for the premier ot Dysneys Love Bug at the Chullora drive in, in Sydney
the Love Bug was released in 1968, were you there?

geez, where are all the kombis? And where are the ovals? No wonder there arent that many on the roads now, they werent around 40 years ago!

Hi

All the Kombis would have been on the back row.

Steve

oooh yeah, forgot about that. All the kombi drivers had to go back the following night, to watch the movie this time.... might need to get myself another kombi. And drop my age 20 years.

Yes that was Chullora Drive-in in Sydney, which was owned by MGM. All the other Sydney Drive-ins were owned by Consolidated, a joint venture between Hoyts/Greater Union. Only the MGM Chullora could show Disney movies as they had the contract. With two screens, and three staggered sessions in the days before daylight saving, they could get 6,000 cars through in one night. At its peak in the early 1970s, Chullora Drive-In made more money than any other drive-in in the world. It closed in 1978 and today, sadly, the site is the Chullora Big W shopping centre.

The Love Bug was released in 1968 in the USA, but not until December 1969 in Australia. That shot was taken at a special premiere in November 1969, sponsored by VW Australia at North Ryde. Ray and Shirley Pleydon, current Club Veedub members, were there that night.

I don't know if Beetles were let in for free, like FJ Holdens were at the 1977 debut of that movie at the same drive-in.

Being 1969, Ovals hadn't been on sale for 11 years, and they were only sold for four years anyway (27,132 VW 1200s were sold here, 1954-57). They sold nearly that many EACH year from 1959-65, so yes ovals were not common on our roads in the '60s.

Wow thats amazing,
looking at the 2 photo's the herbie pic was taken in the right hand screen, the blue roofed house/shed has its lights on in the black and white pic!

bet the people living in those houses were very happy people!!

the black and white pic shows 8 rows of cars, which means the picture was likely to have been taken from the projectionists box, so there cannt have been many kombis there as there are only another 3 rows.

Thanks for the photo's and stories

They are cool.

If you like Herbie the Love Bug, have a read of our detailed examination of all four original films, starting here:

http://www.clubvw.org.au/love_bug.htm 

I haven't gotten around to doing Herbie Fully Loaded yet...

There is a Herbie movie beetle in Australia, Alex from Sydney owns it. Its a Herbie Goes Bananas movie car. The one with the rear steering setup, it had a wooden framed ragtop in it and was on a new floorpan but came with the original movie one. I was looking for a Herbie Fully Loaded beetle from the states, but decided to build one myself. Nearly finished! Waiting for the number plates to arrive this week and i still have to hint out some wide steel wheels

True, Alex's Herbie is a genuine article. However we didn't know about it when this post originally began; he's only been a club member since last March, when he first brought his Herbie along to the Flower Power classic car day at Moorebank. Yes it was great to see his herbie at the Nationals in May, together with a couple of others. I believe Alex was thinking of selling his Herbie late last year but changed his mind.

Sorry no I don't have any more details on the chop top Herbie. I'm not even sure whether it became a 'normal' chop top, or a 'roadster' chop top like yours.