Back in the 1960s, Hawk Models put out some hot rod & related models with some freaky kinda Rat Fink-y art by Bill Campbell. Campbell tells some of the story himself here:
The 1963 Chicago Hobby Convention
The box art and the actual models of maybe six of the Weird-Ohs were ready for the Chicago Hobby Convention. I am sure that at least Digger, Daddy and Davey were present, along with the usual aircraft, cars and boats in the big Hawk display booth. At first people didn’t know how to take them – then they became the talk of the convention. The Hawk salespeople started writing up orders- thousands of them! The show and the introduction of the funny characters was a roaring success. Orders soon topped hundreds of thousands. The factory had to go into overtime. The popularity was such that even as the mold machines banged around the clock, the shelves ran dry of Weird-Oh kits.
The merchandise proliferated, even leading to a CGI TV cartoon series.
Photo by A Better Solution.