The Volkswagen Type 2 Microbus T2/Bay Window model enjoyed a really long and rewarding life in Brazil and Central and South American countries long after it was gone in America and Europe, replaced by the later Vanagon-style Type 2 and then the later VW Transporters. In Brazil these buses kept going all the way until 2015, when they were the last rear-engined VWs still made. They were a strange combination of T2 and T1 body panels, and had many details unique to them. Like a black painted fresh air intake panel between the front indicators. This panel, incidentally, had the (allegedly) unintended side effect of making these buses, especially when painted yellow, look just like an automotive rendition of noted Muppet Bert, avid bottlecap collector and pigeon fetishist.
It’s also worth noting that Bert is a well-known example of an Order Muppet, a concept I was discussing with my son Otto last night. My Spirit Muppet is Gonzo, a Chaos Muppet, so the Order Muppets have always seemed strange and exotic to me. If the Bert/Microbus resemblance is intentional, I suspect its because VW felt an Order Muppet would be a better association with a commercial vehicle like the Type 2.
The blacked-out vent panel seems to be called out specifically in this 1975 brochure:
See the vent panel in that illustration down there? They know what they’re doing.
These Brazilian buses are fascinating; note how the rear is the older-style 1950-1967 T1 type, with the corner windows and low engine air intake vents, but those larger 1972-and up taillights have been worked into the design via some protruding bodywork off that rounded corner. It appears to be T2 from the B-pillar forward, T1 (with modifications) to the rear.
There was another unique variant of the Type 2 we never got in America in the brochure:
While we did get the Type 2 pick-ups before the Chicken Tax clucked its way into being and chased away all the fun, foreign commercial vehicles, we never got the one you see there, the wide-bed version, which had a, as you probably already guessed, wider bed.
The bodywork required for the wider bed was pretty minimal; since the Type 2 pickup was always really just a flatbed with folding side and rear panels, VW just made the flatbed floor a bit wider and let the cargo box hang out more over the sides and rear. I guess it was longer, too, not just wider. That, plus the huge storage locker under the bed made this a really useful cargo vehicle.
And yes, in yellow, the front end still looks like Bert.
https://youtu.be/D2AnF7Qwc5s?feature=shared
I forget what this article is about, because now I can’t stop thinking about who my spirit Muppet might be. Waldorf maybe?
Forgetful Jones maybe?
Which muppet is best?
Statler and Waldorf.
Not debatable.
While I wholeheartedly agree with your basic sentiment (Statler and Waldorf are the best muppets by a long chalk), semantically I have to take issue. They can’t be the best muppet, singular. Granted, you can’t think of one without the other, making them a single genius comedy unit. But technically there are two muppets.
Hooray for pedantry!
Janice:
“…and I said, ‘Look mother, it’s my life o-kay? And if I want to live on a beach and walk around naked, I–”
Lew Zealand is the best
I can’t think of a better boomerang fish actor.
Boomerang fish artist.
Now I want one, yellow with upholstery based on Bert’s sweater.
When it comes to muppets I’m Team Larry David.
Riiight–Uncle Deadly
Nailed it!
And now for another Muppet thought of the “week”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHaQPnrTSA4
Even goths understand that muppets are perfection. I am disappoint.
My spirit muppet would probably be Fozzy, constantly telling really bad jokes that nobody wants to hear.
Fozzy was doing dad jokes before dad jokes were cool.
They are cool right?
Let me ask my Dad.
YES!
My son told me this weekend, there’s a reason Dad Jokes rhymes with Bad Jokes.
Interesting. He used a dad joke to criticize dad jokes.
Preach. Pretty certain he’s mine, too.
shit, that’s prob. me as well!
I would definitely paint the VW badge orange and the roof black.
So, first of all thanks for enlightening me on muppet classification I didn’t know I needed. But more importantly, I notice that your Spirit Muppet Gonzo drives a super rare Phase 1 US-model Citroën Mehari in the link you attached and my goodness this choice fits you so perfectly !
Yes! I noted Gonzo’s Mehari here a bit ago! https://www.theautopian.com/movin-right-along-cold-start/
The circle is completed !
Faux Chaos Muppet here (Chaos on the outside, but with a hard, rigid, inflexible caramel center. Like Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, we sow chaos throughout the land. But like the good doctor, we do so in an effort to better organize the world.) I love the Muppets, always have. Kermit is my personal Hero.
Commenter at the old site or one of its partners told a story of meeting Kermit and his puppeteer years ago. They described that the conversation was a little odd for about 10 seconds and then they were just talking to Kermit. I never knew I wanted an experience that I had never considered before so much until I read that.
I just read the linked article, and I think I might be on the fence a bit: I’m a Chaos Muppet who tries very hard to be an Order Muppet and fails – I’m constantly trying to reorganize and tidy things, but I always fail to keep it up, and everything falls into chaos again. I’m a messy cook, and my garage workbench always looks like someone just ransacked it looking for something (someone did; me. Where the hell did I out that tape measure?).
It all works out, though, because my wife is an Order Muppet who fancies herself a Chaos Muppet but isn’t really.
This might be the first time a Brazilian looks like something with more hair.
In and of myself, I’m definitely an Order Muppet. And yet my favorite is Animal. What does this say about me? Something to ponder on this rainy day.
Probably something about the grass being greener on the other side, or always wanting what you can’t have.
Rowlf is my spirit Muppet, though I could also see myself as a Statler and/or Waldorf. My wife is a Fozzie. We work well together.
And the first gen Genesis Coup kind of looks like angry Kermit. Kinda.
Read the link, definitely an Order Muppet surrounded by chaos.
Now you’ve got me scouring the internet for cars that look like Ernie. Dammit, I had work to do today.
Other than the nose, a first gen Saturn SL with the DRLs on would sorta’ fit the bill, with the ‘eyes’ being so close to center and the front with a wide smile.
Stupid chicken tax.
I’ve about had enough of those damn chickens.