1997-2007 Anniversary Monster Trucks - Monster Mash!

King Kong, Sept. '83. Bob Chandler's Bigfoot is recognized as the first monster truck, but it had several contemporaries in the late '70s. This is one of them-Jeff Dane's King Kong, shot at the now-closed Indian Dunes recreation area.

King Kong, Sept. '83. Bob Chandler's Bigfoot is recognized as the first monster truck, but

Anyone who pooh-poohs the popularity of monster trucks should perform this simple test: Hand a die-cast or remote-control monster truck toy to any kid and watch what happens. I recently gave my 9-year-old daughter a little 1:43-scale die-cast Grave Digger, and she spent days running it around our house, jumping it over furniture, driving it along the living room walls, and making it flip over as she made the requisite crash and crunch sound effects. Children react almost instinctively to a monster truck. Its appeal is primal.

That appeal isn't limited to kids, either. Think about it, guys: Monster trucks, like Pamela Anderson, are an outsized exaggeration of our deepest fantasies. They're what we all love about four-wheeling-big tires, tons of power, unstoppable ability-taken to cartoonish excess.

OK, maybe monsters are a guilty pleasure. There's nothing wrong with that. So indulge yourself. Take a few minutes to walk down memory lane with us as our 30th anniversary series looks back at some of the monster trucks that appeared on our pages during the height of their popularity in the '80s and '90s. Plus, check out the story of Tim Bee, whose love of monsters in our magazine back in the day translated to a full-blown career.