Something Big

  So, well, it's big for me per-se, not so much too many other people, though it might be a big deal against evil.  Here's a re-cap of the clues, followed by a more detailed explanation.
 
Clue, hint number one:

 Angus Scrimm aka "The Tall Man" from the 1979 film Phantasm and subsequent sequels was the evil, mysterious man and evil-force-du-jour against 13-year-old Mike, Mike's older brother, Jody, and ice-cream-man Jody-friend Reggie.  More importantly, Jody owns a 1971 Dodge HemiCuda, all in black, used to fight the evil forces.  It's pretty awesome.  Black, badass cars are best to fight evil forces.  No, I'm not getting a Dodge HemiCuda as 1971 models are running about 1.5 million dollars (seriously) these days (I remember when the were $7000).  Dodge does not intend to resurrect the model either despite car magazine Car & Driver suggesting so in 2014.  Please note, however, if there was any incling that this was going to happen, yes, I would have got it.  The corresponding YouTube vid linked to the soundtrack of Phantasm II with the tagline, "The Ball is Back" which has a reference as we'll see.




Clue hint number two:
Han Solo and Chewbacca from the 1978 movie Star Wars as they jump to "light speed" showing a star streak pattern from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.  The associated song was "Genghis Khan" by the band Iron Maiden.  Again, heroes fighting evil with another vehicular theme, and the concept of instrumental conquest with "Genghis Khan".  Still vague, but the term "millennium" plays a part.

 

Clue hint number three:

This is the French fighting ship known as the Corvette, though few would recognize it as such, the well-known Chevrolet car was named after it as such as a very maneuverable fighting sea-ship.  The spaceship displayed below that was also a Star Wars reference as a Corvette-class cargo/battle-ship.  Yeah, now you got it.  The associated song was "Rosie the Riveter" which shows American industry.  "Rosie" plays a part soon as we'll see.

Clue hint number four: 

Catherine Bach as "Daisy Duke" from the '80s TV show The Dukes of Hazzard.  The show displayed again, two young brothers fighting against a tyrany with a car.  The initial picture of the clues was a Japanese poster of the 1982 Clint Eastwood film Firefox which had an American spy sneak into a Soviet AFB and steal a stealth fighter, all in black.  Decent spy film.
 











Clue hint number five:

A green bowling ball.  Corvettes are produced at a town called Bowling Green, Kentucky.  The second picture is Mark Hamill (of Star Wars fame) with Annie Potts in the 1978 film, Corvette Summer.

 

 

Okay, so that was fun.  Hope you liked the little game.  Indeed, I'm flying out to Sheboygan, Wisconsin to pick up an Auto Trader special I saw online at Van Horn Chevrolet.  The Corvette in question has a "lemon title".  The previous owner traded the vehicle back in to GM because according to the DMV and title he "didn't like the setup".  GM, after the bail-out, was willing to take-back any cars for any reason with a special GM buy-back program and in this instance the previous owner did so.  Problem is, if you do this, GM has to put a "lemon" title on it which is much less severe than a "salvage" title.  CarFax and the DMV do not indicate there's anything else wrong with the vehicle.  A video walk-around showed it was fine, as well as 42 pictures inside and out.  The car is the 2012 Centennial Edition (hence the Millennium Falcon reference) Grand Sport Corvette with the 3LT package.  I fly-out to Milwaukee tomorrow morning at 6am (landing at 11am) to be shuttled north to Sheboygan to drive 'er back..  Sure, I could have had it shipped for $700 but where's the fun in that?  I stop midway in Des Moines, Iowa, all during a potential rainstorm (consider the car baptized).  Straight travel is not recommended on new engines of course, but it does have 2112 miles on it (queue symbolic Rush epic album of 1976) so it should be broken-in (one way or another).

  I missed my 1999 TransAm Firehawk Ginger especially with all the expert mods done to it by SLP Engineering, but the person I sold it to sold it himself and did zero maintenance on it except change the oil once.. and put a dash-mat on that perfect, perfect, now-ruined dash, devaluing the car utterly.  Pontiac is dead so the Corvette Grand Sport (6-spd) with the LS3 engine (the Firehawk had the LS1) is the next best thing (even has the same tire-width that I had on my Firehawk that I had put on aftermarket).  Ginger was a part of me I missed.  Owners of muscle-cars understand.  The Centennial Edition I'm going to name "Rosie" from the "We Can Do It" "Rosie the Riveter" 1942 song and political ad campaign.  "The Ball is Back".  I'm back.  The world is saved.  Look out Evil, here I come!

 

Here it is, wish me luck: