Photos courtesy of Rick Maningas
It seems fitting that the first entry on the ‘Your Co-Hogs’ page should celebrate Rick Maningas and his gorgeous red Co-Hog Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer - #16 out of 45 made. His wife ordered it as a birthday present for him and it was completed close to 40 years ago on 11/10/1982. It looks like it is in pristine condition.
What makes Rick unique is that in 2011 he set out to gather Co-Hog owners together to share anything and everything about their Co-Hogs and the company itself. He started both a WordPress blog and a Facebook page to help spread the idea. Rick also created a mostly accurate YouTube video asking the Co-Hog community to share their experiences with him. There was so little information available that even Rick didn’t know that Co-Hog Toys was started in 1978 rather than 1982.
This post was the very beginning of the Facebook page. It was slow going but Rick stuck with it. He let me know about the page and I started adding little bits and pieces as I could. It has grown since then but is still a pretty much a secret spot. In the great big universe out there Co-Hogs are quite rare.
Each Co-Hog Boxer was handmade from sustainable jelutong wood for the body and maple for the tires. They were spray painted with DuPont automotive acryIic enamel. I used pen and ink to draw up my interpretation of the wheels and silkscreened them on Scotchcal vinyl. The graphics were all hand cut using black vinyl and various Scotchcal colors.
The total of 45 examples were made from June 1982 to July 1986. Each new Boxer had slight differences and improvements. The owner chose their own color and whether they wanted the European or US version. The found homes in the US, Italy and Japan.
I extend many thanks to Rick for his original interest in gathering the Co-Hog community together for mutual benefit. This website is one long-term result of that effort.
Please add your own stories, experiences and photos for the community to enjoy. See the following information on how to do that, or add it to the Facebook page.
There is also an Instagram page cohogtoys to follow if you like. The Instagram page occasionally includes one of my automotive photographs from pre-pandemic days.
This page is just for stories like this. If you have any good Co-Hog stories or photos please use the Contact page to send them to us to be included. We’ll then contact you and you’ll have an email address to send photos to. It would be great to hear from you!
(We haven’t figured out how to do it more directly yet. Sorry.)