The toys, figurines, and pieces of flair on the dashboards of Jeep wranglers?
I’m not one to knock anyone’s interests or forms of expression, I just don’t understand this one and wanna know! It’s very common across the US and Canada to see tons of toys, trinkets, action figures, etc on the dashboards of, specifically, Jeep wranglers. The exteriors of said wranglers are usually equally modified in a way that flirts with cosplay. Is this referencing something? Is it a way of “disarming” the aggressive looking black rock crawler? Whats the story?
13 replies
You get one for free every time you have to have it repaired.
My favourite explaination, hahaha.
It started out with off roading and rubber ducks.
If a jeep owner saw another jeep that had aftermarket stuff that looked cool or was surprisingly capable off road, that person got a duckie.
Other people that owned normal jeeps would see those custom jeeps, and emulate them despite them never leaving pavement.
The easiest way to do that, was buy the ducks themselves. Waaaaay easier to glue some ducks to your dash than actually make your jeep remarkable.
People doing that, didn't understand why it was a thing. They saw "cute knickknacks" and just put "cute knickknacks". At some point someone may have told them "you're not supposed to buy them, you're supposed to be given them".
So those people, still not understanding, just started putting random shit on any jeep they saw. Desperately hoping everytime they return to their own it has a knickknack awarded for sitting in a parking lot.
The vast majority of "subculture" shit like this, is just a bunch of people desperate for a tribe co-opting something till it loses all meaning and the people who legitimately belonged to that community branch off and start a new one.
I don't know if offroading communities still do ducks, but at this point I'd be surprised if anyone does it who isn't a poser.
I think if you traced it all the way back, it would have something to do with the WW2 amphibious vehicles and how everyone made them into "duck tours" in the 90s that could "go anywhere". Those aren't around because maintaining WW2 equipment into the 90s got crazy expensive and the operators kept cutting corners resulting in a lot of deaths when they failed. Either on road accidents or more likely sinking.
Just a couple of notes -
'Ducks' are actually DUKWs and they are still used for tours in Boston at least.
Also used for tours in the Wisconsin Dells
I saw that and my first thought was "I bet they've had an accident in the last year"....
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/passenger-describes-pure-fear-after-duck-boat-crash/3973390/
It seems from the article breaking down in the water was normal enough the solution was a second one (also with passengers) pulled it to shore when it capsized on the ramp...
Everyone is insanely lucky that either made it to shore.
I hope the inevitable lawsuit from this incident 3 months ago is enough to get the last ones shut down.
Insane there's any still in operation
Edit:
And it's not like it's just "hard to maintain" these are complicated machines and most of the parts stopped being made 50 years ago, they're death traps even if they stay out the water. But for some reason because it has wheels people don't give it the same respect as ship maintenance.
If there's any of these that could be trusted, their in museums and private collections, not running multiple tours a day. The maintenance to make that possible doesn't exist anywhere on the planet anymore. The parts just aren't built, so all the tour ducks are literally held together with duct tape and a prayer
All my ducks were given lol. I remember when and where for all of em, like which national park I was at, etc. Buying ducks is just sad
Yeah, like even just leaving them on a jeep is weird.
A person who shares a niche interest connecting with another person and handing over a token is a very basic human interaction and we're wired to love that shit.
Removing the human interaction just removes the point of the whole thing. And if I had a jeep, I would quickly get annoyed that people kept putting plastic junk on it that would fall off and pollute if I didn't take care of it.
If some person came up and said "nice car, wanna duck?" I could still thank them but not take the duck.
Just people going thru the motions of things they don't understand to fit in. In their head leaving plastic garbage all over made someone's day and make them part of a community.
There are better ways to get that dopamine that actually help society.
Anything to distract the owner from remembering they purchased a jeep.
From what I remember it started with a woman that really liked Jeep Wranglers and if she liked someone's custom build, she would leave a rubber ducky on their windshield or hood. It went viral so Jeep owners started covering their vehicles with trinkets and rubber ducks, sort of ruined the sprit and looks rediculous with a bunch of half melted ducks on their dashboard.
Ah that makes some sense, thanks.
family member with a jeep said it's called getting "ducked". it's cute lol
I've seen morons in all sorts of vehicles with ducks on their dash. (Escalade, 4Runner, etc.)
It's lost all meaning at this point