TRANSFORMER CRUISER

More Than Meets the Eye?

- CHAD DOUGLAS

Were you a kid with a dream? Did you grow up loving cars and enjoying family bonding over a vehicle that you looked at and thought, “that will be mine one day”? For Southern California local Kaiden Cook, that was his dream with his dad’s 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser. Let’s jump into the history of this Cook family Cruiser.

This Toyota was welcomed into the family when Kaiden was only 3 years old! Ever since then, Kaiden slowly began to form and grow his love for vehicles. As he grew up, so did the bond he had with this Land Cruiser. It brought golden memories such as sitting with his dad and driving slowly around the neighborhood giggling and strengthening the bond between them. This vehicle was more than just another car on the road or another car owned by the family—it was a bond between father and son.

Later in life, this beautiful machine became Kaiden’s first vehicle! He loved the Land Cruiser, and he drove it everywhere from sunny California to Kansas, from the airport to high school—this rig never left Kaiden’s side. One day, Kaiden combined his long childhood love of the Transformers movie series with his love for his 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser to bring his dream vision to life.

Kaiden created “Herbie”, just like the VW Bug but bigger and badder in every way.