5 Redesigned Acme Products That'll Help Wile E. Coyote Murder Road Runner

Pentagram partner Daniel Weil has created detailed diagrams of the Acme contraptions Wile E. Coyote uses to try to catch Road Runner.
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In one of Wile E. Coyote’s many ill-fated attempts to capture the elusive Road Runner, we see him strapping on a pair of what looks to be rocket-powered roller skates from Acme Company. As Road Runner taunts Wile E., the coyote gives us a knowing wriggle of his eyebrows before switching on the skates’ ignition, confident that this time he’d catch the damn bird. Moments later, we see Coyote take off down the road at a rocket-powered clip only to find him dragging along the rough terrain, unable to control his powerful new tool. Spoiler: He doesn’t catch Road Runner.

>Weil's drawings reimagine Acme's gadgets in detail.

If you were to read Ian Frazier’s classic humor essay Coyote v. Acme in The New Yorker, you’d probably assume Wile E. Coyote’s constant failure was simply a result of Acme’s shoddy craftsmanship. In the piece, written as the opening statements of a lawsuit against the fictional supply company, Coyote’s attorney argues that on no less than 85 occasions, poor Wile E. suffered bodily harm because of manufacturing defects and Acme’s lack of cautionary labeling.

But ask Daniel Weil, a partner at design firm Pentagram, and he’ll tell you the fault actually rests with the coyote’s incompetence. “He really should have bought the Weighted Armor Jacket,” says Weil. “It’s sold as an accessory—doesn’t come standard.”

In a new project, Weil created hyper-detailed diagrams of contraptions from the Acme’s fictional catalog, as a rebuttal to Frazier’s piece. The drawings were paired with Frazier's words to create a clever update to Pentagram's annual Christmas card.

Weil's drawings reimagine Acme's gadgets in detail, outlining components and safety features that, he says, Coyote just happened to gloss over. “I created products as though I was a designer for Acme, making sure that functionally things would work,” he explains. “The drawings are meant to undermine Coyote’s claims.”

Weil drew the Acme devices in the style of an old-school hardware catalog. “I took a lot of inspiration from the beautiful McMaster-Carr catalog,” he says, explaining that the printed catalog is full of photorealistic drawings of just about any industrial-grade object you can imagine.

The catalog is full of classic snake oil salesman tactics. There’s the Rocket Sled, the not-so-trusty form of transportation Coyote’s rides on multiple occasion in the cartoon. Only problem is, there are no handle bars or footrest included. Same story for Acme’s spherical bomb, which requires the buyer to purchase a timer key so he can actually change the timer’s default from “instant” to “fairly quick.” “I realize what I had to create was an exonerating approach to the product range," says Weil. “The drawings are meant to undermine coyote’s claim.”

Of course, Weil’s drawings are pure imagination, an attempt to provide a humorous moment for the company’s friends during the holidays—"The objective is to entertain people for at least 15 minutes,” he jokes. But beneath the clever illustrations, there’s actually a kernel of real truth to be found: “The coyote, like most males, never reads the instructions," laments Weil.