La caisse à savon de Tintin au Pays des Soviets

The Draisine - "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" (1929) Having missed the train to Moscow, Tintin sets out in pursuit of it with a mechanical draisine, whose control lever ends up giving way after being frantically operated. As he wonders how to continue his journey, the young man spots a pile of scrap metal, from which he miraculously extracts a car engine, places it on the draisine and, thanks to the gasoline that Snowy has found, starts the vehicle in motion. THE CAR THAT INSPIRED HERGÉ: Make: Various Year: 1920s FAITHFUL DETAILS: With the logo: The gasoline found by Snowy in the scrap heap is Shell, as indicated by the can that contains it. As a cartoonist already concerned with the smallest detail, Hergé did not fail to represent, under the name of Shell, the famous shell-shaped logo of the Anglo-Dutch company (Logo designed by Raymond Loewy). It is possible that Hergé had the idea of having Tintin travel aboard a draisine after seeing Buster Keaton do the same in a particularly memorable sequence from The General (1927). This is just a hypothesis, however. Possible, but not certain.