The Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine

History

Early history

The previous owners of the van were a popular family band, known as the Mystery Kids. The van's design was painted by Flash Flannigan, the band's pianist, before he stormed off and quit. (It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine)

News van

When the gang reunited to search for real ghosts, for Daphne Blake's show, Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake, Fred Jones, now her producer, surprised them all by removing a banner of the show's sign off of what was apparently their news van, to reveal the Mystery Machine logo underneath. The Mystery Machine now had a protruding engine in the front. (Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island)

The gang continued to use this new Mystery Machine for their subsequent adventures, (Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase) though they did have a nostalgic encounter with the original model of the Mystery Machine, inside the Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase computer game. (Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase)

Return of the "classic" Mystery Machine

The gang soon returned to the "classic" Mystery Machine, even bringing it with them to Australia for one of their adventures. (Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire)

What's New, Scooby-Doo? era

The Mystery Machine was briefly taken over, apparently by a ghost, and chased its owners around town. The gang investigated and found that the mother of the Mystery Kids had sabotaged the machine to help her kids make a musical comeback. (It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine)

Scooby-Doo! And The Goblin King

The Mystery Machine was transformed into the Monstrous Machine.

Apocrypal

Scooby-Doo: Behind the Scenes (Those Meddling Kids)

Even before the gang got the Mystery Machine they solved mysteries, but they had no way for their own transportation. From the time when they first began solving mysteries, Daphne Blake's dad reluctantly drove them around everywhere they needed to go, with him tightly squeezed into the driver's seat driving the gang to places such as a haunted house.

Notes/trivia

• The license plate number as shown in Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo is revealed to be "195-343".
• The Mystery Machine looks like a modified Chevrolet Greenbrier van with a 1965 Chevrolet Van front and rear for the animated series, while in the live-action films they used a late 80s Chevrolet Chevy Van in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and an 80s Ford Econoline for Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, but the first live-action movies they used a modified Holden Van.

Other continuities

Theatrical films

Mystery Inc. arrived at the opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum in a stretched limo version the Mystery Machine.

The design of the Mystery Machine limo is 1999 Ford F-350 Super Duty Stretched Limousine.

Cultural impact

The Mystery Machine is as popular as Scooby and the gang themselves, and due to this many fans have redesigned their vans to match the Mystery Machine, too