Yabba dabba doo! Malaysian sultan gets Flintstones car

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian sultan has been given a life-size replica of Fred Flintstone’s car from the classic cartoon, although the modern update has an engine so he won’t tire out his regal feet.

Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor, one of Malaysia’s most powerful and wealthiest state rulers, received the belated birthday gift from a fellow high-ranking royal this week.

The model of the car from "The Flintstones", the sultan’s favourite cartoon, is an accurate likeness of the original, with a wood-like finish on the sides, stone-like finish on the wheels and cloth roof.

It will take pride of place in a house he built in the southern coastal town of Mersing inspired by the Flintstone’s home from the 1960s cartoon. "Yabba, dabba, doo," said a post on the sultan’s Facebook page on Monday, using Fred’s favourite catchphrase to announce the arrival of the gift from the crown prince of Pahang state.

In the Hanna-Barbera animated series, which follows the lives of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their neighbours the Rubbles in the Stone Age, the wooden and stone cars were powered by drivers running along the ground.