When Warner's animation department hit the bottom of the ravine in the early sixties, after the studio closed and reopened they produced mainly Road Runner shorts on the cheap. This way they never had to think up any new plots, nor hire Mel Blanc or any other voice actors. Finally they started cutting down on the amount of gags per short, and so "Solid Tin Coyote", perhaps the cheapest of them all, focuses on just one big trap.
To be fair, there are two recycled bits featuring hot tar and a mirror, but these are just variations of better gags from "Guided Muscle" (1955) and "Zoom and Bored" (1957). Wile E. soon ends up in a dump and decides to build a big iron giant based on himself. A lot of time is wasted while Wile E. is working on this monstrosity behind a rock. The only thing remotely interesting in this part of the cartoon is that the Road Runner is seen to express fear. At least that much was new.
But the lousy animation makes it difficult to sit out the full six minutes. When the solid tin coyote is finally activated, we only see one foot moving in close-up. Is this thing playing hopscotch? Every time the big machine is chasing the Runner, the same footage is used, and the ending is not exactly a big bang either.
2 out of 10