Vintage toy RC; a blast from my past

[Sixtysixdeuce]

So the other day, I just decided for no particular reason to see if my favorite toy RC from my early childhood was up for sale on eBay. Low and behold, I found the exact car that I had received for Christmas back in 1989 at age 7, a Radio Shack Turbo Z Racer. It was a $39.99 BIN with $16 shipping, so I saved it in my watch list, figuring if it was still there after a few days, I'd make an offer. Well, the seller dropped the price 25%, so I figured why not. Bought it, and a week later (yesterday), the mail lady dropped it off.

Now, the plan is to give this to my kids and let them play with the same toy daddy used to, the one that fell victim to my younger years of tinkering and never became whole again. So I pulled it out of the box and slapped batteries in it, and away she went.....in a straight line only. I could hear the steering motor, but the wheels would barely move. Tore it down and discovered that the steering motor pinion gear was split. Obviously, there's no finding a factory replacement part, so rather than try to source a 48P 16T gear with such a tiny hole, I decided to just remove all the electronics except for the drive motor and upgrade it with some inexpensive spares I had lying around.

A Hobbyking ESC, a Flysky 2.4 GHz receiver, an RCS mini servo and about 2 hours later, here's what we have:







It was really a pretty simple upgrade, and aside from the short antenna, the lack of steering adjustment screw and the Tamiya style connector in the battery compartment, it looks stock:





Putzed it around a little with a 7.2V NiMH pack sitting on top, and it's definitely much peppier. The stock battery arrangement is 8 AA cells, so the OEM receiver must have dropped the voltage to the motor substantially.

Last piece of the puzzle, a Tenergy 9.6v 2,000 mAh NiMH pack, is en route, and then I get to modify the grip of the Axial AX3 transmitter to fit munchkin hands.

Anyone else ever upgrade a toy with hobby grade parts, particularly one with sentimental value?

[justinspeed79]

I kinda like the off-road z car vibe.

I recently helped a friend of mine get the ball rolling on this project, a circa 86 Nikko Pepsi Trans-Am he is using to build a replica of his 1:1 86 Formula Firebird. It's a very cool car, but the performance its terrible. We are currently hashing out what to do about it. He wants to do it cheap and mod the existing chassis, which is possible, but not practical, I am trying to convince him to just get a new chassis. The problem is its approximately 1:11 scale.





I have often thought about doing a resto mod one of my childhood favorites, the Radio Shack Porsche 962c. I have a lot of fond memories of that car. I check them out on eBay once in a while, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[vwjuice]

I have my old Tyco Turbo Bandit that I've been thinking of modifying to run. Probably use 1/18 electronics on it.

[Coelacanth]

That's a very interesting car. A few years ago, I received a bunch of random tires & wheels in a parts lot and got a complete, weird set of undersized tires...I had absolutely no idea what car they were for...THAT'S the car! If you're interested in a full set of spares (not sure if you're planning on running that one), send me a PM. The tires are in excellent condition and I have nothing I can use them on, as they're so small.

[Sixtysixdeuce]

Those Firebirds are nice looking little cars, Justin. While they'd certainly handle better with a different chassis, I can understand why he wants to use the existing ones. Shouldn't be too difficult to mod similarly to the way I did, though I doubt you'd have room for a vertically mounted servo. What do the chassis look like under the body?

The HK ESC I used can be bought for $12 shipped, $8 for the FS GR3C receiver, the RCS micro servos only cost $15, and $16 shipped for the Tenergy battery pack, so he can definitely get by cheap with a similar set-up

I have my old Tyco Turbo Bandit that I've been thinking of modifying to run. Probably use 1/18 electronics on it.

Most of these toy grades seem to use 370/380 size motors, so 1/16 or 1/18 parts make sense. That said, I feel that they are a bit heavy for the sub micro servos used in many hobby grade 1/16, 1/18 cars, which is why I opted for a regular micro. This yellow critter comes in at 2.1 lbs without battery, nearly twice the weight of an RC18.

[vwjuice]

I was wondering about the servo. A standard micro sounds like a better choice. Some of the old Toy grade rc's are just pretty cool.

[Coelacanth]

Here's mine, kept it all these years...my parents went to Japan and brought this back for me for Christmas. I'd had several toy-grade RC's before, but this was a different level entirely. Not quite hobby grade but probably what started to really get me serious about RC. The 6 C-batteries fit in a case inside the seat that could be positioned horizontally for fast driving, or moved vertically into the back of the seat to do wheelies. It has a wheelie bar, working lights, and you can sort of position the rider to do stunts. It's BUGGY BOY!

[esaresky75]

Here's mine, kept it all these years...my parents went to Japan and brought this back for me for Christmas. I'd had several toy-grade RC's before, but this was a different level entirely. Not quite hobby grade but probably what started to really get me serious about RC. The 6 C-batteries fit in a case inside the seat that could be positioned horizontally for fast driving, or moved vertically into the back of the seat to do wheelies. It has a wheelie bar, working lights, and you can sort of position the rider to do stunts. It's BUGGY BOY!

BuggyBoy1.jpg

BuggyBoy2.jpg

Reminds me of Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch

[Percymon]

Got to agree some of the toy grade cars are surprisingly sprightly when used with modern battery tech.

I had a Taiyo beach buggy that wasn't the best (nasty plastic wheels n tyres), but the body, interior and engine detail were handy for a custom pan car project (155mm wheelbase !)

I have a Nicchimo 1/12 pan car chassis sat ont he desk currently - no body but a nice Tamiya Tamtech 934 will adorn it soon, provided I can get the Tamtech wheels n tyres to fit the Nicchimo axles.

[justinspeed79]

I had a Taiyo beach buggy that wasn't the best (nasty plastic wheels n tyres), but the body, interior and engine detail were handy for a custom pan car project (155mm wheelbase !)

This is my TC5 drifter with a superbly detailed Subaru Impreza hard body from a toy grade car. I bought the car used from a friend for $10, took the body offf and gave the chassis back to him since he has another car with the same chassis/etc. This body has Tamiya quality detail but is thicker and more durable.