Pre real rc car.

[sandkil]

So many of us have updated our avatar with the first real rc car, but what did you drive befor that?
I'm starting of with a trio. I can say that the Turbo Panther was the most used out of these three.

[jwscab]

I know I had some of those little pilots, but didn't about the diaclone stuff. I remember having a clone or small version of Voltron when my cousin had the full size real deal. Not sure if what I had was truly clones or just a different variant but who know where it all went. lots of neat stuff back then.

One cool transformer I had was a mail in order autobot, still have him; it was a special red car, maybe a ferrari?, but back then, supposedly you could only get him through a mail order with some special tags from packages or something. 'limited edition'

The RC cars I had before the grasshopper were the standard 'straight forward, turn reverse' style of lots of different flavors for me. My dad did have a cool model that took D batteries, I think it was a pantera, red, and had a recatangular control box that had a black steering wheel, and buttons for fwd and rvrse. Maybe latrax? wish I still had that one.

[RC10th]

Aside from the cheap corded RC cars my first was a Nikko Turbo Panther like in this picture. It was such an awesome car for a toy grade car.

[yellowdatsun]

Sears/Nikko Lobo buggy.

[Coelacanth]

Not including several crappy toy-grade RC cars that really aren't worth mentioning, and I'm old enough to have had a few of those ones that had a tether and would do the straight-ahead-only, reverse-with-turn-in-one-direction style of maneuvering, the RC that truly sucked me into the hobby was Buggy Boy Wheelie; I posted this write-up here:

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=29026&p=300414



My parents travelled to Japan back in about 1981 and brought home some RC toys for my brother and I that blew our minds. My brother got a 2-wheeled motorcycle that had a functioning gyro but for the life of me, I can't find any info on it anywhere on the web. I got the Buggy Boy Wheelie. It had (and still has) working lights, a low-speed mode for wheelies and high-speed mode. The bike's battery back was 4 "C" cells in a sliding plastic box that could be moved up into the tail of the seat to facilitate wheelies, or down in the chassis for fast mode. It even has a pop-out wheelie wheel. Keep in mind this was in 1981! I've never seen anything else like it, it was probably something you could only get in Japan back in that time.

[mk-Zero]

Fun thread! This was probably the first good one I had, I think before that I had some of those dreadful "turn in reverse" POS's. From the Firefox it was hobby grade RC's.

[Coelacanth]

Fun thread! This was probably the first good one I had, I think before that I had some of those dreadful "turn in reverse" POS's.

I seem to remember, even as a child who loved anything that was a car and moved, after receiving one of those as a gift...wondering, "Seriously?! It has to go backwards to turn--in one direction?!?"

[Coelacanth]

My bro had one of those Big Traks. Cool toy. Just wondering now, what was the maximum sequence of button-presses those could "remember"?

[TRX-1-3]

anyone remember the Clicker controllers? it was a piece of tin you cicked......

Was at a birthday party bitd and the kid got one of these. IIRC it was a Firebird. It was neat but I remember thinking not THAT neat.

[R Cane]

Made by Mattel circa 1979, 1980. I had a couple of the pointless ones that turned in reverse before this one also, this was the first more functional one. That said, it had no speed control - just stopped or all out. Also had no self-centering steering, so it wasn't very easy to get it to do what you wanted. But it was cool at the time. I modded (lol) it a bit by putting LED lights in the holes in the front bumper...

[shodog]

The earliest RC I remember having was a Tandy Porsche 928 that went forward and turned in reverse. Then I got a shinsei truck that was front wheel drive and turn right or left at full lock. Then I got a Shinsei Dust Runner Honda ATC 250r. Full digital proportional. I modified it to have a headlight but eventually the steering servo died like most do.



I've since collected a few

[RCveteran]

The earliest RC I remember having was a Tandy Porsche 928 that went forward and turned in reverse. Then I got a shinsei truck that was front wheel drive and turn right or left at full lock. Then I got a Shinsei Dust Runner Honda ATC 250r. Full digital proportional. I modified it to have a headlight but eventually the steering servo died like most do.



I've since collected a few

Great picture, wish I had some back in the day. Never thought to take them.

[Saito]

Great topic with some pics of some awesome toys that brought back a lot of memories. My very first true RC was a 1/24th scale Nikko Fiero. (my Dad bought an '84 full size the year they came out) I saved my allowance for half a year to get it. I wanted full function, and that cost money back then. My first off roader was a Nikko 1/14th scale Mosquito buggy. Most don't remember it, but it was also later marketed as the Lobo 2 (only now using a 7.2v stick pack instead of the Mosquito's 8 AAs) It was a little bigger and faster than the Tyco Turbo Hoppers everybody was running back then. My folks got it for me for Christmas after much begging (and because they saw this "RC thing" with me wasn't just an overnight fad). Nikko was a good brand to me.

[sandkil]

when i was about 4 years old back in the 1970s i was given a Ideal/Tyco Tcr system.



these were slotless systems that lane changed at the drivers command and it is what got me going down the Radio control car road.
these systems were never popular and disappeared around 1982.

everyone used to call me nuts because i would say i had a slotcar set where you could change lanes. at that time most people had the AFX or tyco standard slotcar systems. this was before the internet so 99% of the people on earth didn't know this stuff existed.

I was equally confused with Transformers that kids had. I kept telling kids at school i had the same toys but they had little people that drove the robots and the colors were different. they all called me nuts again.

Turned out i had Diaclones which is what the american version of transformers came from except diaclones was way cooler.
http://www.collecticon.org/tag/diaclone/

so if you ever wondered why some early transformers had cockpits where something was suppose to sit now you know it was one of these guys


when they turned diaclones into transformers for the american market they removed the pilots that drove them like Macross and made the robots self aware and talking. before they were just vehicles that were driven into battles by humans.


turned out i was the coolest kid ever and everyone else was a doofus.

That is cool. I had the similar Matchbox kit and as you say friends back then did not believe that you could change lanes.

[romulus22]

The earliest full proportional rc car I remember owning was a Tyco Lamborghini Countach. Still want to add one to my collection, along with a Tyco Bandit. But those two cars bring better prices than some really nice hobby grade collectible cars.