TCR Total Control racing! What is it? and how does it work!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- I recently acquired a TCR slotless racing set, Three car system, slotless racing with a drone car and lane changing capabilities... sounds like digital?? wrong this set is 46 years old and completely analogue. So how does that work....
Us men are weird creatures. I used to play tcr with my mate Brian when I was around 11 to 12 in 1980. I love all my modern tech. But watching this brings back great memories. No computers, no internet no mobile phones. There's a part of me would choose to go back in an instant.
Thanks for the memories
I was 12 years old when these came out and I drooled over them every Saturday morning. Finally got an Aurora set, but still wish I had gotten these.
I am hoping to track down some decent AFX sets to investigate soon!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Probably have some track in my Mom's attic. Great times.
Glad you enjoyed it
I absolutely loved my TCR set. I had the big set with an oval within an oval with two jam cars when I was 12 in 1979. My mate had the truck set and we used to link it all up for a huge circuit. You had to be careful putting it together because of the track joining pieces, very fragile and you had to keep the track ultra clean with a 2p coin back then, lol. The thing that killed it for me was the expense and availability of the pick ups and tyres on the cars, as they used to wear out fast. I still have a couple of sets in the loft that I bought for nostalgia back in the early 2000s when Ebay emerged, I might dig them out. Wow, it's all flooding back now, thanks for the video.
Time to get them down from the loft
I had the trucks set. I thought TCR was great. Changing lanes added a completely new dimension to it. And I used a copper coin as well to keep the tracks clean.
As a child I wore away the rails on the track with said 2p coin in an attempt to get cars to run well
But really the problem was always the pickups and tyers
In fact I bet there is still a coin in the sets box
The 2ps
Ye Gods man!! This brought back amazing memories. I got the red box set that you had for Xmas when I was about 10 or 11 years old and I just about wet my pants on Xmas day! What a present that was! This was by far the best present I ever got as a kid. Thanks for the memories dude. I grinned like a Cheshire cat all the way through your video 😂
Oh yes, we had the truck set. My brother and I loved that set, I wish it was 1977 again such good times.
I got one of these sets for Christmas when I was 12 and they were brand new. It was something of a minor hit for Ideal Toys in the US. I'm not surprised you didn't hear of them in the UK though. Ideal Toys were not a major player in the toy industry in the US, most of their toys were kind of on the cheap side compared to the giants like Mattel or Tyco.
As you've noted, the power supply is an AC unit. The diode in the controllers is essentially a half-wave rectifier and sends either the positive or the negative half of the AC sine wave to each car. Being the kind of kid who took my toys apart often, I figured it out pretty quick.
As others have mentioned, the pick-up shoes were kind of a weak point. The rails on the track are pretty thin steel and would quickly wear slots in the shoes, at which point power to the car could get spotty. The tires were pretty thin too, and since the cars were always doing the One Wheel Peel they could wear down pretty fast. New tires have something of a cone shaped profile to them and the wider part of that cone should always be to the outside.
Now a driving tip: That lane change feature has an interesting effect, as you've seen. The cars will _always_ run to the outside of any curve. But you can use that to an advantage. Run into the curve in the outside lane. That keeps your car powered since they always coast when changing lanes. But when you enter the curve, switch to the _inside_ lane on the controller. Why? Because while your set to the inside lane the _outside_ tire is driving the car in the direction of the turn, thus pushing it away from the outside wall and reducing friction on that wall. You'll still run in the outside lane, but you'll run through the curve faster. I learned that trick by accident while racing my friends. It can be a significant boost in a curve. I hope you get to enjoy these cars for a long while. I know I had a blast with my set.
I had one of these sets when I was a kid here in England
What are you talking about - TCR was advertised here in the UK as much as scalextric was - in fact scalextric was inferior to TCR - no slots! lane changing etc so surprised the reviewer never heard of them
We had these in the UK too
@@speedbird737 Yeah TCR adverts were all over the TV, i really wanted one but I got a Matchbox Powertrack instead which had a reverse function, nowhere near as good.
The company or idea could of been sold to another. I used Scalectric in my youth and Aurura AFX as i got older. AFX was lower HO scale so you could get more track in a smaller space as the Scale Electric where about 1/24 scale. But i have never seen lane changes done this way. It was always one slot one lane and there was a criss cross that chained inside to outside. The technology must of been a dud as there was no lane changes in my day.
Tyco and TCR sets were rather prominent in the US. The 1/64 scale was standard. The 1/32 scale of scalextric required a huge area for set up, in comparison.
I've only recently switched to Scalextric but only to collect certain cars. I'd need a dedicated room for a track for cars that big.
Great video🎉
Got this in probably 77 or 78 this was the absolute baddest gift ever!
I got one of these for xmas when i was about 11. Came from Beatties in Romford..
The shop in our town sold all the cars and accessories...had for a few years and it became quite a big thing for me.
Super memories.
Thanks for watching
Had a TCR with the headlights in the very early 80's, and loved it. The trouble was the connector shoes at the bottom of the cars would wear out super quick. If I remember correctly, you would need to clean the tyres with stick tape, which would allow them to grip better.
I had a TCR set as well. I remember the skid shoes wore down really quickly. It was a challenge to find anyone who would sell them. Really enjoy my time with and had forgotten about it until I stumble across this video!
You could also lightly oil the "flywheel" to soup up the cars. It was a constant battle between myself and my brother (with help of my dad) one car would be slightly quicker so you would have to be sneaky driving. Change tyres, even the way the tyres went on could make a difference if you got them back to front. Brilliant system 😁
Yes Yes would use steel wool to clean the contacts and the instructions said clean track with a copper penny ...just be sure to turn power of 1st😂
A drop pf 3 in 1 oil for the internal gears 😂
I remember the TV adverts, but this is the first time I've seen the reality. There was a "jam car" that was a truck whose trailer acted as a ramp for flying overtakes. Might be worth looking out for one of those, as it should be either fun or frustrating.
The truck sets go for big money unfortunately it seems
Thanks very much for an excellent step by step video I've just bought a set for my Grandchildren !!! and myself if I have any problems I'll just watch your video, happy motoring. 😊
I had one in about 79. Although I think it was a newer version. I think I had some vans etc, like the A Team van. The contacts underneath would wear out quickly and I bought a fair few. I also had issues with the car engines burning out. One of my most vivid memories of TCR was the smell of the warm cars. Thanks for sharing, brought back some happy Christmas memories.
Thanks for watching 👀
I had the three-level track, ramps and jumps galore.
Loved my TCR set.
The pick ups underneath wore out fast and the tiny springs were fiddly and annoying but otherwise I had nothing but fun with it.
Great memories.
More fun than scalectrix with their slots!
Exactly! 😊
same here , i had that big track too ; and those jumps ; allways ended up loosing contacts somehow. i also remember how many tires those cars would go through... they dred up so fast ... it was fun but painfull ... contacts on the cars breakng or popiing out ; tire wear ; track contacts lifting out the plastics & more ... yet going through the comment section ; we all have those memories and yet we all still loved it.... sounds just like what owning nitro RCs is/was ..... our generation really loved frustrating fun.....
Yess to everything you said... 😇😊 had so much fun with this and built some insane tracks. And yes ... the springs and the metal parts at the bottom were fiddly !
Great video! I loved playing with TCR as a kid in the 70’s. This was very nostalgic. I remember my system seemed to race very fast and sometimes I could get it to spark. It was very interesting and amazing to play with as 5 year old!
Cool! I think my experience can shed some light. (I was a huge toy track kid 1970s-1980). The adverts when TCR was released were quite over-produced (fantasy). The reality was quite disappointing. The lane changes were unreliable and stalled without rail contact often. the cars were pushed into the lane because of the driven rear wheel...right rear would push the car into the left lane and rail. Similarly, left rear wheel would push the car into the right lane and rail. I always wished it worked as sweet as the TV ads. 🤨
My first lesson in false advertising. Moved on to SSP’s. 😂😂
@styleandpattern
For what it’s worth, the sets (especially later batches) were supplied with woefully under specced power supplies due to safety legislation as a result of children receiving minor shocks.
Seemingly only about a quarter to half an amp output.
To function correctly the system needs a 2 to 2.5 amp power supply and allegedly, when configured with this increase in current, the cars perform as they were intended to.
I’ve not witnessed this first hand. I’ve only read about it.
If I can ever source a set in decent enough condition where the buyer is willing to post it, I’ll definitely be trying to assemble a 2 amp power supply😎👍🏻
Had and still have a large set with a half dozen cars. They have always worked very well, no stalling, very reliable lane changing. As they aged the driven tyres used to throw off the wheels with centrifugal force, solved by modern glues. No lane unreliability, no power issues, almost ike having a different product (but not!)
@@BadRavenFPV 🙂 I wish the sets I got were yours. I had such high hopes.
I had great fun with mine. Even found some extra track and another power pack and built an impressive big track.
Power supply was a little dodgy but didn't detract too much.
This is probably the best video I've come across on UA-cam that explains everything. My friend bought me a set this week. Like you I'd never heard of it but it sounded fantastic. I approached prep in much the same way as yourself ie: track clean and stripping my trucks and inspecting motors. They work fine, I'm just waiting on some nice new tyres to improve traction and hopefully that cures that issue.
If the rubber tyres wear down too much, the car can start to ride on the metal wheel having no grip. I remember the cars always flung to the outside of a curve due to centrifugal force so you could never drive on the inside of a curve. Enough momentum to make it across to the other side was key to prevent cars stalling when changing lanes.
I see some later sets from 1988 ish have a guardrail in the curves between the lanes to stop that. You could only pass in the straight I suppose on those sets. But its not like we could pass on the inside on our earlier tracks anyway could we? Lord knows I tried👍
Excellent Cover Story and Rebuild. Thumbs Up for Ideal back in the day. Long Live Scalextric.
I never owned a TCR track but remember seeing the commercials on tv and being fascinated on how the cars could change lanes.
So many memories I got my first TCR set when I was 11 or 12 years old, saved up my milk and paper round money for months and months plus doing odd jobs like helping people get their shopping home from the local shop in the back of my go cart and cleaning snow from their paths and then with help from my dad was able to buy my first set. Even straight out of the box. I had the same problems that you shown today, but soon got used to how it worked and being a inquisitive kid. I had dismantled it all and made slight alterations to make it work better. Fantastic video, and thank you for taking me back. Nearly 46 odd years.
Who says there is no time travel....love it!!
Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed it
Wow TCR!! Ha I had forgot all about this toy and loved your video. As said by @styleandpattern below, it never lived up to the advert. I loved the adverts and remember them being on all the time, I got given one for Christmas in 1981. Both my older brothers had been into Scalextric so it was a thrill for me to get a toy that was even cooler!! Unfortrunately it was mostly a very fustrating experience!! In the few moments when it was working it was sublime, but the majority of the playing time was trying to get the cars to move or picking them up off the carpet after they had left the track!! But, still love those adverts!!!
I had a TCR set when they first came out and I even remember the red wrapping paper it was wrapped in. I had lot's of fun at my nan's house when I found out that mum & dad bought me this and spent all christmas morning playing with it after me & dad set it up.I even was bought more cars & trucks for my birthday.I was asked by mom & dad if a family friends kid could have it as they was poor and could not buy him presents as they had no money and I said yes.I had so much fun with my TCR set's and stiil remember it to this day.😀
I had one of those. They're great fun. They're also very fragile. Those controllers are a rheostat and a polarity commuter. The lane changing is by changing the polarity of the tracks which reverses the rotation of the motor. The cog powers either the left wheel or the right wheel and that makes the car jump tracks.
Very easy to fix. You can change the tires with o-rings
I was given a TCR set as a Christmas gift from my parents in around 1980….it was second hand I recall but was absolutely fantastic- it was great and yes you could genuinely overtake. So much good memories, soon after that Christmas we went to the factory shop and we bought a load of new tyres and a few new cars etc. I never forgot how much fun I had and 20 years later I bought more TCR when I was in my early 30s! I still have the sets today - I still appreciate my parents buying me the TCR - was better than Scalectric!
Thanks for watching
Brings back memories of a mate who had TCR when I was a nipper. I always wondered how it worked, ingenious in it's simplicity! I think it fell out of fashion as it was more expensive than Scaletrix and was limited in cars you could get and for the UK it was more American bias.
For another system you may not have heard of and similar era, check out Matchbox Race & Chase. My grandad got me one for Christmas in early 80's I guess and it was awesome. The main feature was it had a button on the top of the control which reversed the cars direction in a U turn. The tracks had extra run off on the corners to allow the car to back up and turn around and guard rails elsewhere to stop it falling off. The track also had a teeter 'see-saw' jump bridge which could be a bit of pain. You got two cars, a Chevy Stingray and an America Police car all complete with headlights and Police car with red lights on top. The idea being the Police car to chase and stop the other car by knocking it off the track. With the run off areas on the corners though you could get some drifting going on.
Anyway thanks for the video, brings back fond memories.😀
I am 54 , in the UK and i remember this system and the tv adverts well.
It was out of my price range as a kid , as was scaletrix.
I think this is the first time i have seen it outside of a tv advert.
Looks good even today.
Great video.
Thanks for watching, do you remember matchbox race n chase? That's the next video
I'm 53 and like yourself remember this really well, out of my price range too 😒
Wish I still had my set from when I was a kid in the late 70’s It was the one with the glow in the dark rails and the Zig zag corvette jam car.
I had the green set and I can remember my dad buying it for £40 from WHSmith in 1980 for my Christmas present. By boxing day the pick ups had already burnt through.
TCR was the best racing you could buy. We enjoyed it immensely and once you managed to learn how to overtake, it was amazing. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of our childhoods.
Remember a cousin having TCR in the 80s, was so impressed as with the small scale track you could build great circuits and pretty sure it had a computer controlled 'ghost' car you could race again, plus lights. This was the mid-80s 🤩
Always wanted this toy as a kid, but couldn’t afford it but it’s good to see it again I remember the commercial👍🏼
I’ve still got this ,up in my loft from the 70’s .Orange plastic bits missing for brigades but works .Well it worked 20 years ago when I was showing mates ,like you they’d never heard of it .
I (born in 1976) had a TCR set that comprised 2 oval tracks, one within the other, with a section of four lane track.
I loved it, one of my favourite toys along with Big Track and trailer...
I was a lucky child.
Thanks for watching
A friend of mine here in Sweden had this in the mid 80s, a leftover from his older brother. I never saw it working, and God... how I lusted when I saw that box. Nice to finally get to see a glimpse of it.
Thanks for watching
Wow, this took me back. I had this very set, plus extra cars and track bought with birthday/Xmas money. The tyres were forever wearing out but spares could be bought and the connectors would wear, but again spares could be bought. I preferred this over the Scalextric my cousins had at the time.
Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed the memories
Fantastic vid, this brought back memories because I always wanted a TCR set, but never got one. I first remembered the ads starting around 1980 (in the USA), I had no idea the product originally launched all the way back in 1977.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, this is a blast from the past. My girlfriend bought me the large double oval track for my 18th birthday, (I'm 64 now). It worked faultlessly for quite a number of years. There was a shop in North London called Beaties that carried all the spares. As I remember, the tyres wore out very quickly because they were very soft and quite sticky. The contacts had to be replaced regularly as well because the track lines wore grooves in them. The track was a large oval with a smaller oval inside of it. There were two jam cars, one on the inside lane and one on the outside lane. I had a number of cars and trucks, some with working lights. I remember it still working after we got married because the dog used to chase the cars. Then suddenly the shop I bought all my spares and parts from either closed or stopped stocking them and I couldn't find them anywhere else, so eventually it stopped working. I don't remember what happened to it, but probably dumped it when we moved.
Shame! Thanks for watching
I had TCR when I was a kid. Loved it. The problem was getting spares - especially tyres. The pickups would wear quite quickly (you'd get a groove worn where the track contacts the pickup). If you get a chance to buy the black Trans-Am, go for it. That thing rocked. When I raced that, it beat anything else I had. My memory might be rusty, but I think they even had a block car that could randomly change lanes?
I have so many fond memories of TCR fat far too much to comment on all but Thank You😊😊 you've brought them all back.
Many many hrs I spent in my father's loft building bigger more complex tracks with bootsale purchases and many moments of frustration as a young child replacing worn contacts with the niggly little spring which is best stretched a little.
I had the jumps which I loved and was forever messing with things and wetting the track 😮 for wheelspin, I had a police car with a working top light 🚨 that looked cool during the night and many different car types.
The spares I remember having to get from a hobby shop in Stockton.
What's strange is the smell it used to produce after long hrs of play.
Thanks again
thanks for watching, enjoy the memories.
I absolutely remember this being advertised on TV and I REALLY wanted it, but it was too expensive, so I ended up with PowerTrack for Xmas that year. (Also I was convinced as a kid that the cars went at 300mph, but the ad actually says 300mph scale speed) 🙂
My next door neighbour friend had one of these some time in the late 70s or early 80s, and we played it together a few times. I had a Matchbox Race & Chase but I must admit I was a little bit jealous of him having this as it seemed so much more advanced. I think the way they change lanes and stay in them is that only one drive wheel is powered at a time, so the cars are either forced to drive against either the inside or outside edges of the track.
yes basically the motor changes direction on the driven wheel
Were you my neighbour, I wonder? ;)
My friend, I was a young owner of scalextric , I also had TCR and I had Race n Chase (by matchbox)and I loved the lot.....the TCR was high maintenance though , which led to it's downfall, constantly having to clean the contacts and car pick ups..but this video brought back great memories of playing with this stuff in the seventies..😊, happy days...( now that's another blast from the past, ...Henry Winkler, Ron Howard...brilliant!)
Sick! I had a TCR track when i was a kid... I'm 53 now.i was so excited to get this back then!! Thanks for the trip down memory lane sir!
The Ideal logo on the box bought back so many memories. I've always wanted a TCR set.
we had one with the jump, the change track feature was brilliant and having you explain it to me 45 years later is really a good thing and we could have extended the life if we had seen this.
Thanks for watching 👀 :)
My bro and i had TCR as a kid. It was considered the cheaper alternative to Scalextric, which is why we had it, my folks were not well off. Over the years we collected a fair bit of track and could make pretty big circuits, with several jam cars positioned along it. Was so much fun, brings back a lot of memories.
Even TCR was probably a weeks wages back then - thats an amazing sacrifice our parents went through in those days to make our Christmas.
I had one in the late 70s. It was fun for a while, but had too many issues. Frustrating at times. It got returned to the club book company I bought it from after a while and I replaced it with a huge scalextric set. I built a table that took up half my attic space and made scenery including mountains out of paper mache etc. Loved it.
BEST RACING TECH EVER.. i used to have a set of these, called Power Passers and it was a very expensive hobby back in the 70s.. to make them change lanes, one would pull the trigger twice in rapid motion.one of the biggest issues was how the tracks would connect, the tabs would break off easy and purchasing the bank turns was a necessity , these really bring back old memories.
Thanks for watching
I had one of these. The jam car. The ambulance. My set was Nissan hardbody pickup trucks. Brought back some great memories. 2000 grit sand paper helps the contacts, go easy, no much protruding.
I had two of them... I am looking forward to buy a system to play it again. It was and still is a great toy design.
There’s a few out there on the interweb.
I have a huge load of very much working TCR... well over 100ft track, with humps and stuff too. 30+ car, Inc lorries, go carts, f1 and rally cars. I had the big box as a Xmas present and then acquired a large amount from a company discontinuing sales in the late 80s. Many of the bits I have are French origin and never really came to the UK for sale and so were samples type items. A few years ago, I took the whole lot to a works party for the lads' games room. And it was a huge hit - lane changing was a novel concept to them.
Great video. Brought back some great memories. Aware of a big smile n my face when it all started working and the first overtake
Glad you enjoyed it!
I loved my brother's TCR set as a kid. I wish they still had them today as it is the ultimate expression of slot car racing IMHO. The only problem we had was that the pads wore through before long.
Thanks for watching 👀
I remember the UK adverts for this and always wanted a set. Nice to see it running.
Thanks for watching
I remember always wanting a TCR set as it looked so cool in the adverts. Had a Scalextric set in the end and couldn't believe how small TCR cars were when i finally saw one in the flesh.
Great video! I had one of these TCR sets, it did actually work, but apart from the jam car getting in the way, there wasn't much skill involved in playing it because you didn't really have to control your speed. But, honestly, in the 80s it was enough that it worked at all and that the cars made it round the track. I recall the manual telling you to clean the track power rails with a 2p piece. I also had a Scalextric set, but the problem there was that the track warped lengthways making sharp metal stick-up edges where the track pieces joined causing the power braids to rip often. Still have my Scalextric March Ford 6-wheeler in it's box, but it's a bit tatty.
Back in the 70s diodes were the answer to so many control problems when the technology couldn't run to anything more exotic. I used to fly models round-the-pole indoors, which was where a model plane was electric powered by just two wires via a rheostat outside the flying circle, and it was tethered to a pole via rotating slip-rings. The one concession to 'control' was that the supply polarity could be reversed, to account for the fact that there was no standard to wire one's motor. So one enterprising builder built a replica DH88 Comet with retracting undercarriage and flaps, all controlled via the polarity switch. Diodes routed the power to the motors such that they always ran forwards, and other small motors to raise and lower the wheels and flaps, with limit switches to set their travel, and more diodes to bypass them when the polarity switch was flipped. It was an utter work of genius, and very impressive to me as an 11-year old!
so complex yet so simple at the same time, Thanks for watching :)
I got a TCR set for Christmas around '79 or '80 but never got it to work as well as the ad and cars were always either flying off or struggling to run as the contacts wore out pretty fast. I'm commenting in reply here as after reading your comment I was reminded of a 'remote' helicopter I got one Christmas back sometime around then as well, that flew around in a circle on the end of an arm that was balanced on a central unit that had metal circular rings on top and contacts on the centre of the arm that connected to these rings for power that spun the arm and helicopter either clockwise or anti-clockwise. The controller was connected by cable to the central unit, and there was a pallet of pipes that you could try and pick up with the hook un the underside of the helicopter. I can't for the life of me remember the correct name for that toy but great to bring that memory back, thanks.
This brought back memories….I had one of these when I was a child in Scotland in the 80s and I absolutely loved it…had a knight rider car which was my absolute favourite…thank you for bringing those memories back
This takes me back 30 years...
So, I never had TCR as a child (I had friends who did), but in the late 80's, I picked up a set (the exact set you initially bought, only it had an extra jam car packed in) from a church second hand sale.
It never worked properly - no matter how much I cleaned the rails and pickups. So I put it away, £1 lost to charity and forgot about it for a few years.
I went away to uni and during my second year (this is 1993), a new second hand toy shop opened, and they had a TCR set for a tenner or something. I always wanted to get something going, so I picked it up, then got my original set from my parent's loft.
Armed with double everything (and a couple of years working in electronics), I went through absolutely every single thing you just went through. I discovered that even like 10 years after release, the tyres were bad, and that's why it had never worked properly for me. I spent a lot of time with controllers open too, the slides on the variable resister was iffy on a few of mine due to warping, and needed straightening out.
I went to our local Toymaster (when they still existed), and they had bags of tyres and... A brand new set of TCR cars! I picked up tyres and a couple of the new cars.
It worked. It was glorious. The older cars struggled against the new ones a little, but the original red striped car I'd had from the 80's was solid and could keep up.
The new cars had rubber front tyres, and actually steered. When the motor changed direction, it flipped a switch attached to the front wheels and turned them left or right. Very fancy :)
It was great fun, but beer and women called, and I needed cash, so I took the lot to be sold at the second hand toy seller I originally got the stuff from.
It's worth noting that even new out of the box (as I say, I had friends who had it - so I saw it played with on Boxing day after they first opened it) - it wasn't overly reliable. The cars could get up a good head of steam, then sputter and catch and sputter and catch. Nothing like the reliability of Scalextric.
And the noise. It's really noisy with 4 cars going around. Everything is hard plastic and it reverberates. People's parents wouldn't let them play with it as it was loud. I have to also say, as much as I love seeing the cars flying round the tracks, it's not as much fun as you think it is. It tends to descend into more of a high speed train set than a racing game. You get the occasional crash when trying to overtake, but there's very little skill generally. If your car is as fast as the other on the straights, you aren't overtaking.
Anyway - brilliant video, thanks for sharing and bringing back some fond memories from not as long ago as you'd perhaps think :)
I remember the tv commercials for these quite well. They were too expensive for my childhood but I always wondered how they worked and I've got to say the way they did it was brilliant.
They were very expensive compared to AFX. We had a blast with the TCR, but cars were indeed fragile and expensive and extra track pieces (to make your set bigger) were nonexistent.
Excellent video Sir ! 😎👍🏻
For roughly 45 years I’ve wondered how the jam car functioned specifically and thanks to you I finally have this clarified😁👍🏻
Depending on how old you are I’m faintly baffled as to how you were unaware of TCR🤔
It was huge from at least 1978 until about 1982 and everyone I knew either wanted a set or had one.
I recall the TCR sets being prohibitively expensive though, hence me not ending up with one, to my eternal chagrin.
I was 5 in 82 so it's probably why I never heard of it, I think it must have died off just before I became old enough to be interested
Yep, they were really expensive , i recall 2 x more than a scalextric of which i had a few from 76 to 83 ...Put it this way no one at school ever had one ,...
My Brother has a Mk1 Ford Escort Mexico Rally Scalextric Car and wow how they look so Big compared to these..
Trying to just keep a TCR set running back in thr day was to expensive for most kids pocket money allowence . Some of those part cost a few pounds back in the day. Tyres were not much cheap , it was way to costly compared to both the major slot cars brands with more car choice and a bigger following. So it was doomed from day one .
If you can find an "electronic super booster" track attachment, it makes these tracks 300% more fun. Your issues seem more car related than anything. You can test these cars with a 9v battery, switching the polarity will spin the opposite rear wheel. Tires are hugely important, old hardened tires will simply spin.
This is the sort of stuff I love coming across on UA-cam. Great work on cleaning the setup. Subbed.
Thanks for the sub
This brings back memories of being a kid in the 80s!.
If I remember correctly the corners had some kind of barrier that clicked in?.my set had a bridge jump too.I remember changing those copper shoes as they slowly got burnt away.I think they had a tiny spring inside them to make the shoe have constant contact with the track.good times!
Thanks for watching, Hope you enjoyed the memories
Bring back great memories thanks, Had this set back in '78. Spent hours playing with it , think my Dad got extra track ,to make more exciting courses
thanks for watching
I had two TCR sets back in '79 and '80. Connected the sets for a super long and curved track with the speed boost module you can't find anywhere. Hours and hours and hours of fun. Cheers from America.
When I grew up in the 70's I had one of these and AFX tracks one of my friends had half of his basement setup we would be down there all day on a Saturday I still have all my cars and parts I found them in the attic one day and brought back great memories
I had a TCR set when I was 10 (40 years ago)
It was cheaper to buy than Scalextric at the time.
My set had a Lorry and trailer that ran on the inside lane in the opposite direction to the 2 cars
It was brilliant
Oh yeah, I remember that set.☠️
I had that! The truck ran in the opposite direction to the two cars and there was a little jump section(?) I think.
@@TheJrr71 yep that’s right 👍
A cheery hark back to Christmas 1979, My Dad saw a TCR display in the big Coop Dept store in Nottingham in the huge toy section on the top floor. That was it, my Christmas sorted, and his too!
I loved my TCR! The jam car was shocking to be fair
TCR was awesome. I was the only kid to have one, everyone else had Scalextic. The jam car was a great dynamic, especially when playing on your own. It had its faults and I can see why Scalextic was more popular, but i'm still glad I had one.
Oo, you reminded me of how much fun I had playing with my jam car solo. I would tape down the other controller so the jam car would run full speed while I maneuvered around it.
Probably how I trained myself to be good against other players . 😂
I had Scalextric but always wanted TCR - the power of advertising!
Always wanted one of these as a kid … Saw the adds all the the time
My ma purchased one for me 2nd hand back in 1979, think it was £25 + a 40 mile journey, £25 was a lot of £££ back then, was that green set with the zig zag jam car, picked up a couple of sets up over the years on bootys, flogged them on ebay about 7 years ago, 2 sets for about £45 for the pair, nice vid, bit of nostalgia, I remember the TCR advert on TV when I was a kid, it was a poor persons Scalextric but more advanced IMO
These were super popular in the UK in the 70's and early 80's ! They even had licensed sets like Dukes of Hazzard (with a jump too !). Their Police Race and Chase added the ability to do U-Turns !
Wikipedia says the sets fell out of favour because of health and safety concerns - kids getting electrocuted etc.
Children glowing like the ready brek kid from playing with high voltage TCR ⚡ thanks for watching 👀
Have very fond memories of my set, super fun, mine had a short cut fork in the inside lane where you could snatch the win on the last lap. The speeds would force the racing into the outside lane all the time so if you were behind before the bend you had to change lanes to get to it. I was a nuisance kid always taking things apart to see how they worked, came to the same conclusion as you.
I had a race and chase, but wanted scalextric at the time
@@dodegkr check out my race n chase video, thanks for watching 👀
Back in the mid 1970s I had a similar race track made by Lionel called Power Passers. It too had the three rail system. It didn't have the pass button on the controller, instead you just let up on the speed, and the car would change lanes, then you bear down on the speed again to keep the car going. You could only pass on the straight aways. The only other difference was the curve track sections had a lane barrier so the car could run on the inside lane or the outside lane in the curves. It just had two race cars, no jam car. The set I had came with a large high bank curve on one end of the track.
We had this back in the 70's and loved it. The major downside was the pick-ups & tyres didn't last long. As for cleaning the track rails, I would gently rub them with a 2 pence peice (as they were copper back then) and this would help with the contact.
Thanks for watching 👀 🙂
Just find your channel. I love slot car racing. I had a set in 1980 when i was 10. I love this stuff
Your wrap up is exactly what I was thinking. I never heard of it and I'm off the age that I should have known someone with one if I didn't have one. I had slot cars and I even had one that had a car that changed lanes. Mine was drawn by a rubber band type tow and the car was flung from lane to lane. Thanks for the video.
Had the indy jam set you have in this video but with 2 jam cars . still got most of the set in my loft . Loved it . Me and my brother got it as joint xmas present loved it . been wanting to get mine up and running again for a while . had to go to a model shop in Manchester for for spares and cars . think about 1977/78 we got it
Thanks for watching
I'm 51, I do remember these in the UK, I wanted one! I remember the ads, I think I probably saw them on sale on Catalogues or Argos. I ended up with a Matchbox Race and Chase which was quite fun.
Thanks for watching
WOW I had this. We had the Jam Car set. A very unexpected christmas gift one year. LOVED it.
I had this as a kid. I received it second hand and all this cleaning and tinkering brought back a lot of memories. It was so finicky if it wasn't perfectly clean.
I used to have TCR as a kid I loved it I had the set that was in the red box, then I added some cars to it that had headlights, the fact that I had control of overtaking that's what I loved about it, great video brought back great memories of when I was a kid.
Thanks for watching
My brothers and I got one in the late 80’s. It was awesome and we could get cars and replacement parts at Toys R Us. Big learning curve.
Thanks for watching,
I had a 3 car TCR track as a kid... what a debacle!!
You got urs working better than mine ever did!!
I kept some of the hay bales for my old (really old) slot car track..it had Stirling Moss & Jack Brabham (but smaller!)..
Sewing machine oil on the corners livens laps up!
:) thanks for watching
@@slot-car-dad Not at all mate!
Enjoyed it immensely, just a pity mine didnt work anywhere near as good as yours, back in the day!
I remember begging my mother for one of these around Christmas time in 1978 (I was 8 yrs old) They did quite a large marketing blitz leading up to Christmas that year. You couldn't watch any daytime TV targeted at kids without seeing several TCR commercials at that time. I remember her growing a bit frustrated with me constantly bringing it up one time, so I stopped mentioning it, and gave up on it. But Christmas day, there it was under the tree :)
Had a lot of fun with it, but ultimately, preferred my Tyco slot car track. The TCR cars were MUCH slower, and a lot more fragile. But still, it was fun and I played with it until the cars were completely worn out. Replaced lots of tires and pickups. Eventually, the cars got slower and slower, then died completely.
If you are moving too slowly when changing lanes, the car will get stuck in the middle of the track where there is no current flowing. I remember spending a lot of time experimenting with going the absolute minimum speed necessary to make a successful lane change without getting stuck. Good times...
Thanks for watching and commenting
I had a pal at junior school back in the early 80's who had lots of TCR stuff and was infinitely superior to anyone else we knew who had it,you just couldn't beat him,great memories😊
Born in '71, I was a slot car junkie in my early youth. I also clearly remember that TV commercial. Thanks for digging that up, Mate! Takes me back. But you probably never heard of TCR because it was junk with a very short life span. They would inexplicably quit working after just a few hours of play.
Those commercials bring back some memories! I had a couple small Tyco sets back then…never played with these, though. Nice job!
I never had a TCR set, my parents bought the Matchbox Lanechanger. If I remember correctly, the swiitch on the controller actually changed the direction of the front wheels. And there was a thin ridge on the corners to stop a car on the inside being flung to the outside.......happy days, but would have loved a TCR
That was Matchbox? I just remember a friend of mine having a lane changer set similar to this here, but as you mentioned the front wheels actually turned and the ridge for the inner lane of the corners, with corresponding hooks on the side of the cars that would grip the ridge. Never knew what brand it was :)
One of the best things about TCR is that you could get really cool cars like police cars, trucks, Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am etc. So it was a bit like being able to use Matchbox toy cars on a track. I preferred it to Scalextric.
Thanks for watching
Yeah I had that Smokey And The Bandit Trans Am Firebird! It was my favourite car. I used to do jumps with my TCR, you could literally get fully airborne and then land back on the track and keep going. Great fun! I LOVED my TCR! I agree it was better than Scalextric AND has its own song TCR by the Sleaford Mods!
I had these back in 77/78 brilliant thing , the rails are very abrasive , the coolest thing was the bodies they had , a lot like hot wheels
They had a positive reverse power , so the car would pull to the left or the right depending on the switch , brilliant fun for a while till they burn through the contact shoes , that was about 3 weeks , a million years ago
I had one these for Xmas(must of been 1982). Yeah, remember the "drone car". My version had a little plastic jump for one lane, a crossover(so collisions were possible), a short piece of track which had barriers and also a lorry(which sort of took the place of the drone car). I got an extra car for it for my birthday, which I seem to remember was bought from a local shop(which sold things like Hornby railways and these sorts of things - long since gone) in my home town. I do seem to remember TV adverts for it. I don't think it was as well known as Scalextric. I do remember the pick-ups tended to wear out quickly, and I remember replacing a few(again spares available from that old local shop).
I was very lucky to receive one at Christmas when I was a kid.... It was amazing!!! I loved mine!!!
I wish I could buy it and play with it!! :)
ebay is where you need to look, thanks for watching
Nice!
I bought into the hype and got the set with the Corvette (with the zigzag jam car)
It worked as advertised for me, and could change lanes whenever you flicked the switch.
The trouble was, because of the high plastic sides to the track there was literally no skill involved, you just went flat out and occasionally had to avoid the jam car (which was easy)
Scalextric required some skill and throttle finesse, so it was my go to before and after the TCR phase.
Thanks for watching
Wow brings back memories, had the same set, also got lorries with trailers. Loved it.
Glad you enjoyed it
I amassed a load of TCR track and cars when I was a kid in the 80s. It started my parents buying me the Lighted Jugganaut Raceway.. I was hooked right away. I saved up and added the Super 4 Twin Circuit , then the Trailer Cutoff set which had a Jam Truck running in the opposite direction to the racers and a cool broken bridge jump section.
After that I'd regularly visit the nearest model shop and buy extra track, jumps and more cars whenever I had saved up enough!
If you can, get some MK 3 or MK 4 cars... they changed the design and the motor powers both rear wheels through a really neat gearing design. The front wheels also actually steer with the motor switching the direction they point making lane changes much faster!
I had one of those sets. I thought it was great, mine was the night racing edition the cars had lights. If I remember correctly there was a Lancia Stratos, De Tomaso Pantera and one I am not sure of. Top tip you would use a copper 2p coin to clean the track. Rub the coin along the track (inside and outside lane) this supposedly give better electrical contact. Also put cellotape sticky side up on a flat surface and roll the car tyres along the tape, this would take off the old hardened rubber off the tires and give better grip. I think there might have been a dukes of hazard set with police car general Lee and the jam car was a truck and I think there might have been a jump section. Fun times 😆
The problem is modern 2ps are copper plated steel for.cheapness, not solid copper
You are right, 2p’s of the 70’s were a much better quality. 😁👍
I believe I had the same set as you and if memory serves the third car was a Datsun 280Z, could we wrong though. I remember being impressed at the time with the different choice of cars, not the usual Porsches or Ferraris you might expect. The De Tomaso Pantera was the jam car and the choice of that as a subject didn’t phase me, I knew what it was from my set of Top Trumps Supercars!
My younger brother had TCR. I had Scalextric. I remember I was jealous, expecially when I experienced the lane changing. So much fun.