I feel ya, I don't need any more of them but I need a few more of them!! I guess it is that little kid nostalgia that is making me get them. Plus it is kind of fun deal hunting on eBay too! Good luck in your quest and I have seen some of you finds, you have pretty food luck finding the deals out there!
It is kind of fun to step back into the past and go back to a time where a handful of AA batteries and a living room floor was all you needed to keep you entertained for hours on end! I am having fun reopening the memory vault with these and I am glad you guys are enjoying it too!
Nice classics... I use that dry lube stuff on my mountain bike! Man they are slow.. funny when you were a kid you though they were the best thin in the world these radioshack toy rc's!
LOL, yes painfully slow but I was still smiling and laughing the whole time! It barely had enough guts to climb the big jump and that was on rechargeable nimh AA batteries! I can see why they were not beat up very much, they didn't go fast enough to get beat up!! Yes, I agree, when we were little kids these things were the coolest and fastest things we ever saw before so we were completely entertained and in love with them! I know my mom hated them, she would call them battery eaters!!! I did go through and pile of AA batteries back in the day!!
Thanks Kevin! It has been kind of fun hunting down some budget friendly finds on eBay, getting them cleaned up and working again (if possible). I have a couple more coming soon, lots of cool things coming. Crawler stuff, Tamiya stuff, RadioShack stuff and even some Amazon finds as well!
It sure beats them ending up in a landfill like so many of them did. I know most of mine ended up in there. Either beaten up so bad the super glue couldn't hold it all together anymore or the electronics fried in them and I was too young to know a lot of that was easy to fix. It is also fun to clean them up and give them a run or two. They are little time capsules for me to remember back to a simpler time when a handful of AA batteries meant a couple hours of fun romping one around and then waiting a couple more weeks before mom would buy more for me! She hated these things, she called them battery eaters! To be fair in the end she probably pain as much in batteries for some of them as she did the car!!!
@@AddamsPlayground Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. I’m also guilty of destroying a few of these as a child. If only we knew what we know now, I would’ve kept ALL of my toys.🤣
I think the steering "servo" and motor being connected was the engineers solution to burning/stripping the weak servos out. It's easier to turn the wheels when its moving.
Yeah I guess that does make since and it is also a good way to sell replacement front end parts as it is tricky to get used to not having steering when coasting!
Hi Addam! This passion for those basic vintage Rc is wonderful. Those were the first steps in the rc toy word that developed to the actual low cost cars. What a progress and how the old one are emotional!
Thanks! I enjoy slipping back to the past when things were simpler and these types of cars were all I knew about and thought they were the coolest things out there! I can remember going into the local radio shack while my mom was shopping next door and just fawning over all of the cars in there and daydreaming about driving them all! Memory lane is a happy little street to wander down occasionally!
Very cool to rescue these old Radio Shack RCs. I grew up on those since my parents couldn't afford any hobby grade kits from Tamiya, Kyosho, etc. I still have my old Radio Shack "White Tiger" which seems very similar to that Fierce Warrior buggy. Brings back a lot of memories 😀
It is fun hunting down deals on eBay and getting them cleaned up and back in service. It won't be my main focus but I am enjoying the trip down memory lane with them. I had a bunch of RadioShack, Nikko and Tyco cars before I ever got a real one, so I know the want of a "real" RC as a kid!! They are all still fun even though they drive super slow and are really kind of awful... They are all amazing in their own little way!!!
Great video bro. Modge podge works great for sealing in decals! Something we used to do when the picture side of a puzzle piece would start peeing up. Modge podge worked every time!
Ahhhhh you are very right!!! Thank you for reminding me! I have some here and that would be a lot safer to use and easier to clean up and mistakes!!! Thank you my friend for making my life easier!!!
This is so Awesome Addam! Yes, I remember those awesome toy grade RC’s with the non proportional steering and throttle. I had a Tyco turbo hopper and my friend had a Nikko Turbo aero and my gosh the steering while throttle did throw us off during Christmas morning when we whipped out our new RC’s, but got used it very quick🤣. Funny thing is a few months later my other neighborhood friend got a Sear Lobo II and he had steering without throttle which was so cool! Then again, his Lobo II was more advance than my Turbo hopper and my friends Turbo aero. His was a 1/14 scale buggy and it used a 7.2v Nicad pack and quite faster than our 1/16 scale turbo hopper and turbo aero. It was so awesome to see that his car took a rechargeable 7.2v nicad while my friend and I was still using 8AA batteries for our buggies😩. I now figured the Lobo I also took 8AA’s but was still a 1/14 buggy. The Lobo II was just awesome!😀. Man, those days were so awesome at the golden age of RC’s. A year and half I think later I know it was 88’ my dad surprised me with my very first hobby grade RC, the Tamiya Grasshopper. After that it just got so much better. Unfortunately, my turbo hopper was taken apart and my Grasshopper got all the attention. I do miss my Turbo Hopper😢. Thanks Addam for 80’s memory lane. Can’t wait to see more 80’s RC toy nostalgia!☺️ Keep up the great work!
I had the Heads Up Turbo Hopper from Tyco back in the day and it finally got thrown away when the super glue just couldn't hold everything together any longer!!! The Lobo was a great car and was made by Nikko for Sears and was basically the same as the RadioShack Golden arrow, just with a different body shell. This was very common back then as Nikko an Tyco were making a ton of cars and offering them to other companies under their branding and body designs. They were some of the closest to hobby grade many could afford at the time too. My first was a Super Blackfoot and once I got that all other cars and trucks in the world were inferior to me! I loved that truck and pretty much drove it into pieces over a couple years of non-stop driving!
They used to be all over but nobody fixes things anymore and the world has gone to disposable everything. There are a few RadioShack stores still around but they are getting to be like unicorns! Glad you enjoyed the little time capsules. Thanks to Thad over at Iowa Budget RC Bashers and his cars I got hooked on eBay bargain hunting for them and I have a few more to show you guys!
great video, radio shack cars and trucks are very rugged and last for years taking a beating. i still have my lightning car from 2000 which was their fastest and also still have their fast dual motor xxt truck and still work like new. i had their biggest truck the extreme machine back in the 90s but it was kinda slow, and also their top of the line tsunami boat which had such great radio range i can take it nearly out of eyesight and still have control of it when i took it down a flooded street by my house.
I am loving reliving my childhood with these! I have gotten lucky and scored a few great deals on some of them. Some I have gotten from childhood desires and other are just for the fun of it. Well I guess all of them are for the fun of it!! It is cool you were able to hold on to some of yours. All of my younger years stuff either got canned from getting too beat up or sold as I thought I was done with toys... Little did I know!!!
Thanks! There is more stuff coming, all kinds of stuff. I have gone full bonkers and I have Tamiya stuff, crawler stuff, RadioShack stuff and even some Amazon cars coming up soon!!! It is a full blown RC crazy town over here lately! I keep finding great deals I don't want to miss and they are driving my wife crazy! I am trying to be good and not get any more but I doubt I will be successful with that for long!
Yeah the metal antenna 'clang' is a very unique sound! I think all that smell has aged off of them (I know what you are talking about though) Half of the ones I have bought smelled like smoke and the rest just smell like old things do, that been in a attic or garage for 20 years smell!
Cool looking buggies , I’ve recently got a Tandy radio shack Golden Arrow yo get running , lucky with this one you can get to all the electrics, get the wheels off Etc and they take 7.2v battery packs :) yey. Cool as ever Addam :)
I am on the lookout for the Golden or a Red Arrow buggy in good shape and not for a ton of money. I have not found "the one" yet but I am thinking I will have one in just a little bit! I do like that chassis type better as it is really a lot easier to do stuff with them. These smaller ones are much more limited on space and the amount of power you can feed that little motor! I may end up gutting one of them to modernize and get running a bit faster than the walking speed they do now! It is fun to stroll down memory lane messing with them and fun ones to add into the ever growing collection!
I think many of us got our start at either Radio Shack or a Nikko or Tyco car from Toys R Us!!! I have enjoyed the bargain hunting and the trip down memory lane with these cars. Stay tuned as there are some more coming up soon! Thanks for stopping by and checking it out!
Thanks! I was going to with this one but I think it would require more time and patience than I have to devote to it currently. I have two of them so maybe I can dive into one of them and speed it up but no plans as of now. Good luck with yours, I know it is not the easiest thing to do at all!
Hi Addam, cool presentation. As simple the Porsche might be from todays views as a hobbyist, as a child I probably wanted one and I can see me looking at the catalog and dreaming of it. Because it really looks professional. Steering only on full throttle? Kind of ironic or only the best RC pilots will see the finish line😁.
Same here, when I was a little kid these types of cars we all I knew about and thought they were the coolest tings in the world! Every Christmas and Birthday my default things to ask for was an RC car or two and a dirt bike (never did get the dirt bike as a kid!). The steering thing really threw me for a loop! I thought something was wrong with the car or the controller but I just happened to turn the wheel and squeeze the throttle and it turned. It may bee why they are in such goo shape, the people that got them may not have been able to drive them well enough and they just got put away and forgotten about!?!? I am happy to have them in the collection even if they are a bit quirky, just adds to the charm!!!
Hey Addam, how do you know the Air Beam model? I have one and I find it very fast, I would like to find more models like this from RadioShack. They say that Turbo Thruster is very fast, if possible could you recommend me more fast cars?
The old school RadioShack and Tandy kits are really neat. The fastest ones I know of are the Golden Arrow and the Red Arrow but I know they had some other fast ones too. Check out this website www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ It is fun to look back at the old catalogs and many in the years around 2000 had a chart in them of the "scale" speeds the cars would do. That may give you an idea of some to keep an eye out for!
Interesting stuff Addam. I used to have a Radio Shack Porsche 928 which was a bit bigger than those and quite cool. I wonder if you can still get it? The top tip I got from this was to use dry lube on the exposed bits. I've got some of that for my bike but never thought to use it on the RC's :-)
I have no idea if they still sell any RCs.... a quick search shows they only carry novelty RCs now, cheesy Banggood type toys. Yeah, I started using it on the rock crawlers and it made its way over to the other RCs. I always hated the idea of greasing exposed parts like drive cups, axles, steering joints and all that because it just turns into a grinding paste after a run or two which is defeating whole purpose! Glad I could toss a bit of helpful stuff your way!!!
I am going to start working on getting the stickers laid back down this weekend sometime. It is going to be tedious but without them the car looses it cool factor. It will be in a future video as an update. I have a few more cars to show you from RadioShack, I have been deal hunting on eBay and have gotten a couple more!
Yeah, once you can give it some space to run it goes pretty fast! I would guess around 18-20mph roughly. Plenty fast for the super short wheelbase!!! I think motor wise it is about as fast and punchy as it needs to be, it is already a handful with the sport tuned motor in it! I don't have any plans of upgrades to be honest. I think these are perfectly goofy and silly out of the box! It does make me want to get one or two of the comical series now though.
LOL, I was thinking about that when working on them. Nobody would have ever expected a RC from RadioShack meant to be for little kids to be featured 20-30 years later on a video by an old guy sharing it with other fellow old guys and still having fun with it! I guess I should should order one or to and leave them in the box as future channel content! ** 80 year old Addam slowly rambling on about a WPL buggy in a VR video!!!!
Hi John! I was really thrown off by the no steering without throttle thing! It really makes it tough to drive them. That may be why these were not heavily abused, between eating AA batteries like candy and not being very easy to drive they may have been shelved "for later" and got forgotten about. I am not even sure a speed meter would read the mph on this guy, it is painfully slow. I am pretty confident most of my crawlers can get around the track faster!
Hey Addam, my dad brought his old 1998 RadioShack Flashtronic “High Speed Digital Proportional” RC car, and I’m trying to get it to work again. The front wheels respond and turn, but the rear wheels don’t receive any power. It’s not a problem with the battery, but I think with the receiver or transmission thing. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’ve been unscrewing various things to try and get to that electrical part, but the screws to the plastic cylinder thing (in the back, that the wires plug into) cannot be unscrewed for whatever reason. Do you have any suggestions or tips? Just found your channel and it’s super cool!! :)
Unfortunately these old ones are plagued with electrical gremlins. I'd say start with disassembling the remote and cleaning the contacts in there. Often they get corrosion built up. Some light sanding with 1000 grit sand paper or even just using a pencil eraser will clean them up. You can also test the power coming to the motor to make sure it is getting from the battery to the motor when the throttle is on. If the motor is getting power but not moving means fried brushes or something is stuck. If you don't get power to the motor then more than likely it was destroyed by the all too common mud puddle!!! Those circuit boards were not waterproof at all and could easily short out. Do some testing and get back to me. You can email me as well, email address is in my about section of the main channel page. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!
@@AddamsPlayground Wow, I really appreciate how helpful and detailed you are in these responses. I've gone through and cleaned up everything I could, but I'm stuck on being able to actually open up the casing or housing that contains all the electrical stuff. It makes a singular clicking sound when I try and send power to the rear wheels. Another issue that's came up is the screws or screw-holes seem to be stripped, as I can't get them to fasten when reattaching components. Finally, the suspension arm thingy (that has springs wrapped around it) gets blocked when I try to attach it. Sorry for all of this, I might have to just leave things be for now, but I am heading off to college soon and just thought it'd be cool to restore for/with my dad. Once again thank you so much!
@@Toolace sorry you were not able to do too much with it. It could have safety screws in it that require a special tip to remove them. Most were put together with JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) screws that look like Philips screws but are different enough that you may have to hunt for a Phillips driver that will grip them well. It is hard to troubleshoot long distances sometimes, I hope you do get it running eventually!
@@AddamsPlayground Thanks! I didn't know those kind of screws were a thing actually. I'll be sure to return here and report the good news if I do get it up and running again! :)
I have seen the Ferrari, was watching one auction but it went for more than I was willing to pay for it! They made so many variations of these buggies, I remember some of them but some are still kind of new to me or I just don't remember them (very possible!!). It is fun to snag a bargain off of eBay and get it cleaned up and running again even it it isn't fast of very capable at all. Still bring s back a ton of memories!!
I'd like to see you get more of these old nickels and radio shack cars if they're perfectly fine when they come through stock and then when they break just hobby grade them only if you come across some cheaply.
I have gotten a couple more. I think most are going to stay stock and live a nice happy life mainly on display but an occasional run just for fun and humor!! Occasionally I may update one or two as needed if they break or are not working properly. I like them all slow and just the way they were as when I was a kid!
Cool, thanks for the tip! I have seen people using the peroxide based hair product to whiten them up but I loathe that smell! I will see about trying this!
Hey Addam, I've got the UK version of that buggy. It was called buggy special turbo :) Have you any power port on the opposite side of the buggy to the on/off switch. If so, any idea what the idea was here? Was it rechargeable?
I do not have one on mine. I guess it could be something for charging the batteries onboard but I have not seen one like that. I may have to look at the old catalogs to see if the later ones allowed for onboard charging.
@@AddamsPlayground I can't track down a user manual anywhere either. Does the handset red light come on when you put v9 battery in or do you have to press the button below it? I think my controller is busted
@@_RandomPea The controller on the Fierce Warrior doesn't have any lights on it, it is one of the "always on" controllers and only does anything when you use the controls. otherwise it sit mostly dormant. I am not surprised it may not work, the circuit boards they used in a lot of these cars was poor quality and over time the internal traces can corrode and fail. Sometimes you can take them apart and clean all the controller contact areas with isopropyl alcohol and it may start to work again. Other than that I am not sure, I am not a fan of electrical gremlins, especially in old ones like this where it is not as easy as swapping out for known good parts like the new stuff is.
@@AddamsPlayground yeh I'm contemplating whether I could strip and replace on this. They were great little cars but the 8 aa batteries is just too much wastage for me to handle now I'm not 9 years old lol 🤣
@@_RandomPea Yeah, I know what you mean! I went through them like crazy as a kid but Now I hate using them as it feels so wasteful! I'd have to crack mine open again to see what would fit in there but I am sure it would not be too hard to strip it and install modern gear. My only concern may be the steering servo but I am pretty sure it is like the rest of them and a low profile with a Tamiya servo saver will drop right in. I will have to pull one apart again and check. Now I am curious!
i've got a radio shack bmw one from that era, same type of controller, was about $20-$25 when i bought it. if i dig it out i'll see if it works on a jet fighter ii i got chesp.
They put out a lot of neat cars and trucks back in the day. A lot of them can be upgraded to modern electronics with some tinkering but some are just too bespoke to fit modern gear without a ton of re-engineering! You can still find deals on them from time to time on eBay.
Those Golden arrows are fetching good money for ones in good shape. I am still on the lookout but not taking it too serious (well trying not to at least!). Hopefully we will stumble on a god one soon!
Yeah this steering is the weirdest thing ever! I have never had a car that the steering stops when you let off the throttle. I guess it is a good thing it is not faster than it is or it would be a real handful to drive!! I can live with the click clack, non-proportional steering but loosing it all together when not on the throttle is kind of sketchy!!
I am on the lookout for a golden arrow (stock) that is in great shape. Sadly they are hard to find and cost a good bit if you do find one. The fun is in the hunt so I will keep looking. You should post some videos of them so we can see what you did! It is always fun to see these old things still running around, stock or modified! Thanks for checking it out!
I have my own channel on here….. I have a few videos with it but I don’t think I have a single video dedicated to it…… I will make a dedicated video of it this weekend
@@nobudgetrc6063 I watched the last video on the Hoppers. I liked it but the comments are off so I could not leave a comment. I had subscribed a while ago, I think I just missed seeing that one in my mad race to get ready to go to the beach!
I can sympathize with the Porsche…there is a significant clunk in my rear end too. On the buggy, it looks like there is a nut captured in the wheel? Is there a ‘hubcap’ that spins off to remove the wheels? Did you try stern language and shaking your fist to get the wheels off??? Just doing my part of being an armchair mechanic! 👍
I was baffedl by it as it looks like a nut but it is captured in the wheel. I did not want to break anything so I chose to leave it be. Thad commented below that in his video of the frame buggy he shows how to get them off so I have go back and watch that and see about popping them off. I think I may take the time and try and speed up one of them but that will be a little ways down the road, I have a ton of other stuff coming up! More RadioShack stuff, more Tamiya stuff, more crawler stuff, I also have some Amazon RCs coming up too so a little bit of everything!!! Next up is Addam geeting to live in the garage as his wife is getting tired of deliveries showing up!!! (I shouldn't joke, it could happen if I'm not careful!!!)
@@AddamsPlayground I am finding that I have to sneak new kits into the house. The eye-rolling is deafening... I will have to check out Thad's video too. I am super curious how those wheels are attached.
I had planned on going back through them to see just did not have the time. I will go check it out as I was baffled and did not want to ruin it but trying!
@@AddamsPlayground I use a pickle fork for ball joints under the wheel, and a flat head drift to hammer the swedged sleeve off the end of the axle.. you can then thread the ends if you have a tap, or pound The swedgeged bushingback on using a bigger drift. It’s not hard but it’s not easy either, also helps to have an extra set of hands to catch the car 😁
I have this car but it's green and called the big panther. I wanted to convert it to something better but your right it's hard to get apart. The front steering is really weird I've never seen a setup like it before
Yeah that whole steering thing is a weird one to get used to. It takes a while to get used to it! Thankfully it is slow enough to stay on the throttle.
@@AddamsPlayground well my first RC ever when I was 12 maybe was the lobo so far me it was a ok but when u let off thr its going straight no matter what,,it's old times for me I love them things in kitchen I can cut Donuts like crazy lolol
I think there is some trick to getting them off but I am not sure how. It is a way on the back burner car at the moment but one I would like to improve on at some point!
I thought I got a heck of a deal on it! Even the seller left a message saying I got real lucky and he expected it to go for more! I got another cool find for what I think was for peanuts as well. You have gotten me hooked on deal hunting on eBay! I was a little bummed the Porsche has a clunky gearbox but once I get the stickers laid back down it is going to chill out in the garage and look pretty, much like many real ones!!!
nice Addam I have a pile of radio shack and Nikko I need to get to
I feel ya, I don't need any more of them but I need a few more of them!! I guess it is that little kid nostalgia that is making me get them. Plus it is kind of fun deal hunting on eBay too! Good luck in your quest and I have seen some of you finds, you have pretty food luck finding the deals out there!
It's always neat to see the vintage Rc's great video
It is kind of fun to step back into the past and go back to a time where a handful of AA batteries and a living room floor was all you needed to keep you entertained for hours on end! I am having fun reopening the memory vault with these and I am glad you guys are enjoying it too!
Nice classics... I use that dry lube stuff on my mountain bike! Man they are slow.. funny when you were a kid you though they were the best thin in the world these radioshack toy rc's!
LOL, yes painfully slow but I was still smiling and laughing the whole time! It barely had enough guts to climb the big jump and that was on rechargeable nimh AA batteries! I can see why they were not beat up very much, they didn't go fast enough to get beat up!! Yes, I agree, when we were little kids these things were the coolest and fastest things we ever saw before so we were completely entertained and in love with them! I know my mom hated them, she would call them battery eaters!!! I did go through and pile of AA batteries back in the day!!
Awesome sharing, great content the wonderful to see new interesting
Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed it!!
Cool additions to the collection. Congrats on the nice finds. Thanks for share'n Brother! Right On 👊
Thanks Kevin! It has been kind of fun hunting down some budget friendly finds on eBay, getting them cleaned up and working again (if possible). I have a couple more coming soon, lots of cool things coming. Crawler stuff, Tamiya stuff, RadioShack stuff and even some Amazon finds as well!
Great to see these old toy grade buggies getting some love and being run after all those years sitting in their boxes!👍😎
It sure beats them ending up in a landfill like so many of them did. I know most of mine ended up in there. Either beaten up so bad the super glue couldn't hold it all together anymore or the electronics fried in them and I was too young to know a lot of that was easy to fix. It is also fun to clean them up and give them a run or two. They are little time capsules for me to remember back to a simpler time when a handful of AA batteries meant a couple hours of fun romping one around and then waiting a couple more weeks before mom would buy more for me! She hated these things, she called them battery eaters! To be fair in the end she probably pain as much in batteries for some of them as she did the car!!!
@@AddamsPlayground Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. I’m also guilty of destroying a few of these as a child. If only we knew what we know now, I would’ve kept ALL of my toys.🤣
I think the steering "servo" and motor being connected was the engineers solution to burning/stripping the weak servos out. It's easier to turn the wheels when its moving.
Yeah I guess that does make since and it is also a good way to sell replacement front end parts as it is tricky to get used to not having steering when coasting!
Hi Addam! This passion for those basic vintage Rc is wonderful. Those were the first steps in the rc toy word that developed to the actual low cost cars. What a progress and how the old one are emotional!
Thanks! I enjoy slipping back to the past when things were simpler and these types of cars were all I knew about and thought they were the coolest things out there! I can remember going into the local radio shack while my mom was shopping next door and just fawning over all of the cars in there and daydreaming about driving them all! Memory lane is a happy little street to wander down occasionally!
Very cool to rescue these old Radio Shack RCs. I grew up on those since my parents couldn't afford any hobby grade kits from Tamiya, Kyosho, etc. I still have my old Radio Shack "White Tiger" which seems very similar to that Fierce Warrior buggy. Brings back a lot of memories 😀
It is fun hunting down deals on eBay and getting them cleaned up and back in service. It won't be my main focus but I am enjoying the trip down memory lane with them. I had a bunch of RadioShack, Nikko and Tyco cars before I ever got a real one, so I know the want of a "real" RC as a kid!! They are all still fun even though they drive super slow and are really kind of awful... They are all amazing in their own little way!!!
@@AddamsPlayground
Indeed. Worth it just for the nostalgia alone, right?! 😄
@@redbeardrc1452 very much so!
I just got done updating my Radio Shack Dash 4x4 Bigfoot Monster Truck.
Love these old Radio Shack RCs
They are cool cars and trucks and I spent many trips into the Shack to drool over them! LOL!
Great video bro. Modge podge works great for sealing in decals! Something we used to do when the picture side of a puzzle piece would start peeing up. Modge podge worked every time!
Ahhhhh you are very right!!! Thank you for reminding me! I have some here and that would be a lot safer to use and easier to clean up and mistakes!!! Thank you my friend for making my life easier!!!
This is so Awesome Addam! Yes, I remember those awesome toy grade RC’s with the non proportional steering and throttle. I had a Tyco turbo hopper and my friend had a Nikko Turbo aero and my gosh the steering while throttle did throw us off during Christmas morning when we whipped out our new RC’s, but got used it very quick🤣. Funny thing is a few months later my other neighborhood friend got a Sear Lobo II and he had steering without throttle which was so cool! Then again, his Lobo II was more advance than my Turbo hopper and my friends Turbo aero. His was a 1/14 scale buggy and it used a 7.2v Nicad pack and quite faster than our 1/16 scale turbo hopper and turbo aero. It was so awesome to see that his car took a rechargeable 7.2v nicad while my friend and I was still using 8AA batteries for our buggies😩. I now figured the Lobo I also took 8AA’s but was still a 1/14 buggy. The Lobo II was just awesome!😀. Man, those days were so awesome at the golden age of RC’s. A year and half I think later I know it was 88’ my dad surprised me with my very first hobby grade RC, the Tamiya Grasshopper. After that it just got so much better. Unfortunately, my turbo hopper was taken apart and my Grasshopper got all the attention. I do miss my Turbo Hopper😢. Thanks Addam for 80’s memory lane. Can’t wait to see more 80’s RC toy nostalgia!☺️ Keep up the great work!
I had the Heads Up Turbo Hopper from Tyco back in the day and it finally got thrown away when the super glue just couldn't hold everything together any longer!!! The Lobo was a great car and was made by Nikko for Sears and was basically the same as the RadioShack Golden arrow, just with a different body shell. This was very common back then as Nikko an Tyco were making a ton of cars and offering them to other companies under their branding and body designs. They were some of the closest to hobby grade many could afford at the time too. My first was a Super Blackfoot and once I got that all other cars and trucks in the world were inferior to me! I loved that truck and pretty much drove it into pieces over a couple years of non-stop driving!
Great vid Addam we had lots f Tandy stores back in the 80s in the UK trip down memory lane 👍👍🚴
They used to be all over but nobody fixes things anymore and the world has gone to disposable everything. There are a few RadioShack stores still around but they are getting to be like unicorns! Glad you enjoyed the little time capsules. Thanks to Thad over at Iowa Budget RC Bashers and his cars I got hooked on eBay bargain hunting for them and I have a few more to show you guys!
great video, radio shack cars and trucks are very rugged and last for years taking a beating. i still have my lightning car from 2000 which was their fastest and also still have their fast dual motor xxt truck and still work like new. i had their biggest truck the extreme machine back in the 90s but it was kinda slow, and also their top of the line tsunami boat which had such great radio range i can take it nearly out of eyesight and still have control of it when i took it down a flooded street by my house.
I am loving reliving my childhood with these! I have gotten lucky and scored a few great deals on some of them. Some I have gotten from childhood desires and other are just for the fun of it. Well I guess all of them are for the fun of it!! It is cool you were able to hold on to some of yours. All of my younger years stuff either got canned from getting too beat up or sold as I thought I was done with toys... Little did I know!!!
Lots of nostalgia here Addam, looking forward to more!👍😊
Thanks! There is more stuff coming, all kinds of stuff. I have gone full bonkers and I have Tamiya stuff, crawler stuff, RadioShack stuff and even some Amazon cars coming up soon!!! It is a full blown RC crazy town over here lately! I keep finding great deals I don't want to miss and they are driving my wife crazy! I am trying to be good and not get any more but I doubt I will be successful with that for long!
Awesome old school stuff Addam!!!!
Thanks Bob!! I am having fun hunting some of these deals down and getting them back in service 😃
We had Tandy in the UK Addam, that antenna boing brings back memories 😂 does it smell like acrid electrical equipment? They used to have that smell )
Yes! I remember the antenna more than the car I had.
Yeah the metal antenna 'clang' is a very unique sound! I think all that smell has aged off of them (I know what you are talking about though) Half of the ones I have bought smelled like smoke and the rest just smell like old things do, that been in a attic or garage for 20 years smell!
Cool looking buggies , I’ve recently got a Tandy radio shack Golden Arrow yo get running , lucky with this one you can get to all the electrics, get the wheels off Etc and they take 7.2v battery packs :) yey. Cool as ever Addam :)
I am on the lookout for the Golden or a Red Arrow buggy in good shape and not for a ton of money. I have not found "the one" yet but I am thinking I will have one in just a little bit! I do like that chassis type better as it is really a lot easier to do stuff with them. These smaller ones are much more limited on space and the amount of power you can feed that little motor! I may end up gutting one of them to modernize and get running a bit faster than the walking speed they do now! It is fun to stroll down memory lane messing with them and fun ones to add into the ever growing collection!
Nice. Got My first rc from radio shack many many years ago lol.
I think many of us got our start at either Radio Shack or a Nikko or Tyco car from Toys R Us!!! I have enjoyed the bargain hunting and the trip down memory lane with these cars. Stay tuned as there are some more coming up soon! Thanks for stopping by and checking it out!
cool rc's and great overview of them
Thanks!! Glad you liked it! It is fun strolling down memory lane from time to time😃
Heck yeah! I just started on my ‘94 Dodge Ram Hot Machine. Currently upgrading it to hobby grade-ish. 😁
Thanks! I was going to with this one but I think it would require more time and patience than I have to devote to it currently. I have two of them so maybe I can dive into one of them and speed it up but no plans as of now. Good luck with yours, I know it is not the easiest thing to do at all!
Hi Addam, cool presentation. As simple the Porsche might be from todays views as a hobbyist, as a child I probably wanted one and I can see me looking at the catalog and dreaming of it. Because it really looks professional.
Steering only on full throttle? Kind of ironic or only the best RC pilots will see the finish line😁.
Same here, when I was a little kid these types of cars we all I knew about and thought they were the coolest tings in the world! Every Christmas and Birthday my default things to ask for was an RC car or two and a dirt bike (never did get the dirt bike as a kid!). The steering thing really threw me for a loop! I thought something was wrong with the car or the controller but I just happened to turn the wheel and squeeze the throttle and it turned. It may bee why they are in such goo shape, the people that got them may not have been able to drive them well enough and they just got put away and forgotten about!?!? I am happy to have them in the collection even if they are a bit quirky, just adds to the charm!!!
@@AddamsPlayground agree. 😃
Hey Addam, how do you know the Air Beam model? I have one and I find it very fast, I would like to find more models like this from RadioShack. They say that Turbo Thruster is very fast, if possible could you recommend me more fast cars?
The old school RadioShack and Tandy kits are really neat. The fastest ones I know of are the Golden Arrow and the Red Arrow but I know they had some other fast ones too. Check out this website www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ It is fun to look back at the old catalogs and many in the years around 2000 had a chart in them of the "scale" speeds the cars would do. That may give you an idea of some to keep an eye out for!
@@AddamsPlayground thanks! Ill search for it!
What did you use for recording video when racing on track? The camera on the RC.
For recording on the car I have a very small Insta360 Go camera. For the regular recording I have my Sony ZV1 on the tripod.
Interesting stuff Addam. I used to have a Radio Shack Porsche 928 which was a bit bigger than those and quite cool. I wonder if you can still get it? The top tip I got from this was to use dry lube on the exposed bits. I've got some of that for my bike but never thought to use it on the RC's :-)
I have no idea if they still sell any RCs.... a quick search shows they only carry novelty RCs now, cheesy Banggood type toys. Yeah, I started using it on the rock crawlers and it made its way over to the other RCs. I always hated the idea of greasing exposed parts like drive cups, axles, steering joints and all that because it just turns into a grinding paste after a run or two which is defeating whole purpose! Glad I could toss a bit of helpful stuff your way!!!
Need to run those buggies on the track.
They struggle badly on the track. At least the ones I have run so far.
Superb wow excellent my friend 😊❤️❤️❤️👍please dear stay connected....
Thanks for watching!
The Porsche looks cool.
I am going to start working on getting the stickers laid back down this weekend sometime. It is going to be tedious but without them the car looses it cool factor. It will be in a future video as an update. I have a few more cars to show you from RadioShack, I have been deal hunting on eBay and have gotten a couple more!
Whoa! It looks way faster with the on board cam. Will you upgrade these? Cheers!
Yeah, once you can give it some space to run it goes pretty fast! I would guess around 18-20mph roughly. Plenty fast for the super short wheelbase!!! I think motor wise it is about as fast and punchy as it needs to be, it is already a handful with the sport tuned motor in it! I don't have any plans of upgrades to be honest. I think these are perfectly goofy and silly out of the box! It does make me want to get one or two of the comical series now though.
Very cool entry RCs from back in the day Addam. Wonder if they’ll bring unboxing the WLToys in the same way in 2050?? 😁
LOL, I was thinking about that when working on them. Nobody would have ever expected a RC from RadioShack meant to be for little kids to be featured 20-30 years later on a video by an old guy sharing it with other fellow old guys and still having fun with it! I guess I should should order one or to and leave them in the box as future channel content! ** 80 year old Addam slowly rambling on about a WPL buggy in a VR video!!!!
@@AddamsPlayground Ha ha! By then you’ll be virtually beaming into peoples skulls and they’ll be in your hobby room helping you build the cars 🤣😂
In the 80ies my friend had a old version from the Taiyo Jet Hopper.
in fact no steering without forward or reverse.
A speed test would be nice..
Hi John! I was really thrown off by the no steering without throttle thing! It really makes it tough to drive them. That may be why these were not heavily abused, between eating AA batteries like candy and not being very easy to drive they may have been shelved "for later" and got forgotten about. I am not even sure a speed meter would read the mph on this guy, it is painfully slow. I am pretty confident most of my crawlers can get around the track faster!
Spray contact cleaner in the controller. I’ve had to do that to almost all of em
Ok, I had not dug into the controller yet. Makes sense after sitting so long they may be corroded a bit. thanks!
Hey Addam, my dad brought his old 1998 RadioShack Flashtronic “High Speed Digital Proportional” RC car, and I’m trying to get it to work again. The front wheels respond and turn, but the rear wheels don’t receive any power. It’s not a problem with the battery, but I think with the receiver or transmission thing. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’ve been unscrewing various things to try and get to that electrical part, but the screws to the plastic cylinder thing (in the back, that the wires plug into) cannot be unscrewed for whatever reason. Do you have any suggestions or tips? Just found your channel and it’s super cool!! :)
Unfortunately these old ones are plagued with electrical gremlins. I'd say start with disassembling the remote and cleaning the contacts in there. Often they get corrosion built up. Some light sanding with 1000 grit sand paper or even just using a pencil eraser will clean them up. You can also test the power coming to the motor to make sure it is getting from the battery to the motor when the throttle is on. If the motor is getting power but not moving means fried brushes or something is stuck. If you don't get power to the motor then more than likely it was destroyed by the all too common mud puddle!!! Those circuit boards were not waterproof at all and could easily short out.
Do some testing and get back to me. You can email me as well, email address is in my about section of the main channel page.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!
@@AddamsPlayground Wow, I really appreciate how helpful and detailed you are in these responses. I've gone through and cleaned up everything I could, but I'm stuck on being able to actually open up the casing or housing that contains all the electrical stuff. It makes a singular clicking sound when I try and send power to the rear wheels. Another issue that's came up is the screws or screw-holes seem to be stripped, as I can't get them to fasten when reattaching components. Finally, the suspension arm thingy (that has springs wrapped around it) gets blocked when I try to attach it. Sorry for all of this, I might have to just leave things be for now, but I am heading off to college soon and just thought it'd be cool to restore for/with my dad. Once again thank you so much!
@@Toolace sorry you were not able to do too much with it. It could have safety screws in it that require a special tip to remove them. Most were put together with JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) screws that look like Philips screws but are different enough that you may have to hunt for a Phillips driver that will grip them well. It is hard to troubleshoot long distances sometimes, I hope you do get it running eventually!
@@AddamsPlayground Thanks! I didn't know those kind of screws were a thing actually. I'll be sure to return here and report the good news if I do get it up and running again! :)
I had the Ferrari and the yellow buggy. It's still looked like brand new.
I have seen the Ferrari, was watching one auction but it went for more than I was willing to pay for it! They made so many variations of these buggies, I remember some of them but some are still kind of new to me or I just don't remember them (very possible!!). It is fun to snag a bargain off of eBay and get it cleaned up and running again even it it isn't fast of very capable at all. Still bring s back a ton of memories!!
I'd like to see you get more of these old nickels and radio shack cars if they're perfectly fine when they come through stock and then when they break just hobby grade them only if you come across some cheaply.
I have gotten a couple more. I think most are going to stay stock and live a nice happy life mainly on display but an occasional run just for fun and humor!! Occasionally I may update one or two as needed if they break or are not working properly. I like them all slow and just the way they were as when I was a kid!
@@AddamsPlayground faster is better. Lol
I removed the yellowing from my Bear Hawk wheels with some T-Cut Addam
Cool, thanks for the tip! I have seen people using the peroxide based hair product to whiten them up but I loathe that smell! I will see about trying this!
Hey Addam, I've got the UK version of that buggy. It was called buggy special turbo :)
Have you any power port on the opposite side of the buggy to the on/off switch. If so, any idea what the idea was here? Was it rechargeable?
I do not have one on mine. I guess it could be something for charging the batteries onboard but I have not seen one like that. I may have to look at the old catalogs to see if the later ones allowed for onboard charging.
@@AddamsPlayground I can't track down a user manual anywhere either. Does the handset red light come on when you put v9 battery in or do you have to press the button below it? I think my controller is busted
@@_RandomPea The controller on the Fierce Warrior doesn't have any lights on it, it is one of the "always on" controllers and only does anything when you use the controls. otherwise it sit mostly dormant. I am not surprised it may not work, the circuit boards they used in a lot of these cars was poor quality and over time the internal traces can corrode and fail. Sometimes you can take them apart and clean all the controller contact areas with isopropyl alcohol and it may start to work again. Other than that I am not sure, I am not a fan of electrical gremlins, especially in old ones like this where it is not as easy as swapping out for known good parts like the new stuff is.
@@AddamsPlayground yeh I'm contemplating whether I could strip and replace on this. They were great little cars but the 8 aa batteries is just too much wastage for me to handle now I'm not 9 years old lol 🤣
@@_RandomPea Yeah, I know what you mean! I went through them like crazy as a kid but Now I hate using them as it feels so wasteful! I'd have to crack mine open again to see what would fit in there but I am sure it would not be too hard to strip it and install modern gear. My only concern may be the steering servo but I am pretty sure it is like the rest of them and a low profile with a Tamiya servo saver will drop right in. I will have to pull one apart again and check. Now I am curious!
i've got a radio shack bmw one from that era, same type of controller, was about $20-$25 when i bought it. if i dig it out i'll see if it works on a jet fighter ii i got chesp.
They put out a lot of neat cars and trucks back in the day. A lot of them can be upgraded to modern electronics with some tinkering but some are just too bespoke to fit modern gear without a ton of re-engineering! You can still find deals on them from time to time on eBay.
I’m still on the hunt for a red arrow and a golden arrow 😁
Those Golden arrows are fetching good money for ones in good shape. I am still on the lookout but not taking it too serious (well trying not to at least!). Hopefully we will stumble on a god one soon!
nikko super fox clone, awesome looking cars
Yeah, Nikko made a ton of the RadioShack cars and trucks over the years. This one is not the fastest out there but it s a good looking one!
I had the Nikko version but it was fully proportional
Yeah this steering is the weirdest thing ever! I have never had a car that the steering stops when you let off the throttle. I guess it is a good thing it is not faster than it is or it would be a real handful to drive!! I can live with the click clack, non-proportional steering but loosing it all together when not on the throttle is kind of sketchy!!
I have a golden arrow converted to hobby grade electronics and a few off-roaders converted as well
I am on the lookout for a golden arrow (stock) that is in great shape. Sadly they are hard to find and cost a good bit if you do find one. The fun is in the hunt so I will keep looking. You should post some videos of them so we can see what you did! It is always fun to see these old things still running around, stock or modified! Thanks for checking it out!
I have my own channel on here….. I have a few videos with it but I don’t think I have a single video dedicated to it…… I will make a dedicated video of it this weekend
@@nobudgetrc6063 I watched the last video on the Hoppers. I liked it but the comments are off so I could not leave a comment. I had subscribed a while ago, I think I just missed seeing that one in my mad race to get ready to go to the beach!
@@AddamsPlayground ua-cam.com/video/2MMwhsiem4E/v-deo.html
I have my videos safe for kids……that’s why comments are turned off
What do you think the fierce warriors scale is 12 14th?
I'd say it would be right around the 12th scale size. Not as big as the golden arrow which would have been their 10th scale sized.
@@AddamsPlayground Nikko had 8th scale before with two motors.
I can sympathize with the Porsche…there is a significant clunk in my rear end too. On the buggy, it looks like there is a nut captured in the wheel? Is there a ‘hubcap’ that spins off to remove the wheels? Did you try stern language and shaking your fist to get the wheels off??? Just doing my part of being an armchair mechanic! 👍
I was baffedl by it as it looks like a nut but it is captured in the wheel. I did not want to break anything so I chose to leave it be. Thad commented below that in his video of the frame buggy he shows how to get them off so I have go back and watch that and see about popping them off. I think I may take the time and try and speed up one of them but that will be a little ways down the road, I have a ton of other stuff coming up! More RadioShack stuff, more Tamiya stuff, more crawler stuff, I also have some Amazon RCs coming up too so a little bit of everything!!! Next up is Addam geeting to live in the garage as his wife is getting tired of deliveries showing up!!! (I shouldn't joke, it could happen if I'm not careful!!!)
@@AddamsPlayground I am finding that I have to sneak new kits into the house. The eye-rolling is deafening...
I will have to check out Thad's video too. I am super curious how those wheels are attached.
@@AddamsPlayground press-fit...yeesh...good luck! 😜
I’m my frame buggy series I show how to remove and reinstall the wheels.
I had planned on going back through them to see just did not have the time. I will go check it out as I was baffled and did not want to ruin it but trying!
@@AddamsPlayground I use a pickle fork for ball joints under the wheel, and a flat head drift to hammer the swedged sleeve off the end of the axle.. you can then thread the ends if you have a tap, or pound The swedgeged bushingback on using a bigger drift. It’s not hard but it’s not easy either, also helps to have an extra set of hands to catch the car 😁
You know what get some 14500 lithium ion batteries to put in them you'll see a big difference in power.
Yeah, the nimh ones I have don't have the guts but neither do the regular AA batteries.
@@AddamsPlayground lion have 3.7 v per cell. Life has 3.2v per cell.
What batteries are you using?
I am using some Zee brand nimh batteries I get from Amazon. They are the 3600mah ones and you can get a pair of them for around $30 usually.
I have this car but it's green and called the big panther. I wanted to convert it to something better but your right it's hard to get apart. The front steering is really weird I've never seen a setup like it before
@@Hippydude420 Yeah I think they produced a couple different versions of this car. It is a unique design in there too!
Hello from southeast alaska.hows things going
Hey there William! Things are good, hope everything is going well for you also!
@@AddamsPlayground they going great. It's a new Day.
I have that same rc but in green and how they trun the lobo 1 is that same way but lobo 2 is not
Yeah that whole steering thing is a weird one to get used to. It takes a while to get used to it! Thankfully it is slow enough to stay on the throttle.
@@AddamsPlayground well my first RC ever when I was 12 maybe was the lobo so far me it was a ok but when u let off thr its going straight no matter what,,it's old times for me I love them things in kitchen I can cut Donuts like crazy lolol
I think you should fix it since you have a 3D printers you could make a gear that's bad.
If I knew how the 3D model them better maybe but drafting a gear like that is a lot of stuff I am not great at!!
@@AddamsPlayground ask for help with 3d printer guys.
💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟
Very Good 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Than you!
Just pull the wheel off, they're probably push on wheels
I think there is some trick to getting them off but I am not sure how. It is a way on the back burner car at the moment but one I would like to improve on at some point!
You stole that Porsche. They usually go for 100 or more
I thought I got a heck of a deal on it! Even the seller left a message saying I got real lucky and he expected it to go for more! I got another cool find for what I think was for peanuts as well. You have gotten me hooked on deal hunting on eBay! I was a little bummed the Porsche has a clunky gearbox but once I get the stickers laid back down it is going to chill out in the garage and look pretty, much like many real ones!!!