I had one as a kid !!! “ jet hopper “ Here in Australia 🇦🇺 It was a fantastic product , because it was ready to run out of the box !! And surprisingly powerful for its price ! My brother had a black one and I had a red one ! Great memories
Here in Australia the Jet Hopper was very popular. Around the same time, or perhaps just later, the Bison F10 became the car for kids and street racing.
I never saw a Bison here. I think the Nikko Panther and Tyco Turbo Hopper price points were a lot better for parents here. I cant even recall seeing a big Nikko for sale until much later.
Wow I got this for Christmas in 88. I had a red one and was my most memorable and favorite toy as a kid. Can't believe I came across this. I drove this thing for so many years.
My second RC so much fun as a kid. Constantly fixing the bent steering arms after hitting gutters/curbsides. And if your friends had then the controller would take over each others car. Great vid!
I'm an R/C collector and I was researching this item and found your channel and found your information on point. (Subbed) I just bought a first gen at a yard sale for 10 bucks WHAT A FIND lol I also order a yellow hopper on line. Thank you for what you do I look forward to your videos.
Oh, man. So happy that I found this video in your library. I got mine 1986 or '87 and drove it for so many years. Mine was the red one with 027 as starting number. I think it was a 1st Gen car but here in Germany we got it with slightly better control units. I still remember it being my absolute favorite toy of all my childhood, and my dad's friend who gifted it to me for my 8th or 9th birthday will never be forgotten because of that. Thanks so much for this drive down memory lane.
Great memories. My sister and I had these in the 80s and loved them. Using rechargeable Nicads was a game changer as the top speed was much higher. But it would inevitably flip of you tried to turn at those speeds. Nice work on the video and tks for the nostalgia.
Thank you for posting this! I just found mine in my parent's basement and now I'm encouraged to find some batteries and see if it'll still work!! I always loved playing with it!!!
Thanks for bringing back the great memories of owning one of these.. I had a black turbo hopper that was bought from a department store up here in Canada called Wolco in the 1980s.. they were later bought by Walmart.. I had my car for a few years until the transmission went out and one of the motor wires broke off too close to the motor and we couldn't fix it.. it was a ton of fun though and totally got me started into rc..I saved up forever after that and bought a tamiya monster beetle for my second car. I just bought a traxxas bandit today and talked to the local hobby shop owner about my old turbo hopper for a bit.. I just wanted to have another buggy that resembled the turbo hopper style. I wasn't sure if I would find much for videos on the turbo hopper being that I had talked about it so much today and you were the first video I came across.. Thanks for putting this video together.. it was fun to see this..
Thank you for the story! I am glad you liked it. These cars are an incredibly important part of RC history as they are what many started on. For me it was my Turbo Panther and then my Tyco Bandit. Such wonderful cars and for me, some of the best ever made.
AMPRO Engineering Yeah. I was a little guy. Couldn't handle speed yet. Then i saw my buddy after school with his Tamiya Hornet and that's all she wrote!.. My next RC was the Pegasus Exceed. A very unique RC had 4x4 and 4 wheel steering. That RC got me into the hobby big time. I learned how to work on it taking it apart learning about differentials and such. Really is a terrific hobby for all ages. 👍
Thank you for this video! I had a red Turbo Hopper as my first R/C car in 1987, and I forgot what it was called until I saw this. It was a lot of fun; batteries were the only thing that limited it since they either had to be replaced or you had to wait for them to recharge. I think I always ran it in the high transmission setting and pushed the stick to the turbo position. It never broke, but I eventually got a Tamiya Thundershot, and the Turbo Hopper ended up not getting used. Your videos are great; keep up the good work.
I got one of these as a present for being a page boy. Best toy I ever had! Mine was red & had a number 27 on the sides & model name of F-JH/Turbo/GTI….Never noticed the GTI in the name, but it’s fitting since I now own a Golf GTI. I was devastated when I broke the front bumper driving straight into a brick wall 😂 The old man made a metal bracket that fixed the bumper though. So many great memories with this thing, in our cal de sac & at the local bike track.
Ahead of its time... early stability management, swing arm fronts, 9.6v with turbo (loved the gated radio), and crazy fast. A neighborhood friend was nuts over these.
Brings back memories. My brother and I had a collection of tyco rc cars. This the outlaw, indycae, and the pickup. We had to get different colors also the controllers had to be different frequencies.
I remember as a kid seeing these Tycos and the Nikkos in the department stores like Kmart and Hills, they always caught my eye. I remember Sears sold the Nikko Super Lobo and Radio Shack had the Golden Arrow. After much consideration on what to buy on my paper route and grass cutting money, I decided to step up from the department store R/C cars and get the entry level hobby grade Hornet instead. The better proportional steering and throttle, rechargeable batteries and replaceable parts made it more appealing. Plus, the possibility for upgrades like ball bearings, ESC's and better motors made it more interesting as well. Cool video, I haven't seen a Turbo Hopper in 30 plus years!
Nostalgia....I had one of these 1st Gen black ones back in the 80s. Was my first real RC. The numbers on the black, 49, and red, 27, designate the radio frequency. I always wanted to mod one and make it a monster requiring wheelie bars...I may have to do that now that I'm older.
Oh yes! I can see that. The problem is these gearboxes are notoriously fragile. Every time I find one of these in poor condition it is a given that low gear is gone and high gear is on its way out
Your videos are awesome! You show a great passion for your rc vehicles. They've been a great help for refreshing my bandit and turbo hopper heads up. Please keep the videos coming. Great work!
Thanks for the video! Very interesting to see the history of the RC hobby! Ihad a few "toy grade" RC's when I was a kid. I wish now that I would have saved them. At least I did find my old original Hornet in storage. It was in a shoe box...in many many pieces.
And totally agree in regards to the grasshopper bridging the Gap between these and more hobbyist level cars like the rc10. I say this because I owned a grasshopper shortly after the Tyco.
That is a good question. Tyco was bought by Mattel in the mid 90's and still make RC's under that name. I do not know what happened to Taiyo. Taiyo was the manufacture but in the US, Tyco bought the rights for the toys and sold them rebranded here. This was very common practice. This was also how many Radio Shack cars were rebranded Nikko's.
I just got mine in yesterday, bought from a national auction site here in Holland for only about $40. It's a red one and it looks and works great! Really happy with it. The steering takes a bit of getting used to and overall it feels quite flimsy, but it drives nicely and is quite fast. I just sold a good condition Nikko Turbo Panther last week and compared to that it feels quicker. The Nikko is easier to drive and feels like it is of better quality. And I think they both look great. The ultimate kids RC cars of the '80's!
Yeah i totally agree with you. This one feels flimsy and judging how many of these are found broken, I think they are. Still, it looks great and it is snappy!
I found one of these at a thrift store a couple months back. Cosmetically it's even nicer than the one you've shown. All the stickers are really nice (including some of the safety warnings!) , the plastic isnt yellowed and it's only missing one spot light. Unfortunately it doesnt work very well in fast mode, and even slow is fairly weak. I was also relatively surprised at the build quality of these.
Wow that's awesome! I would reflow the solder on the analog board. It could be a poor contact that is increasing the resistance in high mode. It could also be the motor just sitting for years and needed some running time.
the notice in the loss of speed when turning was the the first thing we noticed when we were kids,the reason for the loss of speed when turning is due to the fact that the steering servo motor runs off of the same batteries that power the powers the main drive motor.whenever turning it draws power away from the main motor and slows it down.and of course whenever you let off of the steering the car speeds back up.if it had its own batteries for the steering it would not have this problem.cool car and we loved them when we were kids.
That is definitely something that makes sense but when I had the car attached to the power supply, this also happened with at least 5A of current at its disposal. This also doesnt happen on my Bandit but that has no diff as well....odd.
I had this car. I ran it until it was literally destroyed. Interesting that you cover it because back innthe day the hobby shop people totally looked down on me and my car because it wasnt a tamiya, koyosho or team associated
I totally agree with you. I remember bringing my tycos to the hobby shop and the people working there thinking that I was a complete idiot for playing with such a stupid toy. Ridiculous given how much greater sales of the "toy grade RC cars" are than hobby grade ones.
I had the original version Tyco turbo Hopper model 1. Unlike the one in this video the original Tyco turbo Hopper had an extended body and featured a bottom hatch panel for double a battery installation. Later iterations of the taco turbohopper had a 9.76v battery. The taco turbohopper with the heads up turning was the model 3. The original Tyco turbo Hopper was made by the company Niko. The front tires of the model one Tyco turbo Hopper had parallel grip treads not staggered treads.
I had the black one has a kid. Great video and very informative✊🏻👍I just got Black & Red from a guy on instagram. Both work but black one seems to glitch when going forward and I don’t want to damage transmission. Might do little video of one tuning against new Tamiya Grasshopper II sine it has 380 motor did around 11 mph lol. 😁✌️
I have fond memories of mine (Jet Hoppers in Australia) 11th birthday present from my Mum and Dad in 1986. I used it until it no longer worked Controller throttle stick broke I repaired by heating up a piece of hanger wire and stuck it in the hole, then battery terminals broke and that was that in the bin a few years later after some shelf life. Mainly asphalt driving out the front of the house It would tend to bog down in grass and really limit battery life less friction on bitumen. I would have liked to continue in the hobby but RC hobbies were incredibly expensive at the time. I have many now but do not use them my girlfriend is not a fan I should have had kids lol.
I always wanted a Nikko, but couldn’t get it. I loved that car and two of my friends had them. I had this and they had their pros and cons. I think the Nikko turned better because it has a rear diff. But, the Turbo Hopper would do better donuts and was a little faster in high gear on turbo. I could also jump better because the car was lighter, it seemed to get more air. But, in a race, around corners, I often struggled to keep up. Off-road, the Turbo Hopper was way better with the locked rear diff. I had 2, with the second version being the later dual joystick after I wore out the first one. The Panther would diff out and get stuck on rocks in a driveway and I would blow right by them. Loved this review and man it really brought back memories. I need to find mine, if it still exists and drive it. Thank you - and the right color! Never red, always black!
This is a good point. I remember mine getting stuck a lot too! I think the nikko is still tougher than this one though, the Tyco's always seemed kind of fragile by comparison.
I never broke mine but I wasn’t much of a basher. I was twelve and saved for a year to afford it. Burned through the tires and bought another the next year. It was fun compared to the other toys we had back then!
I remember as a kid my Turbo Hopper would never run off of rechargeable batteries and my mom refused to keep buying AA batteries all the time so she got me a Turbo Panther which worked with the rechargeables.
For rubber conditioning I just found out about Lestoil household cleaner. My King Cab tires are significantly more pliable after only a few hours of soaking and as a bonus it cleans them. Only drawback is they smell like Pine-Sol and turpentine for a while.
im from the UK i stil lhave my tyco jet hopper in red as they were sold and branded here, also all here were sold with nicad batteries and a wall charger included, aswell as the later offset acceleator inot high that you showed on later stick remote you showed, i can honestly say not once did i run it in slow, the transmission is still fine which is surprising as i would be full throttle and just slam back into reverse to perform a 180 to come back lol. the reason it goes to low when steering is simple, its just drain when using every ounce of power from the batteriesin high and on turbo, my rear tyres are soft but are verry smooth like slicks, again because of raming it into reverse lol, its still in the loft (attick) to this day :)
Many Thumbs up! Love this series! Amazing to see it lined up next to it's 'inspiration'. Looks a bit strange without the lights. Yours run really good though. And yeah, did kids ever run these in 'non-turbo'? Would love to see a video with both the Panther and the Hopper. I'm looking forward gettin' a Jet Hopper one day myself. Waiting for a perfect deal on a red one. Many Thanks for this episode. Loved watching every second.
I was quite shocked at how well it ran too. It really was a little gem. I'll let you know if I decided to sell this one. I did not intend to keep it but it has grown on me though you probably want a nicer one. I am happy you like the series!
AMPRO Engineering Thanks. Yours is very nice but I'm on the look for a red unit with Jet Hopper decals though. The 'Jet' detail is very important for an European ;-)
Nordic RC Visions i always think when i look at these things is the childs disapointment at not recieving a hornet instead. Theyre still great little runners but not cheap on batteries
i got one of these back in the early 90s/80s it has been broken for years i need like new spare gear parts for it im not sure what is broken i think it the gears though. i have not taken it apart before. i have kept it all these years hoping i could repair it someday.
Jim B you must have been very spoilt as a kid. If i had been bought one i wouldve ran it into the ground or until my mum complained about buying batteries
I still have mine in a box in mintish condition. What happened was my brother got one too but he destroyed his so we stopped racing cars and played other games like lego instead. lol
I got a later version, and upgraded it to brushless... made it up to 30mph... Because a diode burned out on the original panel, and couldn't fix it... And also installed oil filled shocks...
The 1st gen variant with low pro rear tires has more parts in common with the later 9.6 Hoppers than it does with the early balloon tire version. Even though they look nearly identical. It's also the first version to not require throttle to steer.
I just got the yellow radio shack version. It’s called a frame buggy. Got it for 13 bucks on flebay. Has the lower profile rear tires and sweet chrome wheels that look kinda like weld wheels. Came in the original box, but no controller, and the battery area is pretty green. Not sure if I’m gonna mod it or try to restore it
Best Christmas present of all time 86. I bought a new one in the box few years ago smells like Christmas 86 when I open it up. I’ve bought a few rough ones over the years to retro fit with new electronics. You said new lights where in the mix soon where can I buy these. Is/are parts available for these where should I look, any Tyers being remade? Thanks mega hit in Australia, they’d sell a million in a week if they where remade.
When will you actually do a comparison on this vs turbo panther vs grasshopper? I'd like to see that. Also can you do another comparison but of the Grasshopper vs Hornet vs Grasshopper II vs Super Hornet vs Rising Fighter?
Strange because when I was a kid the tyco was the one to get, branded as the wild thing and it smoked my nikko, although I think I had a crap one, definitely didn't have no turbo stick! My friend who's car it was absolutely destroyed it bashing, shame. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Nice lecture. I have jet hopper turbo (with creaking remote control) . it was a christmas present (maybe -86?), top spring mounting plastic is broken (on the left side only), but its single piece of plastic with two screwed. Just wonder how do i build a similar one...
Well the best thing to do is look for parts cars on ebay or join FaceBook groups where people have these cars. I have sold a lot of parts to help other people with some of their builds.
Since you have incredible knowledge on rc cars, I wanted to ask what tires that your aware of will fit the rear wheels of this model of turbo hopper? I have a first gen turbo hopper that runs on 8 AA batteries and all the tires have rotted away since it sat in the box. I got tamiya grasshopper tires on the front but the tires on the back from the grasshopper doesn't fit. So do you know what modern tires fit the rear of it?
I wish I did. I do have plans on printing some with a TPU. I have tried it with bigger RC cars and it performs really well and they are rather cheap to produce. I will have a video on it shortly.
Hey, nice video and brings back great memories. If one wanted to get the Tamiya Hornet re-release kit and build it up to be Jet Hopperish (with decals from Nostalgia RC in the UK), including a 2-stick controller (like these), would you have any recommendations for someone in Australia? I'm looking at maybe online purchasing from China. This being 'a toy' as you said, I don't want to be paying $$$ for some controller with heaps of channels which won't ever be used.
@17:10 you say you have a video comijng up pitting the hopper against the turbo panther and the grasshopper.. had a look for it but couldnt find it... did you end up not doing it?
Battery covers are a pain to find for this buggy and without it the batteries pop out with slightest bump or wrong turn. I made one from a black DVD plastic cover and it was the perfect thickness and it works perfectly in snapping and holding everything in place.
Amazingly fast for a toy, but the non-proportional steering made it impossible to drive quickly around the dirt "tracks" we built as kids in the backyard. It also had HORRID bump-steer, with the linkage not even closely following the suspension geometry.
Could you put the turbo hopper next to a lost mini JRx2! I had a black hopper and I feel the mini jr2x is reminding me more of the Tyco hopper then the 1/10 JRx2 ! I feel 1/12 to tyco is more like 1/16 to Losi? Love to see them side by side! Thank you for your time!
hi Alberto i just acquired this Taiyo jet hopper, unfortunately, the rear tires have rotted out beyond repair could you advise as to whether or not the Tamiya frog or grasshopper tiers will fit this jet hopper thanks in advance
Yes and know. they can be printed but the cost at the moment is high and the quality is bad. Sadly there are no direct fits that I know of but stay tuned! I will solve this as I have designed them and am looking for a way to make them.
I have a 3rd generation at least 20 years our with the pistol grip, recently playing with with grandson, I lost control of the front servo, there was some smoke from the bottom of the car. Looks like I need a Tyco Taiyo Super Hopper 4wd 49mhz Circuit Board, Servo Set. Do you know where I can get parts for this?
Tamiya rear spiked tires dl fit on these just fyi. They are a bit taller but still. Brand new tires that are readily available still beats searching eBay for parts cars, for months on end, by far
Yeah it is good to see them getting the attention they deserve. This months (Sept, 2023) issue of RC Car Action has an article on AMPro and I managed to get at Tyco Bandit in there!
I was looking at your shapeway parts. Don't suppose you have one for the front fender. I recently bought a 1 revision of this car and it's missing it's bumper.
@@Guroth Ampro covers it in the Bandit series. You need a hammer, punch and a suitable holder like a vise. Personally I find the rubber grips of pliers are the perfect holder and I lay them between 2 pieces of wood.
I remember a mate turning up to high school with Jet Hopper, when the rest of us were already taking Tamiya Frogs, Boomerrangs, Hornets etc. Naturally, we all laughed at him. But after playing around for a while, in a way, some of us (myself included) were a little jealous. When ours had run out of power after 10 to 15 minutes, he kept on truckin. And yes, woukd keep up with a Grasshopper. One day he turned up and had repainted the body so it was like a black and white dairy cow!! It was awesome, and I think all of us were jealous then. lol
Wow im amazed people had tamiyas! At my school, no one could afford one. It was all these, Nikko turbo panthers and a few oddballs. Man they were so great to run in a pack!
@@AMPROEngineering I think from memory most of us had working class families. My First car, a, Frog, was pretty much the only major present I got that year (for Christmas). It became a build project with my father and myself. We did one assembly a day. Drove me bonkers, and man was it great when we finally got to drive it. I realized many, many years later he did that to teach me a few things. Working in a team. Patients. The appreciation of the path traveled, and how it also made the sense of achievement upon finishing the process much greater. He passed away a few years later when I was 13. And yes, I still have it. Mind you, it's completely torn down and stored in a fishing tackle box. Along with a few hop up parts. Oh yes, it will run again one day. The Boomerang was my second car, and was also really the only present I got that year. I built it in a much quicker time frame, only being a couple years after my father passed away, I hadn't realized the lessons he taught me when building the Frog. I also still have the Boomerang. Was rebuilt about 10 years ago with hop ups, stopped running, and never got around to getting it going again. And it will. Trying to remember who had what. Think Brendan had the Falcon, Gerald had a Hornet. Geoff had a Brat. Another Brendan had a Grasshopper. I think that's it. And Michael had the Jet Hopper. At one point, several of us who lived in roughly the same area managed to make our own dirt track on some mostly cleared land, probably around a 25 minute ride on my push bike. It was pretty cool at the time, even had a couple banked straights along a couple of concrete sewer pipes that were already laying there on the ground. Good times. 😎
Oh yeah, at that time in Australia, at least in our area, if you wanted hobby grade rc Tamiya was basically it. We only knew of other companies like Team Associated by reading the rc magazines.
I've got one of the jet hoppers. It's running so slow it just crawls really. Then stops. Is there anywhere I can get it repaired to run properly again? Thanks.
not to change subjects but do you remember a car that was 4wd with two motors? it also had 4ws. i remember looking at the sears catalog drooling over it. i just cant remember the name.
My dad had one of these as a kid. I have it now. 2 years ago it worked perfectly. I put batteries in it recently, and instead or radio control working, the second you switch it on the motor turns on and you can’t control anything. If anyone has any ideas send help lol
Honestly, these things are all slowly dying. The electronics just were not intended to last this long. Take a look at the analog board and see if you can find corrosion or leaky capacitors on it. It could even be the controller. I thought one of my cars was dead until i tried a different controller and to my amazement, it worked!
