1980 Sears Off-Road Buggy

[dani9678]

I have a 1980 Sears Off-Road buggy R/C that looks like a Jeep. It has proportional steering and acceleration. It also has 3 speeds. What I want to do is try to find out who manufactured it and also find out if I can get any replacement parts for it. It needs a couple of gears and a new circuit board. Made in Japan is all I can find stamped on the bottom. Does anybody know what company made R/C toys for Sears (particularly in the 1980'S) and also does anybody know where I can find more information on this? I contacted Sears and was told that they didn't make the toy and that they just put there name on it. When I asked them who manufactured the toy they said that they had no idea. I have the Sears model number and parts list which shows a complete break-down of both the remote and the truck. There are two Sears model numbers.

Here is the first one off of the front cover of the manual 49-54327. Here is the model number off of the parts list 636.543270. If anybody wants to see what the toy looks like just e-mail me at dani9678@bellsouth.net and I will e-mail you a picture. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks in advance.[]

Matt

Jacksonville, FL

[Twmaster]

Posting a photo or photos here would be useful.

[Shodog]

Is it the jeep renegade or the Fat wheels jeep with inflatable rubber tires?

[minijosh]

My guess is gonna be a Lobo without even reading the other stuff typed. Now I'm gonna go back and look.[8D]

[dani9678]

TwMaster,

If you want to see a pic of the truck just e-mail me at dani9678@bellsouth.net and I will reply to your message with a pic. For some reason I can't post the picture. It may be because I'm not a paying subsriber at this time.

Matt

Jacksonville, FL

[wldnas]

I could be wrong? but I think the later buggy that sears sold called the LOBO was infact a rebadged NIKKO Dandy Dash, which isn't a bad thing cos the Dash is pretty cool car considering it was made by NIKKO?

a very sophisticated design. bit like a Tamiya Bigwig, and built to a similar quality, I've had Two dashes but sold them in favour of the Hopped up version the Super Sprint []

I've never seem this earlier Sears car your talking about? as for getting spares I very much doubt you will ever find any [] either fron Sears themselevs or the original Japanese company that made the car for them?

[Shodog]

Here are some pics of Matt's Jeep.

[Twmaster]

Looks more like an early '70's Ford Bronco than a Jeep to me. Kinda neat though!

[dani9678]

Shodog,

Thanks for posting the pics for me. That was a big help. I have a couple more pics that I can send to you that are in focus. For some reason the pics I sent you did not come out right.

As far as the year goes, on the back of the remote there is am fcc Identification sticker that says the date of Manufacture is 1980. I am not sure if that applies to the R/C also or just the remote.

Anybody have any ideas as far as the manufacture of it?

It is neat that it has variable steering and throttle with 3 speed settings.

Matt,

Jacksonville, FL

[wldnas]

I'm pretty certain that truck is a very early product made by NIKKO []

I've seen a virtually indenticle truck being sold on Ebay a while back that was badged as a Nikko, as the Later Lobo was also a Nikko product? I can only assume that Sears bought Nikko cars and repackaged then to sell in their own stores

[dani9678]

any ideas of where I could get parts? the gearbox has a couple of gears that are stripped and the circuit board is bad.

Matt,

Jacksonville, FL

[dani9678]

I see that nobody has replied to my last post so I guess there is no hope in me ever getting this thing to work again is there. You would think that there would be somebody out there reproducing gears of various sizes for old R/C's. Well I guess you can't say I didn't try. Thanks for the help that you all have given me.

Later on

Matt

[Shodog]

The problem you will run into is that this jeep isn't a hobby quality vehicle that spare parts were sold for. usually when these broke, they were binned into the trash.

I am sure that you have a sentimental attachment to it so your best bet would be to keep a vigilant eye on ebay for another to scab parts from. you could always rip the electronics out and run some good mini radio gear in it.

[dani9678]

Shodog,

I have thought about doing that but does that also include replacing all of the motors and gears to? I figured that it would be simpler to just adapt a new transmitter and reciever board to the existing powertrain and steering but that means that I would still need to find replacement gears for the rear. The motors that are in the R/C are already setup for variable control. Is there a company out there that remanufactures gears that I could buy or is it better just to swap out the complete drivetrain inside for a new one?

Matt

[Twmaster]

I don't know how much work you want to go through but it may be possible to find another car/truck chassis to put that nice looking shell on and bypass the busted gears problem. It might be possible to find another buggy or car to get parts from but I would not hold my breath in anticipation! []

[oldfordguy]

I have a non rc tonka truck that is nearly identical to that rc buggy. My tonka is black metal, with plastic top, and includes the spare wheel, and jerry can on the back just like your rc buggy. Even the seats look identical. My tonka is sized to fit popular action figures( barbie size)in the seats. It would be very interesting to know if your buggy is metal bodied, and sized to fit barbie figures in the seats. Could be something very very rare.

[dani9678]

Oldfordguy,

The body of the Sears buggy that I have is plastic but as for the dolls go, yes, the size seems to be proportioned to the size of the Barbie dolls that my sister has also. My older brother use to put my sister's Barbies in there just to watch them fly out when he would jump ramps. Can you e-mail me a picture of your tonka truck. I'd like to see how close it is to the look of mine. My email address is dani9678@bellsouth.net

Thanks,

Matt

[Hibernaculum]

This is just an ancient thread I found in the archives...sorry for resurrecting it, but a bunch of people were trying to figure this out, so just thought I would help in case anyone else reads it in decades to come...

I have a 1980 Sears Off-Road buggy R/C that looks like a Jeep. It has proportional steering and acceleration. It also has 3 speeds. What I want to do is try to find out who manufactured it and also find out if I can get any replacement parts for it. It needs a couple of gears and a new circuit board. Made in Japan is all I can find stamped on the bottom. Does anybody know what company made R/C toys for Sears (particularly in the 1980'S) and also does anybody know where I can find more information on this?

It's the Sears "Off Road Buggy" as Matt said. No idea why they called it a buggy when it's clearly a Jeep/truck

It was first released around 1980. It was digital proportional and had 3 speeds (selectable on the car). Good for an early toy. The real manufacturer was Taiyo.

Taiyo also licensed this car's design to Radio Shack/Tandy, who released it with a similar chassis and different body, as the Radio Shack Jeep Renegade from 1983 onwards. Taiyo later had big success in the mid 80s with the Turbo Hopper (or Jet Hopper) and successive cars.

I have a NIB Sears Off Road Buggy, in white. In fact it even came with a separate decal set that you had to apply yourself.

I don't have a photo of mine handy, but here's a page from a 1983 Sears catalogue showing a black version:

I could be wrong? but I think the later buggy that sears sold called the LOBO was infact a rebadged NIKKO Dandy Dash, which isn't a bad thing cos the Dash is pretty cool car considering it was made by NIKKO?

No, the Lobo wasn't a Dandy Dash. Both were made by Nikko, but the Lobo was a much smaller buggy that took 8xAA cells and had a turbo feature. It was released in 1986.

The Dandy Dash was a 1/10th hobby grade buggy. (this was an old post from Wldnas though, so, sure he would know this by now)

I'm pretty certain that truck is a very early product made by NIKKO [smile.gif]

Nope, it was Taiyo

cheers,

H.

[Illacrew]

WoW I forgot about the LOBO!!!!!!!!!! That was one of my first rc's ever what a trip!...

[Snappy1]

Dead thread revival

I was at the local markets with my family last week, and I stumbled across this , box is really a mess but I just set it up with new battery's and it was scooting all around the house, all 3 speeds works, steering is good and the

tyres aren't cracked or perished, not bad for a 35 year old.

For those interested I paid $30 aust, or approx. 14 quid

[Hibernaculum]

Great find, this one. Some more history for you: Manufactured by Taiyo of Japan, this car was originally released there in 1979, where it was also called the "Off Road Buggy". Sears picked it up in subsequent years, thus it was essentially the Sears/Taiyo Off-Road Buggy in the USA.

In 1980, Taiyo used the same chassis for the "Off Road Jeep Renegade", which was also sold in subsequent years by Tandy/Radio Shack.

In a strange quirk, this prolific little company never released another R/C car featuring Digital Proportional, ever. They just didn't need it, and their exciting off-road designs experienced enormous success, particularly in partnership with Tyco during the 80s and 90s.

[Snappy1]

Thanks for the extra information Hibernaculum,

This car of mine was sold new by David Jones for $99.50, it still has the original price sticker , I am guessing around 1980 ?

[Hibernaculum]

Interesting - what you have is definitely the original Taiyo Off-Road Buggy (not co-branded with anything else). And I knew David Jones department stores sold R/C cars in the 1980s, as I remember seeing a few there in the mid 80s. But never knew they sold this particular one, as yeah - it would have been in around 1980. It's amazing how much Australian department stores have changed.

Great find. If you have the patience, I'd be getting some PVA glue and gently fixing the box tears, to get the box nice and square. (if it's ok with you, I might even need this photo for my website at some stage, as a sample pic of the original release of this model ).

In the past, I have seen this model sell on eBay for over $200. In mint condition, they are sometimes quite sought after.

[buggy01]

I've got exactly the buggy that Snappy1 posted in February (photo above). It's in the same good condition (the box even better:)), but I've got one problem: While forth and back works fine the steering doesn't work at all. I disassembled the steering: In the buggy there's a box with two electric motors and they doesn't move at all when I want to steer (sometimes there's a short reaction of the drive axle instead). There's no obvious error. Does anyone have an idea what to do? Should I change any component on the board? Did I miss anything? I'd be very grateful for any help. Thank you.

[Snappy1]

I would start with looking at the capacitors on the motherboard, are any bulging or leaking?