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Pumesta

Taiyo jet fighter

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So dragged this down off the shelf today where it has sat since I got a Blackfoot back in 1986.  It was the second RC car I ever had.  While I have no real interest in running it, I would like to know if it still works and might give a few minutes retro fun running it round the living room, with out worrying about leaving wheel spin marks on the wooden floor.  The problem is the remote vanished years ago. It was the regular toy grade control consisting of either stop or go, although this one had a second turbo position on the remote.  If I was to get the correct crystal for one of my controls would it actually work.  So far all I have confirmed that the car will power up.......well that the red LED works anyway lol

 

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I see no reason why if you can find either a handset with matching crystal, or can swap out the crystal in the car to match an existign handset that it wouldn't work.  I picked up a Nikko subaru Rally car for a £1 a few years back, swapped the crystal in the car and used one of my normal transmitters.

 

I love how these buggies took so many cues from the Tamiya models at the time :D

 

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14 minutes ago, Percymon said:

I see no reason why if you can find either a handset with matching crystal, or can swap out the crystal in the car to match an existign handset that it wouldn't work.  I picked up a Nikko subaru Rally car for a £1 a few years back, swapped the crystal in the car and used one of my normal transmitters.

 

I love how these buggies took so many cues from the Tamiya models at the time :D

 

Just ordered some crystals, so we will see what happens.  If it doesn't work I can stick the crystal in something else.  Every vintage RC I buy always seem to be on the same frequency, so a few different ones won't do any harm :) .  It really does look like a Boomerang doesn't it

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So I did a bit of dismantling just to clean the years of dust off. If it doesn't work I think I might be able to squeeze an ESC and receiver in

 

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On 4/28/2016 at 11:10 AM, Pumesta said:

Just ordered some crystals, so we will see what happens.  If it doesn't work I can stick the crystal in something else.  Every vintage RC I buy always seem to be on the same frequency, so a few different ones won't do any harm :) .  It really does look like a Boomerang doesn't it

A lot of the handsets for those toy grade Taiyo/Tycos were interchangeable, so you might be able to find a replacement handset (or even car lol)  if you search for "Super Turbo Hopper" on eBay.

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Well the crystals arrived and it looks like the car is dead :( .  It's only hope that the batteries I put in it are crappy pound shop ones.  I will get some alkaline ones over the weekend and try again.  I might upgrade to ESC, receiver and servo, if it doesn't work, anyone know if an ESC will run off 8 AA batteries 

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I managed to confirm that the motor works, touching the transmitter aerial against the car aerial  causes the motor to spin and steering to twitch.  I was about to order an esc and receiver, then I decided to double check a regular servo would fit, I have a few in my parts bin acquired from upgrading MSC's to ESC.  At first glance all looks good apart from it being a funny shape to clear a body mount, the servo saver looks normal enough.  On closer examination, the servo has a weird shaft on it, so the servo saver will not fit on a regular servo, and its also a bit smaller so there isn't any room to substitute a regular servo saver.  TBH I am not really prepared to invest much more than £20 in this, so I think I will pop it back on the shelf for the mean time

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Actually, if there's life in the car and transmitter, then I am 99% sure why it won't run (yet).

The transmitters of these early Taiyo models were a robust unit that was only really prone to gunk build up on the sliding contact points of the levers. Clean these, shine them up with ultra fine grit emery paper, and there is a high likelihood it will work. These cars are very much repairable. They even had a line of basic spare parts, back in the day.

And furthermore, before you start spoiling this car's originality with mods...

Note that a mint/boxed original Taiyo Jet Fighter is worth about US$400. Which is more than a few NIB original Tamiyas.

These models were made in Japan and are highly sought after in mint, or excellent condition. The Jet Fighter was the immediate successor in 1987 to the Jet Hopper (which can fetch upwards of US$600 mint/boxed). 

Of course it's totally yours to do with as you please :) But the days of underestimating the collectibility of vintage toy grade R/C cars, are long gone. 

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That's a fantastic looking car you've got there! Like a crossbreed between Tamiya's Boomerang with a beefed up Grasshopper chassis.

Say, is there any front suspension? Or is that monoshock just for show?

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2 hours ago, Hibernaculum said:

Actually, if there's life in the car and transmitter, then I am 99% sure why it won't run (yet).

The transmitters of these early Taiyo models were a robust unit that was only really prone to gunk build up on the sliding contact points of the levers. Clean these, shine them up with ultra fine grit emery paper, and there is a high likelihood it will work. These cars are very much repairable. They even had a line of basic spare parts, back in the day.

And furthermore, before you start spoiling this car's originality with mods...

Note that a mint/boxed original Taiyo Jet Fighter is worth about US$400. Which is more than a few NIB original Tamiyas.

These models were made in Japan and are highly sought after in mint, or excellent condition. The Jet Fighter was the immediate successor in 1987 to the Jet Hopper (which can fetch upwards of US$600 mint/boxed). 

Of course it's totally yours to do with as you please :) But the days of underestimating the collectibility of vintage toy grade R/C cars, are long gone. 

I don't have the original transmitter I tried the one from my Blackfoot with the correct crystal fitted

28 minutes ago, GregM said:

That's a fantastic looking car you've got there! Like a crossbreed between Tamiya's Boomerang with a beefed up Grasshopper chassis.

Say, is there any front suspension? Or is that monoshock just for show?

It has working front suspension

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18 hours ago, Pumesta said:

I don't have the original transmitter I tried the one from my Blackfoot with the correct crystal fitted

Ah, sorry - I missed that part. 

The original transmitter that came with the original Taiyo Jet Fighter (ie yours), is this:

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As Sayer mentioned, this car was also released in the USA under Tyco/Taiyo branding as the "Super Turbo Hopper", but those came with a different, trigger-style transmitter (though in the right frequency, they should still work with the Taiyo release). But if you keep an eye out for the original pictured, you still have a reasonable chance of finding one eventually.

Crucially, your example seems to have excellent decals and still has the two "K C Daylighter" spotlights, which are often missing on this model. With a careful wipe-down and toothbrush clean, it should come up looking very nice.

Lastly, this car was rated for a top speed of 27Km/h (as the decal says). Taiyo's goal with these models was specifically to rival the kit-based cars of the time, with something ready to go out of the box. The Jet Fighter took obvious cues from the Boomerang, but was 2WD. Shortly after, Taiyo released the Jet Racer 4WD, which was more expensive, but rated for 25km/h. Later came the Aero Jet Fighter, which featured a more sleek body with an extra wing, 4WD, and twin 280 motors, which together could push the car to 31km/h. This was clearly ahead of the 380 motor offerings out there, and into the territory of some 540-motor powered buggies.

 

 

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My friend had the 4x4 one as it happens.  Yip thats the control, I might have a rummage around in the loft I am certain it is the house somewhere but where is the question.  The body is in good order, with the only real damage being scratches to the underside of the bumper, and itcould do with a new set of rear tyres. None of the decals are ripped or pealing, the right hand side ones are a bit sun faded unfortunately .

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Hello,

I am french, and I would like to repare a Taiyo Jet Fighter.

I need a differential but after many hours on internet I am not able to find spare part.

Can one of you give me info please?

This car was bought by my father, I gave it to my son and after he died, my grand son ask me to repare it.

Every thing is working properly except the internal parts of the differential. 

Thanks for help

 

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12 hours ago, PatBer said:

Hello,

I am french, and I would like to repare a Taiyo Jet Fighter. I need a differential but after many hours on internet I am not able to find spare part.

Can one of you give me info please? This car was bought by my father, I gave it to my son and after he died, my grand son ask me to repare it.

Every thing is working properly except the internal parts of the differential. Thanks for help

 

The differential was never sold as a spare part for the Taiyo Jet Fighter. Some spare parts were sold for it, but not the differential.

I would recommend buying a second Taiyo Jet Fighter in order to get another differential. It will cost no more than if the differential were available new in packet anyway. The best approach is to find one which is "non-working" or missing the transmitter, but still has a gearbox that turns OK without any issues. This will ensure the price remains low.

The value of a used, non-working example of this car will be around US$30-$60 as a rough estimate.

This car is quite collectible though, so the value of a brand new in box example is more around US$200-US$250. Brand new in box examples are quite rare. I do not personally recommend hacking cars like these with upgrades. They are pretty collectible cars. And there is no specific need to hack (unless just for kicks) because there are enough cars out there that can be used for spare parts, to service the cars that are getting restored.

If you need more help, feel free to contact me at my website also.

cheers,

H.

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Hello from France,

i am seaching the same car in order to have spare parts to repare the one of my grand son.

Thanks for help.

PatBer

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