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Taiyo Jet Hopper
For Sale: AU$450 on 25th January 2015
Scale: 1/16
Type: Ready To Run
Year of release: 1986
Condition: Near New In Box. Excellent.
Description
This Taiyo Jet Hopper is an original first release Taiyo Jet Hopper – near mint in box. You can tell it’s the original release because of the tall front tyres, along with the fat, spikey rear tyres. If you would like to learn more about the history of this car, and many others, just google for R/C Toy Memories and check out my website sometime.
This example is a true first edition Jet Hopper – a Jet Hopper “Mk1”. This was sold in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. Later releases of the car saw changes to the decals, tyres, suspension arms, springs and other bits.
This example is truly excellent – about as close to brand new as you can get. It has the tiniest edge wear to a few decals. Possible light scuffing under the diff casing on the underside. I say possible – its really light scuffing, so have a look at the photos. But that’s about it. The tyres are excellent. The car is spotlessly clean. It still has that new smell. The photos tell the story.
The box has wear to the edges, but is structurally sound and the artwork is very presentable with bright colours. Included are the Jet Hopper, transmitter with “turbo” function, and original manual.
There are precious few new in box Jet Hoppers left in the world. This one is very, very near new. It is priced consistent (i.e. below) past sales of truly mint ones. A great opportunity to get such a beautiful and complete example of an original first release Jet Hopper, at a reasonable price.
Please see the photos to understand the condition. Feel free to contact me to find out more.
History
The Taiyo Jet Hopper is of course, one of the most famous R/C toys ever made. It was first released by Taiyo in 1986, and subsequently found it’s way around the world. It was branded both Tyco and Taiyo in the USA, Metro and Taiyo in Australia, Dickie and Taiyo in Europe, and just plain Taiyo elsewhere. It is possibly the biggest selling R/C model ever – although figures are hard to confirm. But the scale of it’s popularity during the mid 1980s was phenomenal. One confirmed figure is that 280,000 Jet Hoppers were sold in Australia alone, during 1986 and 1987. It’s combination of realistic ready-to-run buggy looks, catchy name and high speed made it a hit in virtually every market in the world from 1986 until the end of the decade.
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