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Taiyo Jet Hopper
SOLD: AU$450 on 5th April 2016
Scale: 1/16
Type: Ready To Run
Year of release: 1986
Condition: Excellent. Very clean, 100% working. Brand new original tyres fitted.
Battery compartment condition: Clean/Working
Batteries Required: 8 x AA (Car). 1 x 9 volt (Transmitter)
Description
This Taiyo Jet Hopper comes with brand new original front and rear tyres which I have personally fitted prior to this sale.
The car is 100% working, spotlessly clean, and comes complete with the original box. It has some light wear – scuffs to the underside, mainly around the bumper. Nothing is broken. A few decals have edge wear. Overall this model is in superb condition for it’s age. Full disclosure: I believe the metal body clip that holds the body on, is a Tamiya one in this case, but it is essentially very similar to the original Taiyo one. If you happen to purchase this model from me and specifically want a Taiyo one, I can try to track one down for you.
This particular Jet Hopper comes in the original Taiyo box from Japan. The box is perhaps a 7 out of 10, with some wear to both lid and polystyrene base, but is still very presentable.
The Taiyo Jet Hopper was revised by Taiyo over the course of it’s production run in the 1980s, and this example can be considered a “Mk2”. (There were three variants of the model as sold by Taiyo in Japan, Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 – please google for more info).
For Australian buyers – this example is basically identical to the common Jet Hopper as sold in Australia in the 1980s, in terms of tyres, decals and everything else – with the exception that those sold in Australia came in a different box and had “Metro/Taiyo” branding due to being distributed here by the Metro company.
As mentioned, brand new original tyres (both front and rear) have been fitted to this car. These tyres are normally impossible to find, and are the reason why many of the surviving Jet Hoppers you find these days are un-driveable. In effect, this model is quite close to being a new in box example.
A rare chance to own an excellent, working, clean original Jet Hopper fitted with brand new original tyres.
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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