"Does anyone else remember the MB Big Trak?"

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/BigTrak.htm>Jeebus, the nostalgia...!

I had one of these. It. Was. Fantastic. \o/

Program in steps forward or back, angles to turn left or right, numver of'shoots' and pauses between actions.

I remember annoying the hell out of people by programming it (through plenty of trial and error) to negotiate the livingroom furniture and shoot my mum before making a swift retreat into the kitchen. That's if it didn't get stuck on the threshold, of course! :D

I had one but ended up having to make a carrier for the top of it because the trailer was too expensive..

Great toy - why hasn't some gadget shop freak made a better version?

Peej

pjmaybe wrote:
Great toy - why hasn't some gadget shop freak made a better version?

Precisely what I thought.

It was great and tought good logical planning and thinking.

Considering how primative the tech was back then, imagine how cheaply they could knock there out for. Could even add Bluetooth so you could remote program it.

C'mon!

Why have so many interesting ideas died out even though the tech these days is far better?

Probably because kids wouldn't buy 'em, and adults would only buy it as a cult item.

There are a few nifty little japanese toys, tiny desktop sized things that you program in a similar way. Oh and Lego do a massive programmable kit that does a similar thing, but I know what you mean - it's like tech just doesn't come into the equation...

I mean look at slot racing - you'd think by now they'd be able to sort out a bit of overtaking / drone cars etc..

Peej

The advert on TV showed the trailer carrying an apple IIRC?

Someone always brought one into school on a "bring your games in" day.

There was a slot car game where the cars could overtake, forget the name but it was out in the late 70's early 80's.

A bit shit TBH as all you did was pelt full blast all the time as the high sides of the track stopped the cars from flying off.

My spoilt bastard mate had it (along with every other bloody thing I wanted but apparently couldn't afford)

\sulks with the memory.

That was TCR I think Skuzzbag.

skuzzbag wrote:
There was a slot car game where the cars could overtake, forget the name but it was out in the late 70's early 80's.

A bit shit TBH as all you did was pelt full blast all the time as the high sides of the track stopped the cars from flying off.

My spoilt bastard mate had it (along with every other bloody thing I wanted but apparently couldn't afford)

\sulks with the memory.

Yep I had one - it was called "TCR - Total Control Racing" (Or Total Cuntish Retard for your mate ;)
It was pretty rubbish though. The "Jam" car just sat there the whole time at a set speed, and eventually this burned the motor out...and actually getting the thing to change lanes when you wanted it to was an art form in itself...

The BEST Slot Racing set I had was something called "Race and Chase" by Matchbox, which had a tilt bridge / ramp thing, a cop car and a very suspicious looking orange car with a flag on the roof (no it wasn't branded as a Dukes of Hazzard set, matchbox were too stingy for that)

Anyway, you could get the cars to do 180 degree J-turns, which was nice.

Also had an Aurora AFX set which I stupidly swapped for part of my Scalextric set and instantly regretted it because the Aurora stuff was so bloody fragile the track lugs just broke off after a couple of goes...

Still love all my Scalextric stuff - some of which goes back to the 60s and still works.

Peej

Thats it :) Total Control Racing!

Total control my arse.

Total Crap Racing we used to call it behind spoilt friends back.. aah the memories. Thanks for reminding me that having a spoilt mate wasn't that bad after all, as you could slag off his games and piss him off :)

ERG1008 wrote:
The advert on TV showed the trailer carrying an apple IIRC?

That's the bunny! \o/

I know what you mean though Peej. It's just daft to me. I used to image what we'd be able to buy in the future but things like this just seem to have dried up rather than improved in leaps and bounds as I was certain they would.

You walk into the Gadget Shop these days and most of the stuff they sell is complete and total tat, no bloody imagination AT ALL.

Robosapien? Feck off you shitty piece of plastic! Big Trak'd bloody 'ave you in a fight...!

Edited by Retroid at 09:24:42 26-01-2005

I had Aurora too, tons of Araldite fixed bits everywhere as you say, dunno who thought of making the track out of brittle plastic.

Bloody fast though if I recall, you could really make those cars fly into the toy soldiers (who just happened to have wandered onto the track).

The Scalextrix track design was far superior with its bendy plastic, which is apparent by the amount of old kit still knocking about. My (nice) mate had a massive track in the loft started by his dad in the 60's, the mini coopers rocked! But the thing that impressed me the most was as the old track wore down and became slippy you could really pretend you were rally driving.

I wonder if my wife wants an old Scalextric for our first wedding anniversary ;)

Retroid wrote:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/BigTrak.htm>Jeebus, the nostalgia...!

I had one of these. It. Was. Fantastic. \o/

Program in steps forward or back, angles to turn left or right, numver of'shoots' and pauses between actions.

I remember annoying the hell out of people by programming it (through plenty of trial and error) to negotiate the livingroom furniture and shoot my mum before making a swift retreat into the kitchen. That's if it didn't get stuck on the threshold, of course! :D

Yep, I had one of these too.

ERG1008 wrote:
That was TCR I think Skuzzbag.

Correct..

My mate had it while I had Scalectrix. I also had Matchbox Race N Chase which was shite:)

/Had some of those keyring racers (or whatever they were called)

Great fun firing them at eachother trying to spin 'em off the top of the kitchen table!

skuzzbag wrote:
I had Aurora too, tons of Araldite fixed bits everywhere as you say, dunno who thought of making the track out of brittle plastic.

Bloody fast though if I recall, you could really make those cars fly into the toy soldiers (who just happened to have wandered onto the track).

The Scalextrix track design was far superior with its bendy plastic, which is apparent by the amount of old kit still knocking about. My (nice) mate had a massive track in the loft started by his dad in the 60's, the mini coopers rocked! But the thing that impressed me the most was as the old track wore down and became slippy you could really pretend you were rally driving.

I wonder if my wife wants an old Scalextric for our first wedding anniversary ;)

Ahhh memories. My collection got started for me by a slightly over-enthusiastic dad back in the early 70s, and I've kept pretty much everything though some of the track has indeed seen better days. But yep, that stuff was TOUGH! Polyurethane track bits, and pretty solid cars (apart from my old police Rover 2600 which sorta got smashed a bit)

I've been put under a bit of pressure to flog the whole lot as a job lot, but there's so much stuff there - new and old - that I wouldn't even know where to start..

Peej

Its coming back - in the form of Big Trak Junior.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/bigtrak-is-back-80...

This is one of the reasons I loved the Mako in Mass Effect. :(

A friend of mine was discussing this coming back just at the weekend. He'd been to a trade event and seen the new one in action.

Psycho, I really liked the Mako too.

ERG1008 wrote:
That was TCR I think Skuzzbag.

TCR was the overtaking one yeah, and then you had MatchBox Race n Chase where you could do u-turns and jump over the bridge. I had that and a mate had TCR. Both had scalextrix later in life too.

Sorry, just realised I'd already posted.

Edited by pistol at 12:32:16 09-02-2010

Found the site.

http://www.bigtrakisback.com/index.htm

I loved my Star Bird

it was a toy, not a lady friend

:O

\o/

JohnnyWashnGo wrote:
Its coming back - in the form of Big Trak Junior.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/bigtrak-is-back-80...

WANT..!

Sold...

Give me... \o/

We had one at school. I really wanted one, but it never happened

/sniff

Got a lot of Scalextric stuff at home. I really should dust it off sometime...

DUFFMAN5 wrote:
I loved my Star Bird

it was a toy, not a lady friend

I had a Star Bird, but wanted an At At. Being a spoiled brat I got the latter, but recall the former was better.

edit - oh yeah the parents returned the former for the latter. :P

Edited by squarejawhero at 12:41:07 09-02-2010

Christ, I wanted a Star Bird when I was younger.

I had the Star Bird Avenger IIRC (The smaller black one)

Cashing in on Mass Effect, clearly. :)

Now I'm feeling really spoilt; I had a Big Trak, Star Bird (white one + black one) and an At-At.

Still do want.