Jet Hopper Turbo
February 24th 2009 22:00
9.6V power
Slots cars were the kings of children's racing in the early 80s. A few rich brats had some RC (remote controlled) cars, but they were pretty rare.
Well, when 1988 rolled around, there was a new kid on the block and yours truly had the ultimate Christmas present – the new Jet Hopper Turbo.
Commonly known as simply ’Jet Hopper’ or ‘Turbo Hopper’ more in the U.S, this baby took RC mainstream.
I still remember taking that sucker out and suddenly my train set was looking pretty dismal. We never did have the best selection of toys, but this baby was soon to be the king of the neighbourhood.
Unfortunately, to my disappointment, there was not hand control in mine! We lived in the country too and my folks obviously got it in Melbourne, so there was some wait until I actually got to use that sucker. Bobby Finstock already had a red one, so I knew what to expect though.
When I finally did get it going, I remember racing it up and down the street and people would come out and watch...ah the naive 80s.
This older guy up the road had this slick white one that went twice as fast as mine and every now and then he would bust it out and run laps around me.
They got crazy after that too. There were these huge ones that joined together, or these big monster trucks with claws coming out of their wheels.
Anyway, I busted the axle doing ‘hops’ off the back step and I never did get it fixed, even though it hung around for years to come.
Man, I even have a friend who loved it so much that he somehow became a pro racer of some sorts! He travels around the world racing those little suckers and has sponsors and all, plus he writes in their magazines too. Yep – livin’ the Peter Pan dream.
“Rob the competition – on or off the road!”
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Comment by Nomad
Awesome Food
I had a black one too, you probably know that.
Anyway I broke the front plastic bullbar type thing goin jumps, and Dad (the ultimate handy man) some how attached an aluminium bumber thing on the front, the next time I'm back in the hood i'll take a photo to explain more...
black was better than red... man it was fucking knightrider!!