Vintage Tyco Slot Cars

During the 1960s and into the '70s, when the slot-car craze was at its peak in the United States, an HO model train manufacturer called Tyco was a tough competitor to Scalextric and Aurora, which was the Goliath of the hobby. Tyco focused on muscle cars and funny cars at about 1:64 scale. When Tyco slot cars debuted in 1963, six models were offered—a pair of Fords, a Corvette Sting Ray, a Pontiac Grand Prix, a Buick Riviera, and a Jaguar XK-E. The following year, in 1964, Tyco introduced its S class cars (the S standing for Speedways), and expanded its models with a Lotus, another Jaguar, and a pair of Ferraris. More Corvettes followed in 1965, along with a couple of Thunderbirds, but models went unchanged in 1966. That proved to be the company's only fallow year. The rest of the 1960s saw more miniature hot rods and muscle cars, and by 1970, Tyco had introduced a second signature line, the Pro series, which was updated a few years later by a line of Pro IIs. Collectors of vintage Tyco slot cars spend a lot of their energy finding minty examples of cars from these decades, but they also collect Tycos with Magnum 440 chassis, which preceded the company's acquisition in 1997 by Mattel. That financial transaction spurred even more improvements to the line, including the introduction of the Magnum 440x2 chassis, which had two traction magnets on the rear end of its chassis rather than one. Other vintage Tyco slots cars sought by collectors include those emblazoned with NASCAR branding, as well as sets associated with the great race-car driver Richard Petty. Tyco slot cars in this series include a Buick Regal and Oldsmobile Cutlass. In the funny-car category, Tyco Pro IIs include "Gotcha!" and "Catch Me" models, which were popular in the mid-1980s. Two other Tyco products are worth a mention. The first is its US-1 Electric Trucking line, which was introduced in 1981 and discontinued after the 1986 model year. Instead of sleek Jaguars and Corvettes, the vehicles made for US-1 Electric Trucking included Peterbilt and Kenworth cabs, dump trucks, fire engines, pickups, ambulances, and Jeeps. There were trailers for the Peterbilts and Kenworths, a small collection of "Stomper" trucks (as pickups and Chevy Blazers), lighted trucks, and even a G.I. Joe "High Adventure" playset, which came with G.I. Joe army men and enemy Cobra Force soldiers, paratroopers, and a G.I. Joe flatbed truck carrying its "Super Secret Satellite Missile." Total weight of the G.I. Joe set was a whopping 34 pounds. A Tyco product that gets less respect is its 1990 entry in the Total Control Racing, or TCR, sweepstakes. Pioneered by Ideal, Tyco tried to make a go of "slot-less" slot cars with a combination of Camaros and Mustangs that would weave around designated "obstacle" or "jam" cars. In the 1980s, the lack of slots had meant that Ideal could dispense with lanes, but by the time Tyco got a hold of the rights to TCR, it had built slot-less lanes into its tracks, which undermined the promise of "Total Control."