The Tyco Super Duper Double Looper with Nite Glow is a slot car set manufactured by Tyco, and released into the US, UK, and other markets worldwide in 1979.
History
With Tyco's revolutionary TycoPro chassis system making them a market leader in the 1960s, Tyco would dominate the slot car scene for a decade, however by the late 1970s the competition was already catching up and exceeding Tyco's original design, with the likes of Hornby/Scalextric introducing Magnatraction which held the car firmly to the track, and others, Tyco would be forced to break out their pencil and get back to the design board.
The result was Curve Huggers, an updated chassis with embedded magnets and headlights that would maintain their lead in the HO slot sector just long enough for their revolutionary Magnum 440 range to hit the market a few short years later.
Numerous tracks were released under the Curve Huggers system, and towards the end, one of those was the Super Duper Double Looper with Nite Glow!
Concept and Features
With the cars now firmly held to the track with magnets, more options for dynamic and exciting track designs were possible, including banked corners, loop-the-loops, and even small 'jumps' or gaps in the track for the car to traverse and then slot back into the track with ease on the other side.
Track Layout
The track included two unique chrome loops with Luminescent strips, and fully glow-in-the-dark track supports, both elements that were unique to this era, and something I wish I'd seen in later 440-X2 sets! The actual track itself was good, with long straights, dual loops, and a large banked turn, it really was designed to showcase the Curve Hugger's abilities.
The set contains:
2 x Curve Hugger HP2 slot cars with headlights
1 x 9" straight
1 x 6" straight
2 x 9" radius curve track (1/4 circle)
1 x 9" terminal
12 x 9" radius bank track
2 x 13" action loop
2 x Racing Controllers, Piers, Nite-Glow barriers with flag poles, Nite-Glow sticker sheet, manuals
Vehicles
Cars included with the set appeared to be generic 70s race car styles, all chrome with large numbers; one Orange 51, and a Green 4, both striped paint jobs.
Availability and Collectability
All-in-all this was a decent set for the era, though sadly it didn't stay around all that long thanks to the Magnum 440 which would release just a year or so later.
While these sets aren't from my era personally, I'm aware there are many Curve Hugger collectors out there, and so they remain popular with several sets available on eBay at the time of writing, and many sold over the last few months.
