The Dickie Jet Eagle 4x4 was a radio control car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan), and released into the German market by Dickie Toys in 1987. It is the German regional version of the original Taiyo Jet Racer 4WD (Japan).
Features and Performance
Easily in the Top 10 Taiyo manufactured vehicles, the Jet Racer 4WD is a beast of an R/C for a 1980s toy shop!
- 8 x AA Batteries provides 9.6V ('Turbo') with NiCd or 12V with Alkaline.
- Twin Mabuchi 280 motors
- Full time Four Wheel Drive
- All Round Shocks
- Front Differential
- Maximum Speed of 25kmh/16mph
This would be the ultimate off-road Taiyo / Dickie up until this point, slightly improved in 1988 with the Max Hopper 4WD (unsure if this released in Germany) which would add some strengthened steel components.
Collectability
In my opinion, the Jet Eagle 4x4 / Jet Racer 4WD is simply a must-have in any collection, and one of the best R/C released by Dickie Toys in Germany at the time. It's just such a beautiful piece of toy engineering, unlike anything we'll ever see in toy stores again - truly on a hobby-grade level, with the performance to match. Some are upgrading these with brushless motors, but please only do this to an already broken one, don't ruin one of the few clean cars left.
Sadly this is the ONLY Jet Eagle I've seen - these are rare, as are all Dickie Toys and Metro RC models, which are regional variants of the originals, since they were much smaller markets. One of our Facebook Group members owns the ones in the photos shown here.
Unusual Frequencies
Most interesting, this global version has unusually close and specific frequencies:
- White (26.995Mhz)
- Black (27.195Mhz)
We know that the usual Taiyo 2nd car frequency of 49Mhz could not be sold on the UK market, and so potentially this was a workaround until they began selling the 40Mhz variant in the UK.
Passive Steering
One reason it makes a great candidate for a hobby grade conversion is its passive steering - basically the front steering servo is only responsive when the car is moving. This can be quite frustrating when driving in a small space, and so overcoming this by replacing the electronics with modern gear can overcome this problem.
Below are photos of the internal electronics and servo which can be replaced with a modern unit.
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