The Tyco 4WD Grabber is a 1/14 scale radio control car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan), and released in the US, UK, and worldwide in 1990.
Based upon the original Taiyo 4WD Grabber, it has the luxury of improved packaging and artwork, otherwise it is the same vehicle as released by Taiyo in 1988.
Rarity
As this is the only example we've ever seen in the wild, we'd have to say the 9.6V Turbo 4WD Grabber is exceedingly rare! In the last 6 months there's only been one listed on eBay, and we'd never even heard of it until we were provided the photos by a member. Do you own a Tyco 4WD Grabber? We'd love to hear from you, and whether there are many out there!
Features and Performance
It's telling that I didn't actually realism the Grabber was a 9.6V when I blasted it around indoors (I'd loaded the batteries some days ago) and assumed 6xAA since it's not very fast at just 20km/h (12mph) however this is obviously due to the gearing designed for rough outdoors bashing.
Ideally used outdoors on a dirt track, stone driveway, or mountain of soil, the 4WD Grabber was made for climbing hills and beating through rough terrain with it's large 'Balloon Buggy' wheels and ample front and rear suspension system.
Sold with a Pistol Grip controller in the Tyco variant, this was clearly priced alongside the other 9.6v Turbo models in 1990 such as the Baja Bandit, and Twin Turbo Lamborghini, however with stiff competition like that it's no surprise we don't see alot of them around.
Recommendation
The Grabber is one of those cars which was well designed for the intended purpose, but there were just so many other more exciting cars filling the off-road buggy space at the time.
These days there's not too many around, though the Japanese version (Taiyo) usually sells for about $70USD (without box) so we'd not expect a boxed Tyco version to go for more than double that - if you can find one.
Photo credit to Chad Summy.
