The Tyco Fireball is a simple 4.8V radio controlled car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan), and released into the global market by Tyco Toys in 1995.
Designed from the ground up to be a kids toy, with a huge oversized rear wing, large wheels and bumper, with a yellow and red fireball graphic across the entire body, nobody was mistaking this for a Tyco Fast Traxx or Tyco Bandit. No, sadly, the 9.6V days were over for Tyco, who were now focusing on simpler, cheaper toys Made in China.
Features and Performance
The Fireball comes equipped with an unusual 4.8V cartridge pack which appears to be a redesigned 6.0V Jet Turbo pack. Originally I was thinking they must have switched over to the newer NiMh battery chemistry, but nope, they simply took the previous 5 x 1.2V Nickel Cadmium 6.0V Jet Turbo pack and removed a cell, dropping the overall voltage to 4.8V and no doubt hitting the overall capacity and run time too. Doh!
This was never meant to be a performance model, and so its slower speed coupled with typical Taiyo / Tyco manufacturing quality and bumper design would have made this toy virtually impossible to break, something that can't be said for any of the much faster (and funner) 9.6V models from the 80s and early 90s.
Recommendation
The Fireball is an attractive looking, fun little RC toy, and if you owned one as a kid there's a good chance you'll have strong memories of blasting around the living area, smacking into your sister/brothers/mothers ankles with it. Or maybe you're just a Tyco completionist, or simply love that mid 90s design (which I confess to myself). If this is you, then perhaps you'd like to pick one up, though you'd better do it quickly as what few examples are left are getting harder and harder to find in good boxed condition.
