The Nikko Brat (Toy Grade) was a 1/14 scale radio controlled car manufactured by Nikko America, and released into the US market, and likely other markets world wide in 1996.
Note: The 1996 Brat should not be confused with the entirely different and incredibly epic 1989 Nikko 'UpWorks' Brat, which was a hobby grade car / car kit produced by Nikko. I'll be covering that one later, and will link here.
Features and Performance
Let's take a look at the specifications, according to the various boxes it came in around the world, and the included manual, shown below...
- "Powerful" Mabuchi RS-360SH motor. It's a decent size, though two would have been better!
- 9.6V Battery Pack (included) with charge port.
- "Scale speeds up to 280mph!" - what does that mean?
Well, if the buggy is 1/14 scale, meaning it's 14 times smaller than regular 1:1 full size, and 280 divided by 14 is 20, then reportedly it can do 20mph or 32km/h, same as the Tyco Twin Turbo Lamborghini. Really? Hmm.., - 2 Channel "Super Heterodyne" Digital Proportional System, enabling precise turning instead of just hard left / hard right as with regular toy grade models
- Battery Eliminator Circuit. Prior to this R/C cars would require an additional battery, usually a 9V or second set of 4xAA to power the electronics at a voltage lower than the main drive battery
- Front and Rear Suspension (Trailing Arm, Rigid Axle) with all-around friction shock absorbers
- Rear Differential, which enables each wheel to turn at different speeds, making for better handling around corners since the inner wheel would naturally want to travel slower than the outside wheel. Without a differential, the slower inner wheel can lose traction when its forced (by the outer wheel) to turn faster than it needs to.
- Semi-pneumatic spiked mud tires. High and Low speed selector
- 27Mhz Frequency with Removable crystals including 6 specific frequencies. This allows owners to swap out their crystal for another frequency, useful when racing many cars
Is it cool? Or not cool?
Checking out the underside of the chassis below, with its shiny hard black plastic, it does look decidedly toy-grade.
And yes, the fluorescent yellow against black does date it to around the mid 1990s (check out the comparison with Tyco Mutator below!), yet the whole concept of a 9.6V buggy with big fat tires, decent suspension, and proportional steering is pretty darn cool in my books.
Add that massive front bumper, and you've got a recipe for a good time. Let's compare it with an equivalent 9.6V car that Nikko competitor, Tyco released in the same year...
Comparison to competitors
Before we do this, I need to state that I'm a card carrying Taiyo / Tyco fanboy. Yes, the website you're reading is called Tyco Collectors. However I also enjoy anything that's good in it's own way - and often Nikko products are good, very good.
Compared to the Taiyo and Tyco R/C of the era, the Nikko ones always seem to offer a little bit more. Eg. Proportional steering. Front and rear suspension. Removeable crystals. Big nylon bumper for crashes (big respect to that!), and the list goes on.
Let's compare this Nikko Brat to arguably the most popular Taiyo / Tyco toy of tehe same year 1996. Notice anything? Fluro was IN baby! Fluro was in!
Availability and Collectability
I do wonder whether giving this truck the name Brat was an intentional ploy to drive sales, or simply that they wanted to re-use a great name. In any case, there must have been plenty of sales activity back in '96 as these cars are everywhere with 2-3 cars for sale at the time of writing. Looking at sales history, a few pop up each month, and so if you're looking for one, hopefully you won't be looking for too long.
wpDiscuz
