The Tyco Rampage 6×6 was a radio controlled vehicle manufactured by Taiyo of Japan, and released into the US, UK, and other countries in 1994.
If there was ever an example of Tyco Industries (USA) providing Taiyo (Japan) with the ideas for new models of RC vehicle, it’s the Tyco Rampage!
Features
With a body taken straight from the Tyco Eliminator, this wasn’t the first time the (admittedly) unique and interesting frame had been applied to other chassis, with Taiyo/Tyco already using it for:
TV Commercial
We were surprised at the poor quality commercial for this product, though it was labelled ‘demo’ so maybe it never got to air?
Performance
The chassis itself was a standard Tyco Scorcher chassis with 6 wheels, though only 4 are actually driven – a technicality that led to units sold in Europe to be renamed at some stage to ‘4×6’ .
All this was powered by 2 x Mabuchi RK370 motors, the largest Tyco had ever used, quite a surprising amount of power for a ‘toy’ grade vehicle. Of course, speed was never the intention, and so it’s not reported anywhere on the box, though we’d estimate it to be around 20-25km/h (10-12mph) based on vehicles with the same specifications.
With two powerful engines you’d think it would be faster, however the friction/drag of 6 wheels, 4 of them driven, would slow it down considerably. Otherwise it would be faster than a Twin Turbo Lamborghini!
Recommendation
We suspect sales for this vehicle wasn’t fantastic, as it’s so hard to find these days – likely it had a short run, and based on the TV Commercial we’ve seen, likely they just didn’t have enough budget for promotion.
In any case, it’s a unique vehicle, very much of it’s mid-90s era, with our favorite box design and excellent artwork, there is sure to be fans of the Rampage out there waiting to snatch them up. Problem is, they’re so rarely seen available on eBay that you have to be quick, or know a member of the collectors community that has one available.
Credit: TycoCollectors wishes to thank Facundo for the excellent photos of his increasingly rare Tyco Rampage 6×6 49Mhz which you will see above, and in the gallery.
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