The Tyco Nitro Dozer is a radio control car manufactured by Taiyo (Japan) and released into the US, UK, South American, Australian, and other markets worldwide in 1998.
“The transforming, twin track dozer vehicle, with big, bad dozer blade!”
Features and Performance
One of the wildest late 90s Tyco designs with terrific packaging and graphics, its key feature was the ability to transform between two different modes of operation.
- Long flat Fast-Traxx style
- Tracks stretched out tall and high with “Dozer”
One of the few vehicles to use the 7.2V Flex pack which gave it more power than the previous 6.0V ‘Jet Turbo’, with the bonus of the pack being able to squeeze into more unusual shapes, and more outrageous R/C designs.
The Dozer Bucket
Apart from it being a Fast Traxx more or less, the coolest feature of this thing is it’s Dozer Bucket! Check out the commercial from 1998.
One final hurrah?
Manufactured in 1998 after the Mattel takeover of Tyco USA who partly owned the manufacturer Taiyo in Japan. This must have been one of the first and last cars released under the Tyco brand and designed/engineered by the Taiyo team before Mattel gobbled them all up and spat out the bones. Over the next few years, Mattel would roll out the ‘Tyco R/C’ badge to slap on a product, but you can’t expect a brand to retain value when you’ve obliterated what made it special in the first place – customers are’nt stupid, at least not for very long. Sadly, this means we rarely (if ever) see Tyco R/C logo on any products, and those involved in the original company are either retired or passed away.
If you’d like to see more about Tyco R/C, check out our mega-article The History of Tyco Toys or learn a little about the people who designed all these crazy toys (at least one who appears to be still active!).
Recommendation
As a vehicle, it has its fans, and I suspect the full popularity of these late 90s Tycos is yet to be seen, as the kids who got these for Christmas or Birthdays are still in their early 20s.
Update: We’ve been collecting data on sales, and wow these things are much more active on eBay than I expected. Prices still remain reasonable, so it may be a good time to grab one before they become rare and expensive.
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