The Taiyo Land Cruiser 100 is a radio control car released by New Concept Taiyo R/C on the Japanese market in 2000.
The End of an Era
With the Land Cruiser 100, Taiyo was now operating under the banner of ‘New Concept Taiyo R/C’ and no longer manufacturing in their traditional factories in Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, as they had for the last 30 years. Instead, like many others, Taiyo’s executives could no longer resist the lure of manufacturing for the lowest possible prices in China. The Land Cruiser 100 would set the bar for the next generation of Taiyo RC’s company history… and sadly that bar was set fairly low.
The trademark design and features of Taiyo RC was now gone, with not even the 2-Speed Gearbox, mandatory on virtually every model since the 1970s surviving the cut.
In its place, hard, shiny, easy-to-snap black recycled plastic, and 4xAA struggling to exert some power on the larger model size.
Features and Performance
This was not a fast car, topping out at just 9km/h downhill on an especially windy day, almost beaten by the tiny Radican cars, this was best suited as a gift to someone that you didn’t particularly like.
This is not to say that all the Made in China cars were bad – many of our favorite 90s classics were manufactured in China, such as the entire Radican series, and the Rebound 4×4. No, the failure here was at the leadership level in Japan, through a decision to compete with the cheaper products coming from China by deciding to be exactly like them. At with that decision Taiyo RC became irrelevant on the market, and in a few short years would cease to exist.
We will cover the story of Taiyo’s downfall in greater detail in the future. For the moment, you can read the history of their US counterpart here: What Happened to Tyco R/C?
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