Hey everyone, got a weird question here.

A friend of mine has for years sworn up and down that he owned a Tamiya Grasshopper as a kid in the 80s that was controlled by wire, rather than radio. I had a few cars like that myself, but they were all toy grade, nothing like a Grasshopper. I'd often heard these referred to as "remote control" rather than "radio control" though I've also heard that term applied to radio as well, since technicaly it is still being operated "remotely."

I'm not ready to call him a liar, but I have my doubts about his memory. Childhood memories are funny like that. But he swears it really was a Grasshopper, and the controller was just like a regular two stick of that era, only with a wire instead of an antenna. He lamented having to chase it around, while his older brother could stand in one place and drive his Hornet anywhere.

We've both tried and failed at finding some sort of evidence that such a setup existed. Not necessarily on just the Grasshopper, but some sort of wired control compatible with a hobby grade RC. Does anyone around then remember anyone making some kind of "trainer" radio with a cord like that?

yes the grass hopper was controlled by a wire and looked the same as the remake radio controlled
it was toy grade i used to have one to when i see them now a days it takes me back and i almost bought one just to have it

I don;t think tamiya made it like that. they could have (and often did) license the grasshopper name and likeness to a toy company who made it like that.

you've got me interested though, i'm off to tamiya club to see if the guru's know anything.

as i remember i dont think tamiya made it but i do remember having a corded grasshopper

tamiya didn't make it. it was a clone called the echo big brat:

here's it next to a real hopper, thanks to the boy's at tamiya club.

Thanks man! Wow that is really neat looking. I'll have to point him to this thread and see if that looks familiar to him, it certainly is a Grasshopper, at least in the sense of plastic shape and dimensions.

I never thought to check Tamiyaclub, those guys would certainly have the answer. They take Tamiya love to new heights!

Those both look like shelf queens too!

i saw some other pics showing differences.

the gear box on the "big brat" looks differnet, box and anguler compared to the hoppers gear box.
there is not battery door on the bottom of the car either. the wheels are different too.</p>

I would expect that. Most of those wired cars had the batteries in the controller and powered the cars through the wire. Making the car lighter increased the runtime, I suppose.

Gearbox is a given too, as simple as the gearbox is on the Grasshopper, I'm sure that car had an even simpler one, probably lacking any kind of differential.

the one i had was white not yellow it looked exactly like the hopper

I was just thinking that the Echo brand name sounded familiar, when I realized that I owned an Echo RC. When I was thinking about getting into this hobby, I bought a $15 toy grade truck called the Echo Power Truck. The thing was pretty pitiful, running off a 4.8v rx pack and a very underpowered motor. But it managed to keep me entertained long enough that I put in my first order to Tower Hobbies. I gave it away to my roommates kids last year.

I wonder if Echo still produces the Big Brat? The truck I owned had a very dated design, the body was that of a 1980s minitruck and it could very well have been copied from a much older RC.

I haven't thought of those in years, I bought one for about $19 in the early/mid 80's and it was a total clone of the grasshopper, just without a radio control system. The box even used Tamiya's artwork and showed the servos and receiver etc. I actually converted mine to RC using some leftovers (mechanical speed control, S128 servos etc.) that I had from other cars. It was an OK backyard car, I have no recollection of what became of it.