You’re sitting in front of the 15-inch Trinitron on a Saturday morning in 1980, chowing down on a bowl of Count Chocula to top off the sugar intake you had the night before at the monster truck rally you went to with your friend Jimmy. This was a near-religious experience for you, almost on par with seeing The Empire Strikes Back a few weeks earlier.
Your ears are still ringing from the awesome assault on your senses by the real Bigfoot when a commercial interrupts Thundarr the Barbarian. You gasp at what rolls across the screen: tiny battery-powered trucks with working headlights that appear to be able to climb over everything in sight. Dear God, were all four wheels spinning? Did those exhaust fumes at the MegaDome mess with your head? No, Stomper 4X4s were the real deal, and we’re gonna revisit them now. Everybody take it to the top, we’re gonna Stomp!
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
It was impossible to ignore the popularity of lifted off-road vehicles and monster trucks at the dawn of the 1980s. Bigfoot was built in 1975, but fully captured the kid-culture zeitgeist when it crushed cars for the first time in 1981. On television that same year, Colt Seavers regularly took flight in his lifted GMC K-2500 Sierra Grande as the titular fall guy in The Fall Guy. And on streets all over America, lifted pickups were a common sight.
Toy designer Eddy Goldfarb recognized the big-truck trend as a golden opportunity for a new kind of action toy. Goldfarb was already a seasoned toy designer with a few hits under his belt, including well-known gems like KerPlunk, Battling Tops, Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth, and Brunswick Air Hockey. Goldfarb clearly had a knack for clever toy ideas, and toymaker Schaper (best known at the time for games such as Ants In The Pants, Cootie, and Don’t Break The Ice, as well as the Super Jock line – which were toy athletes, not the other thing) bought Goldfarb’s toy 4X4 concept.
Stompers initial offerings included a Chevy K-10 Scottsdale, K5 Blazer, Bronco, Dodge Warlock, and David’s favorite Jeep, the SJ Honcho. Wow, with that lineup, you could recreate the scene in No Country For Old Men where the drug deal went bad.
Stomper’s plastic bodies were each unique and faithful in detail if not proportions to their full-size counterparts, but they all snapped over the same Stomper chassis. It was sized just large enough to house a single AA battery, and a center-mounted motor hidden beneath a cover powered all four wheels. Big warnings of DO NOT REMOVE on motor cover did little to discourage curious young Autopians from exploring the mechanical magic within.
As shown below, the motor’s output shaft extended from both ends of the motor to hold a pair of pinion gears that interfaced with worm gears to drive the front and rear axles simultaneously, giving the toys full-time four-wheel drive.
A later innovation was the “Stomper II,” which featured two forward speeds and a “freewheeling” mode for unpowered play when the battery ran out. The switch beneath the chassis moved the motor laterally to contact one of the two worm drives, or you could leave it in the middle position to disengage the drivetrain.
Stompers were geared for torque, not speed, and challenging the trucks’ ability to power over or through obstacles was the source of their immense play value. With their gear-shaped tires, the little trucks could climb any grade as long as it wasn’t so steep that the truck flipped over backward. The icing on the cake was a tiny light bulb (with a filament and all, not an LED) mounted to the front of the chassis, shining through “headlights” – translucent windows in the grille.
As was seemingly the case with so many toys Gen-Xers remember, Stompers could impart some real pain if their power was not respected. Playfully using your napping sister as Stomper terrain seemed like it would be both fun and hilarious, right up until her hair wrapped around the axles and your Stomper climbed onto her scalp to the tune of a parent-alerting scream.
Configurations of couch cushions, books, and blankets (among other household items) were excellent fodder for Stompers, not to mention whatever challenges the outdoor world offered. Still, Schaper also offered play sets with simulated off-road situations. These were essentially just a bunch of injection-molded plastic terrain bits, but they fit into a large box that looked imposing when wrapped and under the tree in December 1981.
Stompers initially offered both foam tires and rubber tires to optimize indoor or outdoor use. These rubber tires, by the way, were very similar in size and shape to the ones that came with Lego, which meant that if you left them sitting out, they often got tossed into the box with all the bricks and took forever for you to find again. Why, Mom?
Hey, look, it’s been forty years, so we’ve forgiven Mom. Maybe. Let’s talk about the actual car bodies you could put on these capable little chassis.
No, The A-Team Van Was A Rough Riders Ripoff, Not A Stomper
Later, the Stompers line expanded into other vehicle bodies, including some really fun ones like a fifties Chevy Nomad.
It got even better. How about a Subaru BRAT?
Or maybe a Subaru (Leone) Hatchback with 4WD?
Small Japanese pickup favorites were also represented, like the Lil Hustler:
A personal favorite? An AMC Eagle SX4 coupe: the Dollar General Quattro!
A young Torch could go for a Baja bug, especially with the available “stunt wheel.”
The instructions show you could place the stunt wheel on the bottom of your Stomper to do wheelies and other tricks with just two of the driven wheels.
Things eventually went kind of nuts with Stompers becoming almost any kind of vehicle, including ten-wheel-drive tractor-trailer trucks.
Tractor pull fan? Well, it was 1981, so I can see that, and here you go. Note the front counterweight.
Larger Stompers saw the light of day, as well as even amphibious ones, and a short-lived series based on those three-wheeled ATVs that subtracted ten years from your lifespan if you rode them slowly, and if you cornered on them too quickly, subtracted your lifespan from your lifespan.
Honestly, there were so many Stompers spin-offs that it takes a full fifteen-minute video to explain them all. Nerd out, why don’t you?
As with all fads, there were numerous knock-offs (particularly Rough Riders that some would argue were better) until the entire genre slowly diminished as kids got older and younger children simply became interested in other toys; a familiar story.
Stomped Out
Eventually, the inevitable happened. Independent toy firms like Schaper were swallowed up by mega corporations; in Schaper’s case, it was by Tyco in late 1986. Stompers only lasted two more years until 1988, then reappeared under the Dreamworks brand and again from 1997 to 1999 as a Peachtree Playthings product. Tinco Toys was the last to offer Stompers, from 2001 to 2002.
I was rather astonished by some of the prices on eBay for some decent-condition Stomper toys. Non-functional parts or display examples can be had for cheap, but even a reasonably decent running Stomper can command anywhere from $80 to $100. Mint and in-box examples might fetch $400 or more; even $1000 in rare cases. There’s a price to be paid for nostalgia, and it can be a steep one.
Still, why not find a Stomper for yourself? They’re fun, well-crafted toys from a different time when we were awed by much simpler things. Even at those inflated prices, a Jeep Honcho Stomper would be a lot easier to keep around than a real one, and unlike David Tracy’s, there’s no chance of a tree falling on it.
Top graphic images: Etsy; Schaper Toys
These remind me of a toy I had as kid and loved. It was the Tomy Rip Rock n’ Roller. It was a kickass little monster truck that ran on a couple of AA’s but it had a pull starter on it. It sounded kinda like a running engine. It had a switch on top with three modes. Idle, Rev Up, and Drive or Go or something like that. It was 4 wheel drive and slow but it was fun watching it crawl over stuff. I had a habit of dismantling toys though. I took it apart and lost some pieces. What was left got thrown away at some point. I might have to get on eBay and find me another one at some point.
Thanks for the deep dive into toys I was about a decade too old to have whined to get. I would have loved a story arc in Mad Men around these things.
Finished watching the afternoon He-Man and M.A.S.K. episodes and now Jem & The Holograms are up next? Time to break out the stompers!
These were the greatest things ever! I had several of them when I was a kid.
I loved these things, had an old beige blanket that I’d use to make mountains and stuff for them to drive over. Did anyone else experiment by taking out the gears to see if fwd or rwd was better? Rwd ftw, iirc
…oh, man. That photo with the motor cover removed– it’s like a recovered memory for me!
(Anyone else discover that installing the battery backward made the Stomper go in reverse? Pointless, but still…)
I have zero memory of these. But, I remember being obsessed with Tyco Slot Cars & RC Cars, and when I was younger, I was all about the “Burnin’ Key Cars“!
Hell yeah, now we’re talking! I had a few of these as a kid and loved them.
I once found a white Stomper Peterbilt truck cab at a thrift store for $3. It was a Canadian version made for Canadian tire. Even without the trailer, I got about $500 on eBay for it.
I was 10 when these came out. Family was poor and it was Christmas. My mom asked all of us what we wanted for Christmas and told us she only had a little bit of money. This was the toy I asked for as it was cheap and being a 10 year old boy I wanted it.
Come Christmas morning no Stomper. It was the only Christmas morning I remember being disapoininted.
For my birthday in March my Mom got me one and I loved it to death. Literally. The toy only made it a couple of months before now 11 year old me finally killed it.
Move forward in time to Christmas 2008. My Mom when to my younger sister with the story and asked her to help her find one. Ebay to the rescue and I got the best Christmas present I have ever gotten in my life.
I went home that night with the wife and put a battery in it and ran it across the floor a few times and laughed my butt off at how cheaply cool it was.
The Stomper sits on my nightstand to this day as a reminder of how great a family I grew up in. No money but wealthy in all the things that really matter.
I rigged one up with a 9 volt battery back in the day just to see what would happen. Had quite a bit more power but made lots of sparks and ozone smell. Didn’t last very long either.
Your description from the first paragraph literally described a Saturday morning for me, minus the count chocula (Boomer mom didn’t like sweet cereals, bran flakes were sweet enough).
I had numerous stompers, probably still somewhere in my mom’s basement. I had the originals and the 2 speed ones. The ones with the flat tires, and the ones with the more rounded rubber tires. I found they worked really well with fat rubber bands stretched around both wheels to make a tank treaded mashup.
I had the Honcho, with the camper on it. Between that toy and Twister my GenX brain is permanently wired to understand that the Honcho is the coolest pickup ever made.
Thanks for the road trip down AA battery lane!
These were awesome…whoa, I didn’t know they had an AMC Eagle SX/4!
My brother had 2 AMC Eagles (the real cars) and one was an SX/4. I love that body style. As far as Saturday morning cartoons, I always watched Garfield and loved it
Omg I had that track set and I think I still have pieces around and have at least the bottom half of a stomper somewhere. What I super wanted but I don’t think never got was the WATER DEMONS that are shown on the back of the box. Water! Trucks! Electricity! An 80’s kid’s ultimate combo!
Oh maaaaaannnn; I missed this article yesterday because I was under sedation for an uncomfortable procedure/screening that all of us that played with Stompers should be getting every five years. IYKYK
I loved Stompers. I had a handful of them, including a semi or two. We built tracks for them in the dirt with banked turns and whoop-de-doos. I had a system for organizing my AA’s and always kept a fresh one in my back pocket when it came time for serious competition.
When I was in high school, we had a tractor pull on a linoleum floor with these. I won handily with my truck, which I attribute to loading the body with lead fishing weights. You know, for luck.
i forgot all about these. they were indeed awesome! i had the lil hustler and one of the blue trucks. i seem to recall them having a set of foam tires along with the rubber ones. Cant remember why though.
I apparently have a fortune in my attic! There should be a box with about a dozen of them somewhere. Probably next to the Armatron and Evil Knievel Stunt Cycle.
I remember having organized pulling competitions on the lunch tables at elementary school. We used spare AAs and pennies for weight.
My dad worked at the Eveready plant, so we ALWAYS had batteries!
Dibs on the Stunt Cycle
I bought the re-issued version a couple of years ago for my grandson. (and so I’d have one to play with again!)
Your dad worked at Eveready? So jealous; batteries were a precious resource. We would get mad if one of our mothers bought the wrong brand, or generics; we knew which ones were the best.
“Liberated” batteries were a common sight in our house! A lot of them were mis-print cases, but I’m sure more than a few fell into pockets off the production line in that place! Dad worked maintenance and has stories! My favorite was the smuggled German beer in crates of equipment parts.
My dad also worked for a battery company and there they were known as “home test” batteries. 😉
Going to see the monster trucks in Detroit silver dome (and getting mud flung onto my clothes) and playing in the school’s sandbox with my stomper in grade 2 was the highlight of my life in 1990 or so. Now I have to look through my toy box to see if I still have it.
Oh yeah, I was obsessed when I was 5-6. Actually that electric motor is very nostalgic for me too. You’d find little motors exactly like that inside all kinds of electronics if you uh… on second thought I have no idea what happened to the tape recorder, I bet it was the dog.
Stompers were way cool. This reminds me: those RC cars in the 80s that only turned one direction, when you went in reverse, were so lame. For some reason, Stompers didn’t bother me not turning at all.
Those RC cars drove me crazy. As a kid, I always wanted RC cars, but we couldn’t afford “real” ones, so the couple times I got anything it was always the kind you described. I was so put off by them that I eventually gave up on RC… until one day at the age of 44 I finally realized “hey, I can try a real hobby-grade RC now” and I’ve been hooked ever since!
What, no mention of the perhaps the weirdest (and therefore coolest) one, the Datsun 280ZX? Had the rear louvers and everything IIRC.
I had a bunch of Stompers when I was 5-6, before Transformers and MOTU came along to steal my attention away from them. We even had one of the tracks, as I recall. I had three younger brothers, so by the time the youngest was through childhood, few of my old toys had survived. I have no idea what became of the Stompers.
As a few others have mentioned, there was a popular Stompers Happy Meal at McDonald’s. I think they ran that campaign multiple times, judging by the variety of models and color variations that can still be found at flea markets around the US. And unlike their larger battery-powered brothers, the freewheeling McDonald’s Stompers can usually be had for a few dollars when you find them. I’ve managed to amass a small collection of them.
The stance of my Dodge Ram 50 4×4 has always reminded me of a Stomper, so much so that I made a Stomper sticker for the back window.
I’d also be in favor of a regular series on car-related toys of our childhoods. There’s a ton of content there.
SST! I had the demo derby ones too
Memory overload! I probably had a dozen of these, even a semi! Man that was wild. Thank you!
Didn’t McDonald’s have a happy meal based on these? They were inferior windups that were about a third the size. I have lots of schoolyard memories of us putting our MickyDs 4x4s through their paces during recess.
I had a whole bunch of hand me down stompers and playsets I got from my older GenX cousins. I loved them. And then one day they were all gone. My mom had cleaned house and they were a victim of her over zealous decluttering.
I’m still mad.
Was it a popular toy in the ’80s? Then of course there was a Happy Meal version! T