Toy cars that operate under their own power have been a thing as long as practical cars themselves have been a thing, with wind-up versions of the earliest automobiles hitting toy store shelves as quickly as the real things took to roads. Toy cars that could be automatically controlled in some way were the next logical step forward, and tether cars (literally a tether attached to the car and anchored to the ground so the car would run in a circle) and mechanisms that reversed a clockwork car if it crept past the edge of a table or reversed it if it bumped into an obstacle were common.
Cars that could be “programmed” to perform different actions would come later, but well ahead of actual computing technology in the sense that we think of it today. For this Toy Car Thursday Friday, let’s take a look at some of the ways toy makers have given kids the ability to customize their motorized toy-car fun.
First, and least satisfying, we have Trik-Trak from forgotten toy maker Transogram, which was mostly known for games. Though not marketed as a programmable anything, the Trik-Trak concept functions as a sort of physical program. By placing disconnected track elements in the car’s path, you can send it anywhere you like. The car itself is “dumb,” you just turn it on and let it loose to slowly do its thing. According to Transogram, it was THE GREATEST!
Trik-Trak was supported by a television campaign featuring a creepy kid and his creepier father. The boozy, honking sax music, the way the young lad shouts “Terrific,” and how his Dad repeats it with a shudder-inducing grin to the camera will haunt you.
Trik-Trak’s initial offering was just an assortment of turns, which must have gotten old quick – even with the thrilling addition of the rotating section in the center for on-the-fly course changes.
But at least the little car was cool? Ehh, not so much. This mishmash of sports-car tropes is coming off very aquatic. Note too the friction-driven rear wheels, with a rubber roller contacting the smooth plastic wheel.
The Trik-Trak Dare Devil set upped the excitement with action-feature obstacles for the restyled car and its new but still janky closed-cockpit look. The “Dolphin Racer” was upgraded to gear drive “for longer battery life,” according to the commercial a little farther below.
The set included a teeter-totter, “fly apart” house, logs to plow through, and a stair-step-like rack that would make the car somersault before landing back on its wheels. Watch:
OK, that’s enough Trik-Trak. Let’s get into some …
Actually Programmable Cars
A truly programmable car allows changeable instructions to be stored inside the car and replayed. The earliest means of doing this that I am aware of is via cams, as employed by Ideal for its “Motorific Computer Car,” though I’m not sure Ideal was the first to market a cam-controlled car. It’s not Toy History Thursday Friday, so I’m not that worried about it. Anyway … the concept is simple and ingenious.
As this screengrab from the video below shows, the underside of the car (which is diecast, nice) has an opening for interchangeable, multi-lobed cams to be twist-fit onto a rotating base. A cam follower attached to steering bellcranks changes the car’s direction as the follower rises and falls over the lobes. Pretty neat!
Here’s a deeper look at the Motorific Computer Car:
Radio Shack offered what I think is a superior spin (no pun intended) on the cam-car concept, and I’m sure the same cars were marketed under other brand names as well. Sold as “Programmable” and “Computer” cars, these vehicles were larger than the Ideal models (which look about 1/32 scale to my eye) and appear easier to operate with their top-loaded cams. Also enticing: the replica bodies are nicely detailed and realistic, right down to operating headlights on some models.
The patrol car is wonderful, but get a load of this Porsche 917! What appears to be a boat propeller incongruously emerging from the engine cover is the programming cam for an pentagon pattern, according to the box panel below.
I like how the “cams” for straight running and a continuous circle are simply round, with the diameter set to hold the wheels straight or at an angle.
Here’s a look at the cam mechanism, which I think is quite elegant. The cam fits onto an output shaft with a hex-socket interface so it doesn’t slip, and the cam follower is a post attached to a sliding rack that reaches up to the front wheels. As the post tracks the cam’s contour, it slides the rack back and forth to operate the steering bellcranks. You can see the mechanism in action in the video below.
I shall be scouring eBay for one of those Porsche 917s.
Card Or Cam? Both!
Magnetic tape data storage was already a thing when Hasbro’s Amaze-A-Matic arrived around 1970, but punchcard storage was still very much associated with computer technology. And so, inserting shaped (but not punched) cards into a motorized car as a means of loading commands was “computer” enough for Amaze-A-Matics, “The Fantastic Car With A Brain.” But, truth be told, Amaze-A-Matics were essentially cam-cars.
Each Amaze-A-Matic “program” was a stiff card inserted into the chassis that was pulled through the car via a friction roller. Pre-shaped cards were included to simulate actual tracks, and blank cards were provided so kids could create custom programs. Or their Moms or Dads could, and maybe not even then – it wasn’t the most intuitive thing, and the Amaze-A-Matic manual has strong “the engineers wrote it” vibes. You can freeze-frame the video below for excerpts.
For users with some mechanical inclination, however, Amaze-A-Matic operation became crystal clear with a look at the exposed mechanism beneath the chassis. I’ve colorized the critical parts for easier viewing, and you’ve probably already surmised what’s going on. The car has two followers that move in and out as the program card passes between them. One follower operates steering bellcranks, Motorific-style; the other follower translates its motion to a movable gear via a wire lever, which engages forward, reverse, or neutral depending on position. It’s cam-car technology, but the cam profile is translated to series input with a start and finish rather than a continuous loop.
It’s very clever! And the body styles are pretty sweet, too. Let’s watch the commercial:
Big Trak, the programmable car to rule them all
Now we arrive at the first truly programmable toy car in the mode that we associate with programming: ones and zeros stored on a chip to execute commands electronically. Milton Bradley (or more accurately, “MB Electronics”) was going hard on electronic toys and games in 1979, and the Big Trak was the brand’s halo car, if you will.
It remains iconic for its beautifully realized sci-fi design and powerful (for the time, for a toy) computing ability. It wasn’t the easiest toy to master, however; have a look at the manual yourself and you’ll understand why many a kid went directly to Mom or Dad for help operating the membrane keypad controls. I deciphered the system for the younger neighbor kid when I was twelve and was able to teach him how to do it, so it mustn’t have been that hard, but yeah, it wasn’t just a few easy steps – you really had to commit to learning.
Here’s the UK commercial for Big Trak. You can tell it’s the UK model because it’s white, and the kid sounds like he’s out of a third-grade production of The Clockwork Orange.
And here’s Big Trak’s membrane keypad. I defy you to figure out how to program this thing just by looking at the buttons, but the concept is easy to glean: you input units of distance via the numbers, place turn points and forward/reverse changes via the arrows, and insert laser blasts via the fire button.
Big Trak is the best-executed and best-known computer-programmable car toy, but not the only one. FunDimensions offered The Incredible Brain Buggy, a good-looking model of the Lamborghini Cheetah (though not officially called out as such), its pushbutton controls appear much less versatile than what Big Trak offered. If you had one, let me know in the comments; I never saw one as a kid.
Also news to me: LJN’s 255 Computer Command, a very sharp-looking C3 Corvette that tantalizingly hides its membrane keypad beneath the hood.
The 255 Computer Command is so named because “You have 255 possibilities!” for programs, which seems low given all the variables presented by the controls below. Along with the direction and travel units, there are light, siren, and horn controls. Once again, I’d love to hear from you if you had one of these!
… and that includes another Toy Car Thursday, but on Friday. More next week, most likely on Thursday! But no promises.
Top graphic images: eBay sellers
Ooo! Ooo! One of my earliest Xmas memories is one of those Cam cars. It was probably one of the Radio Shack/Tandy ones. It was Very Orange and based on my fuzzy, half century plus old memories, of hazard a guess it was a Lotus Europa. I remember being fascinated by the cams, even if my dad had to help me operate it.
I had two friends with Big Traks. I always wanted one but …
Let’s not forget the GI Joe motorized tank. I would build a house out of Lincoln Logs and then have the tank ram it, recreating the destruction of the police department from the James Garner movie “Tank”.
If you ever want to do HO Slot Cars I have a lot of useless history stored in my brain, and a decent list of digital sources, and a modest collection of cars new and old.
I was hoping the 255 Computer Command would get a mention here. I loved that thing. I brought it to school for show and tell and it was like I was showing fire to Neandertals for the first time.
I had a cam car when I was a kid. It didn’t get played with much, because it did exactly what the article says it does – goes in some kind of cam-driven pattern, usually involving whacking the baseboards in the hallways outside of my room. As cool as it sounded, I had plenty of other toy cars I could steer in any direction I wanted just by, you know, moving them around with my hands.
Haha – same here. I had the Porsche cam car in white. My absolute favorite alternative was the Corgi Driving School VW Beetle that had a working steering wheel on the roof. I literally drove the tires off of that thing as was elated to discover that my Lego tires were a suitable replacement.
The cam-programmed cars reminded me of a model kit I got for Christmas when I was a kid. It was a Fletcher-class destroyer made by Lindbergh. Remember this as being an incredibly big model – something like 3′ long. It came with a motor, battery tray (I think it took like 6 D-cells) and a rod apparatus that connected with a removable cam so you could make it do something besides steam away from you. They weren’t terribly “accurate” kits, but I know that they became popular for RC conversion.
Back in the day, my dad’s doctoral thesis involved crunching the numbers of a lot of experimental data, a huge job to do by hand. What he did instead was generate a program in FORTRAN on punchcards, and the program would take in the data, do whatever it was he needed done and barf out the results. He eventually had the results hardbound in a book.
I haven’t tried to read it.
But even though it’s using the shaped edges of cards to provide a cam follower a contour to ride against, I still call that programming. It’s not a computer but a crude kind of memory, and it works.
Long after he was done with the FORTRAN cards and we had eventually purchased a personal computer – Morrow Designs, if that sets the timeframe for anyone – I would apply the cards to a new function as card house construction material. Being way bigger than playing cards – and having literally hundreds of them – the houses got huge.
I might be the last person alive who can programme in FORTRAN (Oh I suspect the Jason probably can), The tiny rectangles that fell out (chads, I do not know why) were, and are a 1/76 scale size of a UK standard house brick profile. Some of my model railway buildings are covered in them. Oddly, I have yet to be legally defined as any thing other than sane.
I suspect that Torch probably cannot, as he’s a bit too young for it. But if there’s any weirdo east of the Mississippi who can tell you where to shop for blank cards, he at least likely knows who that person is.
In my experience that is indeed the hallmark of a cool little car:
https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/KV_Engine.jpg
Aren’t those ‘cams” from that one car the same pieces in that game “Perfection?” Lol
When I was a little kid, I got a complete and working Amaze-a-Matic Buick at a rummage sale, It was a bit tricky to cut the program card correctly and any dust would stop it from feeding but it was cool as hell and worked as advertised.
The Trik Trak looks like the ancient grandfather of Tamiya’s Mini-4WD series, where the track steers the car. Of course, Mini-4WD track is continuous, much tighter, and the cars go _much_ faster. Unless you’re talking about the monster truck Mini-4WDs, which come with guides that fit inside the big rubber wheels and look remarkably like the wheels of the Trik Trak car.
I’m calling you out Peter, or is it Peter a Russian spy trying to brainwash the Autopian elite. My first track was hot wheels. You set up the track and the cars follow it. Then the first control car not mentioned here was battery powered with a controller and 6 feet of cord and you walked behind it and steered. That sucks. I’ll take that trick trac over that any day, hell I’ll take it over tick tock any day. I can’t believe you try to convince us pre- programmed cars are better. Stuff a card in that you don’t know what it says and the car goes 20 feet and turns a couple times. I prefer the electric race track that you at least control the speed. I mean what is put a card in and watch? Get the kid involved. Heck hot wheels gave you more control than a preprogrammed car that drove 20 yards. And I say this as the undefeated electronic race car driver of the Tallahassee Democrat. It was based on a subscription sales contest of the newspaper. And yes I sold more subscriptions than anyone else.
I think I knew one kid who had the big track, remember turning it on to try it, but then moved on because my(our) brains were in play mode, not program mode. Distinctly remember this thing though.
I watched the videos expecting “creepy” and “shudder inducing” I ended up with quaint. Maybe more kids commercials should be in black and white and no computer graphics allowed. At least we get to see the car in action.
I had the 255 Computer Command. I would spend hours trying to program it to drive down the hallway from my bedroom, turn right at the kitchen, and pull into the den and honk. It wasn’t very consistent and would always turn too soon or too late. I miss that car.
For some reason, the Trik Trak setup makes me think it could be turned into a fun 3Dprinting project…
It is the best car set up of the ones shown. But no hot wheels or electric race cars. Does Peter not have access to toys? Maybe he is Petre from behind the iron curtain or his parents bought him books and clothes for Christmas instead of toys. Let’s not hate him let’s introduce him to the western world of toys. Frankly hot wheels is better than any of the mentioned games.
I stand by that
I remember the Amaze-A-Matics. They came out when I was a teenager and much too old for a toy car. So I bought one.
I *was* the right age and got one for Christmas (the yellow one that was supposed to be a Charger but looked more generic). They were as I recall not easy to program.
That Buick Century Cruiser seems a little familiar. As do the cam cards. I wonder if I or one of my cousins had one back in the day. My folks didn’t usually spring for expensive toys, so it may have been someone else’s.
That is a pre- programmed not programmable and for awhile that is how regular computers were programmed including NASA. This is an indictment of our educational system when an old guy who grew up when the only computers were calculated and now so called experts can’t identify which kids car game is better.
Petre can you dial a rotary phone? LOL
The Buick is light blue/dark blue car, right? If so, I had one of those. Did you have cousins in San Antonio?
Yes to the light blue/dark blue car being the one that looks familiar. No to the cousins in San Antonio. My (first) cousins were nearly all in either Kansas or Colorado.
On the small chance that we actually owned it, I’ll have to dig through the boxes my folks sent me when they moved house in 2000, see if it’s there.
It may have been just nerdy enough for my dad to buy us. We did have a Commodore Pet after all.
Cox used to make cam-directed cars, too. I had the Adam-12 Patrol Car. It made a lot of noise, crashed into things and left a trail of castor oil wherever it went. 5-year-old me thought it was the best thing ever.
Was it styled more like the AMC Matador or the Plymouth Satellite?
Pretty good 1/8-scale Matador. Even had the AMC dog-dish hubcaps.
There was also an optional trailer for Big Trak. It could be programmed to dump its cargo (as if programming the Big Trak itself wasn’t difficult enough).
What I mostly remember about Big Trak was the large amount of D batteries it took, and how it depleted them super fast. So it a lot of ways, very authentic to the giant offroad vehicle experience I guess.
The trailer is shown in the British commercial! Kid delivers apple to his dad. Peak toy commercial nonsense and I love it.
I swear the US market commercial was exactly the same as the UK version – presumably with US actors, but all of that looked very familiar.
Oh there it is – thank you! And reminded me what the laser blaster sounded like (which also lit up) too. The USDM gray model was definitely better looking – reminds me of how back then, medium gray was the height of cool when it came to vehicles.
Friend of mine who lived next door had a Big Trak and trailer. We figured out how to program it to roam an entire floor of the house! Fun times.
Never heard of this but it has to be the best setup ever. Apparently the new generation wants to unwrap the toy and just let it run on its own.
Go outside and don’t come back until the street lights come on, and if you are thirsty drink out of the hose.
Surprisingly today’s generation can’t get enough of the Zombies, nuclear winter, or other end of world crap but don’t realize after the end none of the electronic equipment will work.
I can’t help but read “Big Trak” as referring to the infamous Trak cartel/lobby, as in “Big Oil” or “Big Tech.” Not yet sure what “Trak” is, but maybe that’s just the way Big Trak likes it?
The Amaze-A-Matics box looks like an album cover for a band that opened up for the B-52s in ’78.
It looks like Mr. Numan trying to avoid telling young Gary why Mrs Numan ran a way with a roadie from The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
It looks like the Mael brothers from Sparks teaching a toy car the dance steps to the Martian Hop.
255, because the engineer’s boss couldn’t comprehend how to start counting from 0.
I assume they called it the 255, and that it had “255 possibilities” because of an 8bit memory (256 values). And maybe programming in 0 was the empty program, so they didn’t count it towards the “possibilities”.
“Possibility zero; sitting in the closet”.
What was
256255 do you suppose? Because sure that’s a binary number, but what was the limit?1, left
2, right
3, straight
4, straight then right.
Etc.
Seems coincidental that the total memory and available command combination resulted in 256. Algebra eluded me…
No mention of the lego barcode truck? https://thelegocarblog.com/2013/08/15/8479-barcode-truck/
With a controller you scanned barcodes corresponding to specific actions like straight, left, stop.
“Trik-Trak was supported by a television campaign featuring a creepy kid and his creepier father. The boozy, honking sax music, the way the young lad shouts “Terrific,” and how his Dad repeats it with a shudder-inducing grin to the camera will haunt you.”
THIS is what counts as “creepy” and “shudder-inducing” now?
“Big Trak, the programmable car to rule them all”
I had one. Big Traks were kind of like Daleks, both easily defeated by stairs but for the Big Trak add 1970s plush and shag carpet too. The O rings the hard plastic wheels used for traction also quickly broke and good luck finding replacements. Oh and batteries. This thing ate batteries and in the early ’80s those were not cheap.
There was an add on trailer too which could be programmed to dump its load. AND a bonus fun fact I didn’t know until I read the wiki, the Soviet Union copied the Big Trak as the Soviet Lunokhod and Planetokhod.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak
Now in my head I imagine everyone’s favorite KGB sleeper agents Philip and Elizabeth Jennings stealing the plans for Big Trak out of the top secret Milton Bradly HQ for the glory of the Soviet Union.
That kid and his dad freaked me out, you’re mileage may vary
It might indeed.
we took rides with strangers, so….
And drank hose water. Must have been all the lead in the air.
Oh man, I can still taste hose water..
Nothing else tastes quite like it. Puddle water comes close though.
yeah, but you don’t get those delicate notes of hot rubber.
That greatly depends on how many shoes have been tromped through it.
I was going to write something similar. The ad was typical-for-the-time cheesy, but creepy? Maybe I’ve just seen too much in this life.
I didn’t own a Big Trak, but knew several kids with it and I think I saw one run once because the batteries were usually dead. The consolation was learning that my parents weren’t the only ones who never bought replacement batteries for toys, though that’s one reason I had no interest in it—I learned young not to ask for toys that required batteries to work. Maybe grown up generations who lived through garbage batteries as kids are the reason behind range anxiety with EVs today.
My birthday is January 3. Besides being the first day back to school unless it fell on a weekend, it was perfect timing for the first (and yeah, sometimes only) set of replacement batteries for the Christmas toys.