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Computacar

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This Memory is looking a little short on nostalgia! Have you got anything you could add?

I think it was called Computer Car, from the very early 70's. It was a red hard top car. Battery operated. You fed a strip of card into the back. The card had notches cut into it, depending on the notches the card steered left or right , went forward or backward. You had precut card and some to design yourself.

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Do You Remember Computacar?

Do You Remember Computacar?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Just looking at it now and it's made by "Mettoy Playcraft"under license from"Hasbro Industries USA" (car Made in japan)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Got my first one for Christmas 1970,it was the most hi-tech thing I had seen in my 9 years on planet Earth.Pretty good GT40 look-a-like,needed a big room to use it in but it did work pretty well and was quite a good way to learn how to program a " computer" , the "Rubbish in, Rubbish out" maxim definitely works here as the car does EXACTLY what you "tell" it to! I dont know what happened to the original one,I left it in my ma and pa's loft when I moved out in 1979 and it just disappeared. This Xmas tho my brother surprised me by giving me one he had searched out for me on Ebay (mint , almost un-played-with condition,in box with all the cones,the instruction book and uncut cards). It needs the pinch-roller replacing, as the original has perished, but is otherwise in "ready-to-go" order. It is so simple but at the same time a brilliant idea and even today I am still,as an engineer, impressed with the build quality and the whole package. There are several on Ebay at the moment for not a lot of £ so I recommend you have a look and maybe treat yourself to an iconic 70's Tech-toy.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I think that WAS the same thing, Matthew. ComputaCar was made by Airfix in one of their early forays away from making model kits and board games, although I believe they came out later than '70- I think they were launched in '79. They could actually follow some pretty complex instructions, and were more advanced than many of today's electronic action toys for kids- whilst remote-controlled stuff abounds nowadays, I don't believe there is anything today that can actually be PRE-PROGRAMMED and sent off on it's own without remote guidance. They were among the many and varied toys that it was out of the question being afforded for me when I was about 10....Ah, me!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Yes, I had the red one & I think it,s still in my loft! Nigel (aged 48&3/4)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I don't know whether this is the same thing but i had a black Corvette which had a key pad under the bonnet and you programmed it in the same way as a Big Trak. It went forward,backwards,left and right and you could make it flash its lights. Not as exciting as a Big Trak but it looked cool and scared the hell out of our cat!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    It was actually Computacar - I had the white one & never managed to get my own cards to work well enough to get through the traffic cones. AFAIK it came out in 1970.

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