RC R2
I had the remote control R2D2 as a kid, it stopped walking pretty quickly but it was still good to use with the 12″ dolls so I was content, also it still made it’s beeping noise much to mother’s chagrin. She once threatened to throw it out of the station wagon!
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Vintage RC are always cool, even those simple ones.
I had the R2 and remember it making noises on its own in the middle of the night and creeping out my entire family. Always assumed I just left it in the on position but maybe it was something else….
I remember the commercials for R2 and Tobor were as opposite as their designs; R2's was bright and peppy, while Tobor's had ominous music with a serious voiceover. I didn't have either toy, but if I did, they would have been frenemies.
If Tobor came out in the '60s, he might have been named "Tibor," and the serious voiceover might have told us -just as unnecessarily- that "Tibor is 'robit' spelled backwards.
If Tobor had come out in the 50s there would have been a lawsuit, as there was a robot called Tobor in the 50s movie Tobor the Great and 50s TV show Captain Video.
Ah, the days of RC cars with only forward and back and right.
Even the $10 cars are multi-directional now…
Heck, I can even remember the ones that weren't RC, but used wired controllers.
I still love the commercial in the Holiday Special:
"Tobor is robot spelled backwards!"
I've had the Tobor since Christmas 1978, but I didn't get the R2-D2 until recently. I have the original, and my nephew has the new version. As for the TV commercials, I have them in the DVD for the Star Wars Holiday Special, which turned 40 yesterday.
R2 D2 RC was one of the coolest toys ever to my 8 year old self. I didn't have one but my friend did and Star Wars was complete toy and movie magic to all my friends. Such good memories.
Tobor looks like he can't wait to climb into the ring at Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots '78.
He was the kind of rough customer who gave every Treadwell and Power-Droid in the schoolyard a lifetime of bad memories. Usually had two or three MSE-6 Repair Droids hanging around him as look-outs/ gophers/ flunkies.
This Anon is going to clear up a lifetime of worry for Danny Cruz. It was the switch. The switch on RC R2 was a nice sturdy metal one with a solid detent.
https://www.picclickimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMzAx/z/~QQAAOSwGotWo-MK/$/Vintage-Star-Wars-Radio-Controlled-R2-D2-_1.jpg
https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images4/1/0715/19/1977-star-wars-remote-control-r2-d2_1_1253d861f904ff5b69e976f765c77d7e.jpg
If you didn't push it all the way over until you heard the click, it would pop back.
Yours truly made the same mistake once or twice. Finding my astromech unit doing auditioning for Exorcist III crossed with Poltergeist frightened the jeebers out of me. After the second time, I was very careful to make sure that switch "clicked" when I was done.
Even then, RC R2 was easily influenced by The Dark Side Of The Force.
One of our neighbors was into HT/ CB/ HAM, pretty much everything amateur radio. His van had more antennas than a Russian fishing boat off the coast of Alaska. Whatever he was up to, that guy made playing with RC R2 a real hassle on the weekends sometimes.
These rc toys look simple and rough, but it is the best toy in many people's childhood memories.