Identify A Toy

[Stomski]

WAS: Help me find a toy from my childhood

I remember having a set through my early years, so I guess this would have been released early 80s... But I recall seeing it rebranded later.

Basically there was a track which a small motorised car thing would drive around. As it went it would drive underneath various attachments. One made it look like a dump truck, another something else, I forget the details.

The idea being that it would pick up ball bearings, drive to the next point, the ball bearings would get transferred and off it went.

Think it may have been made by fisher price, but not sure.

[Stomski]

In fact, I'm wondering whether the set was adapted to be Thomas The Tank Engine themed in the 90s???

[Gav]

I would say definitely adapted to the Thomas line, since I was playing with it not 6 months ago as we cleared out a lot of my little brothers stuff.

Not sure where it originated from, but Thomas would be a good starting point for the investigation.

[Jaymz]

It's called Big Loader, I had one as a kid, is probably still in my parents house somewhere.

There's videos of it on youtube, and it seems to have grown from what I remember:

[The Doctor]

That is absolutely amazing!

-Ralph

[kayevcee]

I got one of those at a jumble sale at St Julie's Primary when I was six, along with a board game called Tank Battle. They were both complete and my mum only spent about £3. It didn't come with assembly instructions though, so I was one happy chap when we figured out how the whole track fit together:)

I'm honestly not sure if it was originally a Tomy design, but I'm sure Google will be able to find out for us.

-Nick

[Stomski]

Thank you! Someone else at work remembered this too.

The track in that video above looks bigger than I remember, I don't remember the extra raised section with the lift and the "helter skelter".

edit: This set is much more like the one I remember...
www.amazon.co.uk/Tomy-5001-Big-Loader/dp/B00000ITAE

[Nigel]

The one in the video looks like two sets combined to me. I knew of these, but to see it in action is so mesmerising and therapeutic.

[blueshift]

I had somethign similar, but it was a dog which would run around a track delivering a bone, a newspaper and a... sausage to the correct locations. IT KNEW!

[The Doctor]

WOW!

-Ralph

[Stomski]

Looks like the Big Big Big Loader is a complete set and not a mash up of pieces...
athomedaddy.blogspot.com/2007/05/tomy-big-big-big-loader.html

[Stomski]

Look how much the kids enjoy the latest Thomas version!

[Philip Ayres]

M'learned colleague Llama God spots this toy in the BB Movie. Anyone know what it is?

[blueshift]

Hmm my first thought was a Captain Power vehicle, but the two with those canopies are subtly different

www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=actionfigure&id=28415&figure=atrmobileprotoncannon
www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure?action=actionfigure&id=28416&figure=magnacycle

[Philip Ayres]

I thought it might be Battleforce 2000 but neither the Vector or Vindicator are quite the right shape

www.yojoe.com/vehicles/87/

It looks like there might be wings of some kind to the sides of the cockpit.

Don't think it's SW, Star Trek, Micronauts, GIJoe Battleforce 2000, VR Troopers, Captain Power & New Adventures of He-Man.

[Philip Ayres]

It's a Silverhawks Sprinthawk www.lulu-berlu.com/silverhawks-kenner-sprinthawk-loose-a21693-en.html

[Toph]

There's a TNG shuttle who's design didn't exist until the nineties, and certainly no toy would exist, even of a contemporary TNG shuttle, at the time this was set.

[primenova]

I was going to ask that if the shuttle had later series number on it

[Toph]

There were two types of shuttles used on the show in the eighties-
Type 7: www.ditl.org/ship-page.php?ClassID=fedtype7&ListID=Ships
And the Type 15: www.ditl.org/ship-pictures.php?ClassID=fedtype15&ImageNo=1&ListID=Ships

The Type 6: www.ditl.org/ship-page.php?ClassID=fedtype6&ListID=Ships
Which I believe is the one above (it might even be a Voyager varient, the type 8), didn't make it's debut until the nineties. It was actually made from the exterior of the shuttle used in Doc's favoritest movie ever.

But Even if I'm mistaken and that shuttle was introduced in the eighties, no toy existed of any TNG shuttles, until the nineties. And I doubt any model did, of that size.

Edit: STV was released in '89. Since the type six is a reuse and rebuild of it's shuttle, there's no way it appeared before 1990.

[Llama God]

Which is why I did indeed post the original photo on Twitter, since this discovery RUINS BUMBLEBEE FOREVER.

[The Huff]

Anyone know what these are from? They look familiar and remind me of Insecticon weapons, but I know they are not.