Mettoy Computacar

I recently bought two almost-working examples of the 1970 battery operated toy 'Computacar', along with two spare custom car bodies, to supplement the slightly tatty non-working model that has stood on my DVD player for a number of years. I had one as a kid, but it went in the dustbin long ago.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Ford GT40
• Buick
• Century
• Amazo-matics
• Computacar
• Mettoy
• toy
• model
• car
• computer

[rx6180]

Sounds like a pretty good idea. If I want to try it, I'll have to source the heat shrink tubing from elsewhere. We used to be able to get Radio Shack stuff in the UK from a chain of Tandy stores, but they all ceased to exist several years ago.

[lislesinger]

My Computacar had the same problem, the rubber wheel was old, somewhat shrunken and hard. So I went to Radio Shack and got some black heat-shrink tubing- a 12-pack of assorted sizes, item# 278-1627. The size appears to be 9Ø. I unscrewed the metal chassis and pried off the toothed metal ring that holds the wire that goes into the metal part near the axle. Then I pried one end of the rubber wheel's axle out and slid a short piece of tubing and shrank it with a blow dryer. Now it works!

[capricious71]

Thanks for the upload. I had the white one of these back in the late 70s. :)

[ToyKingWonder]

wedge a piece of plastic or cardboard into where the spike comes out and just keep the spike in a downward position.  Next, the biggest problem as you likely noticed was with the rollers. I have devised a method using a rubber roller that works fantastic. I have done it on three of my cars and it works really well. You can google amaze a matics and Preston Marketing for a small web page. I will be doing a video showing repairs soon!

[ToyKingWonder]

I enjoyed your video. I am a collector of these as well and have many comments for you. I take it you are from the UK and using the Mettoy versions of this. In the US, Hasbro marketed it as an Amaze a Matic, and I really believe they were all made by Bandai in Japan, although there is a debate on who designed it first! Anyways, here are my thoughts--

On the steering "spike", you can replace the return spring with a stronger one. Also, instead of removing the spike guide, you can wedge

[rcdrifter95]

@rx6180 That sounds like a good treatment! Our gears haven't come loose, but it may be because we haven't taken it apart, or maybe it's just a matter of time before they come loose. I really hope you can fix the old one( and the rest too), because these are great fun when they work right!

[rx6180]

Yes, the motors on all three run, though the one I got from Germany didn't when I got it. I took the motor out and connected it to a 3V transformer and it was okay, cleaned all the contacts (which looked clean anyway) put the motor back and it ran in the chassis, though the gear on the end spun off and had to be glued back on. Think that was a manufacturing fault. The oldest one didn't run either but did after the same treatment. The old one is still not properly assembled though, lacks roller.

[rcdrifter95]

@rx6180 in theory, it would work I think,but there might be some problems putting it on? I can' t fix the remaining problems with our computacar, because I don't have it where I live now, but when I can get to my grandpa, I'm gonna fix it! Does the electric motor work on your cars? Amazingly after not running for probably 10- 15, all that took was an adjustment of the batteries to make it run!

[rx6180]

@rcdrifter95 Yes I suppose so. I've got three or four little rubber plugs I made at work, in varying degrees of accuracy, to try ot turn into rubber rollers when I get the time. I'm not sure whether to use them or not. The most recent Computacars I bought tend to sit around in their boxes in the spare room till I have time to look at them! The oldest one that sits on my DVD player in the living room is the one that currently doesn't work at all and has no roller on it.

[rcdrifter95]

@rx6180 oh, heah, that's right, but maybe you could somehow like rug it up so it's more grippy, if you know what I mean?