# is this for real???



## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

I dont see it in Tyco book on this car.. ??? it looks like its a custom job from one epay that i know (used chrometechusa.com for this chrome job?)

check it out. 

Item # 120180582613 on epay.

Wes


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

It's a sharp looking car but priced way out of sight. 

There was a vendor at the Richfield show selling chromed versions of dozens of popular slot car bodies. They looked awesome and were extremely well done. But he told me he was having a heck of a time moving them and the prices were not bad at all. Yeah, factory chrome is probably worth a premium, but chrome seems to have a niche market from what I can tell. An aftermarket chrome job and some Pattos decals can satisfy your chrome needs for a lot less than two hundred bucks.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Wouldn't mind adding that one to my collection but not at that price.  rr


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

WesJY said:


> I dont see it in Tyco book on this car.. ??? it looks like its a custom job from one epay that i know (used chrometechusa.com for this chrome job?)
> 
> check it out.
> 
> ...


Wes,

This seller is from Singapore.

Check out his feedback and click on some of his ended auctions. Like this one..... # 120168814531

I like the chrome look. Not for that much $$$$ though.

chrometechusa.com is a great chromer....used them before and will again. Have that buisness card in my Wallet just to remind myself not to forget about them. Had a AFX oil tanker trailer done by Chrometeckusa and it came out Fantastic....really nice guy also.

Bob...zilla

Bob...zilla


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## cagee (Apr 20, 2007)

Maybe chrome is where the money is. Not really my style though. If I was gonna spend 200 bucks I think I could pick up a couple of real nice aurora cars I have my eye on.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Ahh...the Singapore gang may be back!

Here is the story as I understand it.

Back when Tyco was still producing cars at a significant rate, they were unable to keep up with the demand at their current facility so they contracted with a Singapore company to help get the cars and chassis produced. This other company either got the molds from Tyco directly, or made copies of the existing molds. The cars and parts were then marketed by Tyco.

Once the contract expired, the Singapore company still had the molds, and probably an excess amount of left over inventory. Back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, a couple guys from Singapore started selling Tyco cars and parts on eBay, along with some original Aurora AFX stuff. Most of the Tyco cars and parts were pretty common, but there were quite a bit of rare, and sometimes original, cars which would show up. Such as the #2 Miller car without the airdam. I can remember at least the following chrome cars being sold: Hardee's #18 (2 versions), Mellow Yellow #51, Zerex #7, Exxon #51 (??), 97 Corvette, F40 Ferrari and Lamborghini. The non NASCAR cars were selling for about $20 each. The others were way up there, like $200.

Some of you collectors may remember them selling a green version of the Tyco Lumina #3. This car does not appear in any Tyco catalog. The body is extremely brittle and can crack very easily. As I understand the story, this green color is the result of the fluid used to clean the molds. In other words, these bodies were molded before all the cleaning fluid had been flushed from the molds, thereby making the bodies brittle.

I have been assured that Tyco never produced the chrome cars, although you may find an old Tyco flyer which shows some chrome cars. These would include the #24 Dupont and #3 Goodwrench. Obviously, they at least made a prototype. So, when were these chrome cars from Singapore produced? Were they produced by this other company during the Tyco contract and never released? Or where they produced afterwards? I do not have a answer to that.

None of these rare and unreleased Tyco cars appear in Dan Esposito's books. Dan only included in his book those cars which can verifiable be shown to have been produced by Tyco. So, are they true Tyco cars? It depends on how you look at it. No matter how or when the cars were produced, they were produced using authentic Tyco molds and deco. However, they were produced by a subcontractor and maybe produced after the Tyco contract expired.

I bought a number of cars from the Singapore guys years ago and was never disappointed (except for the #3 Lumina, which I never touch). Some of the bodies are unique to the Singapore lot, such as a shark nose #0 Renault and a unique (different year) Corvette Challenge #33. I also got a number of cars with unfinished decos and F1/Indy cars without the front A arms. Jay Priestley, formerly of Jay's Race Place bought a lot of the Singapore cars. At one time he had all the chrome cars and gave them to me to put in my display case because he was afraid he might scuff them up. Unfortunately for me, he eventually found a buyer and I no longer have any of the NASCAR chrome cars. I still have the Corvette, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

So, there's the story as I have pieced it together. There are a number of purist who believe that the introduction of the Singapore cars was a terrible thing. It really depends on how you look at it. If the cars were produced from authentic Tyco molds, and produced by a company which produced other Tyco cars, just how do you classify them?

Joe


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

Joe, thanks for the info.. wow.. 

thanks guys for info..

Wes


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## Slot Dawg (Feb 4, 2007)

THere have been a lot of Chrome NASCAR on eBay recently here are a couple that sold much less. Buyer beware though, I think these would be easy to counterfeit and not everybody is 100% honest.

330169402893

330168916807

Dawg


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

cool bit of info Joe, I would call them tyco cars


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## tomhocars (Oct 19, 2005)

*Chrome cars*

Well here are some of the cars Joe was talking about.I remember when these two guys showed up from Singapore.There names were Hahn Lee and Ross Abbas.They needed a Brinks truck to leave they had so much money.Joe was right about the green one.I think it was carved out of a bar of soap.They are nice cars and the chrome is excellent.They are nice to have.
Tom Stumpf


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## smokinHOs (May 30, 2006)

As a collector (and racer), I shy away from the list of cars mentioned. Are they Tyco cars? I guess so. Are they high on my list to collect? Not at all. Anytime you get into the "gray" area of collecting, you tend to put your investment at risk. Who knows what they are or how they came about. The post earlier sums up what I have heard as well... from people who I regard as VERY well informed and much more of a collector than I will ever be. More a novelty than a Tyco collectible in my opinion. Cars like the Tasman stocker, Australian release Nascar set and others of the like are true Tyco collectibles in my book. I like to know they were verified as being released. There are too many talented people in our hobby to swear by the authenticity of some of the cars we might see listed. The safe bet is, only buy what you like and try to research whatever it is you do not know the history. 

Ultimately, we determine the value of the cars... I just find it funny that the more people by them, the more they show up for sale. How many are there? 10? 100? 1000?... I have a sneaking suspicion we will never know...

Keep it in the slot... -Marc


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

The #27 and #2 Miller cars were produced with air dams. This car was done up on a later non-air dam Lumina body. The chassis also has the wrong wheels on it. It has Indy size wheels and the back wheels look like narrow fronts.

$199. Ya OK. That's why nobody is bidding on it. Its not legit.


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## CJ53 (Oct 30, 2007)

I have the blue #3 Lumina..picked it up from the Days of Thunder promotional tour. They traveled all over, set up a track and you could run the days of thunder cars on their track.. Mine has never been on the track.. I pulled the pickup shoes off to make sure it never saw the track. It's a nice piece. 
Chris


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

tomhocars said:


> Well here are some of the cars Joe was talking about.I remember when these two guys showed up from Singapore.There names were Hahn Lee and Ross Abbas.They needed a Brinks truck to leave they had so much money.Joe was right about the green one.I think it was carved out of a bar of soap.They are nice cars and the chrome is excellent.They are nice to have.
> Tom Stumpf


Tom,
Now I know who's got the big bucks to spend on those cars! LOL
I remember the day those guys showed up at Bob's show with all their unique cars. I had bought quite a bit from them via eBay and direct before that show, but obviously had never met or spoken to them. I remember them showing me some chrome cars they brought to the show and I think the asking price was at least $200 a piece. Somehow the price of $1,000 for a set of three sticks in my head. But you are right, I think they left with enough money to cancel out the national debt.
Just as a side note, when Tyco began producing TCR cars, they had to make some modifications to existing bodies in order to accomodate the TCR chassis. That is why the airdam version of cars disappeared - you could not have the airdam on a car with a TCR chassis; so the airdam was taken off the body for all chassis. I believe the A arms on the Indy and F1 bodies was also removed to accomodate the TCR chassis. There were a number of Indy/F1 cars which came out of Singapore without the A arms, not all of which had TCR versions. This probably means the car was produced and deco applied after the mold modifications had been made. This would indicate certain cars were done after their authentic Tyco run was complete. However, the deco is excellent and exact. 
Also on a side note, no one should collect these things thinking that somehow they are going to be an investment. You buy them because you like them. In talking with a number of collectors, over the past several years the price of "collectable" cars has dropped. There are still the rare and high priced cars, but the common and lower end collectable car will not bring the same price it did a few years ago. In fact, a lot of cars will not even bring close to retail.
I'm happy with the cars I got from Singapore. They seem to be of the same quality as any other Tyco car. Though they may not be "official" Tyco, they still came from the same molds, used the same deco and came from a company which produced official Tyco cars. It's good enough for me.

Thanks...Joe


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## tomhocars (Oct 19, 2005)

Joe,This is how I feel about these cars and about all slot cars regardles of who made them or whatever scale they are.Buy them because you like them,never for an investment.Through the years most of us know people who came into the hobby like gang busters thinking they were going to take over by spending BBBIIIGGGG MONEY and change it in every way.Everyone who came in with this agenda is gone.We have all,myself included spent lots of money and sold for lots of money.If you have plans to get rich with this hobby stop and look for the next Microsoft or Google.These chrome stockers were made in the factory in Singapore,not authorized or advertisd by Tyco.If these cars are fake than so is every Willlys coupe made after the original Model Motoring.No one could produce these in the basement with an alps printer.They are just a nice looking car.Why can't they be valued just like all the Aurora cars that employees supposedly ran off during their lunch hour.Its nice to have one off cars,but was everyone living on Long Island an Aurora designer.I know there were some who are documented but just because the night watchman got into the plant doesn't make it valuable.The cars are from the Tyco mold and liberties were taken.Its not a real Tyco stocker but it looks good.Let the buyer beware.I just love to buy stuff.I wonder if I can get in touch with the TYCO night watchman.. Tom Stumpf


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

tomhocars said:


> I wonder if I can get in touch with the TYCO night watchman..


 You'd have to check the unemployment lines.

And, in case you were wondering, there is no night watchman for the Mattel slot car facilty. There's no longer anything to watch. LOL


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> I would call them tyco cars


Tyco Bootleg Series perhaps.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

"Clones"...perhaps?


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Grandcheapskate said:


> Just as a side note, when Tyco began producing TCR cars, they had to make some modifications to existing bodies in order to accomodate the TCR chassis. That is why the airdam version of cars disappeared - you could not have the airdam on a car with a TCR chassis; so the airdam was taken off the body for all chassis.


That's interesting. I was told years ago that they removed the air dams because they were too low in general and scraped the rails on banked turns and loops and caused deslots. Most of my Lumina's with air dams do have grooves from rails. Not saying your TCR story isn't true just another reason I heard for Tyco removing air dams on NASCAR Luminas.


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

I bough a bunch of AFX off some seller from Singapore. great stuff, decent prices. I haven't seen him selling the last 2-3 yrs though


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Slott V said:


> That's interesting. I was told years ago that they removed the air dams because they were too low in general and scraped the rails on banked turns and loops and caused deslots. Most of my Lumina's with air dams do have grooves from rails. Not saying your TCR story isn't true just another reason I heard for Tyco removing air dams on NASCAR Luminas.


 It's too bad they removed the air dams. I think the best looking stock car bodies were the Luminas and Pontiacs with the air dams. They just look soooo good.
By the way, we can't consider all the cars that came from Singapore as bootleg or clone. There was probably a lot of left over inventory after Tyco took what they ordered. Just because they may have ordered 500 of something doesn't mean only 500 were made during the run. 

Joe


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## zanza (Sep 23, 2005)

One of the most interesting and informative post I have seen for a long time (in the collecting area I mean)...Thanks guys


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

I was at Richfield and saw all the chrome cars. Easy to see them, not many people at the table. It was a "What are those? Oh, someone chromed some cars" reaction. It caught my eye, but not my attention.


Now this did, I got it from Dan Esposito at the show:










Marty


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## fordcowboy (Dec 27, 1999)

I have a question. I have a blue #3 Tyco car. And it has a TCR windshield in it with the flag. So is it real or something else? I bought it at a show cheap. I got it b/c I liked the color.
Thank you
--FCB


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

FCB, that's a Tyco TCR slotless car body. All of their TCR cars came with little flags. If your car came with a slotless chassis, you can use any Tyco chassis except the slim-type (that fit Indy cars).


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

fordcowboy said:


> I have a question. I have a blue #3 Tyco car. And it has a TCR windshield in it with the flag. So is it real or something else? I bought it at a show cheap. I got it b/c I liked the color.
> Thank you
> --FCB


FCB,
The blue Tyco #3 did not come in a TCR version. Since it was loose, you can conclude someone removed the original windshield (probably because it had LUMINA on it) and replaced it with a TCR windshield.

The LUMINA windshields have some value to someone who wanted to put it onto another body. There were cars which came in versions with and without the LUMINA windshield. Maybe someone wanted to make a LUMINA version of another car.

When cars are loose, especially used cars, anything goes.

Joe


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