Trying to FIX a Faulty 1979 & 2010 Big Trak purchased on eBay
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Hi, this 'trying to fix' video shows 3 Big Trak (Bigtrak) toys purchased on ebay for spares or repair. 1 of the Bigtrak is the original one that was released in 1979 and the other 2 are the re-release model from 2010. I show the complete process in the video going from the unboxing to the final result and hopefully you will see my fault finding process and thinking behind it :-)
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things.
I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series.
Many thanks Vince.
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Vince...so awesome. I owned the original grey and black one, from Christmas 1979. I'm 54 years old today. And I can tell you it's a great robotic toy!!! Cheers Vince!!! You brought back a lot of great memories!!!
HELL YEAH!!! Me too Brother!!! And you are correct Sir.!! Battleship Gray and Black.. we made a freakin cardboard back drop all painted up,and made an eight mm "movie "..lol.. plastic ArmyMen, model cars,and all...we we're so frikin proud...lol..I still have it somewhere i think and hope 🙏 ..lol..I can only imagine how bad it is 😂
Got a Big Trak in 1980 from my grandmother and only played with it for one day because my brother broke it. The toy has been bouncing around our attic and belongings for 39 years. With help from this video I fixed it and now it works perfectly. Thank you very much Vince for posting this video, it really helped identify the problem with my unit.
I cant believe that in a 78 minute video, I have just relived my childhood as a 9 year old boy, thank you Vince. I was fortunate enough to have the 1979 original !!
Thank you for your patience in repairing this beautiful old toy.
I got it in 1980 and loved it very much.
I used to program mine to go around obstacles that would get ever more complicated. Used to use pencil and paper to map out long treks around numerous obstacles. This thing was a lot of fun.
Great video, I loved this toy as a kid,. However unlike many of you, my mom just happened to work as an electronic assembly technician for MB in Springfield MA (The World Wide Company Head quarters ). Part of her employment perks was a substantial discount on the products that they made. So as a kid I got to privately TEST OUT all of the new electronic toys ( Big Trax, Starbird, Electronic Battleship, and every version of electronic Simon ) from Milton Bradley months before it was released to the general public. Me and my siblings where always told to not tell anyone "Where they came from...only that our parents saved up allot of mony brought it !". So Yeah, we felt pretty special as kids. My mom would probably smile ear to ear to see one of these toys that she secretly built for kids everywhere !!!! Thank You MB and more importantly Thank You Mommy :-)
my mum used to make ds's, idk how, she's not chinese but i ended up with about 10 ds lites all in different colours, i had one for every day of the week, i only have 1 left which is my original that i got from nintendo, its the lime green one and it means so much to me even though its broken, wont turn on and the hinge is broken it has so much sentimental value
Haha, we all have one of those stories. A buddy of mine's Mom worked next to a distributor who handled plastic models. She brought him home a queen elizabeth ship model one time that sold for $8.00 (big money in 1971) and she got it for $1.00. We asked what else they had? She said "boats, planes, cars, motorcycles, tons of them"....."how much were they"? all around a dollar or less. We flipped. So we saved our allowance for months.
His mom worked about 45 minutes away by car (which is like 2 1/2 hrs by bus) and we eagerly discussed what we would buy when we got there. Her work was like a 25 minute walk into an industrial area off the bus line. We trapsed into the place pockets all stuffed with coins and bills. WOW showroom FULL of model kits, we started wow look at this, wow look at that...then a guy in a suit comes over: can i help you? Yeah, no, we want to buy some models, there's no prices on them?
He said "sorry, this is a wholesale distributor only" no public allowed. WHAT???? his mom bought a model ship here a couple of months ago!
He said "yeah, that was probably our spring warehouse sale...we hold that once a year for people in the area. We get rid of old stock, and things that aren't moving well.
We looked past him through the doors: warehouse racks FULL to the ceiling with every type of model kit you could ever dream of....
I tell ya, we were just about bawling our eyes out.....so we dragged our asses over to his mom's work next door. She came out and wondered what the problem was, we told her.
She said "why didn't you ask ME? I could have told you you weren't allowed to waltz in and buy stuff"
OMG we were only 10, what the hell did we know?
That was my first lesson in: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Your bit to camera at the end of the video where you express your opinion about the relevance of this toy in today’s computerised world is absolutely spot on. Completely agree with you. It’s a shame we don’t build more toys like this anymore.
Great channel and great content.!!
All the best
Mike
I can hear 30 years of built up excitement in your voice. Made me smile the whole video.
Great work mate! There was a Soviet made clone of the Big Trak called the "Moon Rover" or LUNOKHOD in Russian, Released in 1981, and it was made by a company called ELECTRONICA IM-11 which was based in Minsk, Belarus, this model "Clone" in my opinion is the best version created. Instead of stickers, it had actual plastic covers for the head lights, and side panels, plus rear tale lights as well, no cheap stickers. The Power button was locked at the rear and the Touch Pad was a Multi Color pad, made out of a much higher quality material. And finally, the best part, it had a Helipad, located where the 9volt battery would be located under the round grey cover which the Milton Bradley version had, a Flying Disk would shoot out of this Helipad, Super cool!
I remember first having a go on one of these back in 1986. It must have been an initiative as most primary schools had one in south Derbyshire around that time to teach kids how to program instructions...loved it, what a nostalgia trip!!! Cheers
Brilliant.
A guy I worked with back in the 1980s had one in perfect working order.
Great video thanks for reminding me of a bygone era.
Only just come across this video even though I’ve been a fan of yours for three years now. I had this toy as a kid and loved it. I handed it down to my family as it was so good. I love what you do and also the nostalgia is fantastic. I remember we bought Incas batteries and a charges so I could keep it going as it ate batteries. All the best Alex
For 1979 this most havve been mind blowing. A toy with a little "computer" you could actually "program". Alos, the desing is really nice. This toy most have been in the wish list of many kids
I watch almost all your videos and have been doing so for years now. Can't believe I never watched this. Excellent video.
I felt like a kid again watching this. You really enjoyed playing with them in the kitchen, as fun for dads as it is for kids haha.
I came across this video quite by accident but it gave me a blast of nostalgia. I am 46 years old. My parents broke themselves getting me one of these for Christmas when I was but just a wee tadpole. I had the BigTrak itself plus the rare dump truck trailer that if I remember correctly hooked into the headphone looking jack above the programming keypad. I LOVED this toy. I played with it till the light on the "laser" went out and the wheels broke off. Oh man so many adventures with this and my GI Joe figures using it as a secret special tank.
Excellent video 👍 I had a Bigtrak plus the accessory trailer (that never worked very well) back in 1980. Happy memories 🙂
One of the nicest videos I've ever watched, thanks dude. We never had this in South Africa, but I can guarantee you, my 12 year old Son would play with this all day long. It's very cool!!!
I had one in the early 80s
My dad had a great job back then and he came in from work with it for me one day.I remember the original box was massive! Favourite toy for years !
So much memories with this great vehicle. As a child 1978 i had the attachment and i had so much fun. Now i think to buy the 2010 verion.
Thx for this video!
Love this.. that 'bee boop baa boop beebop' took me right back to the 80's. Loving your fixit videos Vince! 👍
Ohh. Nostalgia overload. I had a friend back around 1982 that had this toy. It blew my mind of how you told it to do stuff. Now I program PLCs for industrial use. I'm pretty sure that car sparked my interest on programing something and it did something physical. Love it still. Cool Video man :)
Brilliant!! I had one of these for Christmas around 1981.The trailer that connects via the 3.5 jack and was powered by the jack socket. The Big Trak would tell the trailer to tip its load once it got to that part of it's programmed sequence.
I got this toy for Christmas in 1980. There were two versions that came out, one in North America, and one in Europe/UK. The NA model was dark gray, the UK model was this one, white plastic. We moved to Spain (military family) and the following Christmas i got the trailer. Unfortunately it was not compatible with the NA model. But it could still haul things around. I loved this toy, I went through batteries like a fiend. Thanks for the memories, I think I'm going to try and find one and fix it up myself!
It's nice to see, old technology still kicking. I loved hearing my family talk about this.
I know this vid is 5 years ago from my comment but I was also a proud owner of a Big Track. hours of fun getting the distance right to navigate from one room to another without crashing in to things, or even guideing it through a track lol. nostalger overload :)
My friend had one in the early 80s and we had so much fun with it. Also I cannot believe that you got those for so cheap. Great find and great video.
Wow, my school had one of these! If you asked nicely you could take it to the library and razz it around the floor during breaks. Bigtrak and the school’s BBC micro basic ignited my love of coding! Thanks for bringing that one back to working order - beep, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.
I'm 59 and I remember, in 1980, during my school break, seeing tons of these in a toy shop, along side Rubik's Cubes and Simons games. They all sat there forever, because as you said, they were very expensive.
Haven't watched the entire video yet but I'm having a moment of appreciation for this channel. I'm British but your accent is posher and softer than mine. I like how you film in natural light. You are enthusiastic in how you fix things and know about the background of most items. You usually speak as if you know nothing yet you've managed to fix almost everything. I've watched multiple 1 hour+ long fix it videos. Great content. Keep it up.
Thanks so much. Very nice feedback to hear :-) I have got a couple of other videos waiting to be uploaded where the outcome wasn't so good (unfortunately).
That's okay. It's always nice when you end up fixing something. However, it's still interesting to see you take things apart and apply trial and error.
Well Done for fixing these. Just finished watching. So it took a good clean, removal of a magnet, and reading the instructions? The classical music was a nice touch :)
Thanks, the magnet actually went back in but that bit wasn't clear from the video. I think the gearbox just needed a bit of realigning which may have been caused by my dismantling. Perhaps if I just cleaned the battery contacts at the beginning then it would have worked straight away!!! It is much cleaner now and I enjoyed the dismantling so I have no regrets :-)
These keypad sounds . Always remember my brother messing with his . Thanks for bringing it all back !
Weirdly I totally got this and spent over an hour of my life watching it! good job
There was at least one accessory. I know, had it as a kid. It was a transport unit (a powered dumper). You plunged it in and it got power from the Trak and it would dump whatever it was carrying out. Major childhood flashback with this vid. :)
the most humble and sincere youtuber. I respect that! Subscribed!
I like how these old toys are so user fixable. Even if one of those resistors would break on the circuit board, it would be very easy to replace, compared to the Microtechnology we have today.
Bigtrak was my intro to programming. Now I program F1 cars!
Great to see the original one working properly again - it was a really sad sight at the start. I used to take mine to bits and put it back together again all the time, just because it seemed a cool thing to do when I was little.
Don't like the new ones - they sound very wrong, and they've added too much twiddly detail and made them too shiny. Can't deny the powertrain's a lot better, though.
aaaaah but f1 cars dont have a lethal weapon on board..... well except mansell ;) lol
That is a thing of beauty! I had one as a kid when I was 5 or 6 (46 now!). The numbers to me were random at the time! I knew the higher the number, the more it travelled. You say its "lengths", but I did find out by another YT video that it was suppose to be "seconds". Either way length/second might be the same thing as it'll probably take around a second to travel a length. The "transmitter"/"receiver" you found at 22:15 - they look like standard old-fashion LED bulbs. It wouldn't surprise me if one is always on, and when light passes through the holes in the black cog - the light from it "actives" the other LED (remembering LEDs are also diodes) as its so close together which then completes the circuit and sends a signal back to the main board. Similar to how an old fashioned ball-mouse worked in the olden days! A light emitting diode would have been on one side of the cog, and a "sensor" (or that other diode in our case) on the other to receive the signal and complete the circuit. Funny... but I had one as a kid as I said, but I never knew it could fire! I always remember messing with the up, down, left, right arrows only! I thought the "gun" was cosmetic!!! Seeing BigTrak in action brings back many happy memories!!!
The magnets are there to ensure the wheels are in sync when going straight. Even just a little speed difference in the wheels when going straight can cause major deviations from a straight path.
Thank you, that makes sense to me now. Thanks for commenting :-)
UpstreamNL yep fhafs what i would have said too. also i think the holex in botn gear wheels is to maintain same friction ratios, ie to make sure both sets of gears are the same weight
It's almost acting like a LSD differential to lock when going forward but allows it to slip whilst turning
I was just about to reply the same thing then saw your comment. Clever way of syncing those wheels!
Correct, it is for keeping the left and right side synchronized when going straight.
Thank you i have an original big track and thanks to you i have an idea on how to maintain my big track ... Next time grease the gears for better results ... Blessings to you and your family ... Much love and respect ...
I Vince I bought one of these for my son in 1979 after seeing it on swapshop on TV, I've still got it great vid
"Bought for my son" "I've still got it" haha
Wow bright stuff for 1979 ahead of it's time thanks for showing
I remenber this! Finally I see it. I only remember the advertising on the magazines and the tv spot. With the kit giving an apple to his father! The trailer is part of the "magic" of the vehicle! I didn't know it was white. I remembered as gray...don't know why. I loved seeing it in action at the end of the video! I was a child again!
They can do this toy nowadays! Controlled by an app maybe!
or build one yourself by butting an arduino or raspberry pi in it...
have to say i am in the process of watching your videos and this has to be my favorite so far
I had something very similar, about 1981/82 I had a programmable black jeep that was about the same size as the bigtrak. Loved it!
this showed up in my recommended vids . i never owned one of these or heard of them before yet im in the age group . what a cool vid . im glad i clicked it .
Judging by the listing for the faulty 2010 model the seller failed to realise it needed batteries underneath.
Great video.
Wow, those bring back memories. I had a gray/black one, probably an original. It's long gone, rummage sale I believe. They were pretty neat back in the day, good way for a kid to learn some basic programming. Yes, the connection on the top was suppose to be for the trailer, I didn't have it, and I never saw one beyond advertising.
OMG...talk about bringing my childhood back around again..... My friend had it years ago, we spent hours sending it from room to room. And he had the trailer for it as well...... I cant believe u got the old and new one for £30.... well jealous.
For future projects, when cleaning contacts like the ribbon cable, you can use a pencil eraser, then finish with rubbing alcohol.
Excellent! :) I had one of the originals waaaaaaay back in the day. Those sounds made me smile! Good memories :)
Great video, as a kid in the 80's my friend had a BigTrak and I remember going round his house to play with it; I seem to remember his had a trailer too... Anyway my parents wouldn't buy me one because they were too expensive, needless to say I spent a lot of time round my friend's house using up his D cell batteries. My wife bought me a 2010 model for my birthday a few years ago; it brings back many memories, and my 7 year old daughter likes to play with BigTrak today.
Wow I always wanted a big trak, then forgot about them until now. Great vid Vince
I love these "Vince'll fix it" videos! Keep them coming.... 😃
I remember looking in awe at Big Trak in the eighties in my local Tandy shop, loved that shop
Never thought the refurb of such an aged toy same age as me because I was born in 1979 could be so much fun. This was an epically amazing toy such fun seeing it be programmed and running
Even though these toys are old and compared to today's tech they are fun to watch. Maybe because I am in my 70's these appeal to me as I had nothing like them in my childhood.
Had one of these as a kid. It was a great toy (thanks Dad). You had to map out and plan the trips it would make. A lot of trial and error. I played with it until it finally quit working after two or three years (after which I just HAD to take it apart). I got it for a Christmas present one year, and the next year I had to have the dump trailer. The connector port on top at 6:05 is where the trailer both mounted and plugged in.
I enjoyed every minute of this video, I had one as a kid ..that jack on top was for the bucket thing you could get for it ,it made the bucket dump.
OMG! I used to have one of those. The original one back in the days. A flood of memories just spilled into my head!😂
My friend's parents took his Big Track away. He was sending it across the house to the kitchen to fire its blaster at his mother and scaring her. The one he had I seem to remember was silvery grey. BIG TRACK! Keen gear!
I have no emotional connection to this toy. And yet. My inner child was so chuffed seeing you get it finally working with the right turns. Now Ill dream of finding one in a thrift store lol
That was so cool. Brought back lots of fond childhood memories. I had the original back in the early 80's. I recon I'll pick one up if I can find one...
Hey Vince, I think your videos are great , can't get enough of them. Wondering if someday you could do a video on how to revive a rechargable battery. My daughter has a Razor Hovertrax 2.0 . The Hoverboard was left on and now the battery won't take a charge. It is 36 volt. Keep on keeping on! Never miss a video. Thanks for what you do. Terry
I had one of those in the early 80's when I was about 6 or 7 years old ... pestered my parents for it for over a year and they finally caved in ;) I absolutely loved it until it broke after a few months :( Cracking toy back in the day though!!
Just want to say that you have really inspired me to fix a lot of my old junk. Please keep up with the series! I love it
Very good restores. I had never seen these before your video.
Flashback to my childhood. Great video. BTW, you mentioned the trailer, it plugged into that accessory port and then the out function was used to dump the trailer. So that was the "accessory"..
Got the original and trailer for Christmas in 79-80. Loved it.
The receiver and transmitters are photo cells... or IRDA (Infra Red) cells , CM (Clear Memory), I had a few of them they started me on the path to programming it contained an early version of LOGO by Digital Research, I had the trailer too I actually had too and both the legs broke over the wheels they notorious on that problem .... I did buy an updated one but as you will see they are not designed the same in many ways!! good video mate I still have my version new in box (2010 version) not MB in a bag at home in UK (y) excellent bargain ---- lol typical you looked at the instructions in the end ... these helped me become a programmer :D --- oh and they ate batteries like no bodies business poundland batteries last seconds lol
Still have my original here on my desk plus a jr version - great video
Nice one Vince....you have a knack for buying and fixing all the toys I wanted as a kid that my parents couldnt afford. Tin can Alley, the RC Truck, Astro wars, and now Big Trak....brilliant :)
Hi Vince, I've not read anyone comment on this but, when new, big trak had two thick rubber rings/bands, sort of like big o-rings that went in a grove around the center of the two driving wheels. They aided greatly when it came to traction on very smooth surfaces. If you look at the driving wheels you'll see the rebated area in which it used to sit.
Only just found your channel,and love your content and enthusiasm.
I remember having a big track in the 80s and found it so hard to program it to go where you wanted it to go.
Love yr videos Vincent and gives me confidence to try and fix things myself. Nice 1
I remember the one I had being Silver, not White. Thanks for the memories! I remember the sounds it made and the completion sound when it got to it's destination, hopefully I'll hear it later in this video.
The UK ones were white, the USA ones were silver.
Yes, the magnet is the clutch. It helps in repeatability on turns and driving distances, by keeping the motors in sync.
I've always found cleaning ribbon cables and circuit board traces with an eraser on the end of a pencil is pretty effective. I love your channel by the way, keep it up.
Oh man I had one of those and had such a good time with it!! I was like 8 or 9 when I got it. I remember it moved pretty slow.
Awsome job. I like this video. 👍 It would be great to see more of repairing toys.
Thanks for making the Video it brought back great memories of my childhood. I had the one from 1979 The rubbers for the wheel are just large o-rings you can buy at any hardware store. Also, the original had a trailer too but I and my brother were lucky to just get the big track.
Used to have one of these when I was a kid, great video my friend well done
I got a Bigtrak and Transport for Xmas as a kid and I thought it was the best thing in the world, specially when I could make the trailer tip something out. It brings a tear to my eye remembering☺☺
It's still up in my loft somewhere, maybe I should dig it out again....
I imagine the magnets are a differential and protection device. It lets the two wheels turn at different speeds, plus if a wheel gets stuck, the motor won't strip the gears, it'll just spin the magnet.
Totaly awesome video and brings back lots of memorys as mate had one and I didn t but wanted one
Thanks for sharing and have now subbed as well
Really enjoyed this vince and thanks for the memories and the video
Woww these are really really cool man! They were made just a little before i was born and i havent heard of them. But you did an incredible job. And they look awsome all driving together lol
First class work Sir! Thank you for taking the time to share. :)
I remember my Soviet copy of this. Everything was the same with 2 differencies. In front was a bumper and on colission it stops the program (maybe even it clear memory as a crash punnishment). There was no optical feedback. Russians used the reed switch and put it near sync magnets. Obviously after about a year this switch starts sticking and truck became more and more unreliable. Tip: enter a serie of long pauses, then enter 99 shoots. Start the program, stealthy put truck into parents bedroom and leave. Epic!
Awesome!!! What a blast from the past!
I love your channel! I only found you 2 days ago, now I am addicted xD Keep up the good job Vince!
I had one of these back in the day - the jack on the top is where the trailer would plug in, and you could program it to tip the trailer. It was awesome, wish I had kept it.
Loving the videos mate. This is something that I am going to get into myself but its amazing the prices that people ask for even when its broken. Will keep looking sure summat will come around.
Great video, can I recommend a few things! I would recommend using contact cleaner to clean the electronic parts. Use light grease on the gears and oil the moving parts i.e axles and where the nylon parts spin in the plastic. Also either replace the motors or lightly oil the shafts. It's like those motor brushes are nackered. Thank for the video, really enjoyed it, got me thinking about starting my own channel as I love fixing electrical/mechanical things.
Lubricant and grease are bad for gears that get very dirty from the dirt on the floor, that's why they simply don't have it, they are very slippery parts from the factory
I had the original 79 release with the cart u could add. Mine was a gray color. I seen the commercial and I was hooked. Lovely memories.
YES!!!! I still have two of those and the trailers and the various accessories... Those are allot of fun.. I just wished they had more power, and suspension to play with it out side, as per the rough ground surfaces.... I need to pull those off the shelf and give them a run...
This was the best toy ever! I got it for christmas some time in the 80's
Fun fact, due to the cost saving power circuit, two batteries are used for going forward, two for reverse, when you think you can't go forward anymore, try reverse, it might be that you have flattened only half of the D cells
Nicely done. I was going to comment that the two magnets aren't suppose to touch, but you figured that out. The middle wheels need to move independently of each other. I have the 1979 version which I installed two new motors. It moves faster now than when it was new. Also, some of the decals on the second BT you demo'd are in the wrong places. It's like someone stuck them on randomly. I found using a blow dryer or heating gun will soften the glue enough to remove them easily, if you ever decide to correctly place them.
i love how you buy 3 things of everything for your family members. Yourself and your two kids.
Ah the old is the UK version. I was wondering why it was white when the one I played with as a child was grey. Nice video!