Record Breakers: World of Speed

[Rob]

I had these race cars when I was a kid... the tracks were customizable and had side walls.  The cars had 6 rollers on them to keep them in the track.  You could take the body of the cars off and swap engines and other parts to make them faster.  

The tracks were about 4 or 5 inches wide and 2 or 3 inches deep.  The cars were maybe 7" x 4" x 2"

Can anyone help me figure out the name of the brand?

[Jesse James]

****, I had these and can't think of the name...

They were grey plastic chassis's, track, and other parts, and had a body that just snapped onto them.  They were about 4 or 5 inches long.  I know exactly what you're talking about Rob but the name's escaping me.  It's right on the tip of my tongue.

I believe they were an "import" toy from Asia...  or the idea/design was imported from a more popular line of toys in Asia.  There were more than a couple brands doing basically the same thing, and even 4-Wheel Drive ones, and bigger Asian companies like Tamiya or someone made them too I think.

They were just like this:



They even had competitions with them on TV, and kids had ones that moved so fast they were barely visible.

[Rob]

Yep - similar to those.  Those actually look like slightly updated versions of the exact same thing.

[Rob]

Ooooh - that helped me find it.

Record Breakers!

http://www.squidoo.com/record-breakers-world-of-speed

[Jayson]

God, I remember those. Funny, did every toy car commercial show cars flying through cups or cans? 

[Jesse James]

I remember watching competitions with these on TV, did anyone else see those?  They were so modified that the cars were just insanely fast...  Nowhere near what they were out of the package.  I had a track and a few cars.  The friends I had in the neighborhood also had some cars and one or two had a track, and we'd combine to make one huge track at this one kid's house.

[Rob]

I saw one on Youtube yesterday, but I don't remember them from when I was a kid.

I'm trying to track down the car that i had back in the day, but there are shockingly few auctions for this stuff on eBay.  Maybe it wasn't as big a deal as I remember it being.

The car looked just like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1989-Hasbro-Record-Breakers-Lamborghini-LOOK-vintage-/190517790054?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5bbec566#ht_500wt_1156

But had the spinners on it and was full-sized, not the small burger king toy.

[Jesse James]

The competitions were on Nickelodeon or what's now Spike maybe?  I forget, but it was actually really professional.  It wasn't a game show or anything, but it was a very competitive thing, kind of like RC Car racing...  that's taken surprisingly serious, with sponsorship and stuff.

These kids cars were isnanely fast.  They made the stuff you bought off the shelf look like a matchbox car by comparison, that's how incredibly modified they were...  kids were pissing iwth gear ratios and tire types, motor types, different batteries...  It was really intense.

And the tracks were massive...  They'd have stages with their own cameras that would cut back and forth.  Wrecks were pretty devastating to the cars too, due to the speeds they were going at.  The Chassis would snap or whatnot.

Very weird, but it had a brief time where it was really popular.

Glad you figured out what they were though Rob.    I figure my track's still somewhere around here in an out-building, unless I sold it at a garage sale or something.