TOPIC:

Single page Riko Advert for the AP-227 set from the RCM&E Model Cars Special 1979 published June/July 1979 . It shows the same picture as in Jonny's Riko booklet , but also lists the AP-227 selling points and pushes the new 'Acoms' brand name.

While trawling online and in magazines it appears Acoms also branded at least one aircraft/ glider and Asahi and Atcomi are one and the same ? Atcomi made a good few 'toy' rc cars , does the T in Atcomi stand for Toy I wonder ? - have a look online. Somewhere , I think in a magazine, I saw a pricey Atcomi Porsche that appeared to have an plain looking AP-227 or similar pre supplied with it!

Peter wrote:

From the June 1979 issue of Radio Control Models & Electronics magazine, a full page Beatties advert for the Acoms AP-227 set ! Also shown are the 6V Acoms battery & 6V mains charger & Quick Charger from 12V source. Opposite this page is a great Beatties advert for the Tamiya cars of the time RA1201 to RA1208 + 2 Tanks with Beatties own descriptions!

Elsewhere in the magazine an advert for Bob's Models of Birmingham has the AP-227 set priced at

Peter wrote:

So far this is the earliest appearence/ mention of the AP-227 Mk III Techniplus set from August 1985 issue of Model Cars Monthly . It shows the set and also the internals of the receiver and servo !

The servos appear to be AS-5S servos , the photo's not too clear but I can see there's two digits after 'AS' so not AS-7 servos yet.....

Also shown later in the article is the 'Multiplex Delta' radio set, which must have been some arrangement with Acoms as the transmitter is identical to the Mk III and receiver may well be similar - the badge is different and it looks the same however the transmitter had an inbuilt charging circuit (charging jack somewhere) and the receiver had different style plugs on the flyleads...

Another interesting scan - but the writer referring to the "old" model _twice_ as the 'mk III' despite presumably having the new, clearly labelled mk III right in front of them does kind of reduce the articles credibilty

Peter wrote:

...

While trawling online and in magazines it appears Acoms also branded at least one aircraft/ glider and Asahi and Atcomi are one and the same ? Atcomi made a good few 'toy' rc cars , does the T in Atcomi stand for Toy I wonder ? - have a look online. Somewhere , I think in a magazine, I saw a pricey Atcomi Porsche that appeared to have an plain looking AP-227 or similar pre supplied with it!

I'd never heard of "Atcomi" before - but I had a look & yes, I see what you mean about the transmitters

Here is the top half of one side of the Tamiya Vanquish (58076) poster showing the Acoms Techniplus Mk III transmitter from Mid 1989.

Here is the top half of one side of the Mud Blaster poster, showing the Acoms Techniplus Mk V Transmitter.

Both these posters were sent to me in Autumn 1989 when I was in the original Tamiya Club along with Terra Scorcher & Fire Dragon posters + letter.

These show the change from Mk III to Mk V Transmitter in 1989 , same AR-227FE receiver was included + AS-11 servos from the Technidrive.

I'll try and post what little I have of the Technidrive soon...

Those are very interesting - as you said before, there's a jump from the mk.III (which must be a very late one if it has BEC) straight to the mk.V from one Tamiya model number to the next ... got to be honest, I don't remember the mk.V at all - in 1989 I was 17, had my first bike & first car & had no interest in "toys" any more

Found I had the manuals for both the AP-202 ("mk.7") and following Techniplus model ("mk.8") - both have an output of 100mW ... so it's 1/5th of the output of the previous models, not 1/10th

Here is the earliest mention I can find of the Acoms AP-227 Mk II set from the December 1980 issue of Radio Modeller magazine. In the middle of the Hobby Spot model shop advert you can see the listing (I've outlined the area with a black outline) and the relatively wallet friendly price that this particular shop offered! Other adverts around this time and a little prior have the original AP-227 set at under

Just became aware that the GR-24 2.4ghz reciever doesn't have BEC - so it can't be used directly with stock Tamiya ESCs.