I was searching for “images” of fast food places one night and low and behold an image of a Tyco HO scale Burger King came up. I researched a little farther and found out Tyco had a Pizza Hut and others that looked realistic. I didn’t know Tyco had that much stuff back in the day.
And Life Like had a Free-Zee ice cream stand, 7-11 convenience store and a McDonalds - all of which were ultimately pulled due to licencing issues.
I’ve searched for these (and the Burger King and Pizza Hut) for years hoping to snag a deal. Finally got them all this year, paying no more than twenty dollars for each of them. The McDonalds regularly goes over $100 easy on ebay !
Want to find the room to build a 70’s commercial district using them one of these days.
Mark.
3D printing is also adding many more to the “must haves” for a restaurant row …
http://burgerking.turbosquid.com/3d-Models/3ds/max/xsi/c4d/obj
http://www.3drivers.com/catalog/324/1299/
Mark.
I’m guessing you landed on this Tyco website, which is always fun to poke around on.
I think the same person(s) maintain a website grouped with other old-skool “train-set level” manufacturers like Life-Like and AHM.
There are certain structure kits that appeared under the the Tyco name that at various times also were offered by AHM or LifeLike or maybe all three. The kitbashing book by the late Art Curren had an appendix that tried to sort it all out; Curren was not at all shy about using such structures in his articles, such as the Mt Vernon Manufacturing kit that Walthers only recently dropped from production in its LifeLike line.
Dave Nelson
Tyco made a lot of nice structures. Sadly what they needed most was a decent drive.
So the Pancake motors didn’t do it for you, eh?
No, that drive was pathetic.
Tyco and others made many good looking structures and structure kits that can still be found online. These can be easily lit and dressed up to look even better. They also can be easily weathered and kitbashed.
AMEN! The Turbo Torque drive was absolute crap! It only lacked the smell. At the time Tyco trains were marketed as toys and weren’t expected to last long. If you got one for Christmas and it was still running at New years you were A: very lucky, B: didn’t run it much or C: you actually got a good one. Two things that really helped do the motor in were 1: It was badly made and 2: The main gear was made of very soft plastic that could be damaged easily.
Don’t forget to include kits by Revell, Con-Cor, Model Power, IHC, Aurora and others. You can find the same kits appearing under many of these names. Of course, some were the original producers and others just bought the molds or later runs from whoever owned the molds. I was surprised to find out how many kits sold under Tyco’s name went back to Aurora and then later wound up as IHC kits.
Jim
jeffrey-wimberly wrote
AMEN! The Turbo Torque drive was absolute crap! It only lacked the smell. At the time Tyco trains were marketed as toys and weren’t expected to last long. If you got one for Christmas and it was still running at New years you were A: very lucky, B: didn’t run it much or C: you actually got a good one. Two things that really helped do the motor in were 1: It was badly made and 2: The main gear was made of very soft plastic that could be damaged easily.
A lot of these structures have been around for decades (1960s) and the molds were moved from one mfg to another. In fact, I just got the Walthers flyer yesterday and they showed “beginner structures” they now have for sale.
Well, don’t think these are new, for I have the exact same ones under my layout, that were bought between the late 1960s and early 1970s.
BTW, with some total painting, dull cote, and added details, many of these structures will yield a very acceptable piece for todays layouts…
Most of the Tyco kits were sold under various American names. Most kits are too small to be realistically served by rail, but I always thought the brick detail and other aspects were excellent, and make good fodder for bashing into something bigger.
Also, several of the kits are used as the basis for several businesses. The Ramsey Journal building is used in many other kits, as is the Superior Bakery, as is the undertakers house, to name a few.
To the OP’s point: I believe the BK and Pizza Hut were accompanied by a Baskin Robbins too. I have never seen the KFC kit in a Tyco box, but I assume it was introduced by whatever manufacturer about the same time as those others.
Personally I like the smaller size kits. The available space on many layouts doesn’t amount to much. I usually have the structures set up along the street where they can be serviced by trucks making pick ups from warehouses along the track.