The Little Stomper that Almost Could

In the late 70s my father owned a remote-controlled car that, based on how we were expected to treat it, must have cost a bajillion dollars. It was a scaled down version of a McLaren that sat so low to the ground it was unable to roll through our shag carpet. The only places the car could be driven was on the small patch of linoleum we had in our kitchen and the cold, smooth pavement that made up our driveway. The few times I was allowed to drive the car outside my father stood next to me and probably winced each time I ran over a rock or bumped into anything.

I did eventually get my own remote-controlled car, but long before that, I got a Stomper.

Stompers, sometimes referred to as Stomper 4x4s, were small battery powered trucks. The first wave of five Stompers were released in 1980 and were modeled after real vehicles including the Jeep Honcho, Chevy Blazer and Ford Bronco. The following year more models were released including the Chevy LUV, Subaru Brat, and Toyota SR5. From 1980-1982 approximately 20 different vehicles were released. Each truck was powered by a single AA battery which ran both the motor and the tiny headlights. Stompers came with two sets of tires: a soft foam set for indoor play and a harder rubber set for outdoor fun.

It should be noted that Stompers had no steering mechanism. Once turned on, all four wheels turned in unison, charging the truck forever forward. By design the truck would attempt to climb anything placed in its way, or flip over while trying. Schaper, the original company behind Stompers, released several playsets in which Stompers could drive and overcome plastic obstacles. Neither I nor any of my friends ever owned one of those playsets. The fun in owning a Stomper came from placing your own obstacles in the truck’s path and seeing what they could (and couldn’t) conquer. Pencils, magazines, and lumpy blankets all made for challenging Stomper terrain.

Stomper Trucks were such a hot commodity in the early 1980s that my neighbor actually made a Stomper race track in his backyard. The track, carved into the hard clay soil of the Midwest, had raised corners that, with some help from gravity, forced the battery-powered trucks to turn and stay on course. Other obstacles, like tiny piles of rocks and pools of muddy water, were placed in the paths of racers. When the signal was given, children dropped their running Stompers on the dirt behind the starting line. The first truck to cross the finish line (or more commonly, the last one remaining upright) was deemed the champion.

Unfortunately for me, I did not own a Stomper during that time. In the early 1980s I was a Star Wars kid, and there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to acquire another action figure by asking for a Stomper. Those of us without trucks were relegated to standing post at the corners of the race track, coralling mindless trucks that tried to escape the course and occasionally freeing trucks from an aggressively dug mud pit.

Before my town had a Walmart we had TG&Y, a southern-based department store. In the mid-80s TG&Y opened an outlet store not far from my home. The outlet store sold items that had been returned to TG&Y stores. They specialized in jigsaw puzzles with missing pieces, t-shirts with mismatched sleeve lengths, and comic books with ripped pages. Also, everything there was deeply discounted, which made it a regular haunt for Midwest Moms on a budget. It was there one afternoon that I got my very own Stomper 4×4, a brown Datsun pickup.

I couldn’t wait to get home that day, dig a single AA battery out of our kitchen junk drawer, and power up my very own Stomper truck. After installing a battery I set up a few makeshift obstacles on our kitchen table, flipped the Stomper’s power switch, and let it go.

My truck didn’t seem to easily climb the Sharpies I had placed in its path, and after picking it up off the table I realized why: the rear wheels were locked up. The front two wheels worked perfectly but the rear axle had seized up, turning the truck into a front wheel drive vehicle pulling two non-turning wheels.

And, only one headlight worked.

That’s what you get for shopping at the outlet store, I reminded myself as I removed the sole AA battery and returned it to the junk drawer.

The Stomper 4×4 line continued to grow throughout the 1980s. A line of construction trucks were added, as were other more imaginative vehicles like a Baja Bug, semi trucks, and even motorcycles. For me, and millions of kids who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, none of them captured the fun and excitement that the original line offered.

Today, vintage Stompers can be purchased on eBay with prices reflecting rarity and condition. Some of the most common trucks in played-with condition frequently sell for $20 or less, while mint or unopened toys can fetch several hundred dollars.