Rough Riders toy trucks were popular line of motorized toys in the 1980s, introduced in 1981. They competed directly with Stompers, which were made by Schaper. Rough Riders were made by LJN. The first-generation Rough Riders were fairly blatant ripoffs of the first-generation Stomper design.
Like Stompers, Rough Riders toys were approximately 1:55 scale and took power from a single double a battery.
The mechanics inside the toys were relatively simple. First generation models had an on-off switch that cut power to the motor. These toys wouldn’t free wheel if you pushed them, and they only had a single speed.
Schaper and the inventor of Stompers, Eddy Goldfarb, sued LJN and two other companies who had been making Stomper clones in 1982. LJN was the only one to settle and license Goldfarb’s patents, so they were able to continue production.
Second generation Rough Riders
After the second-generation line of Stompers came out with a neutral gear and slow and fast speeds, LJN responded by adding a mechanism to their models. Stompers used a slide switch at the bottom to select which speed. If you push the switch in from the left, you got one speed, pushing it from the right gave another speed, and centering it put it in neutral. Neutral. LJN put a gear shift but protruded through the top of the truck roof. Pushing the stick forward enabled one speed, and pushing it backward. Enabled the other. Centering it enabled neutral. This mechanism was more complex, but that didn’t matter to the consumer as long as they weren’t taking the toys apart.
Of course, I took mine apart, and couldn’t get it to work right after I put it back together.
The other advantage Rough Riders had over Stompers was the shape of the wheel hubs. Stompers had a conventional looking wheel hub. Rough Riders had a conical protrusion off their wheel hub. The conical wheel design allowed you to put Rough Riders toys on a 45° angle and do side wheelies.
Undercutting Schaper’s price became difficult after licensing the patents and having to use a more complex shifting mechanism. To remain competitive, LJN licensed as many TV and movie properties as they could. So while Schaper could sell you a miniature version of any 4-wheel-drive vehicle you saw on the road, LJN would sell you a miniature 4×4 version of the A-Team van or KITT from Knight Rider.
As the 1980s wore on, LJN shifted focus from conventional toys to video games. While I couldn’t find any announcement of LJN discontinuing Rough Riders, it seems they phased them out in 1988, as ads offering them at steep discounts of $1.99, roughly half-price, ran in the summer of 1988.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.