Stomper 4x4s: Miniature off-road 80s fun

Stomper 4x4s were an extremely popular battery powered motorized toy in the early 1980s. They were the first miniature battery powered self-propelled toy vehicle with four-wheel drive, although imitators were very quick to follow.

Stompers were invented in 1979 by Eddy Goldfarb and introduced in 1980 by Schaper. They were an immediate hit. Goldfarb was a prolific toy inventor who was still inventing toys at the age of 101 in 2023. His first invention had been a set of motorized chattering toy false teeth in 1949. Goldfarb credited his enduring success to a keen sense of trends and using it to anticipate what’s going to be popular. In the case of Stompers, Goldfarb cashed in on the monster truck phenomenon right when it started gaining national prominence.

Stompers were an immediate hit, proving to be one of the most popular toys of 1980. They quickly spawned a number of close imitators. Schaper and Goldfarb challenged the imitators in court with a degree of success, but ultimately their best solution was iterating over the initial concept and creating new accessories.

Stomper 4×4 scale

Stompers were anything but scale models. They all used the same chassis and the bodies that snapped on to the chassis were recognizable imitations of real vehicles at best. That said, it’s possible to calculate the approximate scale. Stompers are about 3.75 inches long and real pickup trucks in the early 1980s were around 190 inches long, so the scale worked out to around 1/53. Scale wise, they were much bigger than Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, but that didn’t stop us from holding miniature monster truck rallies with Stompers driving over the top of row after row of Hot Wheels cars we lined up.

Stomper 4×4 knockoffs

Stompers were covered under a single US patent encompassing the entire design principle, with an electric motor installed in parallel with a AA battery inside a plastic chassis with worm gears driven by the motor driving a pair of axles that were perpendicular to the motor.

That patent didn’t stop three different companies from producing and importing close imitators. In early 1982, Schaper sued the manufacturers, the importers, the distributors, and pretty much anyone else involved for both patent infringements and violating US Tariff law. LJN, the makers of Rough Riders, settled out of court, agreeing to license the patents and pay a fee. One of the producers, Fishel, didn’t respond at all, so they lost by default. A third, Soma, claimed the patent was obvious and cited prior art. The court disagreed, pointing out the numerous differences between Schaper’s patent and the designs cited as prior art, including the use of a windup motor in the earlier design.

The infringing Stomper 4×4 knockoffs from Soma and Fishel quickly disappeared from the market in mid 1982.

First generation Stompers

The first generation Stomper 4x4s were relatively simple in design, which helps explain why so many imitators appeared so quickly. They consisted of a plastic chassis with two axles driven by plastic gears, a pair of worm gears, and an off-the-shelf electric motor to drive the two worm gears. Add a pair of battery terminals and a grain of wheat bulb, and two plastic tabs for the vehicle body to clip onto, and that is first generation Stomper design in a nutshell.

It took more than 70 years after the introduction of the AA battery for someone to come up with the Stomper. But while it was hard to invent, it was very easy to clone.

Second generation Stompers

After the first generation design was widely copied and attempts to challenge them in court led to licensing patents rather than entirely removing them from the market, Schaper and Goldfarb introduced a second-generation Stomper 4×4 design in 1983.

The second generation design incorporated two sets of worm gears and a sliding mechanism to select which gearing would be active. One of the gears offered greater speed at the expense of pulling or climbing power, while the other offered a slower speed, but better ability to pull or climb obstacles. A sliding switch on the underside served the dual purpose of determining which gear was active and powering on the unit.

The off position disengaged all of the gearing so the vehicle could freewheel. First-generation Stompers didn’t respond well to being pushed manually, so this was a significant improvement for kids who wanted to be able to use them as a push toy in addition to as a motorized toy. It also meant this generation had play value even with dead batteries. I can confirm the batteries never lasted as long as we would have liked.

The second generation model was more difficult to copy. Competitor LJN was able to offer the same functionality, but using a much more complex mechanism.

The Stomper Semi

One of the things LJN did when they copied the first-generation Stomper design was to put a semi body on the chassis. Schaper iterated on this concept, creating a 6-axle chassis to create a better representation of a larger semi truck. Stomper Semis included gearing that supplied power to all three axles. Then Schaper called it 10-wheel drive, since the front axle had two tires and the back axles had four tires each.

Stomper Water demons

Another iteration on the Stomper concept was the amphibious water demon. Water demons had bigger tires with fins that allowed the chassis to float, and the fins propelled it through the water like a boat.

They also worked on dry ground, and the bigger tires gave them advantages on certain types of terrain, but the bigger tires also meant they didn’t work with all of the accessories that the first and second generation models could work with. But seeing what it could do versus the more conventional models was part of the fun.

Stomper tanks

The Stomper chassis also lended itself readily to creating miniature tank toys. Just replace the tires with treads and swap the body, and off you go. Stomper tanks didn’t even need a second gear internally to drive power, since the treads transferred power from the rear wheels to the front.

Accessories

Schaper also released a number of playsets to provide additional upsell opportunities. These included obstacle courses and a pull set. They gave you something to do in your miniature monster truck rally besides just running over your Hot Wheels cars.

Decline

By 1985, the gimmick was wearing thin. Tyco bought Schaper in 1986 and reintroduced Stompers in 1987, continuing them through the end of the decade. None of the subsequent efforts at a comeback under new ownership in 1992, 1997, and 2001 matched the success of 1980-1985.

Stomper 4x4s pack a lot of 80s Americana in a small package.

Are old Stompers worth anything?

Stompers have interest among Generation X-aged collectors. If someone was born in the United States between the years of 1970 and 1979, there’s a good chance they remember Stompers and have memories of playing with them.

A Stomper in good cosmetic condition can easily sell for $35. Incomplete or damaged units still have parts value, and sell easily in groups. Stomper 4x4s aren’t difficult to repair, so an old Stomper doesn’t have to work to be worth something.

There’s a fair bit of nostalgia for old Stompers. Partly that’s because they don’t make them anymore. But they’re also a tribute to vehicle types they don’t make like they used to. My dad bought a pickup truck in 1976 because it was what he could afford. Today you buy a pickup truck to show your neighbors and coworkers you’ve made it. That difference can drive nostalgia, whether it’s conscious or merely subconscious.

And if nothing else, people of that age remember walking into discount stores and toy stores that don’t exist anymore and seeing Stompers hanging on pegs, along with other 80s toys. I remember seeing them at stores like Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby, Children’s Palace, Venture, and Kmart.

Servicing old Stomper 4x4s

After sitting for 30 or 40 years, it’s a bit of a crap shoot whether any given old Stomper will run today. Even when they do, the old lubricants in the motor aren’t necessarily doing a good job anymore. In some cases, the lubricants stopped doing their job in the 1980s.

Disassembly

The motor cover doesn’t open very easily if it’s never been opened before. There are two clips on either side holding the cover on, but there are also two plastic posts that protrude through holes in the cover that were melted together at the factory. For best results, you need to chip or carve away the excess around the posts to free the motor cover.

After removing the motor cover, desolder of the wire running to the battery terminal and the wire running to the headlight. Make note of which wire goes where. To clean the motor, some people use jewelry cleaner, but you can also spray it with contact cleaner. It doesn’t take a lot.

Lubrication

After cleaning out the motor, apply one drop of light machine oil to the area between the motor body and each brass gear. Spin the gears by hand to help the oil work its way into the bearing, and wipe away any excess.

In the event you just can’t get the motor running again, identical replacements are still available. You will have to pry the gears off the original motor and push them on to the replacement motor.

In theory, the chassis doesn’t need any additional lubrication beyond the motor. But a bit of plastic compatible grease on the gears and a drop of plastic compatible oil on the axles where they rob against the chassis reduces friction a bit more. It doesn’t take a lot. The additional lubrication helps it run a bit more smoothly and lose less power. It also prevents additional wear on plastic parts that are getting increasingly difficult to find.

Battery leakage

If you see any traces of battery leakage in the chassis, apply vinegar to any of the battery debris. Let it sit until it stops bubbling. Then scrub it away with a cotton swab or an old toothbrush dipped in more vinegar. Try not to bend the battery terminals very much while you are scrubbing. They tend to be fairly brittle. Once you eradicate all of the old battery leakage, rinse it thoroughly with water and let it dry overnight. If the terminals appear corroded or tarnished, you can polish them with a bit of metal polish. This improves conductivity. You only need to shine up the portions that come in contact with the battery.

Reassembly

When you have the motor running again, place the motor back in the chassis, and solder the wire from the battery and the wire from the headlight back into place.

After lubrication and resoldering, snap the motor cover back into place and put a fresh AA battery in the battery compartment. Run it for about 10 minutes to give the lubricants a chance to work their way into place. We have better lubricants today than we did in the 1980s, so the treatment may make a Stomper work better than new.