Long time since last Jerobee post - Here is a new one. Got these pics from Joe of his lovely Jerobee cars. They seems to be in good condition and well kept.

New email address, please use the link in the contact info.

I am looking for a body like this in orange color. It is the Jerobee Porsche coupe Bandero. If you have one, please let me know: teamgog@telia.com

Jerobee - New in Boxes!

Jan in California has found some Jerobees New i Boxes. They are #201 McLarens. One or two might be up for sale, if interested, send me an email and I will forward Jans contact info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlCCweCxwg

Link to video with running Jerobee Comando, on board camera.

Here we have the first comments from Don McKay, this is all very interesting, and very impressive number of cars produced at that time.

Enjoy!

 

From my resume:

 

·         1973 – 1983 JoMac Products (formally Jerobee Ind. purchased from Rocket Research).  Half-owner and Vice President/President.  An original equipment manufacturer of electronic and mechanical Radio Controlled racing car products sold worldwide.

·         1971 – 1973 Jerobee Industries Inc., a division of Rocket Research (now Rockcor) – Redmond, WA.             Operations Manager in charge of sales, service, and production. 

 

1969 – 1971 Northwest Hobby and Toy.  Buyer and Salesman for all complex hobby items including R/C products, slot cars, model trains/boats/planes. 

 

I was also the Vice President of ROAR for all the years I was in R/C Cars and in charge of all rules, attended all ROAR Nat's, and 4 - 1/8 and 1 - 1/12 scale world championships.

 

I started racing 1/8th Scale R/C Cars in 1970 while working at NW Hobby. 

 

Some other notes I have on Cox

 

L.M. Cox wanted to buy Jerobee but held out for a lower than asking price which I felt was fair.   Also Mattel Toys was interested.   Rocket Research who owned Jerobee sold it to me and Jon Congdon for 10 Cents down for a total of about $250,000.   I was Jerobee’s Operation manager at the time.   My Partner was Jerobee’s General Manage, Jon Congdon.    It took us only two years to pay it off.

 

Cox tried to put us out of business by taking our payment but not shipping us engines.   They did not know we had 4,000 in stock.   We threaten to sue them with Anti Trust and 10 days after they got the papers, the 5000 engines, on order, arrived at my door.   We had no more trouble with deliveries after that.   We always bought engines 5,000 at a time.   

 

 Years later I was chairman of the ROAR rules committee and let an electric R/C car they imported from Japan be declared Illegal.   I did not say anything or vote against them but I would have stood up for them had not they tried to screw us.  That cost them a lot of money and they never tried to do R/C cars again.   

 

I think there was about 35,000 Cox .049 Gas Powered Jerobee Cars made and sold world wide.  Our largest foreign clients were in Brazil and France.   We also sold to Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and some others I’m sure.

 

That included;

28,000 RTR With single port Baby Bee engine and Radios. 

2,000 with single Port Baby Bee engine less Radio.

3,000 with TD .O49 dual port with Radio.

500 with TD .049 dual port less Radio.  

The balance 1500 engines were sold as replacement engine or parts.

All the single port Baby Bee reed valve Engines used a larger Silver Bee tank but on some (about 5,000) of these engines, we modified and bypassed the internal tank an added a external 2 Ounce tank.   We kept the internal tank on only as an additional heat sink and mount.    The Baby Bee engines also can from Cox with a pull starter.   To all engines we added the fly wheels and clutch parts.

 

The Tee Dee .049 engines were stock accept for the added exhaust throttle.

We also bought a lot of bulk parts from Cox also even though they were available through the hobby channels.  I know we sold something like 80,000 reed valves in packages of 10 to maintain the reed valve engine sold and used by racers.  We sold a lot of glow plugs, piston and sleeves (ground for the throttle ring).

 

We also sold about 50,000 (25,000 each) electric Jerobee and Lightening 2000 cars.

 

 

Here is another picture of my Jerobee from 1973.
I am really glad that my mother saved these scanned photos all these years.

If anyone have a Robbe/Futaba 2 channel single stick radio or Cox gas can as in the photo, I would be interested. teamgog@telia.com

Don McKay

I have been contacted by Don McKay, former owner of Jerobee and Jomac.

Don has much to tell about the history and development of these cars.
He also have a great deal of material, papers, pictures and others from the time.
Don will have some of this material scanned and the plan is to present it on this blog.

Stay tuned!

I have got several Contacts with followers of the Jerobee blog, here is one from Andrew.

If you have any pics and stories around Jerobee cars, please drop me an email.

Hi Jorgen,

I've just finished restoring my first rc car I received in 1979/1980.  I was 7 years at that time.   It is an electric  Jerobee car .  I found the box in the attic of my parents.  The box still contained  the plastic body, the chassis with  the wheels, the old mechanical speed controlleR and the electric Parma motor .   It's a Jerobee chassis (made in USA).  On the box, is written "Group 12".  The electric motor is Parma but it's dead.   On the body is writte KROLL.

 

As I can notice, you are interested in Jerobee cars, here are some pictures of mine after the resto work.

Kind regards,
Andrew

Here we have a couple of the Jerobee cars that I have found on Ebay and other leads.
Some of them are new and some will need some resto work.
I have been busy with my full size sports cars this spring, but I will have a couple of these Jerobee cars up and running soon. I will take some photos then and also on some other intersting parts I have found.
I also plan to make little video when I run the Jerobee cars.

This is the latest Jerobee in my collection.
It is New In Box and in great condition!
This Jerobee comes from Toronto, Canada.
The stock number is #201 MK8B less radio.
On the box is says " Not recommended for persons with little or no mechanical ability".

Thank you Bill!

These pictures shows a New in Box Jerobee Greenwood Corvette.
The Corvette was a mid range kit.
On the box it says " Not recommended for beginners".

The Corvette had a twin intake ports in the cylinder and a large external tank. Wider chromed wheels with foam tires was standard equipment.
The body was made out of Lexan, not the hard Cycolac plastic as the McLaren and the Challenger had.
This was the fastest Jerobee with Cox Babe Bee and pull start, only the Cox Tee Dee version was faster.

Here we have some useful Jerobee T-shirts and caps that I have had made recently.

The T-shirt brand is American Apparel and the design from their vintage 70´s collection.
The print you see is on the back and there is a smaller one on the front as well.
The classic cap has been embroided.

If you feel that you can not live without one of these, please let me know at TeamGOG@telia.com

These six pages are from the Swedish importer Slotcar and their cataloge "RC Racing" from 1978.

Imagine how the market looked like with six full pages of 1/12 cars and parts!

It is in Swedish, but the last three or four digits are Jerobee original part numbers.
I guess you you can do basic translations on the Internet.
If you need any help, just ask: TeamGOG@telia.com

The Alfa 33 with Tee Dee engine is called the "Super Jerobee".

Please also look at the "Invader" rolling chassie on the last page.

This is the UK magazine "Model Cars" from March 1972.
The Jerobee is brand new and tested by US author and racer George Siposs. Enjoy!

This picture shows one of the very late Jerobee/Jomac cars with the Cox Tee Dee .049 engines. Here RTR version with Alfa 33 Sport body.
Do note that the radio transmitter has an updated design, very similar to the Futaba brown box radio.
Full report on this rare car with more pictures to follow.

Today I had a call from a sportscar friend and I knew that he had been involved i RC for a long time. But when we started talking I did mention my first car, the Jerobee, and to my surprise, his first car was also a Jerobee!!
In the afternoon he came by our house and surpriced me with his old cars!
This car was later converted to electric as can be seen in the photo.
Look at the handpainted flames from the mid 70´s!

This picture is also from the Toledo show 1972.

Could this be a "Jerobee copy" from Wen Mac?
Any leads are appreciated!
Please email me at: TeamGOG@telia.com

This picture is from the introduction of the Jerobee at the US Toledo show 1972.

Swedish RC car pioneer Rolf Stahre was attending the fair together with US RC car pioneer Roy Moody.

Rolf was visiting Roy to see and learn more about RC car racing.
I take it Roy was a great teacher, Rolf won the Swedish champs later that year!

This was a promotion picture that was given to Rolf by a Jerobee sales rep.
Rolf later tested the Jerobee for a Swedish magazine and the review was good.

Promotion picture from the pit.
This looks like a 1/8 scale car to me.
Notice some of the 70´s clothing!

It really looks like the RC car have everybodys attention!

Here is a picture of the fullsize McLaren M8B that Jerobee sponsored.
Great looking car, if you ask me.
Notice that the rear wing is located almost right over the rear axle.

When I did run my old Jerobee, way back in the 70´s, I remember that it always ran a bit warm/hot when the needle was near the limit.

I have now added a little cooling fan as seen in this picture.
It is the type and size as they use on modern speed controllers for electric RC cars.
It runs on 5v and the cooling is fantastic!

When I disconnected the fan in a middle of a run, the engine sounded overheated after about 30 sec, I stopped and connected the fan and it went back to normal again.

Here we have a few pictures of the Jerobee car that I have built out of parts bought on Ebay and others. I use a modern radio system. The car has been ran for about 30 minutes and no problems so far, no engine stops.

I think that the body is an original Jerobee BMW M1.

The radio gear is just taped down for initial tests and to find the balance of the car. I started with the battery on the left hand side, but the car became out of tweak with that layout.

I handles fairly well considering it´s age, with a slight understeer.

Some of the Jerobee 1/12 bodies available at the time.

The Schkee was very popular on the 1/12 scale electric race cars in the early 1980´s.

Anyone out there having a Jerobee Formula 1 body?

This is the cover of Popular Mechanics, December 1971.

McLaren M8 and Porsche 917k was the sportscars to have at this time. I do not see any Jerobee cars, looks to be only 1/8 scale cars.

I take it that this was just before the Jerobee cars was released.

This is how the version without the radio looked when sold back in the days.

If you have an interest in the old Jerobee cars, please drop me a line so we hopefully can get a network together.

Please email me at: TeamGOG@telia.com

This is an engine close up of the very rare, original Jerobee with Cox TD engine. This was the Top of the line model.

Do note the special and very large engine mount and no pull starter, this engine was started by an external electric starter.
I would imagine that the large engine mount took care of all earlier heat issues.

I have found one of these rare birds, so more information will follow.

This Jerobee was the test car for the Swedish magazine "Allt om Hobby" way back in 1973.

The author Rolf Stahre did use NiCd batteries mounted on a homemade pod. I have been told by Rolf that normal batteries from the time did not last long.

The Jerobee car got good reviews in this test.

Another great picture from the early days!

Driver Tony Adamowicz in the McLaren M8 holding the Jerobee.

I am sure that this kind of marketing really improved sales, maybe someone out there knows more about this?

This is some of the Jerobee spares I have collected.
If you are short of some spares, drop me a line and I will see if I can help you out. Trades are always of interest.

If someone out there has a Jerobee spare parts list, please let me know.

I am also looking for information about the Jerobee option parts, that was offered at the time.

This is another example from the marketing of the Jerobee cars.
Here we have chance to win a Jerobee car!
Notice the lenght of the reciever antenna!
The transmitter was only 100mW, in order to be license free, this is probarbly one of the reasons for the length.
Jerobee played hard with the sponsored McLaren deal.

Way cool II - Another neat trick in the marketing of the then new RC car Jerobee!

The full size McLaren M8 ran i the Can Am series, very big at the time, all over the world.