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Brown Box Era HO-Scale Trains
Automobiles
The Camaro and Javelin may be TYCO's most utilized and found on
more layouts, both serious and toyish, than any other piece ever to come in a Brown Box. To this day, you will find
these two vehicles sitting in parking lots and riding on autoracks in many a train operation. Both the Camaro and Javelin
enjoyed nicely detailed and rather correctly scaled bodies that made them favorites.
The TYCO Camaro and Javelin arrive during the twilight of the Red Box Era. The Auto Loader
is first found in TYCO's 1969-70 product catalog. In this first appearance, the six vehicle appear to be late '50s Chevrolet
bodies. They may simply be Athearn or Revell autos used in this catalog picture. The same 1969-70 catalog does
feature an AMC AMX (S642) and Camaro Z-28 (S641) in the HO-Scale slot car line. The bodies look very much like what
is later the common Camaro and Javelin in the HO-scale train line. TYCO did make a slot car Camaro and Javelin,
but they were of a slightly larger than 1/87th design and did not share the body shell with the train line models. Actual
images of the Camaro and Javelin do make it into a TYCO catalog until the 1970-71 edition.
The Camaro and Javelin survive through most of the Brown Box Era,
but be on the lookout for TYCO's replacement Generic Auto. This modestly detailed and somewhat compressed appearing
two-door compact arrives in the 1980s and is included in many train set offerings through the end of production in 1993.
The Generic Auto is first found in TYCO's 1983 product catalog, but not amongst the train offerings. Included with the
US-1 Trucking Auto Transport (No.3946) are four examples of this vehicle. Though it should be noted that we only see
the Generic Auto described here in the US-1 Motor City Electric Trucking Set (No.3209). TYCO appears to use the Life-Like
1980 Chevy Citation model later in the catalog for the Accessories page Auto Transport with 4 Cars (No.3946) image.
The Generic Auto is first spotted in the train line aboard TYCO's 1986 Long Hauler Giant 72-piece
Train Set (No.7407). The catalog shows six of the Generic Autos on the Auto Loader in the main image for the set, but
the inset image displaying the Auto Unloading Station is apparently an older "file photo" and features the Camaro and Javelin
models. The same 1986 catalog includes the Generic Autos riding on The Chattanooga (No.7423) train set and TYCO's Railroad
Empire (No.7429). However, as would be the case for a number of years, TYCO still displays the Camaro and Javelin original
vehicles on the Action Cars and Accessories page for the Auto Loader (No.349) item. Again it is not clear nor confirmed,
but assumed that all three types of vehicle were available for the most part from the mid-'80s until 1993.
Though popular, to date no maker has resurrected or cloned the tooling and reproduced the Camaro
or Javelin.
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 Chevrolet Camaro
Front and rear views of the TYCO HO-Scale Chevrolet Camaro.
The auto is a one piece shell with insert tinted window material. The wheels are a single piece axle with tires that
snap into posts coming down from the vehicle's roof and hood areas. TYCO produced the Camaro with silver accent paint
applied to both ends highlighting the grills, bumpers, lights and vehicle tags. Mid 1980s TYCO catalogs do include images
of both the Camaro and Javelin models riding on an Auto Loader and none of the vehicles have silver accent painting.
These examples do very likely exist.
The six known colors for TYCO's vehicles are Orange, Red, White,
Blue, Green Yellow. TYCO's autos were not painted, but actually cast in each color.
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AMC Javelin
Coming and going, here is TYCO's AMC Javelin model. Like the Camaro,
the Javelin body is a single piece shell with tinted window inserts. Javelin models also came with silver accented front
and rear areas highlighting the grill, lights, bumpers, and vehicle tags. The Javelin's tags carried AMC for American
Motors, making them most likely not street legal but more ready to sit in a dealer showroom window.
Just like the TYCO Camaro, the Javelin color selection included the same
Orange, Red, White, Blue, Green and Yellow. TYCO in the early '70s lists an accesory item of 6 Autos (No.123).
This group of six included, from the catalog images, one of each color and and half-and-half mix of Camaro and Javelin models.
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Generic Auto
During TYCO's deminishing train offerings of the mid- to late-1980s, we are presented with
the following Generic Auto. TYCO produced four colors, White, Red, Green and Blue, for this modestly detailed vehicel.
The Generic Auto was included in train sets and may never have been included in separately offered AutoLoader accessory
packages. The vehicle's shell is a single piece and TYCO did bother with window inserts for this model. Similar
to the design of the Camaro and Javelin models, this Generic Auto's wheels snap into a pair of posts each coming down from
the top of the inside shell area. TYCO does claim these little non-descript cars with a TYCO H.K. marker found inside
on the car's roof. This model first appears in the 1983 TYCO catalog in the US-1 Trucking line's Motor City Electric
Trucking Set (No.3209). Some clue as to what the vehicle's design is suppose to suggest may be found in the artwork
used for this set. The Auto Transport is shown in the picture hauling early '80s Chevy Camaros, so perhaps the TYCO
Generic Auto is a early '80s Camaro of sorts.
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