Nikko R/C (styled NIKKO R/C) is the largest toy-grade radio control manufacturer in the world. The company's licenses include those from

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

, Ford,

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

, as well as proprietary designs. In 2014, Nikko was acquired by global toy company, Toy State. In 2017, Toy State created a new arm of the Nikko brand, Nikko Air. In 2019 Nikko Toys Ltd. became the new home of the Nikko RC brand.

History

In 1958, Nikko R/C was founded by Takeshi Hattori in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Nikko launched their radio-controlled vehicle line in 1966 and started producing their full manufacturing line in 1973. In 1977, Nikko expanded operations overseas, opening manufacturing plants in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The Nikko R/C line contained an expansive number of vehicles that ranged from buggies, speed cars and off-road vehicles to boats, special action vehicles, and air flight. An early Nikko design was the F10 series frame buggy, a two-wheel-drive dune buggy and sold both by Nikko and

RadioShack RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...

. There were many versions of the Nikko F10. It also served as the basis for the

Traxxas Traxxas is a radio control model manufacturer based in McKinney, Texas. Traxxas offers electric and nitro powered radio-controlled cars, off-road and on-road vehicles, boats, and drones. Company history Starting in 1986, Traxxas began selli ...

Cat. Refined with hobby-grade electronics including an electronic speed control and a revised front end with a wider track, the Cat became Traxxas' - and the industry's - first ready-to-run hobby-grade model. In 2014, global toy company, Toy State, secured the worldwide rights to Nikko by acquiring the consolidated operations of its Japan and Hong Kong offices. Toy State also acquired Nikko Entertainment BV, the European arm of Nikko. Since Toy State's acquisition, it has added many R/C items to the Nikko line-up, such as VaporizR, Velocitrax, and Barracuda X. In 2017, Toy State created a new arm of the Nikko brand, Nikko Air. The company manufactures racing drones in partnership with the

Drone Racing League The Drone Racing League (DRL) is a professional drone racing league that operates internationally. DRL pilots race first-person view (radio control), view with identical, custom-built drones at speeds above 80 mph through three-dimensional course ...

(DRL). In Fall 2017, Toy State released the first Nikko Air products; Nikko Air Race Vision 220 FPV Pro, Nikko Air Elite 115 and the Nikko Air Elite 115 Race Set. In January 2019 Nikko Toys Ltd. became the new home of the Nikko RC brand after Toy State International stopped trading in September 2018. Nikko Toys Ltd. design and manufacture toys for the famous Road Rippers and Machine Maker brands as well as the Nikko RC brand.

Nikko America

The US distribution arm for Nikko toys and models and, as of 2006, is that country's sole distributor for Erector Sets, the longest-running brand in the US toy business. Ownership of Erector remains with British manufacturer Meccano. A subdivision of Nikko is Nikko TEC, which can be described as a special vehicles division. Currently the only TEC division product being sold is the ProClass series of cars. The series consists of F1 cars, upgradeable 1/14 scale cars, and 1/10 cars that are almost hobby quality. Older TEC division vehicles included: *Thor-type trucks: Large 1/10 4wd trucks powered by 7.2v batteries and twin 380 motors, with working headlights. Most had Toyota Hilux-based bodies. *Hilux/Unimog Winch: A wide series of 1/10-1/16 vehicles with working winches, detailed bodies, and 4WD, various features on different models such as working headlights, 2wd/4wd switch, two gears, horn, and even some of the above functions operated by the transmitter. *F10 series Frame Buggies: Mentioned above, arguably the most used design ever in R/C. 7.2v/540, digital proportional.

Nikko Audio

Division of Nikko Electric Works focused on electric and communications equipment, as well as hi-fi audio gear. This division was established in 1948 and closed in the early '90s. hifimuseum.de, Nikko (Japan)
retrieved 29 June 2020 (German).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikko R C Japanese brands Radio-controlled car manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Model manufacturers of Japan