Skyleader Buddy Box Transmitter

[Mike_K]

I've found another Skyleader rarity, a dedicated “buddy box transmitter”. I'd seen them mentioned in adverts in RCM&E and RM from 1974 but had never seen a photo of one and wondered if they existed. Well, they do! It is housed in a standard Skyleader case, but no aerial on the top and a fixed buddy box cable out of the bottom. Internally it has an encoder board and nothing else, it is powered from the master transmitter via the buddy box cable.

[Shaun]

Perfect blank canvas for conversion to 2.4.

[RON]

The sticks look wider apart than on the main transmitter.

[stuart mackay]

WOW, Mike, another unicorn unearthed!

[Mike_K]

Perfect blank canvas for conversion to 2.4.

Not a chance Shaun, I never convert something I only have one of, I think I have enough other Skyleader to convert first. I was going to stand it on my shelf but it won't stand up as the buddy box cable gets in the way!

The sticks look wider apart than on the main transmitter.

The joysticks are placed similarly to other Skyleaders of the period, the sets with Kraft joysticks such as the SL and early Clubman had the bezels near the edges as well, but the actual sticks are about the same distance from the edge as later sets with Skyleader joysticks, such as the Clubman, SLX, CS, TS/TSX etc, it's just that the Kraft joystick bezels were larger. I've attached a picture of a scruffy old Skyleader Clubman with Kraft joysticks in the same position as the buddy box for comparison.