A neat and unique 1970s "programmable" toy called the Computer Commuter released by Eldon in 1971.

There was a small wave of toys in the 70s that had a very simple "programming" devices. Spurred by the dawn of the computer age and the Hasbro Amaze-A-Matics vehicles which used a card insert. This card could be manipulated (sections cut out) to determine the vehicles driving path.

For the Computer Commuter, they used cogs and screws. Under that blue piece is adjustable plastic screws. Adjust one screw high to make it go right, low to go left and in the middle to go straight. There's six screws so it could only go in 6 directions. Seems boring for us today but this one does show plenty of played-with wear so it must have been something of a hit.

The thought was to give kids hands-free control.  Remote control toys were just starting to become available but they were expensive and clunky. So this was kind of a less expensive alternative, at least for middle income families - sold by Sears for $8.99 so, roughly $70 today. 

This does work but it must have a malfunctioning or broken part because it favors right turns. It's like the front wheels are spring loaded to point right?? It will go straight but doesn't like going left.

Otherwise, the condition is overall good for a played-with toy of this age. There are several light scratches and other noticeable blemishes. The red color actually does a good job in hiding most of these. The cracks on the top of the main dome window are the most noticeable annoyance. There's a crack on the battery lid which could lead to the batteries falling out or coming loose. For the most part they don't do this but could.

The on/off switch is a little finicky but playing with it just a little bit will trigger it to start and it will stay running too.

Still a cool unique toy from the 70s. One of the forerunners to computerized toys and hand-free toys that is tough to find.

This mostly made of plastic.