retro

Cool. Ebay should be full of auctions like that, it would make it much more interesting.

Nothing very exciting then, except for another Subaru Impreza. Yay! Gary.

I wish I had that problem.

My guess would be it's an aftermarket shell for a 1/12 pan car. Maybe from Parma? I'm pretty sure it isn't Tamiya, it just doesn't have the level of detail, and look at the driver figure. Also, it doesn't have the scale proportions you'd expect from Tamiya. Having said that, it looks in good nick and fairly well finished. If you have a car it will fit it might be nice to have.

Most shocks will fit, as long as they're about the same length as a 'short' Tamiya CVA shock. You just need some little U-shaped metal brackets to attach them to the chassis. By the way, If anyone has a bunch of those little brackets (part BP1) I need some. My truck is running on home made ones, but they're a bit rough [] Tamiya's options sheet shows how to do it: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/getimage.asp?t=1130200242754&r=700 Be warned though, even the best shocks in the world aren't going to make a Midnight Pumpkin or Lunch box handle well. The centre of gravity is way too high and it has a lot of unsprung weight. So, don't expect it to make a huge difference. Hope that helps. Gary

I believe the tamiya 959 shell was not vacuum formed. Instead they blow-moulded it using a three piece mould. That is how they managed to get the sharp detail and large undercuts. The shell on ebay has been vacuum formed, which is why the lower body slopes outwards instead of tucking in under the car. The fine lines and details also cannot be reproduced, and it doesnt get the injection moulded rear wing. So, if you're looking for a shell for your shelf-sitter then you'd probably be disappointed. On the other hand, it seems like a good option for a runner. Gary.

Thanks everyone! lots of useful info there. Unfortunately this TA03 will never become a TRF, I've stripped it completely now, and it seems to be about 90% stock TA03F. It has the TRF black gearbox case, shock mount and front/rear uprights. Also the aramid fibre belt and the ali 15 tooth pulleys. Apart from that it's all stock. It came with enough grey parts to put it back to stock, it's just missing the old pulleys and a few parts to make it stock (if anyone has a front or rear bumper lying around let me know). Maybe I'll do a restoration if I ever aquire a tamiya body/wheels for it. Until then, I'm quite tempted to take it racing, buggys still ruled the rc world last time I raced anything. This is my first TA03 and I'm quite taken with it. I like the whole mix and match approach to building the different chassis' - reminds me of technic lego [] One more question though - what makes the TA03S and RS shorter? Is it just the gearbox (the one without the motor), or is the chassis different? Cheers, Gary

Works for me. Nice one Chris.

Are there any experts on the genetics of the TA03 family lurking around here? I just bought a TA03F which is a mix of black and grey parts. Since the others have seen are all grey, its obvously a cut-and-shut. Anybody know which car(s) the back bits belong to? The TRF had black parts, was that the only one? It also has aluminium belt pulleys, and a few black shielded bearings, would they be from a TRF too? Last but not least, it came with two belts, one with 'Tamiya' printed in white, the other is printed in yellow and is slightly narrower. Is there a difference? do TA03R's and TA03F's have the same belt length? Cheers. Gary.

I have to agree with Theo, the Striker is just plain nasty. Sonic Fighter is not far behind though. Mechanically crappy and terribly ugly. No redeeming features that I can think of, unless you count the amusing way the whole front end breaks off in a nsty accident []

I'm not trying to be funny here, but did you really follow the instructions to the letter? It sounds like you need to go back and have another look. Each rear axle (MC7) is held in by two bearings (MA10), one on the inside of the hub carrier (B4) and one on the outside. It sounds like you only have one on the outside. The servo saver is held together by a screw and a plastic washer. The manual does show how to put it together (step 19). Running the car without a servo saver is not a great idea as it's easy to strip the gears inside the servo. Gary

To do just one car is easy enough, It's telling cars apart that gets complicated. I used to have one for my scalextric made from a light sensor connected to a cheap-n-nasty calculator. The car breaks the beam, triggers the = button on the calculator and adds 1 to the display. Pretty simple and cost next to nothing.

I can't see much interest in a Mad Bull anytime soon. If you like it, have the space to store it, and don't need to sell it, then you should keep it. Otherwise I wouldn't be too reluctant to sell it on. There'll be plenty of them arount for a long time yet.

Pity they're not 4x4, but I guess 'offroad' is a relative term. They're obviously not going very far offroad, ground clearence is only 10mm. Still, they're pretty cool.

I have the Escort mk1 and Capri shells, I tried them on my M-02 chassis a while back but they didn't fit, unfortunately. Daz, have you changed the mould for the Escort? Mine is the same as the one in your picture, but I've seen a different lexan one with a front spoiler on. I'd quite like a lexan one, but prefer the straight front. It's not on the list, but is the VW Camper Van one of yours too?

My HB chassis will not take the 540 mount either. Its the same as yours, there is no hole, and no cut out int he 'X'. I guess they changed the mould when they made the Sand Rover, so it's probably only the early HB's that are like this. The front spring mounts are like the ones in the first picture. What happened to the chassis in the second picure? It looks like the suspension has been locked solid? Mine had a busted front bumper too. Unfortunately, I only have the bottom half, or I would try and patch it up. I wouldn't say your bumper is beyond repair, but it's going to be hard to make it strong enough to use on a runner. Gary

quote:...they go forwards at a slow speed? id=quote>id=quote>quote:...I wouldn't say they go so slow.id=quote>id=quote>Yeah, the buggys really shift, but the trucks are geared down so they are pretty slow - but more pulling power.

Completely nutty. It would be really cool though, epspecially with a whole bunch of cars. Did anyone ever play Interstate '76?

I vote that you should take all that stuff off your 'to do' list and use them to start a 'not to do' list. Edited by - retro on 16 Oct 2002 23:35:49

I have a soft spot for the Pumpkin, it was my first car. If I had the money, I'd probably have loads of the things. I've been looking out for them off and on for a while. I just never seem to be in the right place at the right time. I wish they went as cheap as that red one in the UK, I don't have a credit card, so buying overseas is a bit of a problem. But like Theo said, the hadling is pretty awful. They fall over all the time and batter the bodyshell, they don't steer, they're **** offroad, they bounce all over the place and the steering rods keep bending. They're fun though, so I find all that is easy to forgive. Gary

It's not mine unfortunately, I just followed a link. http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~mpj/timbot/ I reckon you could squeeze all that under a body if you wanted to though. It's only a really tiny pc board. It would definately look cooler with a proper truck shell.

Have a look at this thing. Ok, its not so aesthetically pleasing, but it has some nifty gadgets. It's controlled by an onboard PC runninc Linux. It can do that old robot trick of following lines, but it also has sonar and can find it's own way around. It even has an mini pan and tilt video camera, and transmits video via a wireless LAN. Geeky but cool. Gary.

How handy

Back in the dark ages a friend had a dyed cage on his Wild One. I think it was a beige one originally though, don't know if that would make a difference. It didn't come out bad. More of a dark grey than black, but still looked good. Had a sort of graphite grey coloured body and black wheels. Looked like some sort of stealth FAV.

I've never used Illustrator, as Jimbo said, a little pricey. I played about with CoreDraw years ago (back in windows 3.1 days - it crashed a lot I seem to remember. I might have a copy of Freehand somewhere that would probably do it. Like Cris said though, it aint easy. Chris - what format did the printers want, postscript? I assume they need colour separations right? Maybe you could put up a few pointers in the 'hints and tips' section to encourage others to try it. Gary