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mobias

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Everything posted by mobias

  1. I never liked the whole military look of the the FAV but if the price is right I might get one of these and do a scale off road buggy make over.
  2. Very disappointing if you ask me. If Tamiya were going to re-release another high end vintage racer I would have much preferred the Supershot. I like the Avante but the other Avante based cars have never done anything visually for me.
  3. To show you how much things have changed in really quite a short space of time. When I first joined TC in 2006 I bought a NIB Dirt Thrasher off eBay for £59.95 from one of the Hong Kong dealers. For a long time both the Dirt Thrasher and Manta Ray were ridiculously cheap for what you got, a good 20 or 30 quid cheaper than the re-re Hornet for some reason. Oh for those days again......
  4. If Tamiya are getting bullish over this (and they obviously are for whatever reason) then it's probably not worth antagonising them by photographing manuals. Wouldn't you say? The manuals issue is strangely academic anyway since in all my years here at TC I've very rarely seen a photograph of a manual in the forums or in a showroom entry. It's certainly not an issue worth risking a legal fight with Tamiya over.
  5. Your link doesn't seem to work but I found this http://www.xtremercracing.com/Store_Detail...amp;SnipID=3050 I presume that's what you mean. It says if you're using TXT axles then they'll need slightly modifying. Great looking truck so far though. Makes me want to get my TXT out working again. Love those RC4WD tires and the wheels are great too, must be costing you a small fortune.
  6. Fingers crossed its a huge success for Axial and it spurs a certain Japanese manufacturer into releasing something similar. Presumably companies like Axial and Junfac are actually doing really well out of the fact that Tamiya, having lightly dabbled in it, seem to have kind of given up on the whole scale/crawler/rock racer market? The F-350/Tundra trucks, though good are getting pretty stale these days and the CR-01 trucks were a kind of half baked attempt at getting into the scale crawler market. They've all been out a while and since then nothing. I do suspect we'll see a Bruiser re-re but it'll be extremely expensive and ultimately not much good for anything other than sitting on the shelf. I'd much rather a truck like the Wraith which looks great and seems like it has the performance to match. In a way I'm glad Axial and Junfac are doing better because you know fine well if Tamiya did release a truck like the Wraith it would probably be over engineered, delicate and they'd probably want about 500 quid for it.
  7. RCcrawler have a review up. Sounds amazing http://www.rccrawler.com/news/kaetwos-revi...aith/#more-1820
  8. It looks like it can handle speed a bit better than the R1. The R1 has quite a small wheel base which means it flips really easily I find. What I like about the Wraith is that its an off the peg scale rock buggy complete with interior. That's kind of unheard of these days. The R1 really needs a bit of modding and fiddling to get scale looking. Good fun but expensive. The Wraith also looks like its been designed for ease of maintenance in mind from what I've read. The R1 is a nightmare when it comes to changing motors and a lot of people like the idea of changing motors quickly so you can go from crawling to rock racing with relative ease. Also, judging by that video, the Wraith looks like it'll actually turn a corner when you push the stick. With the R1 you pretty much have to do a 3 point turn every time you want to change direction. As for the Wraith in the video looking speeded up. I was really surprised to see they were putting a 20 turn brushed motor in it as stock. That's pretty fast, it can obviously handle it though. Must be pretty well built. I've seen footage on youtube of someone putting a 23 turn motor in the R1 and it just spends all its time on its roof. Really can't handle it. Comes out in a couple of weeks I think but RTR only. You'll have to wait for the kit version. The RTR looks like great value for money considering what you get for your 320 quid. Loads more than what Tamiya would ever give you for that amount of money http://www.modelsport.co.uk/axial-wraith-r...-products/39646 More good footage
  9. This bad boy looks like a lot of fun. Now that my R1 is pretty much finished and being run I'm looking towards my next kit. I think this will definitely be it. I was going to wait until the kit version comes out but actually the RTR does seem like quite good value for money. Looks like there's so much room for fun scale modding to be had too. Can't wait to see what people do with this kit.
  10. I'll try and take a little film of it running this weekend with its 27 turn silver can in there so you can get an idea of speed. This guy's got a stock silver can in his but he's running lipo's so its a bit faster. There's a couple of short bits where he's going full throttle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkSvEPV8_74 He's also go 4WS, which looks like a good addition because the turning circle of the R1 is pretty dreadful with front steering only. Not great for bashing. I can totally understand you not wanting to run some of your beautiful trucks but I think the R1 is definitely worth running. One of the reasons I've really taken to the whole scale crawler thing is that your truck actually looks better once its been run, all the mud and dirt really adds to the look.
  11. Cheers. Go for it, its a simple little build. You can pretty much do most of it in an afternoon or evening. If you're going to run yours then I suggest doing what I've done and just stick a stock silver can in there and have fun with it as rock basher before deciding whether or not to make it a dedicated crawler or not.
  12. Took my camera out with me this weekend to get some shots of my finished R1. Really chuffed with how it turned out and I must say that hands down this is the most fun RC car I've ever owned. At the moment I've got a standard silver can motor in it and I'm deliberating what motor to finally put in there. I think my R1 is definitely destined to be a rock racer with crawling capabilities rather than an all out dedicated crawler. I do like having a bit of speed at my disposal when I need it and the R1 seems to be at home as much tearing around doing small jumps as it is slowly working its way up some boulders. It just seems a great all rounder. I've got a Tamiya CR tuned motor which is 35 turns but I'm just a bit worried its going to be a tad slow for my liking. I may end up going for something like Tamiya's dirt tuned motor which is 27 turns but has a little more grunt than the standard silver can. I really wanted my R1 to be as scale looking as possible. Some of the more scale looking R1's people have done look fantastic I think. I made a little mesh enclosure to hide the electronics and Scorcher dude kindly volunteered to be my driver. He didn't seem to mind having a lot of his back and top of head sawn off to fit there but I must say he might be a bit of a better driver if he actually looked where he was going and not off to the side all the time. No wonder he keeps smacking into things My battery is mounted on the rear axle for now. Seems ok but the car does have a tendency to back flip a lot. Anyway it'll do until I switch to Lipo. Scale accessories are all standard Proline stuff but I'll probably add a bit more. One thing I'd love to do is make some black netting (a la Hotshot) for the window areas. Anyone here know how you go about doing that? Or where to buy some? I'd like to get different tires. I've heard mainly bad reports about the standard G-made ones that are fitted but they seem ok for bashing about. I would like to get some that are more scale looking though. Decals are a combination of bits and bobs I had laying around. My LHS had some Hornet decals for sale so I mainly used those.
  13. Attention all truck and crawler enthusiasts. I'm listing some RC4WD.com scale shocks in a lovely electric blue colour plus some very heavy duty Punnisher drive shafts which are 120-150mm in length. Everything is in great condition so grab yourself a bargain. The shocks look fab on a F-350 or Tundra. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...T#ht_500wt_1156 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...T#ht_500wt_1156
  14. Sorry its taken me so long to get back to you about the shafts. Here's a pic for you. They're 120-150mm long Punnishers and as you can see the universal joint is pretty solid looking.
  15. I sold a lot of my cars a couple of years ago when money was tight and now really regret it. Before the big financial melt down this hobby was a lot cheaper. You could get a NIB Hotshot re-re for about 120 quid. No where near that now, similarly with other cars. When it was 2 dollars to the pound ordering from the US was a joy. I don't think you got stung at customs nearly as regularly back then too. I'm enjoying being back in the hobby but this time I'm focusing on owning less cars and getting more out of them. No more shelf queens. I've decided I don't get much out of running buggies anymore so its crawlers and scale trucks for me. Much more fun area of the hobby where your model making and inventiveness really comes into it.
  16. You forgot about the Hotshot. It was always a sought after car here too. It was the first of the 'they'll never re-release it' cars to be brought out. The re-re of the SRB's and Avante probably owe a lot to the success of the 2007 Hotshot If Tamiya can speak English then rest be assured they'll follow this website. They're decisions may not be formed as a direct result of what we say here but they will be taking notice of us, I'm sure of that. Its a way for them to see how much people are enjoying the re-re's on top of seeing sales figures. I'm sure they probably take note of user reviews here too. Its free customer feed back after all. Most businesses use the internet for feedback, Tamiya will be no different. Other companies like Junfac who make hop-up parts for Tamiya kits possibly use this site too.
  17. Start looking beyond Tamiya. There's a whole world of (better) RC out there beyond what Tamiya do. In the world of crawlers and scale trucks companies like Junfac and Axial are doing what Tamiya used to do -ie be innovative - and are really pushing the hobby forward in the direction enthusiasts want it to go. Tamiya are just left re-releasing the old kits which is totally fine by me if that's all they're about now. It certainly seems to be years since they brought out anything new, and interesting in the off road market. Gone are the days where they developed and built upon their ideas.
  18. Yeah I've got a couple of RZ's in my TXT. They have what looks like a similar size endbell. Without going to the hassle of taking them out to test I've done an approximate measurement and it does look like Tamiya's CR motor would fit but only just. I don't know why Junfac made the R1 chassis cage so small. If it was just 10mm or so bigger everything would fit in comfortably. Its an insanely fiddley little area to work in. I will definitely go down the LiPo route sooner or later. I've been reading up on it and it sounds great. I think I might also put 4WS in my R1 too. Its turning radius isn't the best. Its my first non Tamiya RC kit though and I'm well impressed.
  19. Does anyone here know whether Tamiya's 35t CR crawler motor would fit in the R1? I got an Mtroniks crawler ESC with a 35t limit and I wanted to go no lower than 35t in my R1 because I wanted at least some speed at full throttle. I was just wondering whether the motor's end bell would snag the top right link? It doesn't look like there's much room in there. I've got a stock silver can in there and its actually fine for bashing and light crawling but I want a drag brake so I've got to get a new motor in there that won't blow the ESC. I absolutely love my R1. Great build, took no time at all and very straightforward. Not sure what i'm going to do with my battery situation yet. I really don't like having my huge stick pack coming out the back of the chassis. I may put it on the rear axle but I guess that means fabricating some sort of shelf for it to sit on which I guess might not be that difficult. Either that or go down the Li-Po route. Li-Po's are a totally unknown area for me though so I would need to do my research there.
  20. Yeah the internal sliding hex of the shaft is the same so you can mix and match different ends. Costly business though because you'll need to buy four shafts, unless RC4WD would be willing to swap over them for you and just sell you the two you need but with 5mm and 4mm at either end. . They're helpful friendly people there I've always found so you never know. I've no idea what response you'll get from Junfac, they're not known for replying to emails very readily so don't hold your breath on your query. Also you'll need to check how long your shafts need to be. The Junfac ones might not be long enough. I'm sure the new RC4WD punnisher shafts can be fully disassembled. I'm also sure the old types of shafts have all been replaced. We're talking four years ago when they were having problems with them, that's when I got mine and heard of others having the same issue. I'm heading home tomorrow night so I can take some photos of my shafts so you can get a better idea of what the joints on them look like. Like I said they're lovely big heavy duty shafts. Pricey and heavy though.
  21. I've got a few pairs on various trucks. When they first came out there were problems with them. The little screw holding the universal joint together came out with alarming ease, even when threadlocked. One of my shafts lost its bolt in its first week of use and RC4WD sent me a whole new shaft in replacement. I didn't mess about with that one and used Araldite glue on the bolt and its not surprisingly never came apart. That however is the old design and the new design is much better, or at least seems so so far. I actually got two new Punnisher shafts just the other week for me CR-01 conversion project. The universal joint seems pretty solid and is of a different design. The Punnisher shafts are very big and heavy. So if weight is a concern I'd look else where. Junfac do their own extendable driveshafts and I think they're a fair bit cheaper. Do you know how long your shafts need to be? I could be tempted to sell you my new pair of Punnisher shafts because they're actually a tad tight on my extended CR-01 chassis. I got the 120-150mm shafts and I really should have got the 110-130mm ones because I ended up not extending the wheelbase as much as I thought I was going to. They've got a 5mm output hole which I think is the same as the TLT.
  22. The one side of this hobby I love is seeing what some people can do with their modelling skills when they get creative with it. Sometimes Tamiya get their box art designs spot on (the Supershot is the best example I can think of, its simply impossible to better the box art colour scheme) but sometimes they often don't and I love seeing some of the more 'ugly' cars really turned around. That Falcon is a good example. I've certainly changed my view on a certain car purely by someone doing something as simple as putting different wheels on it. Its amazing what a difference small things can make. I've yet to see someone do anything amazing with a Striker mind you LOL. Maybe that should be the theme of the next TC comp - pimp your Striker.
  23. Yup they're all the same chassis. You pay extra for the different bodies so get the Bronco if its the cheapest. If you've got your heart set on one then go for it if you like its looks but you'll be buying it for its looks alone. The CR-01 is stupidly over engineeered and is really half baked as a crawler. I bought a Unimog a couple of years ago and although I've had fun with it you can get way better crawlers for equal or even less money. I would get yourself a G-made R1 and a decent ESC/motor combo. Its a much simpler kit, better engineered and crucially much more fun to run. Because the CR-01 is over engineered its a really fidly kit to build, its the only Tamiya kit I've built which I genuinley got annoyed at, its so over designed for what it needs to do and consequently fidly to maintain.
  24. That and the Monster Beetle. To be honest I'm to fussed about anything else, although I've come to like the Wild One in recent years. I'm sure we'll get the latter and a Monster Beetle, not sure about the Super Shot but anything is possible.
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