racer1

Nice. Really happy to see them bring back some of the entry level stuff. I'll need grab a few of these bodies and some good quality decal sheets to complete some of the projects I have laying around Seems like I can never get enough of this chassis. Maybe we'll get limited run colors as well. Be nice to get a green or black edition to go with the original grasshopper. Im thinking the super hornet will hit next but really hoping for a mud blaster.

Here in the states it is. Mine came in today. Pics in the bigwig thread page 12

It's here

Like others have said... This spring is gonna hurt the wallet. I just grabbed a Bigwig yesterday and looking to get a Black Foot soon. With yesterdays announcement The Metallic Heavy dump and Green Grass Hopper is on the list and I might just have to get another Pajaro. Add in the Kyosho Tomahawk and Turbo Scorpion and it looks like i'm gonna be I'm gonna be eating canned soup for another month.... Dame you tamiya...

Tower Hobbies has them in stock. Mine shipped already so it should be in tomorrow http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVSEARCH=bigwig

Tamiya Blog is showing the Green Grasshopper and The Pajaro on their site and re-releases. http://tamiyablog.com/2017/01/some-future-tamiya-rc-re-releases-to-be-presented-at-nuremberg-toy-fair-2017/

Hey guys. Northern Illinois here. I'm in the burbs just north of Chicago. Looking for other Tamiya fanatics to Run with.

Not a Re-Release but I'm having a blast with my Tumbling Bull. Can't recall the last time I had this much fun with a stock car. Using a small 2500mah Lipo and about 4 oz of weight on the front keep the truck from picking the front wheels up everytime.

Yes. It's the hard ABS body like the MB, LB, BF, etc.

Hello, Just got a great deal on a parts lot off Ebay to convert my super fighter over from a the standard kit to the Violet Racer. The lot included the Black wheels, White shocks and the purple body and decals. Here's my question. Since this is a limited run I don't want to paint over the purple body but I would like to apply the decals then clear over the entire body and wing to protect the decals and give the body a bit more shine. I clear over decals all the time but I've never done it on an unpainted body. Has anyone ever done this? If so what was your experience? Thanks Everyone,

Thats it. Still have one in the basement that i've been meaning to restore for a few years now. Unfortunately the body is in pretty bad shape but the rest o the car is pretty nice.

Yes.. Back in the day I couldn't really afford Tamiya's so I had a number of Hirobo cars like the Alien, Celica and Peugeot 405. From there I jumped on the Aristo Craft brand and had a couple of Kangaroos and a Dolphin. I recall these where cheap and RTR from Toys-R-Us here in the state. I had the old beat up kangaroo box up until a few years ago with the $69.99 sticker on it.

Living here in the states i'm near Chicago where it's bitter cold this time of year with warm days mixed in with rain like we are having today. After a few bad experiences I've decided that I will wait to do any painting until the weather warms up and the sun is shining bright. Unless I'm doing restorations of vintage original cars I tend to stay away from Tamiya and other Hobby grade paints. While the colors are correct for the cars I find them far too soft for anything but a shelf queen and they seem to be really difficult to get right. I have an Original Brat painted with Tamiya paints that looks terrible after just a few years of doing nothing but taking it off the shelf and wiping the dust off. Here in the states we have a brand of automotive paint called Duplicolor that makes every color imaginable. It's true automotive grade stuff that comes in a can and it's darn near impossible to scratch in normal use unless of course you roll the car over. I'm been using these paints for hard bodies for about 15 yrs now without a single issue if I follow a few basic steps. - Wait for a nice sunny 70F+ day. - Sand the body with 320 to 500 grit to remove any parting lines or obvious lumps in the body. This seems to be much more of an issue these days than in years past. Just look at the scorcher body as an example!!! - Wash the the body with a green scotchbrite pad with a ton of dish soap. I like the Dawn brand. This gives the body the necessary surface to bite into. - Set the body out in the sun and let it dry and warm up. - Give the body one last wipe down with a paper towel soaked ion is 90% alcohol and let it dry. - Turn the body upside down and apply one coat of Duplicolor sandable primer and let dry for at least and hour. - Turn the body right side up and give it two coats of Duplicolor sandable primer about 30 mins apart and let it dry for an hour. - Sand primer using 1000-1500 grit. If doing a body with large flat areas I use a small sanding block to really make it slat, smooth and straight. By the time i'm done 90% of the primer is gone. - Wipe body down with alcohol again and let dry outside. - Apply one more coat of primer. - Sand using 2000 grit to remove any dirt or lumps. - Wipe down with Alcohol. - Apply the first light coat of Duplicolor paint. This coat is so light you can barely see it. - Apply additional light coats of paint 15 mins apart until you get the coverage you are looking for. I typically do 5 to 8 depending on the color. Again these are very light coats. Once you have applied the last coat let the paint dry for as long as possible in the sun. - The next sunny warm day I will apply the clear coat. Same process. Wipe the body down with alcohol and let dry. - Apply Clear coat the same as painting. Very light coats with 15 mins apart until you get the coverage you are looking for. I typically put on at least 6 coats of clear sometime more. - Now comes the hard part.... Wait.......... Wait ....... Wait......... I typically put the body away for at least a week and forget about it to give the paint time to cure. - Now it's time to sand the clear with 2000 grit. I typically start with 2000 dry then go switch over to 2000 wet for the final. - Buff out the body using automotive polishing compound until perfect. - Wash with warm water and dish soap to remove any residue left over from the polishing process. - Do the detail painting. Window trip, doors, lights etc etc. - Apply Decals - Assemble as much of the body as possible. - Apply clear coat over the decals. It is very important that you apply extremely light coats here to prevent the paint from affecting the decals. I've only had one issue and it's when I got in a hurry and applied a heavy coat first. I typically 4 or 5 coats over the decals. - Wait......... Wait.......... Wait some more.......... At least a week. - If required, Lightly sand the clear coat to remove any waves. Most of the time at this point all I need to do is rub the clear using compound and it looks perfect. - Apply your choice of auto wax and your'e done.

My honest guess is the Mud-Blaster will happen. Seems like a given since we already have a Brat body and the MB chassis. Only thing really missing are the decals and a couple of body mounts.

Proline mashers are excellent tires for the LB and MB but I feel the stock WR02 tires from the heavy dump truck keep the look and feel of the lunchbox while providing a huge step up in grip and performance. The tires from the dump are considerably softer and when coupled with foam inserts makes for a great cheap replacement tire. One word of caution. As you already know the LB is top heavy when running the stock hard plastic shell. With the softer compound these tires don't slide around as much and the LB can become tippy on some surfaces. The added forward grip is also enough to flip the truck on its back on concrete. Obviously these are issues anytime you go to a stickier tire but I just wanted to throw them out there. the good news is that these tires come up pretty often on EBay for cheap. I was lucky enough to get a new set of 4 off a part out for $18.99 with free shipping a few months back so it's a cheap upgrade

This is referred to as "bloom" in the rubber industry. Over time the plasticizers in the rubber begin to creep out and cause a white film on the surface. While I have no clue what the these RC tires are made from, we always handled the issues the same way regardless of compound by applying heat. This causes the compound to soften and reabsorb the plasticizers. The way we handled it was by placing the o-rings and gaskets in large mesh bags and tumbling them in an industrial dryer for a few minutes. I don't recommend that you do this at home as it causes a fair bit of stink and will get you divorced in quick order. For RC tires I've had good luck with a normal hair dryer set on Hot. Different compounds soften at different temps so you might have to get the tires pretty darn warm. Afterwards I would wash the tires with simply green and a tooth brush in very hot water to get any remaining grime off of them.

Thanks for the reply. Looks like the black bushings are n good enough shape to reuse. Just need to start rummaging through my parts bins downstairs as I'm in need of a front bumper, MSC and rear springs. Thankfully I should have all of these as all of the runners I'v built over the yeas ran ESC and Oil shocks from the Hornet. Hopefully there is a good original bumper down there somewhere as well. This car is going to be a shelf queen so I want it to be 100% correct and accurate. Unfortunately mine is not early enough to have the Off-Roader Mark on the front. Honestly I don't think I have ever seen on that does.

Hey guys, Just starting a restoration of an very nice, what I believe to be original Grasshopper project. Yes I will be doing my first ever "builds" here in TC starting tomorrow and I must say that i'm looking forward to it. I recently acquired the car from a bulk buy on Ebay. The car appears to be 100% original and even came with the original body without the decals installed. The original decals where included and the only issue I can find is that the car appears to have over heated the MSC at some point as the balloon is melted into a glob of rubber mess that will require that the MSC be replaced...... Lucky I have a couple of MSC's laying around from previous builds so replacing that part seems to be an easy fix. Now for the question. The car I took apart has black bushings in the front wheels. Are these correct or have they been replaced at some point in the past? Looking at the wheels and tires it appears as if the car has been run very little as there is virtually NO wear on either set of tires. Just questioning if the black bushings are correct for an original early Grasshopper. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I know this is an old thread but I feel like i should respond. I'm sorry about the Rock Buster Body. I've never had an issue using this product on Tamiya bodies but I have never tried it on any other brands. I did an re-re Grasshopper body and an original Blackfoot body without any issues. The paint came right off without any fuss and no softening of the plastic. This has been my go to product now for a couple of years. I'm not sure what happened.

I'm with the majority here. I have always cut the body, drilled my mounting holes and addressed any little fitment issues before painting. Doesn't matter the number of colors being used. Just easier with a lot less plastic in the way.

I had a feeling something was coming. My first indicators of a new re-release is EBay. Since I'm active on Ebay I pick up on trends pretty easily and I don't have the opportunity to visit this forum as much as I would like. Everytime Tamiya announces a new re-release Ebay gets flooded with people dumping their originals. Seems that there are a large number of people out there that purchased as an investment and are fearful of the re-release diminishing the value of the originals. When the MB was announced there were hundreds maybe more that hit the auctions all int he course of a few weeks. Of course this flood effected the selling price so I took the opportunity to pick up a couple of very nice originals. Same thing happened with the Hotshot, SS and most recently the BlackFoot. Currently there are 5 BigWigs on Ebay which is more than I can ever remember seeing at one time along with tons of parts. I welcome the re-release of the BigWig but I sure hope that price is not correct. Seems a bit on the high side to me.

In the USA. Go to the auto parts store and buy a can of Aircraft Paint stripper. Get the small can as it goes a long way or buy the spray version. Take the body outside and use an old paint brush to brush the stripper on the body. Come back in about 10 mins and reapply as necessary. Basically you don't want it to dry. In 15 mins you'll see the paint is completely bubbled up and ready to scrape off. Use a soft plastic scrapper and have at it. Once done you can rinse it with soap and water and you'll be ready to go. Did a badly painted grasshopper and original black foot body back it the spring. Did them both un under an hour and they look great. http://www.eastwood.com/klean-strip-aircraft-paint-remover-aerosol.html?fee=7&fep=50393&SRCCODE=PLA00020&product_id=15277Z&adpos=1o6&creative=83580268260&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKEAjwhILABRDwo8mlqt6ug38SJACNSq_kec186G1f1OQ1KvOpdKtyKRQizpA4SCcDDQYhPlqGIxoCxibw_wcB

Nice build. I've been trying to track down a green edition at a reasonable price for a while now but they are just a bit unreasonable right now. Until the time comes that I can find a real one I've bought a second re-re white car and painted it with the correct green paint. Currently I have the White, Black (real one) and a fake Green edition sitting on the shelf. I've done the same with the LunchBox. I have a Yellow built, and a Blue and Black sitting in the box waiting. Really would like to find a Gold edition. I must agree with Terz. These cars are rare enough that it really should be a shelf queen. Buy yourself a second grasshopper off ebay and paint the body green for a runner.

In a perfect work I would have 3 of each. 1 NIB, 1 Shelf Queen done in box art and detailed to the extreme and finally 1 runner. Since it has become so hard and expensive to buy vintage NIB I have resorted to options 2 and 3. That being said I'm still a long way from perfect shelf queens for many of my models.

Guys, Below is a link to a build thread I did back in 2009 when I built my Madbull. Only major issue I had with it was the sloppy steering which I addressed and it's great. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-electric-off-road-trucks-buggies-truggies-more-147/8998124-tamiya-madbull-information-build-thread-build-has-begun.html