Pablo68

Great build so far mate!

I will get one of these. When are they being released? Or have they been already? I think I've spotted a slight fault in the design. With the original wheels at least, the bottom eyelets on the rear shocks hits the ground, presumably on landings from jumps and bumps etc. You can see they've both had a bit taken off them.

Yeah, I was a GM guy (Holden) but there are a lot of old Aussie Fords and Chryslers that I really like as well. In fact I just like cars tbh. My RC collection, something around 60 cars of all kinds. I think about Half are Tamiya, a smaller chunk Kyosho and a bunch of different brands after that. Like you said, no point in limiting yourself. As to mechanic-ing, I don't know a lot about Fords, and I have done a bit of work on cars over the years, but I have often heard that they are just not that nice to work on comparatively.

With scissors and a hatred that burns on a sub atomic level.

The only thing close to the buggies you have are Tamiya's TRF buggies. They are really expensive though and spare parts are hard to find and also really pricey.

So my first thought was, oh, is he Australian? That's how common that is down here. Glad they found it and you're being treated @mtbkym01. I am 54, and I spent a lot of years as a kid/teenager out in the sun getting roasted to a crisp. Also did that a bit working, but not as much. Honestly I can remember times where I was out in the sun all day and unable to sleep at night due to the sunburn. And I was not alone in that. I've been lucky so far though, no bad moles yet. I am going to +1 the advice from @yogi-bear about butt/bowel health. Get that checked. I lost a brother in law (wonderful bloke) to bowel cancer about a year and a half ago. He was only 39, left behind a wife and son. His was particularly bad, it killed him a year to the day of finding out about it. Oh, he was only 39. Life is hideously unfair at times. Ok, not wanting to bring everyone down, but it is important. I for one would not be against a Mens Health stick thread in the forum.

I do remember Tamiya saying in writing something to the effect of, we are not an RC company. We are a plastic model company that makes RC's. Basically someone high up thought it wasn't the direction to be going in.

And now for the absolute in narcissism. Quoting myself. I do this because as we all know by now, Tamiya is releasing a modded Hornet (or close). Modded the way that users have been doing for years now. Releasing a Hornet that at least some people have been wanting for years. To me, this is a very un-Tamiya thing to do. Hence, I was pretty wrong in this case. Hmmmm, I guess the BBX was a bit un-Tamiya as well now I think about it.

I want to be a bit of a wag and say the cause is sh*t driving, cause I know that's usually the cause when it happens to me

It's a shame that the experience was so negative for you mate. Having said that I have found when popping into a club near me in Aus that the general populace had a higher incidence of people who weren't very socially adept, to the point of being a condition. So, to a point allowances should be made. I myself am one of those people, or close to it though I am ok in social situations, I can come across as very vague from time to time.

My thoughts on the OP were around the question, competitive with what? In what way? Tamiya are basically in their own world and as far as I know always have been. Especially when you factor in that their main focus is the Japanese market. I'm reminded of their statement when shutting down the TRF off road team etc. It went something like, 'we are not an RC company, we are a plastic model company that happens to make RC cars'. They also said one way or another that they weren't interested in competing in racing. To me this is a very Tamiya way of doing things. They are a Japanese company after all.

I have to say, I hadn't heard of FAN RC before watching a build video of their carbon chassis RC10. My first thought was, how can they do this and not get sued? I kinda assumed they must have permission. If FAN RC are their target, or anyone else producing the whole kit, I get it, BUT they need to come to the party and just produce a decent run of the RC10 so they can be got at a good price. AND SPARES!!!

It is a very milquetoast chassis to be sure. I guess it's just a chassis that can be churned out in quantity theoretically better chassis are developed and sold. It basically keeps the lights on. Quite a few companies sell that kind of product.

I forgot to mention, in reference to the OP, I have a TA-03F with the Subaru wrx body on it. It was a basket case when I bought it, I didn't think much of the chassis tbh. After talking to a few people on here (wayyyy back) I tidied it up, bearings thru it and esc and drift wheels. It was awesome. So good that many years later, I have two of them. Not sure why I bought another, but there it is. Fun chassis.

Mine goes back a bit. I had a Taiyo Porsche 935 that my grandparents bought me, it was awesome, but I eventually wrecked it. For er...reasons, most of my toys ended up being a collection of parts. Anyway, around 1982/3 I was quite into model trains (still am a bit) and went for a trip to the hobby store. Sitting in there pride of place was a Wild Willy. I remember being impressed and stunned. It was awesome and well out of my price range. That I think was my moment. Fast forward to 86, in the intervening time I'd seen many more Tamiya buggies in the hobby shops around the place, and I'd left school and started an apprenticeship. It dawned on my one Friday afternoon that I was earning money now and had some in the bank and actually could buy one now. After a bit of a talk about it we went into the local town and I bought a Hornet. I didn't know anything about these buggies at the time, but it looked good and was cheaper than the Hotshot and Frog also on display there. After a few days of building and painting (took my time, always have) I had my second Tamiya moment, a Hornet taking off across the lounge room floor scrabbling for grip on the Lino, eventually the battery hanging out of it behind, stuck under the couch going full bore. I also learned in that moment how the servo on the MSC could get stuck in fwd and kept going no matter what you switched off. I quickly learned exactly how these things worked though, and I ran that car so many times. I got better at it. Eventually. It was also a great outlet for someone who took his stuff a apart all the time.

The subjects of this thread might be done ad nauseum, but I find your posts to be gold usually Saito. So it's all good. I recently bought and built the BBX and I totally agree with the feeling of frustration at times. As much as I like the BBX and the design direction Tamiya took with it, I really feel like some of Tamiya's designs are overly complicated for no real discernible reason. I also felt like this when I built an M06 chassis for the Lotus Europa kit. There seemed to be more parts than strictly necessary. Sometimes a simpler design makes for a better build. Oh yeah, the screws, I really like hex hardware. I have been trying for years to get the right screwdriver for Tamiya screws, yes I know they are JIS, but even with a JIS screwdriver, or the Tamiya tool kit, they still never feel quite right and I frequently have to change tools to see which one feels like fitting right. The undercurrent for all this though is the fact that it could just be me getting older and more irritable as each year passes. Very possible.

This should be good. I enjoy your work.

Yeah, it's pretty awful looking. Body is pretty beat up. Mechanically it is good though.

Ooooh, something I meant to include in the OP. If any of you in here are into 3D modelling and 3D printing parts for your cars, I highly recommend the Bambu studios X1-Carbon. Really clean prints with a minimum fuss. Autodesk Fusion is free to d/l and use as long as you say you're a hobbyist as well.

Actually no I hadn't. Just checked that kink. Awesome stuff. Priced well too. Thx!

Not sure where to start this. But here goes. I bought a 959 fixer upper a couple years back now I think. Can't remember. But I waited for one to come up that was cheap, took a while but from memory I spent about 300-ish Australian Pesos for it. It was missing one drive axle, had a really beat up body, a broken front bottom susp arm, the top half of the chassis was broken on one side where it fastens to the rear half of the car. It has an interior but it's also beat up and fragile, lots of cracks etc. So what did I do to it over the years. Ditched the electrics, servos, am rx and msc (still have the msc somewhere). replaced electrics with 2.4mhz Rx, new servo and HW 1060 esc. The chassis was completely stripped down and cleaned. I drew up replacement front susp arms in CAD and 3D printed them. Bought a broken mid level bumper/resistor mount plate, measured it up and drew it in CAD, 3D printed it. I couldn't find the FRP front body mount plate anywhere, even a broken one to measure up to reproduce. I got talking to a very kind man on one of the FB groups who drew up excellent repros of the entire 959/Celica chassis. He was kind enough to give me a file to print out and test. I owe him a photo at least btw. When I finally felt brave enough I reassembled it, re-lubed and bearings everywhere they could go. There was a fair bit of tweaking and going back over things to make sure they were right/worked as they should. Tires are pretty dry but ****** trying to by new ones, too spendy. I also made some supports out of spare lexan, basically disks with a hole in the middle to put between the body and body posts for a bit more support to save the body any more cracks. I got it all together and ran it for the first time last night. I have to say the whole experience has been quite profound. I feel like this car is both trash and brilliant at the same time. As I was rebuilding it and looking at the design in depth, I found myself expecting it to not be very good. But it was anything but. My take is that Tamiya historically at least had a habit of making chassis that had a similar layout and drove like the real 1:1 counterparts. When rebuilding the shocks I thought that they really wouldn't be doing anything cause I couldn't feel and damping going on. But for all that they must be doing something as the car felt a tad floaty like say a stadium truck but also fairly composed. It displayed both understeer and oversteer at different times. Overall I really enjoyed it. These things are fun. The design....it's a real unicorn and at the same time as wanting Tamiya to re-issue these I can see why they won't and probably shouldn't. These things are complex and fragile. A great design at the same time as being an awful one. Having said all that, it would be nice if they at least did a rub of spare parts for these things. Prices for anything on one of these are ridiculous. I probably have more to say, but can't remember much else just now. Finally. Is this what Zen feels like?

I think Saito was probably closest to hitting the nail on the head. Tamiya are a Japanese company. They just don't have the same kind of relations to their public that say an American company would. I can't think of too many times they've ever reacted to customer input and I think it was only when something went catastrophically wrong with a model in large numbers. I like the Falcon and would even buy one if it were rere'd, but the front end is weak and the best plastics/intentions in the world wouldn't change that. It would need some kind of re-design. I kinda think they'd just use the Bear Hawk chassis or a derivation of the Blitzer chassis. It would be cool, but not the original. Having said all of that, it would be nice if they started making spares for the chassis at least.

I have a collection of nearly sixty RC's of various types. They can all be run at a moments notice. Ok, let me qualify that, there are around ten-ish that need work done, completion or repair etc. When they are done they'll be ready to go too. Because of the size of the collection they don't all get run that often. I hope that clears it up. I slid on a glace cherry....

Over the years I've found my interest and drive for the hobby has been cyclic. I'm really into it for a month or so, then I'm out of it for a similar time period. It's certainly not the same as it was when I was 16-20-ish. I used to run my Hornet constantly and felt a real excitement for the hobby back then. God, if late teens me had the collection I have now, he'd lose his sh*t. I have getting close to 60 cars of different types now (30-ish of them Tamiya). TBH It's a bit much. I don't run some of them for over a year at times. Anyhoo, my advice is don't pressure yourself. Do the hobby when you feel like it, kick back and relax when you don't.

Oh ******. Price was good, went to pre-order, one or more items in your cart cannot be shipped to your location. Thanks Mr Associated.