Saito2

On average, the Torque Tuned is considered midway between a stock silvercan 540 and a Sport Tuned as far as performance goes. I find them a nice, cheap little power upgrade for my vintage runners.

I agree. Overall, the DF03 is the superior buggy. It was a fairly big step up from the DF02 at the time and made a good club racer. The TT02B is more of a evolved version of the DF02. Still, Tamiya kinda left the DF03 design drop off and chose to develop the DF02 into the TT02B instead. This brings you back to your original problem. The DF03 is still a great platform but if you want to have a chassis that has years ahead of it, the TT02B seems to be where Tamiya is headed for the time being.

I never broke the front towers, but I guess it must have been common. I clearly remember one of my local hobby shops having a stack of 10 or so new Hornet chassis (in the cool old brown Tamiya boxes like the body sets used to come in) always on hand.

Tamiyadan, a highly knowledgeable RC enthusiast (now commonly found on RC10talk), suggested heating screws, particularly on Hot Shot series arms as Berman suggested. While I've never split the plastic from the start, I've seen these splits form as the model ages and the plastic gets brittle. My latest Hot Shot 2 restoration had splits at all the arms and gearbox mounting points. IIRC, I believe Kontemax has an old Boomerang with copper wire wound around all these points holding the split plastic together.

Had to sit down and figure this one out. I'm coming up with 27 years actively involved in the hobby. While I certainly loved RC cars before I owned one, my first was at age 9. I progressed very heavily into the hobby buying Tamiya kits and collecting all the old stuff I could find (even in the 80's I was into vintage RC). I took a 4 year break during college and picked up as soon as I got out and have been going strong since. I'm no racer and my tech (AM radios, some MSCs and NiCads) is way behind the times but I love the hobby all the same. Long live the Tamiya kit!

When I was a kid, the two Tamiyas that eluded me were the Monster Beetle and Wild Willy. The Monster Beetle being the first Tamiya product to totally captivate me (and hasn't let up in over 30 years). Seeing one high up on the hobby shop shelf stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't take my eyes off it because I don't think I'd seen anything quite like it. (Today, a NIB one sits up on a high shelf in my hobby room to emulate the experience, weird, I know). The Wild Willy always struck me as a "different" Tamiya model with its cartoony proportions. Its probably why I drive a full size Jeep today. I love the boxart. When I finally had saved up the money for one (it took over a year to do so in those days) it had been discontinued. My grandfather (an avid wooden model ship builder) drove me around to all the hobby shops in the southern PA and MD area looking for a Wild Willy. We followed several leads but came up empty handed. When Ebay began to take off, I grabbed nice example of these two models in the same week. This re-fired my passion for vintage RC in the early 2000's and it has been going strong since. Like I said, if I'm not collecting, then I'm probably dead. I can't express how happy I was to finally get these two in my collection.

Black 2.2s Tamiya brand wheels that fit the King Blackfoot? Off-hand, I'm afraid I can't think of any. The GF01 has black wheels, but hex all around. The WT01 has dull silver in Wild Dagger form and a white standard wheel that might be dyed to black but again, all hex drive. I'm don't think original Blackfoot or Blitzer style wheels take dye very well. Sorry. Maybe I'm forgetting one.

I agree with Mokei. I've also tried doing the same with similar results. Waaaay back in the memory banks I remember RC Car Action tried dying a Blackfoot/Mud Blaster chassis black for their "project Master Blaster" and also wound up with a warped, shrunken chassis. I'm curious about the wheels. I know old Blackfoot wheels are hard like ABS but newer WT01 wheels seem to have some give/flex like they might be blended with nylon, hence allowing them to take dye.

I recall back in the day Tamiya started with 2 sizes of CVAs, long and short. Later they added mini and later yet they added super mini. Short always threw me off as I thought of them as "medium" in length. I seem to recall a gold monster truck damper set (possibly related to the TLTs) as an upgrade. Juggs came stock with fiction helper shocks for the leaf springs and TXT-1/2s have plastic bodied CVAs stock. There's also a newer reservoir shock meant for the TXT-2 Tamiya offers.

I'm sure others will chime in with specifics, but you can start by going over to Tamiyabase. Under the parts database tab you'll see a heading for dampers. It will give you the types Tamiya offered, what vehicles they were found on, lengths etc. For older stuff, it's pretty comprehensive.

I'd probably go with the 13 tooth to be on the safe side. I only ran the 15 tooth with the stock silver can. The main thing is to keep the motor temps reasonable and gearing lower helps with that particularly with performance motors.

Yes! I'm in PA. As a matter of fact, I do need one MB5 Stabilizer Ball that goes on the end of the front sway bar. Nice collection of spares!

I stripped down and cleaned a Hot Shot 2 I got on ebay recently. Stuck waiting for parts now. Only the Boomerang and Super Sabre to go before the early 4wd buggy collection is complete.

Now you've got me hoping for a 959 re-release too .

I bought a Mad Bull partially to see how well the evolved solid rear axle worked and partially because it had a modified Grasshopper 2 body shell that reminded me of my departed Super G GH2. Its odd looking, almost like a moon buggy. It moves in an odd way too. The front end has wild camber changes as it rolls along. The rear end works surprisingly well, a big step up from the "bounce-all-over-the-place" Hornet. All I added to mine was bearings and front oil shocks. The front oil shocks tamed the crazy, flailing front wheels nicely. It slinks along the ground quite well and is very stable. I've yet to flip mine. It's incredibly basic. I blinked and the build was over. I believe it originally stemmed from an old RTR Tamiya called the Rookie Rabbit. The DT01 designation is a bit weird. It shares nothing with the DT02 or DT03 in lineage. A Bear Hawk is more of a predecessor to the DT02/03 design-wise. I always saw the DT01 as more of the ultimate iteration of the Grasshopper/Hornet family than anything else. A great buggy/truck. I just wished Tamiya took the time to re-gear it when they added the monster tires.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not really into crawling on that small of a scale outside and my wife and I plan to race. The Orlandoo Hunter though is awesome and its a kit! I think I need one just for couch crawling. I also had a TLT-1 that I sold off. I wish I kept it. I never considered the MF01X. That's a good suggestion. I currently have a M05RA chassis in need of a body that I never ran. Might have to toss some electrics in it to see how it does. Otherwise, of the options I've looked at, the Latrax Teton might work as it has a smaller 370 motor.

Summer's coming and I plan to finally get to building a track with the smallish 24 foot by 45 foot (7.3 meter by 13.7 meter) space I have been allotted by my wife. I've tried with my 1/10th scale vehicles (too big even with slower motors) so I've begun to think small. The question is how small and what to get. It looks like 1/18th scale is the way to go unless even smaller would be better. I'm totally lost when it comes to options. Associated, Losi, Traxxas, and HPI as well as others all make smaller cars. I have no idea who to trust outside of Tamiya (and to a degree, Kyosho). I'm looking for reasonable prices and longevity. I don't want the buggy or truck to be discontinued in 3 months and wind up with no parts support. If Tamiya still made Tamtech Gear buggies, it would be easy, but it looks like I'm forced to look elsewhere unfortunately.

P.S. If you want to get first-hand reactions to the DF03 when came out, check out the thread "The Dark Impact" by Japanscaledriver back in 2006. Its long but gives a period feel for how it was received.

The Thundershot chassis is a good suggestion if you can find one. Apart from the A5 part at the front (which can be reinforced), the buggy is really robust. It has great ground clearance like the old buggies but newer refinements like simplified construction, unitized differentials, and nylon suspension arm. A great, under-rated chassis in my opinion. The DF03 is an odd one. I like the design (very compact and tidy). Quite a nice step up from the DF02 (or even the TT02B in some cases). It has decent ground clearance but is a mixed bag when it comes to reviews. Some folks chewed up the standard alloy idler gear (hence the reference to the rare hardened upgrade idler) others have run it for years with no issue. Some had rear ball diff issues, others didn't. The Dark Impact was released to much fanfare here on Tamiyaclub (at the time the DF02 Gravel Hound was as good as it got) but when the DB01 Durga was released shortly thereafter, most people began to compare the two and the DB01 was decidedly a better buggy. After that the DF03 quickly fell into obscurity. They made an MS version and a rally chassis out of it but until the white edition comeback recently, the 3 main buggies on the platform (Dark Impact, Keen Hawk, Avante MK2) have been discontinued for some time. I feel it was a missed opportunity for a decent platform that I think really was (or could have been) better than the DF02. I'll throw another suggestion into the ring: the DF01. Parts are still around. The platform is fairly solid. The high-end version of it (the Top Force) is coming back shortly. The ground clearance is good and I also think its better than the DF02. BTW, I'm not hating the DF02/TT02B. The have their place. They're great buggies for what they're intended for. Both seem to be a jack-of-all-trades for Tamiya with alot of options both for tuning and configurations.

Today I got my original Boomerang and Super Sabre in the mail. Interestingly, it took the same time to get the Super Sabre (from Japan) as it did the Boomerang (from my own country, the US). Both were purchased and shipped on the same day. The United States Postal Service is not the best of late. Let the restorations begin.

Thanks for the link. I prefer the TT02B's lower control arm attachment. On the other hand the DF02 has good diffs from the start, an enclosed driveshaft and bearings in the drivetrain.

I think I'm going to go with the DF02. While I do see some design improvements in the TT02B, I'm bothered by the cheapening of materials. Add bearings at the hubs and a metal motor mount and the DF02 does indeed look ready to go. Thanks for all the input.

I think Pintopower dyed the shocks in his "Hornet 2 and Hornet 3" builds in the vintage section, if I recall correctly.

My favorite runner has changed for the time being. Its springtime here, which with the rain and melting snow means the ground is a soupy mess. I made up a BEC system for an old 101BK ESC with some Radio Shack parts and gathered up some old radio gear to toss in my Mad Bull. The only thing that bugged me about it previously was the wonky camber angles as the front wheels appeared to fly every which way. Some CVA dampers at the front tamed that and away we went. Good simple fun.

I'd like a DF02 as in many ways it seems more durable but I fear its on the way out and replacement parts may become a problem in time. I've also heard in some cases the outdrives/dogbones actually wear less than full metal ones (which my WT01 did).