Saito2

Some very good suggestions here. The reason Clods/Bulls seem to rear steer only is because its physically easier for the trailing wheels to turn (the huge tires amplify this tendency). I found a big dual sided Kimbrough servo saver similar to Prescient's suggestion. Because it was also a servo saver in itself, I was able to lock down the spring loaded savers on the axles. This alone not only increased leverage, but reduced sloppiness.

On the surface, the CC-01 is a good choice, but I like speed and jumping. There's also the small problem of me hating the CC-01 chassis (please don't throw rocks at me!). I love its design and build but running it leaves me cold. It just doesn't do anything for me and trust me, I tried. (bought two over the years and sold both). I narrowed it down to those 3 Hot Sot series buggies because of their tough, sealed drive train (I wish the Thundershot was still around). I was also hesitant about running something with dogbones on the beach, but everybody seems to run Blitzers without complaints. Truthfully, a Lunch Box or Hornet is the least likely to see ill-effects of beach use, but I'm tired of running those for the last 30 years. Honestly, the buggy would see beach action 2 days out of the whole year. I can imagine a Clod makes a great beach runner too. I never considered the Hot Shot damper position, but that's a great point! The TT02B tempted me. I gave up on it due to low ground clearance and my stubborn devotion to vintage style Tamiyas. Other than some TRF vehicles and truly unique or quirky Tamiyas (CR-01, TXT-1, and probably the new Konghead), my collection is re-res or vintage. The Bigwig's open tub does allow for easy cleanout (man, its a good deal, Tamiya could have soaked us for the 10th aniversary car but kept it reasonable). I guess that only leaves me wondering about the steering rack's safety. Thank you for all the considerations.

My goal is to build a buggy that I can/will take everywhere with me. Work, playground with my daughter, the beach, hiking trails, everywhere. A monster truck would likely suit better, but I need to fit it easily into a backpack, so buggy it is (hopefully 4wd will help with this). I like old-school, but want fresh plastics and parts support, so its gotta be a re-released. here's my choices and thoughts: Hot Shot: Durable roll caged body takes abuse well. Sealed radio box and simplified steering will ward off sand better. The downside is no bearings and the quirky suspension lets it bottom out in the front Super Hot Shot: All the pluses of the Hot Shot and I get bearings and better suspension and motor . The Big problem is cost. Its not a great bargain money-wise Big Wig: this seems like a great bargain. I get the better suspension, bearings and motor of the Super Hot Shot at the bargain price of a Hot Shot. Its good value. The downside is I don't think parts will be as available (the Hot Shot's been around for some time now, parts are plentiful) and I'm not sure of the open tub chassis and rack steering system in sandy beach conditions. The body may not take to being shoved in a backpack either. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Believe it or not, this topic has come up several times before when the Boomerang was re-re'd last time. Looks come down to opinion. For the more iconic car and more involved build, go with the Hot Shot (my personal favorite of the two). For the better runner (not that the Hot Shot is a bad runner, just more "quirky") and better performer, go with the Boomerang.

When I first joined back in the early/mid 2000's I remember most everybody seemed to be in their late 20's/early 30's. Now here many of us are in our 40's. It's funny how time flies. I figure I've been doing the Tamiya thing long enough now, that if I'm not doing it, I'm probably dead.

Hi, and welcome to the forum! That's a nice paint job and rims on your Pumpkin. As far as your loss of wheelie power, I can give you two instances where I had the same problem back in the day with my Lunch Box (same chassis). Once a small pebble (from a ball field) got into my stock silver can motor and chipped a brush. The motor did sound lower pitched as it would no longer wind up to full rpm properly. Also, the rear tires can sometimes slip on the rims. Without proper bite, no more wheelies. Some folks glue the tires to the rims, but I just put a wide rubber band around the wheel where the tire bead sits to give it grip. I'm not sure if either are your issue, but it gives you something to try. Good luck.

The price of a lot of used kits seems to have gone up quite a bit. There's deals to be had if the kit in question is rereleased and currently on sale like a Hot Shot. Other kits that never brought any money like a Thundershot chassis car are creeping up in value. It seems like everybody finding an old Tamiya in the loft thinks its worth big money as a "vintage collector item".

I suppose "oddball" is perhaps a poor choice of words. Not that the cars themselves were oddball (ok, maybe the Sonic Fighter) but rather the choices of cars would not be mainstream. Everybody knows the Frog or the Hot Shot, but who would think to re-release the Super Sabre or Road Wizard? Tamiya has done "odd" re-res before like the Fire Dragon. Of course, this brings up the whole debate of whether Tamiya only bases re-res on their domestic market or not (frankly beyond the scope of this discussion). The missing Cheetah is strange considering we got the XR311. I would love to see the original Wild Willy and the offshoot rally cars (Audi and Opel) back again. They are such solid and uniquely constructed vehicles. Speaking of the B2B, what about all those early on-roaders that don't get much print? It would be cool to see them brought back in original form, not just a body tossed on a modern chassis. Of course a lot of this (but not all) is just day dreaming as the reality of profit and practicality come into play when actually producing models.

Everybody wants to see the 959 or Blazing Blazer re-released, but how about some other Tamiya vehicles we don't hear about as often. Here's a few I thought of: King Blackfoot- good old fashioned monster truck goodness but durable Madcap- great buggy but with less issues than the Astute Super Sabre- this buggy almost seems forgotten, probably because it was outdated at the time it was released, the Thundershot series was on the market by then Sonic Fighter- I'm not a Striker fan but for some reason I like the jet on wheels Sonic Fighter, maybe offroad jets are cooler than off road F1 cars to me? Falcon- not all that wildly popular when new (very plasticy) but I think more than a few of us would like to see this one come back Hot Shot 2- overshadowed by the others in the lineup (except perhaps the Super Sabre) but really one of the most balanced equipment-wise, plus it had a silver box! Road Wizard- just a cool F-1 car with 2 bodies and multiple decal sheets Any others you'd like to see re-released?

Deeply sorry to hear this sad news. The battle may be over, but now he is at peace.

All the various cars in the Hot Shot series use basically the same drivetrain. They mainly differ in chassis, suspension and steering. Assuming the Super Sabre and Boomerang are pretty much the same, how different a driving experience are the cars in the series? I've drive a Hot Shot (probably the most unique due to its suspension and bump steer) and a Super Shot. Do the Big Wig, Boomerang/Super Sabre and Hot Shot 2 have a significantly different feel to them? I wondering if its worth getting a runner Big Wig or upcoming Boomerang.

I see the Novafox and Avante will be making it to Tower Hobbies in the States. I sure hope the Boomerang gets listed eventually too. I missed it the last time around.

Ok. I think Wandy is right. The Javelin is coming. But...I can't wait. The rest of you have convinced me to go for the Optima . The next question, how does the Optima series drive? Should I make it a runner? My current 4wd buggy runners are a Super Shot and modded DF01 Dirt Thrasher.

I don't have any tube/frame old style buggies in my collection yet (not a fan of the Marui Galaxy). I also like how the open nature of the outer frame shows off the mechanicals underneath. I dread painting multi color paint jobs like the Optima. On the other hand, the Optima is iconic, being the first. The extensive decal set should handle most of the painting issues too (although I'm unsure how well all those decals look). I could get a Javelin cage for it too down the line if they re-re it. Either way, they both look great.

I agree logic states a Javelin is no doubt in the cards. Studying how Kyosho has run out the Scorpion platform with the Beetle, Tomahawk, and now Turbo Scorpion, it stands to reason they'd do the same with the Optima platform (especially since the Jav is mostly just a re-body). Then there's the fear they'll move to the Ultima series next (another rumor) instead of building on the Optima series. After the dreadful time I had fixing an RC10 Classic recently, I'm a little gun shy of getting the upcoming CAT (which I've heard was a finicky build back in the day) so I've returned my focus to the Optima series as a next build (the Scorpion I got to assemble really was great).

Glad to help. I understand how irritating things can get at times. The CR-01 is a somewhat complicated build. I found myself making mistakes at times and having to go back a step to correct something. I know from a full-size vehicle's perspective, the CR-01's u-joint angles are completely out of phase which is no good. The faster a vehicle goes like this, the more pronounced the rhythmic vibration that runs through the whole car. On a small scale, slow, crawling vehicle like the CR-01 its effect is negligible so I wouldn't worry about it.

I think I know exactly what you mean. I agree the severe driveshaft angles might be to blame. If I push my CR-01 across the floor I can feel the hop in the chassis as the driveshafts rotate. It's not as noticeable when running it, unless I pick it up and gun the throttle. With the axles at full droop, it really shakes badly. The condition seemed to improve with the installation of Tamiya's barrel spring set, which lowers the chassis a bit. The axles are also "clockable". They can be rotated for differing driveshaft angles during assembly although I've yet to stray from how Tamiya instructs you to set them up in the manual.

I've been holding off like crazy on the Optima re-release (not an easy task, mind you) waiting for a possible Javelin re-release. Has anybody heard any rumors it might be on the way or should I just give in and grab an Optima?

Yep, that's the kit I saw. Curious to know how nice it is. The FAV does have a nice heft to it. That, and the low CG, keep the buggy well planted. I always found it more stable and predictable than a stock Frog for instance.

I think there's an aftermarket kit on Ebay that has the front towers and 4 shocks. Incidentally, the original Wild One used smooth bodied versions of Frog rear shocks on the rear and Hornet rear type shocks on the front. I know re-re Frog shocks will do the trick for the rear as I have them on my FAV now.

I did find a rather lively discussion over on RC10talk.com. Some folks didn't care about the quality and were simply happy to have the RC10 Classic at all. The thoughts being that, these tolerance issues were put there to replicate the old building experience. Others noted, as you did, the parts were made with new molds. They seemed to think that its just poor or lax quality control on Associated part to have these poor tolerances in 2016 with new tooling vs the 1985 original (which may have been excusable back then).

I've spent the last week going through a used Associated RC10 Classic. It was clear from the get-go that the previous owner had made some errors during assembly. Now I know from my history, that the old RC10 was not so great in the tolerances department. Not loose and sloppy, but rather tight and binding. The gearbox specifically was a nightmare of burrs on gear teeth, out-of-round idler gears and spine plates that needed egged out for smooth operation. The re-release was supposed to be much better but I still had to tear it apart several times to get it rotating freely. In my situation, the gearcase was rubbing on the steel outdrive gears and needed clearanced. While it was a fun change of pace, it made me love the Tamiya building experience all the more. My question is why, in the gearbox's case, can Tamiya make bind-free transmissions and Associated could/can (or in the case of the Classic only) not. The old Stealths were good transmissions. Is it the materials they're made out of? Is Tamiya ABS more precise to mold over Associated nylon? I'm leaving out suspension issues as I know Tamiyas go together great but tend to be a little sloppy as a result. The tighter Associated suspensions can be carefully freed up leading to a tighter overall assembly. This is mainly a materials or quality issue. Associated certainly used great designs and tough materials, it's just the tolerances that are sketchy (and I'm not speaking of their new (B4, etc.) products which appear to be high quality.

Does anyone know who was responsible for the magazine ads for Tamiya back in the 80's/90's? Was it the importer (i.e. MRC)? Did they create their own photos and copy or was it supplied by Tamiya in Japan? The reason I ask is I notice some cars strayed from boxart in the ads. For example the US Lunch Box ad featured a boxart Lunchie in 3 small action shots but forth the main picture had blue painted below the lightning bolt decal. This yellow/blue model was also in the small hobby shop mini-catalogs. The Super G ad had a completely custom designed paint scheme (also noted in the fine print). The Bullhead ad featured boxart paint but all the yellow bits (shocks, gearcase guards, etc.) were done in Clod Buster red. Along with the chassis, that was a lot of red. This always puzzled me, leading me to believe perhaps the Bullhead, at least, was a pre-production prototype.

2" away from the spur? Wow that is different! I should take the time to investigate the vintage on-road stuff. Sounds interesting. Apart from the transmission, so much of the RC10 is simple, yet elegant. Its little wonder the buggy changed the face of off road. It lacks some of the overly complicated design motifs of the era and comes off like a competition weapon. Tamiya really didn't streamline their 2wd line up to match the RC10's general design-direction until the Madcap/Astute (even though the Astute was still overly complicated in some ways).

Being completely unfamiliar with on-road cars myself, the reuse of the RC12e design makes perfect sense. In the Winning Edge video, Roger Curtis mentions they tried some of their existing on-road shocks on prototype cars before discovering they'd need an all new design. It seems they were playing with parts they had on hand to see what would work. While I know neither the SRBs nor Scorpion/Beetle had factory diffs of any kind, I simply meant the basic gear train layout (3 internal gears with external spur and pinion) of the SRBs wound up being the way to go from a design standpoint. Furthermore, the concept of a ball diff in the stock SRBs "spool" position was already reality as aftermarket companies were making diffs (gear and ball) for them by the time the RC10 hit the market. For these reasons I questioned the theory behind the RC10's use of a divided gear train using double the number of gears (and consequently, more possible drag).