Mokei Kagaku

I reckon the Land Cruiser 300 is mainly aimed at the domestic market, but it's absolutely nothing for me. What also bothers me with that model and several other CC-02's (Unimog, Defender Land Cruiser 40) are the included tires (originating from the CC-01 Wrangler). Rubbish onroad and offroad, so except for shelf queen purposes, other tires are virtually a must.

I have nothing against the 992 either, although my real enthusiasm for the 911 ended with the 993 (last aircooled). My previous comment wasn't against the 992, but more to point out that the body design really didn't change much from the 997, through the 991 to the 992. The only really ugly 911 is the 996, in my humble opinion.

The VIP versions are the 997 generation, whereas the new one is 992, so completely different body. Well, to the extent that Porsche changes the body design of the 911 from generation to generation.... The excessively high stance makes it look like a Golf Country and makes the body proportions look a bit odd from certain angles. It is, but without sponsor stickers, so a road version.

I have put it on my "wishlist" and will get one, but I think it's looks a bit dull and cheap. It's kind of like a mix of Scorpion, HPI 5B, Wild One, Falcon and Losi SCB. Nothing really new, but that can possibly not be exptected anymore? Apparently driver figure recirculated from The Fox. Nasty chrome on the wheels, which will come off immediately when I get the model. Also, with rear trailing arms, I wish Tamiya had gone for double front trailing arms too, but double wishbones up front in combination with rear trailing arms is authentic too, albeit places the model in the `90's and not '70's/80's like the SRB. With a wheelbase of 283mm, Tamiya really needs to make a new VW Bug (baja bug) body for the chassis.

Nooooo! Don't be too hard on yourself! The initial release was less than half a century ago! Sorry, couldn't resist. I agree, but the Chevy Stepside is a very poor kit and it's an RWD only. The quite new Bronco kit is vastly superior, but not as cool, imho. I also agree that the original livery is much more attractive than the liveries of later versions. In fact, I copied the decals for the first version in different sizes in the late 80's and used them as templates for masking "buggy jumping over sand dune" airbrush motives on lexan bodies. Now I would have scanned the decals, but I didn't have access to a scanner back then.

On the website, 1:25 isn't specifically offered. 1:28 and 1:24 are, but Nataniel has made sticker sheets for me in scales not specified on his website before, so 1:25 shouldn't be a problem. However, as you surely know, MCI's stickers are quite thick, so that might represent a problem in such a small scale.

A little more information about the kit's origin and photos of the unfinished buggy here: https://www.facebook.com/mokeikagaku/posts/pfbid06uExuBXnW9RZdY3GGYfZHVyTEYA9XNdEMUZBn5Gt9HAUBZdCSJkXkiL3JN5tKBvQl

Being 1/16, it would normally not be of interest to me, but after checking wheelbase (239mm) and width (165mm), I'm tempted. The Tamiya M-chassis VW Bug body should virtually be a direct fit.

I would be happy to help. PM coming.

Should be able to make them during the Christmas holiday. I will post photos of the finished ones so you can decide whether they are good enough before shelling out for shipping cost.

Well, I still have the mold and as far as I know, it's undamaged, so I could surely pour new copies. You should know that I didn't care to mold the rear of the insert as fitting the Tamiya light bulb set was something I reject as an option from the start. So, the rear is the "surface" of the poured resin and needs to be sanded flat (if you care to), and holes drilled suitably deep for LEDs to be fitted. I would be happy to make copies and send to you at actual shipping cost and maybe a little to cover the cost of the resin. If so, I would include clear copies of the "inner" lights too. As the LEDs would be fitted where the "tube" for fastening to the body is on the originals, I would mold them without.

The original headlight inserts are prepared for Tamiya's old light bulb set (# 50320), but you are then supposed to drill a hole in the middle of the (opaque) headlight lenses. It can of course be done with LED's too, but in my humble opinion, that just looks stupid and is a lazy solution from Tamiya's side. so I made an RTV-mold of the original part and molded copies in clear resin. The resin I had was somewhat yellow, but considering that cars in France from the era had yellow headlights, that was absolutely acceptable. (The light brown opaque insert in the photo below was just a test of the mold.) I made clear copies of the "inner" two smaller headlights too, but can't find any right now.

I don't know who the manufacturer is, but just like the aluminium Wild One/FAV chassis I posted about some time ago, also this one is offered by RCTechzone on eBay. I'm not tempted to replace the original frame on any of my ORV's, but I still think this is pretty impressive. The original skid plate looks a bit out of place though. Link to eBay.

2022/2023: 58715 Toyota Land Cruiser 40 (CC-02M chassis) 58722 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK AMG (TT-02 chassis)

Thanks a lot for your comments and offers to help! I apologise for my late reaction, but a close friend had a near fatal accident shortly after I started this thread, so I suddenly had other priorities for some days. The friend is out of coma now, but has a long way more or less back to normal life ahead of him. A stark reminder to appreciate and enjoy life while it's still possible and to not take "normal" life and acceptable health for granted. Take care, everybody!

I have found some Kyosho-parts on eBay, but the seller is in the USA and only accepts domestic buyers. The parts in question have become very hard to source, so I would really like to buy them. Can anyone in the USA please help? Photo of the parts below. Just a small shipment and the BIN price is USD57. I of course have PayPal and will happily pay all costs in advance. Help would be greatly appreciated.

2022 / 2023: 58718 Toyota Celica GT-Four (ST165) (TT-02 chassis)

Lowest price in Germany found so far is EUR 279.99 (Modellbau Seidel, which is typically the shop with the lowest prices for Tamiya RC kits in Germany).

Chronological order of the releases tends to differ a little from country to country, but officially (and in my native country), the order was like this: 58231 Wild Dagger , officially released 24.02.1999 58246 Stadium Raider, officially released 27.10.1999 44025 Mad Bison, officially released 30.11.1999 58608 Sandshaker, officially released 28.02.2015 Considering that the Stadium Raider was officially released 8 months after the Wild Dagger, it seems a bit unlikely that it was released before the Wild Dagger in any market. However, the Stadium Raider is really the cancelled Schlesser Megane Buggy with the Megane body replaced with the Wild Dagger body, and the Megane was first announced at the Nuremberg fair in February 1999, if I recall correctly.

A friend of mine who owns a TRF503 recently told me that he's repeatedly has destroyed the rear gear diff internals and asked if this is a commonly known problem and if anything can be done to make it stronger. As I don't own and have never run or built a TRF503, I don't have the faintest idea. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

As I worked for a distributor at that time, I know how it happened in my country, and there are very good reasons to assume it happened exactly the same way virtually worldwide; Tamiya announced the WW2 to the distributors as the Wild Willy 2000 and being a rather exciting future release at the time, this information trickled through to hobby shops. And though Tamiya changed the name to Wild Willy 2 well before the actual release, the 2000-name got stuck. That's however no excuse for TUSA (or any other distributor) and Bigsquid to still get it wrong so many years later. By the way, talking about tentative model names, Tamiya announced the Farm King as the Poppy Buggy to distributors and also that name got stuck for a while on some distributors' and shops' websites even after the Farm King was released.

The thing I hate most about Tamiya is the Juggernaut. Not the model itself so much, but how Tamiya went about it. Being a "flagship" model that customers sold their Grandmothers to afford, it's inexcusable how poorly designed and tested the Juggernaut was. If they had cared to run one for 5 minutes, they would have discovered that the drivetrain was crap and the combination of high CoG and "bubbly" tires made the model virtually undrivable. As much as I love "everything" Tamiya, I don't think there exists any valid excuse for bringing the Juggernaut to the market. And then the "Customer Care Package" that followed, which for many customers (depending on country) wasn't even free. Maybe not so important considering that the "improvements" of the Customer Care Package only fractionally improved the model. Yes, I know, it happened 2+ decades ago, and the Juggernaut is the reason we have the great F350 Hilift and the Mammoth, but I still can''t forgive Tamiya for how they handled the Juggernaut-disaster.

I think Bigsquid's announcement is just based on their misunderstanding of a recent FB-post by TUSA. (screengrab below). And the "2000" is just because neither Bigsquid nor TUSA have yet realized that the tentative pre-release name "WW 2000" has been obsolete for 23 years.

Mantua copied the Holiday Buggy body for their Nevada Cross back in the eighties and repros of this body can be found and are sold as "1/10 scale" by some sources. It's however 1/8 scale and doesn't fit the DPB chassis at all. Not much of a help, I know, but knowing it just might help you avoid buying a body that can't be used.

A partially built and obviously never run Otaki Mustang Mach 1 was offered on eBay recently and the highest bid was EUR 181. I appreciate that a model of the Mach 1 to most collectors isn't even remotely as desirable as a 934, 935 or Countach and that an early Tamiya RC car in similar condition thus command higher prices. I still suspect the most important reason why an early Tamiya is so much more valuable to collectors is the model brand. Otaki doesn't exist anymore and while the Mach 1 body is relatively easy to source because Doyusha has (re-)released the static version of Otaki's kit several times, but I think a vintage Otaki kit deserves a little more love. Techncally, early Otaki RC cars were hardly inferior to Tamiya and the bodies of Otaki's 1/12 cars are similar in quality and detailing as Tamiya 1/12 cars. Admittedly, I stopped bidding long before EUR 181 myself, so I'm among the "guilty" collectors too! I'm not complaining though. It's amazing that vintage RC cars in quality just moderately inferior to Tamiya, can be had for so little money!