Fuijo

For the cars where I have both vintage and rere, I would say the Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider are a bit better on materials, but that the Sand Scorcher rere parts-bin body is worse. The Fighting Buggy is better in every way. Obviously the original stickers' styling looks better, but the rere ones are better quality. Although the original instruction manuals were good, the new ones are much better. Those are the only 3 cars that I can compare side-to-side. Not sure about the others.

I would say the Sand Rover and Holiday Buggy are by far the worst, but of course they are expensive and hard to obtain. Next up I would say would be the SRB's. For me these are the most amusing and enjoyable to drive and are my favourite RC cars by far. But in terms of getting one around a high-grip track they have to be up there with the worst of them. On the plus side they are a joy to build and are beautiful objects when completed, and are mostly modified for cosmetic reasons rather than performance ones, which makes a nice change. Should every Tamiya fan build one? Well, not if they don't want to obvs. But on the plus side if you take a lot of care over the finish it may be possible to sell it on without losing much if any money if you decide it isn't for you.

I used 1 can of white fine surface primer. 3 cans of white - I made the white layer deliberately quite thick so that I could gently sand off the inevitable bleed or two from the blue without going through to the primer. Then 1 can of blue and one can of clear. I would think you will need more than one can of clear if you intend to seal in the stickers.

Those holes seem to go through the chassis, rather than threaded into the chassis. Possibly nut and bolt? From BuggyGuy's pic in the other thread.

Avante sold. Price reduction on Mazda.

What a gob-smackingly beautiful beach. It's almost worth being stung by the jellyfish on the way in, losing a few body parts to the salties while swimming, and then getting attacked by the drop bears when you make it back to dry land.

Wild One sold

I don't know tbh. I'm sure I've read somewhere that the universals don't work as well as the dogbones at extreme angles. Which is odd; you would think the hop-up designed for it would work with it, wouldn't you? If it were me, I'd either go back to the dogbones, or keep the universals and put an internal spacer, like an o-ring or two, under the damper piston to stop the shocks extending so far.

Adjusted prices, and removed post restrictions. Will post anywhere at cost.

If you remove the rear shocks and prop up the rear suspension arms so that the drive shafts are horizontal does it still make the noise? If not, how far can you lower the arms before the noise starts again?

I have taken my Sand Scorcher and Fighting Buggy for days out at the beach several times, but never driven them through water. The day after they were completely stripped down to their kit components, and casings were removed from ESC and receiver. There was nowhere that the salt and sand hadn't reached. Personally I love this kind of maintenance, it's like building the kit all over again. But if you don't, the beach might be a mistake. SRB's are too expensive to be allowed to go rusty.

You will have to completely strip them down afterwards. Sand and salt get everywhere, and will cause corrosion if not removed. My advice would be to remove all grease from the gears and run them bone dry. This will minimize damage from the sand. Seal gearbox halves/covers with continuous beads of grease. This will help prevent sand from entering, and any that does will get flung outwards by the gears and hopefully stick to the grease. The sand is incredibly abrasive on motor brushes and comms. So avoid using expensive brushed motors. The good news is there is no danger of impact or rollover damage on sand, just accelerated wear on moving parts. Driving on the beach is ace. Any of your choices will be fun.

Kit 58357 Mazda 787B 295 Euros + postage P1010948 by James H, on Flickr P1010949 by James H, on Flickr P1010950 by James H, on Flickr P1010951 by James H, on Flickr P1010952 by James H, on Flickr P1010953 by James H, on Flickr

Maybe not, but to me it's the best. You wouldn't take a real dune buggy on the road because it would be rubbish there. But in its element it moves really well. I don't know if it's as simple as just being really rear-heavy, but it rides the sand beautifully, like a water-skiing boat riding the waves. At 0:47 in this vid - As to the topic, I paid somewhere between 600-1200 Euros each for a Holiday Buggy, Super Champ, Rough Rider and early Sand Scorcher. I don't regret it for a second. I've spent almost 1000 Euros on my tarted-up rere Sand Scorcher, so in comparison the vintage stuff seems reasonably priced to me.

The Hornet and Grasshopper are RWD. Personally I'm only interested in driving RWD cars because I find them a lot more fun. I have bought a Hotshot and various other 4WD cars because I either find them good-looking, or I want to build and paint them, or both. I'm not really interested in running them much though. I'm not really bothered how easy they are to fix, as long as parts are available.

That looks great fun, and it's such a good-looking vehicle. I've still not built mine after having it for 2 years or so. I really don't want another military vehicle, and was going to do some kind of civillian version. But it just looks so good in military colours. I don't know what to do now.

Yup, could be, who knows? There's not a huge amount of info to go on.

You don't say where you are which will likely make a big difference. Tamico.de have them in stock.

As you say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But so is perception of value in the cars we choose to buy. I wouldn't want one of these even if they were free. Partly because I find it ugly, and partly because it isn't a kit. That means it's kind of a toy by definition as its only purpose is entertainment; there's nothing to do except play with it once you open the box. At least Tamiya kits start life as models before becoming toys. Plus each kit requires something from the builder. No two will be completely identical because of differences in taste and building skill. I'm not saying you're wrong to prefer the Radix, of course you're not, it's just your opinion. But others are likely to have wildy different perceptions of value to you. I do want a Super Avante, so the price doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Yeah, there's no way I'd ever charge a LiPo in the car. I'd be happy to use LiFe if I could get my hands on one of the larger 2200mAh Tamiya batteries, and just use a higher kv motor to compensate for the lower voltage.

Because as Matisse says it was the about the tech. New tech is always more expensive at first. As for metal parts, they work fine in a heavy SRB used on the beach, or for an off-road race car that doesn't really run off-road anymore. But for a proper off-road car that runs in the dirt, plastic is probably better and slop matters far less. But if you feel like being cynical, don't let me stop you.

@toyolien It varies. I like it and it gets a thumbs up from me. But then I think the SRB's are the best handling RC cars ever. Best here meaning most pleasing and enjoyable for me. So hey! What do I know.

@Robert5000He he! Yeah, I know where Sweden and Norway are. It's just you said that it speaks volumes, so I thought there was some story or link there that I wasn't getting.

Well, I thought I didn't like modern buggies full stop. But it looks like I'll have to revise that statement. I have far too many kits already, but I'd like one of these.

I don't get it. What has Sweden got to do with anything? It could just be blue and yellow because they like blue and yellow.