Hobbimaster

Horizon owns Tower Hobbies now, so it will be the same.

If you are looking on Ebay for a Blockhead Wild One, be very careful with these sellers. I have seen a seller post 3 of these for sale from Japan, and actually two have sold now. I sent a message asking if they had actual product on hand, and this was the reply: Note: I have no problem with pre-orders, but Ebay policy is that you must have the actual item to sell. New message from: 3pier.-99 (256) Hello (^^ ♪ Thank you for the question! !! This product is It is a product released in January. It can be shipped immediately after its release. It's a very popular item, so please buy it! !!

Back in the late 80's, there was a off road track right up the road from me. My dad would take me there to watch the races. They raced 4 min heats, and only had 2 classes: stock buggy 540 can, or open mod motor. 99% of the cars at that time were 2wd Tamiya's, and all the fast guys used either the Frog, or Fox. I can remember to this day what a great time everyone was having.

Now that you mention it, the Tamiya Egress, Top Force, and all TRF cars are the only ones I can think of that need nothing out of the box.

Lets just hope Tamiya doesn't make the same mistakes like they did when the DB-02 Leonis came out. That was supposed to be a revolutionary kit too, but they priced it so high no one wanted it, not to mention it needed hop-ups right out of the box. I'd definitely take an Astute TD-2 over the SA TD-4 any day, but the pricing must be inline, or no more than the new Blockhead Wild One for me to purchase one.

No connections, it has the mounts built into the case to mount a 25x25mm fan with any 3x10mm screw. I purchased a set of 4- 5v fans from Amazon for $10 usd. But then had to change from the JST-PH connector to a regular servo connector to plug the fan into the receiver. At 5v rating, you can safely run a fan off of the TBLE-04s BEC circuit to the receiver.

Cant say I'm all that impressed with the TBLE-04s at this point. I have received 2 of these now, one in a Frog kit, and one in a Thunder Dragon kit. The one in the Thunder Dragon likes to thermal after 3-4 minutes of running on a 7.2v NiMh. The construction of it seems a bit cheap: small heat sink, and going from 14g wires to 16g makes no sense to me. Also having a hole for the set-up bottom now is just asking for dirt intrusion. Trying to run anything over the 25t limit will result in a overheating issue. I have in the past run BZ motors with the older TBLE-02s, and also ran a 10.5T brushless motor without issues, even though the newer 04s is supposed to have better specs. This ESC needs a 25mm fan straight away from my experience so far, unless you run it conservatively.

I'm running a Tamiya Torque Tuned motor in mine, with standard gearing, stock Tamiya ESC. If your running the stock silver can motor with high speed gear set, you may be limited to smooth surfaces, there's a possibility of over heating the esc.....Just have to try it. Also, I highly recommend the Frog universal drive shaft set, it helps smooth out the rear drive train.

The drive shaft angles do not allow for the diff to free spin. It should spin by hand as you have said, but it will not just keep spinning by itself unless you compress the rear arms so that the drive shafts are straight. This is all normal for the Frog.

I've built my regular Top Force into a Tribute Evolution well before the EVO re-release came out. I used all the Tamiya released hop ups: Universal shafts, Carbon chassis, Hi-caps, aluminum motor mount, only missing the lighter ball diffs at this point. At each step of the way I cannot say I noticed a vast improvement in performance, the base kit is already very good. Today's brushless motors, and light weight lipo batteries are so good, making things like lighter ball diffs, and Ti screws really not necessary at all......But I get why people would want them to be as close to the original as possible.

Thanks for the information. Completely rebuilt the shocks this morning using original Fox Specs. X-6 shock pistons, no spacers on all damper shafts, and 4mm rubber stopper above lock nut. What a difference! The whole stance of the car looks 100% better, the dampers feel nice and "plush" when pressing down. I have no idea why Tamiya made so many changes to the Novafox suspension. I did have to shorten the front steering rods a few mm's each side for the taller stance, but no big deal. Now for a after market sway bar.......

Yes, I am seeing now what others have been saying. Novafox front sway bar is complete rubbish. Two internal spacers limiting the travel, along with the worst designed sway bar on any RC car. Now question is, looking at the OG Fox manual, do you take even the rear spacers out, or just the front? Looks like the rear dog bones might have issues without the spacers. Also, will a Vintage Tamiya Fox front sway bar fit on the Novafox? Looks like there are a few vintage ones on ebay at the moment, may grab one if it will drop right on.

Just started reading this thread, I am currently building a Novafox. My observation when I built the front damper is that the spring is way too stiff. I had a hard time compressing the spring to screw on the shock end. I don't recall my Boomerang having such a stiff front spring, and its a heavier 4wd car. Maybe have to source a boomerang spring to try out. I have a Thunder Dragon on the way, and will definitely look at its front spring to see if that would be a good alternative.

I've had this same thing happen to me once, maybe twice. A bulging pack results from either not storing it at the proper voltage (what I did). Or the pack is old, and its beginning to release gasses internally causing the bulge. Either way its done for, and the easiest way to safely dispose of it is to soak the battery in saltwater. A small pale, bucket, whatever to hold the battery in a bath for a few days (outside) is all that's needed. Saltwater will slowly discharge the pack to absolute zero after a few days, and then its totally safe to throw in the trash bin without worrying about it getting pierced and causing a fire.

I did the same with my Top Force some time ago. Dyed the wheels orange, painted the body gun metal grey, decals from MCI, and of course the full graphite chassis, and aluminum hi-cap dampers. That is why I decided the EVO was not for me, I had already made a "replica" Evolution. I actually hate the word "clone" or "fake". Anyone outside of the R/C community couldn't tell the difference, or would simply care less.