Hobbimaster

I will always bring some sort of RC with me on trips. It all depends on where we are going at the time, some times a street car, or 2wd buggy. At a minimum if luggage space is tight, there is always room for a mini-Z.

Yes, the towers and top plate are a composite now, would have liked at least fiberglass plates. The steering bellcranks are secured through the top plate now.

You definitely have to give some thought as to wiring on this buggy. The body shell is a real pain to remove if you want to get to the inside, its nothing like the Scorpion series of cars. I used a Hobbywing XR10 Justock esc, which mounts perfectly to the underside of the top plate using the longer screws Kyosho supplies. The battery leads are a little short on this ESC, so instead of adding more wire, I just made a cut out to reach the battery directly. As for the shock seals, they are the same ones used on the Scorpion re-releases. I learned after building a few kits to chase the seal down the threads using my thumb nail. Its a pain for sure, but you want to be patient and make sure no to stretch or deform this seal. Also making sure enough oil is removed from the assembled shocks is critical in preventing leaking shocks. There are no bladders in these sort of shocks, so there will be virtually no rebound, and the shaft must be able to move up in the body without pressure build up.

I know what I will be building over the Holidays! Grabbed a shirt too!

I use these on my BF, and MB trucks http://kimbroughracingproducts.com/store/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29904

Looks like this has been pushed back to December according to Tamico ETA preorder. I was wondering what was going on since the initial reports were a mid-October release.

It may very well be a defect in the gears themselves. Any slight variation in the tolerances could cause an issue. When the RC10 worlds edition came out it had a problem with the top shaft being slightly off causing the transmission to have rough spots when rotating. Associated's answer was to run the gears in. Not sure if this will work with the SA transmission, the clicking noise almost sounds like it could be skipping teeth.

Something definitely sounds wrong. My SA has a Tamiya 10.5T and its been quiet so far. I had built another SA with a BZ super sport in it, and it was quiet too.

I have several 4wd buggies in my collection: Avante, Egress, Hot Shot, Super Hot Shot, Top Force, Boomerang, and the latest Kyosho Optima 4wd offerings. IMO the Kyosho Optima series is hands down better than any of my Tamiya's kits. That being said if I had to choose only a Tamiya 4wd, it would be the Top Force. It was the best Tamiya had to offer at the time. It is a good all around buggy with no real strange handling problems.

I buy and sell on Ebay all the time. You have to remember Ebay's stance is the customer (buyer) is always right, They have that whole buyer satisfaction guarantee thing. Even if you were to have in your ad, "sold as is", or "no returns" pretty much goes against Ebay policy. They can, and will make you give refunds, or take an item back. I had a $400 1/8th scale buggy delivered to a buyer by UPS a few years ago, and left the package at the residence. He later claimed he never got it. I contacted UPS and they had the driver verify it was delivered, but it did not matter in Ebay's view. He still got a refund, and I was out the money, and buggy.

I have no regrets buying any of my Kyosho re-re's. They are brilliant designs, still highly capable kits. I can't wait to lay my hands on this updated Ultima!

Seems they are only making batches as needed these days. Looks like the Top Force, and Manta Ray are discontinued again. Probably will be more to go by the wayside soon. As for the Wild Willy, and Wild One, seems they are still available, just out of stock. Did you try Tamico, Rcmart, Stellamodels?

That is how all pan cars behave, unless you have a pristine surface forget about it. IMO that is why 1/12th scale, and even F1 are not as popular as they could be. You cannot run them down the street like a touring car, which that is limited to street surface as well. An offload buggy with street tires can run anywhere, heck most people just leave on the knobby tires and hit the streets. I use to have a F201, while I did enjoy it, no one else had one, so it was more of a novelty in the end. While Tamiya had a great idea, none of the other Mfg's jumped on board to make it a real class of cars.

Ultima 2019?? Its now mid August, not many months away till the holidays, not even a pre-order in sight. Kyosho has a history of delays, this may be a 1st quarter release. Ultima 2020.

I have a re-re that is in stock trim, it runs just fine. I think people are running into issues when they upgrade the motor. However, I must admit I do not use this car as a daily runner. I have other more modern, less fragile cars that I tend to bash with.