nowinaminute

I love it. And I'm grateful stuff that looks like this is still being released in a world of jelly mould colour vomit tribal graphics. It's more than a lazy re-defo, too, with some actual unique cosmetic parts. You won't catch me complaining. Seems like Tamiya can't win. Give people an up to date take on a classic, with trademark quirky styling, something people have cried out for, and it gets rejected (Super Avante) Give them a twist on an old favourite, and make it more than a lazy recolour, to boot, and people don't like that, either. 🤷‍♂️

I would say they are generally very safe as long as you look after them and use them responsibly. I haven't seen a single issue so far that didn't involve neglect/negligence/abuse etc. On facebook groups in particular, it always seems to involve using damaged packs, charging damaged packs, over charging or over discharging, using the wrong type of charger or wrong settings, poor cable management leading to shorts, bad solder, wires twisted together instead of soldered etc. And a common theme running through it all is unattended charging. Even if for some reason your charger decides to go nuts and ignore the correct settings and cut off voltage etc, and cause a perfectly healthy pack to fail, if you actually pay attention, and know how long it roughly takes or the pack to charge, there's just no excuse for allowing a pack to over charge to the point of thermal runaway, it takes a long time to happen and you get a lot of visual warning. I quite often go up to my charger because I feel like it's taking a while and it's inevitably just on the verge of the charge finishing. You certainly get used to how long it SHOULD take so you would be overly aware if an abnormally long time had passed without the charger beeping to announce it had finished. The problem is that people leave them charging in another room/garage etc and just forget about them and hope nothing goes wrong. Seen a lot of people on facebook who simply left the house with them charging away! It helps to store them in a safe place with at least some rudimentary fire proofing but to be perfectly honest, It's almost unheard of for a perfectly healthy pack to spontaneously combust while sitting idle and not attached to a charger etc. You can use a batsafe box or lipo bag etc whilst charging for containment if there was an issue but again, if you're paying proper attention, you would be aware there was an issue way before it escalated , and using boxes and bags etc prevents you from detecting warning signs like puffing etc which begin to happen a significant time before thermal runaway comes into it. Bottom line is follow all the basic guidelines. Don't over charge, don't over discharge, always balance charge, always storage charge, never continue using swollen or otherwise damaged packs, never continue using packs that refuse to balance or have developed excessive internal resistance, never charge unattended, always use lipo appropriate smart chargers and NEVER use dumb nimh style chargers etc. If you follow those rules and don't get complacent, I'd wager you'd be more likely to lose your home as a result of all the electricity, gas and water that's coursing around it 24/7

Someone get in there! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/408024414732684/

Seen something for sale on FB but they aren't keen to post and don't do PayPal etc Anyone in that neck of the woods who may be able to collect and post it on?

Got my Plaza order a few days ago. Playing the waiting game now. I noticed the value on the attached invoice was in USD rather than £ which could be beneficial...someone "accidentally" typed $ instead of £ perhaps?

I have the following items for sale: Tamiya Sport Tuned 540 motor. Silver version. Brand new and Boxed. £22 Tamiya Frog 53908 Universal Shafts. Brand new in Packet. £40 Price includes UK postage. Thanks for looking! PM to arrange details.

I've also had nothing but good experiences buying here! Whether it was a small part in exchange for a token few £ or a full model. Always the same kind of attention and care taken to packaging and communication. I've had several items sent to me totally gratis, too. Very kind! I did have one "interesting" experience the other way though, when I sent a member some parts and they didn't even offer to pay for the postage. I would have probably said don't worry about it but they didn't even offer 🤣 I thought it was common procedure that you insist on paying, even if you know the person is going to say "don't worry about it"

Hmm I think I used the set made for the WR-02 84366 and I used the default which if I recall correctly was 2 hole piston and yellow soft oil. Tbh I found it a bit under damped, still somewhat springy. I think I ended up going to 1500cst oil vs the original 400cst. Now when I press it and let go, the rebound is very slightly delayed vs just springing back with the 400cst. It feels more akin to something like my traxxss slash now and seems to handle landing jumps lot better. With the 400cst, it was a lot better than stock when going over bumpy ground but any kind of air and it rebounded to quickly and would go back up in the air.

I think that's the leading causes of gear damage for any Rc, really. Even modern super tough ones will break if you land on throttle so there's no shame in it happening to the Clod on high power. I have faith in the gears, the diffs are the same as the hopper/hornet/lunchbox etc and I've always found them to be incredibly durable as long as you avoid stuff like landing on heavy throttle where possible. I'm just going to not worry about that part and get on with it. Not planning to run big power any time soon, maybe put 3s through a pair of silver cans as the gearing apparently allows for that, but I haven't got anything spicier planned for the time being. Thanks for the heads up!

Found this one that looks a bit melty

I just tried a tamiya super mini CVA set and it said it qualified for free delivery both on the item page and in the checkout but they still wanted £6 lol. Seems like something that wouldn't be any more bulky than those few items on your list. Who knows. Still a decent price. And I agree about RCMart, used to use them a lot but the postage has gone a bit loopy with the way it shoots up with each item added. I honestly didn't realise how how competitive AT was!

The thing is I read this on the Fedex website and took it to mean that the limit doesn't include shipping fees. But I tried to strike a balance between ordering as much as possible but hopefully not falling fowl of the exchange rate *IF* Fedex decide to calculate it including shipping. There's a only been a couple of days in the last 4 months where the exchange rate would put it over £135 and I believe the rates HMRC etc use are set per month and based on averages and not just one day. For example, the rate set for this month equates to about £128. We shall see.

Hmm well mine came to £129 including postage. Fingers crossed

OK next question 😂 Some items on asiatees give a cheap or free shipping option at checkout but some show prices like $6 even though they item page says they are eligible for "free super saver" delivery. Is this a coivd thing?

Nevermind, just logged in and now it shows free or cheap shipping for a lot of things!

I can't seem to replicate this. Do they have a shipping discount for larger orders or something?

Another thing I kept meaning to ask. Reading the rules, and FedEx and DHLs own interpretation of them, the 135 limit is for the value of the goods only, and postage and insurance etc aren't part of the limit. But how has that worked in reality? I made sure to keep the total INCLUDING postage to just under £130 but has anyone successfully had say £130 worth of items and not been charged? Seems like the kind of thing the courier might try and take advantage of..

Yeah I was refreshing the page on the bus to work 🤣 Luckily, the old order page warns if there's insufficient stock to reorder the same amount, so after they emailed, I kept refreshing till the items in question no longer had the warning next to them and got straight in there. Any ideas how long FedEx takes usually? They usually take a few days to ship out but any idea how long between confirmation of despatch and delivery?

Turns out they just needed to free up the items from showing as sold from my previous order. The emailed me as soon as they were available again so I got in there quick. Everything ordered again now in the same quantities! 😅

Well, that went a bit wrong. I made my order, then realised I forgot 1 little item. Plaza said "don't worry, we'll refund you as a store credit so you can re-order and add the missing item" So I got my refund, and now half the things I ordered are out of stock! What a disaster! I'm not sure if it will just take a while for the items to show as available again because they were allotted to my order or if someone got in there before me! Some of the parts I waited 4 months to come back into stock, so I ordered multiple of and now there's none or just 1 of them showing as in stock. And those were the parts I actually made the order for in the first place!

Hmm. Spoke to a friend who's an old school Tamiya guy (I could only admire them from afar as a child, being "only 39") and he said he has seen those gears melt before when using fast motors or 3s and he thinks the spacer is to blame, reckons it can be a source of friction over time as the grease gets gradually thinner, especially with fast motors. He reckons it's not an uncommon thing to do but I've never heard of it tbh. Now trying to google for damaged clod transmissions to see if I can find any correlation I need to get a life

Just took a look inside mine, plenty of space between the gears and you'd have to apply enough force to make the bearing collapse before it would be able to get any closer. I'll have a think about it...

Just took a look at someone building one and it doesn't come close to touching the larger bearing: Seems like it occupies the space between the small bearing and the step on the shaft, but like I say, the design of the gearbox prevents the gears from rubbing and I can see no signs of rubbing or wear and this thing has been sealed with super glue on the screws since the 90s! I wonder if it's more vital when you use plastic bushings to compensate for wear? Not really eager to have a part in there that's just rubbing against the shaft, even with grease, seems to defeat the point of switching to bearings. I wonder if I could fit a few more 8x5x2.5 inside instead

The moulding of the gearbox case seems to deal with that, though, it's impossible for the 2 gears to be level because the seat for one of the shafts is "higher" than the other one by the amount necessary to prevent rubbing and I can't see any sign of rubbing in previous use. Quite odd. I'd be reluctant to put something in there and it foul the bearing shields, too.