Ray_ve

If I recall correctly, both versions have their own advantages. Metal bearings have a gap between sideplate and rotating part, giving them lower drag compared to rubber seal. Rubber seals are better at keeping dirt out of the bearing compared to metal For my konghead, I intend to do a mixed setup. Metal for anything inside a gearbox as this is sealed anyway. And rubber for the driveshafts at wheel side.

Absolutely! Just bought an extra HDMI cable so I can connect the laptop to the TV. Waiting for ep4! Typically best to watch after 23:00 when the kid and wife are off to bed.

A typical simple upgrade is metal anti-rotation brackets. More advanced is the dual-servo steering, but that is more a modification then an upgrade.

I use the GoolRC TG3 pistolgrip sets form Aliexpress. I have 2 transmitters (1 for Tamiya models, 1 for Marui) and each of my drivable/finished car has its own receiver. A transmitter/reciever set is 20 to 25 euros, a seperate receiver 5 euros. These have been perfect and reliable from day 1 for me.

Worked on the electrification of my Mugen Prime 12 nitro chassis. Looks like it can all (barely) fit. Need to make a new top-plate on the chassis, and a better motor mount as this L-shaped bracket has too much flex for my taste.

Today, I recieved the holy grail!

Maybe a stupid question but that pinion looks very clean. Did you use grease on the gears?

But with a re-designed gearbox for better stronger material gears that can also take bearings, so it can run brushless. And a battery case to hold 3S! And an optional wheely bar. Lighting kit would be nice too.

The 3900KV and esc for my nitro to electric Mugen Seiki Prime 12. Now if only I could remember where I put that chassis during cleanup.....

For any vintage model that comes in without transmitter/receiver/servo, I myself use the modern stuff because in my personal opinion the modern material is simply better. I want the best, not period correct. I have a Marui Golden Eagle that came complete with its AM radio. When turned on, the servo's would 'jitter' a bit because of the low-grade antenna signal and sytem, and the car's antenna that is longer then the entire model is an eyesore. For this specific model I only took out the old speed controller and gave it an ESC so I could also loose the 4 AA batteries and holder and the ESC's seamless motor control is much gentler on those hard-to-replace gears. Any other vintage model I have (Big Bear, Ninja, and at some point when I finish them the Samurai and Shogun) have brushed motors and get an modern ESC and a 2.4Ghz set and a strong metal-gear steering servo with metal servo saver. No more eyesore antenna as this typically sits under the bodyshell. No more AA batteries. Steering servo that is rock steady when turned on and actually capable of turning the wheels at stand-still and not just flex the plastic servo-saver a bit while the wheels will only do the actual turn when the car starts rolling. And the same goes for all the Tamiya's I have. Would have used these better electronics back in the day if they were available and affordable.

That one is still on my Christmas shopping list. I have the 'regular' FDM 3D printer. Its fine for anything bigger then 5cm but not for high detail due to its 3mm material spools and 0.4mm head. Converting it to a finer head and layer height is more work then I care to put into it. I typically use 0.25 to 0.3mm layer thickness which is a rough finish. On a hobby convention, I saw a Dremel 3D FDM printer make a new body for a matchbox car. That used a very fine layer thickness. 0.1mm or maybe even finer. It took 12 hours to make the 6cm body as it was printing at snale speed, but the amount of detail in the printed part looked excellent to me with minimum finishing effort. But I hope to make better resolution small parts with the Elegoo Mars. It would nicely complement my current printer.

Depends on the material it is printed with. Sounds like these are printed in PLA, which is a very hard plastic, and a disaster to sand down. I've finished these parts by using a plastic primer, followed by spray filler. Both from Motip brand, found at automotive parts shops. That gave me a decent enough finish. But pictures could tell us more if you have them.

I have a cheap ultrasonic cleaner and I love it! Just fill it with warm water and washing up soap, add a handful of screws, nuts, small plastic parts, and let it run for a few minutes. Used to do this with a toothbrush, but this saves so many hours of boring manual labour! For really greasy parts like gears and gearboxes, I put those in a plastic sealbag with some terpentine, and place that bag into the cleaner which is filled with water. Greasy parts come out very clean, and one more round in the water with soap removes the terpentine smell. All I can say is, the cleaner is a perfect addition to the tools pool.

Poor-able polyurethane rubber is available. I guess the biggest challenge would be to make a decent negative shaped container to poor it into. Either make a container by copying a good tire, or for increased accuracy make a container using a 3D printer or CNC machine. Sounds like a nice project for the christmas-holiday. But I would buy a better resin-based 3D printer first. Agreed that the rubber should be a but thicker... Difficult to say how much as the suspension of the Bear is like the Clodbuster, the tires are the main springs. That only leaves the gears! Maybe somthing with a negative container made from gypsum and poor molten zink or aluminium into it?? Or try to print resin gears.

Tires are even worse to find compared to gears, as gears will at least not dry out as the years pass by. I was lucky to buy 2 bears, with an extra set of decent tires to make one original bear. And have one other set of used tires that are in one piece, but the rubber feels very dry..... I think that unfortunately, the search, and practical use, for original tyres is over as time has degraded the original rubber too far... Unless they were stored in sealed plastic bags in a dark cool place... Would be nice if a re-production run was done, as tires and gears are the only parts of a bear that need replacing. Most other components will last.

The Marui Big Bear. That saw a lot of action. In Those days, given that charging of my only battery took 4 hours, I could run 3 times a day if I timed it right. Not to mention the nummer of times I tested the range of the transmitter by running the Bear in a straight line away from me, only to have to run after it as offcourse no more range means the servo will keep the speed controller at full speed. Second was the grasshopper, because it was the cheapest Tamiya to be found. But loads of fun too.

Shipped the 1st edition Cold Buster to its new owner. I'm slowely ganing some shelf space again. Took a big box to package that!

Reluctantly attempting to make some shelf-space as things may have gone a bit out of hand with the number cars. Sold the Rising Fighter, still selling some Marui big bears, golden eagle, ninja, the stripped down Samurai..... Original Clodbuster. Business is slow, so plenty of time to change my mind on this. Definite keepers are Frankenbigbear, Bullclod Big Bear, Original Big bear, and another Big Bear variant I have in mind (my Big Bear autism kicks in). And the Shogun, Grasshopper 2, Dual Hunter are on the maybe list. Aaargh this is hard whahaha...

The cheap lazy-runner buggy arrived. It's marked as Amax brand, but the parts are typically HSP Himoto, so cheap on aliexpress. And it is mostly the same platform as Basherbear, so very familiar. 4WD, have to check if it has bearings, complete with radio, ESC, battery, just need 8 AAs for the transmitter. Looks like it has only done a few runs as the tires are still fine and no play on the axels.

That thing is beautyfull!! Excellent work, almost a shame to run... But in the end, that is what its made for. I myself put in a low bid on a HSP buggy, and won It. So a cheap no-problem lazy runner is coming my way.

Put out a bid on an ad selling old RC buggies. Mostly grasshoppers, but one is a Marui Samurai

Enough! If I don't count repairs, but only the real projects: Marui Samurai. Stripped, partially rebuild, but I need to finish painting parts. Marui Shogun. Needs a total strip, cleaning of parts as it was kept in a shed and it looks like the inside of a painters van, rebuild. 2 Marui big bears, but they will be shelf-fillers only. Marui big bear, that will be rebuild as original, but with ESC and bearings. Konghead. Its clean and new, Quick stripdown to add bearings, lube, rebuild and full electronics and custom body. Frankenbear. Needs a full suspension redesign and a body. No time as the projects my wife wants done somehow end up as higher priority??

I know my Marui Big Bear, which is similar in scale size as a Lunchbox, is indeed advertised as 1:12 size, not 1/10. So a proper 1/10 monster truck should indeed be bigger compared to a bear/box. And offcourse, the clod body sits very high (a little too high for my personal taste) on the chassis, giving it that much more impressive stance. Very happy with my Bullheadclod Big Bear's scaling, it is a much more impressive beast compared to the original Big Bear. And my 12 year old self was already impressed with the original bear back in the days.

Looking back that sure is true. Back in the days I bought a Manta-ray thinking it would be a great car. But the sloppy steering and lack of power from the silvercan made the drive disappointing.... And don't get me started on the rear gearbox with its aluminum gears and motor mount.... I now bought a Blazing star for the nostalgia of the chassis, but it required quite some upgrades to make it an acceptable car to my taste. And it's all down to acceptability I guess. If you want a base car for acceptable money, Tamiya has something for everyone. And you can either keep it as a budget lazy runner for little money, or upgrade it to higher performance with the aftermarket options as Tamiya as well as other companies produce many options. Improved speed, or strength, looks, anything is possible so the tinker-factor is high enough to keep it interesting for us non-kids. It all depends on a persons wishes and budget, but for the money, better cars exist if you are not held-back with your nostalgia. I needed some Tamiya stuff and went to a LHS the first time after moving to the area I live now. Although they sell some Tamiya stuff, the main focus is Traxxas. An indeed, I picked up and looked at a Bigfoot and E-Maxx from the shelves there, and they just feel so much tougher and stronger compared to Tamiya. Its like a different class of car. The owner in the shop told me he was focusing toward Traxxas so he could sell more cars without his customers coming in again within a few days because of issues or damages on the car, complaining about the product and needing a lot of support. That makes sense off-course from a business point of view. The Bigfoot is still on my list.

Can you clarify what the problem is? (cut the power can mean several things...) Does the charger shut down when it supplies 4 amps (Screen goes black), or does the charger remain working and will it not charge with a higher amperage than 4 amps? An 8.5 amps power supply should be capable of supplying 4 amps continous without issues... How hot does the supply get? If you can keep your hand on it at the hottest parts, it should not be more then 45 degr. Celsius. Edit: the website states it has an internal fan, is that working correctly?