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Sounds like a cracking backpack car!

That looks a wicked little machine dude!

Nice one @Wooders28, I often wondered why it was called Blinky!

So I have been chipping away at this and have nearly enough to post. I grabbed an AliExpress alloy fuel cell for a look. It's fine enough but the logo isn't the best, slightly rough threads but otherwise does the job. I swapped out the servo cable for some black cable I also rearranged the electronics and printed a bracket for a 10 pin pogo connector to save unplugging the connector for the light kit. It's not the most elegant but the lights stay on no matter how much I rattle the body and i can remove the body without knackering the light kit. I"m gonna run the bracket and see if it holds up before i do any tidying up on it. Now I'm left with a rats nest in the body to tidy up🤢. Gotta do some soldering on that as the front cables are all too short with the control box all the way at the back. I aslo grabbed some coloured hose to see if it was better for plug wires. It's not entirely to my taste but I have a roll of 22awg Kanthal wire that's got no purpose so I think I'll run that inside it to give shape to it and see what I think. It is a close colour match to the body. So I sucked it up and spent a few hours over the last few days doing the wiring. swapped out the magnet wires that I had on the spotlights as It was already looking like a weak point. I grabbed the Gorilla tape and strapped up the leads and got the rear lights glued in. I'm really glad i did the rear clusters as they just look so much better than the standard ones. Chuffed thats over as I can actually drive the flipping thing now!!

Could you set it on something that the shaft and pin would clear(a bit of wood with a slot in it) and gently tap it out with a small hammer or something similar?

Doh, I should’ve thought of that as I have 3 in the bottom of the wardrobe!

A Mardave or Kamtec would be a really easy one and use ABS bodies for the most part so you could easily modify that too. It wouldn't take long to complete. The buggy option is good too as it would be more versatile regarding running surfaces. I can't think of a parts donor just now but I'm sure there something.

A few second hand rolling/incomplete chassis’ might be a cheapish start for a “parts bin” to sift through and help mock up ideas and designs. It really is dependent on what style your building to know what to recommend

I’m sure I remember seeing quite a few “Clod-Pounder” builds back on Clodtalk when that was still up. The HPI Wheely King and the TXT were the other donors I saw build threads on.

And with various Rx being around £8 it’s dead cheap to kit out a fleet. I’m onto around 20 models now. Some 3ch, 6ch and one 8ch. @Heavy Duty TLT I did consider not soldering as you can get away with it but I wasn’t confident in it holding for me. Good to know it can work that way as not everyone can or has the stuff to solder them up.

@Dakratfink The hack isn’t too difficult but not quite plug and play. You have to solder 4 header pins to the main board inside the controller and then hook that to a flash tool. That plugs into a computer with usb and you write a firmware to it and then put the controller back together, run through basic calibration and off you go. It is down to how comfortable you are with that kind of thing and there are a few YouTube videos showing the process and a massive thread about it on the RCCrawler forum. It’s definitely a game changer for that TX. I’ve been running one for about 7 years now and it’s been a great modification that I’d always recommend. It gives you up to 8ch(depending on Rx of course), 4WS, DIG, mappable buttons, 64 model memory and maybe other things I can’t remember just now.

@BuggyDad Octopi is a doddle as the website has a cracking tutorial for flashing and setup. I've learned all my tech from doing/attempting opposed to classroom/college situations and it gets more intuitive the more you mess with. It really is a case of having a go most off the time and ditching the fear. I think you'd handle it all just fine!!

@VagabondStarJXF Custom parts are the best. The 3D printer is a Kitbashers best friend!! I've got so many stalled things just waiting on that moment of clarity or inspiration! My current build log is this kinda thing. one is an Element IFS2 mongrel, the other is a leaf sprung Axial chassis with a custom IFS. This is an almost fully custom one that's slowly nearing completion

I have mine in my shed in a roughly made wooden cupboard to keep the draughts and dust out and hooked up to a Raspberry Pi with webcam for an Octopi setup. It's well worth doing as you can check it from the laptop or phone. I'd highly recommend that type of setup. It does sound like you are about ready to take the leap so the only advice I'd add is "Buy it!!" This is the webpage for Octopi on mine at this moment.

I'm can only comment from a watcher POV so for content I'd find the notion of a channel featuring building interesting. I can watch shills review all day long if I want(I don't though), I'm getting fed up of the Infomercial channels, some are entertaining but they get little loyalty from me as they are ten a penny, sadly a few decent channels I used to watch changed to this and lost my interest but if its where the money is then good luck to them. The odd episode like that is fine as everyone needs a bit of cash but when its all that a channel does then its just not for me. Some of the stuff that keeps me interested is RCEverday, ProNoob(although a lot of the building is sometimes left out), OliveRC, and KpopRC does some cool stuff too. I wouldn't likely watch someone use CAD unless it's an important part of a bigger project, like scan in 3d, process, edit and print then that would be logical. I'm an edge case as I like watching folk experiment, kit bash, do out of the box stuff, build not bought type of stuff is maybe the best description. Straight box art builds aren't for me. Good luck with it!!

I’ve got the same issue at times with my Kyosho USA-1 and the Kyosho rebrand Hobbywing esc in it. Sometimes it’s fine, sometimes it’s murder to get the reverse right. I’ve recalibrated it a couple of times and it goes away for a pack or two then comes back. if it was a thoroughbred Hobbywing I’d update the firmware but not sure I can with a rebrand. Annoying as it is I never remember about it until I take the truck out. I must try another radio as in my case I feel it’s not priming properly on startup.

@BuggyDad and @markbt73 something like this?(forgive the backwards paddles)

I am always hoping that Tamiya do a Juggernaut of some flavour, be it in a new iteration or a re-re Jugg 2. I’d say the market would lap it up just now as I think there’s still a fairly strong retro racing scene in the states and a Jugg would be appreciated and possibly add some spice to a sea of Clods. Loads of other buyers would be at the ready too for scalers and bashers.

Another wicked build @Mad Ax! I’ve been weighing up getting one of those 2 speed boxes for a 2wd SCX10 Proline Baja build I’ve started. Do you think it is strong enough for that kinda scenario?

I wasn't fussed on the taillights of the Blazer, seemed like they could be a bit better so I grabbed some AmPro ones. What a difference! I also took a chance on the Boom Racing Kudu light kit for their BRX models. Very cool unit with plenty of options and since i got the one for the old Land Rover they were nice and warm. I got that test fitted and its pretty much exactly what i wanted from a light kit, it controls all the spots, has hazards, control of wether indicators are working or not and brake/reverse. Here's a comparison of the rear lights once I'd painted them. They are pretty good. Cut out the body to fit them up. Test fitted and looking miles better. So I didn't do any more with the lights as I'm still deciding where the box should sit and then i can do the routing and glue the rear lights in. I'm gonna order a crimper and plugs so its a bit tidier, its a rats nest just now. So I designed and printed a basic tow hook mount and bought the RC4WD anti wrap bar and got those fitted. I also put more leafs back on to stiffen things up. In October I did the family birthday and xmas shopping and helped the Mrs by ordering her gift to me with no consultation, brave but she was cool about it. So xmas came and the gift was built. So now i need something to sit on there. Enter my trusty Wild One that's been my runner for about 7 years. It needs a bit of a revamp. After a wee revamp with a mix of styrene, FAV/Shark Mouth parts and a £5 Knight Customs engine we have a start. I also threw on my Scortched parts slot mags and some slicks. I'll get some paint on it once the weather better. I printed some bits to fill out the bed and prototyped a tyre rack. Added some AliExpress ratchet straps and it seems the garage is a hair too small now😂 So I redid the tyre rack in CDS pipe and now waiting for the time to get it fixed together with more than magnets. I'm also making a battery box from some styrene and it'll give me somewhere to put the straps when there's no load. I'm also messing with the leaf spring mounts to swap the shackles from the outsides to being on a pivot in the centre, that way I won't end up with all the load on one axle. I'll add better pics of that another time when its closer to finished as I'm still messing with spacing and height. I've dropped the whole thing by 11mm so far, not sure i can do more and that may already be too much. Need a dry day and time to run it around the driveway and see if it functions properly.

As someone who vaped on 18650 in parallel and series with custom built coils that were down at 0.1ohms(virtually a direct short) I’ve messed with the limits of 18650s a fair bit some years ago. I’d reckon that a 2s2p pack built from high quality, high discharge, IMR chemistry cells from the likes of Samsung or LG would handle something like a Quicrun 1060 and 540 silver can on some sensible driving(opposed to bashing etc) without too much trouble. I’ve had a cell discharge/vent when sat on the kitchen counter and I guess since it wasn’t a direct short that caused it, it was not a volatile situation, I actually never noticed it happen and only found out when it wouldn’t charge did I inspect the cell and realise it had signs of venting, albeit not the shotgun scenario. I believe it was a Samsung 25R, it’s a great model of battery, takes some serious abuse and has a 25A continuous/35A burst discharge. Two in parallel would handle about 65a. I’m nearly tempted to dig some out and throw a pack together and see what happens. Many Chinese RC come with 2s2p 18650 packs and I’ve not seen a wake of carnage from those, not that I’ve really gone looking but bad news travels fast This isn’t really meant to be a point of encouragement but only another point of view and sharing some experience.

There’s this thread currently on the go that has a lot of info in it. Might be helpful.

As always things change, I got my USA-1 a couple of years back.

Great info @Saito2! There’s some other older stuff to be found with the Wayback Machine via the old ClodParts.com site that shut down some years ago.

They delivered my Kyosho USA-1 for £5 when everyone else wanted £15-£50. I’d rate them for delivering here. Better than Wheelspin and Modelsport from that perspective.