S-PCS

Well, all I can say is that from a re-re perspective, this Christmas was like, well, uh, Christmas. Sadly, this also means that there are currently no more re-res for me to build. I really need that Falcon NOW, Mr. Tamiya. Please.

So I just finished building my re-re Super Astute, and I came across a few oddities... like a part on the G parts tree that is on the tree, but not in the drawing of said tree on page 25 of the manual (doesn't matter, because the same part is also on tree A, both in reality and in the schematic). Or the fact that the E-clips used thruout the build are clearly of an entirely different size than those depicted in the manual. Haven't seen that from Tamiya before. Or the use of a size of hex nut that doesn't fit any end of the standard Tamiya tool. But one thing really puzzles me. Part A4, the gearbox (or gearbox main frame), first shown in step 12 (page 8) of the manual, clearly has TWO mounts on the top left side, where the MSC resistor used to be on the original release. They're clearly shown in the manual and in the official Tamiya press pictures. However, my kit came with an A4 that has only ONE of those mounts, the forward one. The strange thing is - the other mount used to be there at some point. It has been removed, mechanically. It looks like it was drilled out. Not broken off, that would leave some sort of stress mark around the base of the mount, I guess, but very cleanly and accurately drilled out. This was a shrink-wrapped, unopened, brand new kit from a major supplier, with the A parts tree in its unopened bag inside the sealed box inside the shrink-wrapped main box. Certainly wasn't transport damage, plus the missing bit (which isn't all that small) wasn't in the (undamaged) bag, nor in the box. Even weirder, the A4 wasn't attached to the A parts tree inside the bag... Ok, that happens, parts breaking loose on their own, but on the tree side, A4 has been obviously twisted off, while on the A4 side, there's a clean cut where the part attached to the tree. As if the original A4 was removed and replaced with a drilled-out part. Either way, my gearbox has only one mount, with absolutely no apparent reason why the other one would have to be removed - and it looks like both cars pictured in the posts above have only one mount, too. Why? Makes absolutely no sense to me. Any ideas?

1988-1991: RISE OF THE AVANTE 1988: Sonic Fighter, Avante, Thunder Dragon, Grasshopper II, Terra Scorcher, Vanquish 1989: Fire Dragon, Egress, Astute, Madcap 1990: Saint Dragon, Avante 2001, Manta Ray 1991: Bear Hawk, Super Astute, Top-Force 1988 1998 was a major RC year, if only for the fact that news (and goods) traveled much slower back then, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only kid around who was completely unaware of the Avante, Terra Scorcher and Vanquish releases, until I first saw them at the local hobby store, all three at once. Even as a kid, I knew immediately that times were changing again. THREE radically new buggies (technically not entirely correct), radically different from everything that had been around up to this point, and radically different from each other. Tamiya, it seemed, was getting ready to take over the entire RC world. So much choice. So little pocket money. To me, these three are the holy trinity of Tamiya RC buggies. My personal holy trinity, mind you, as I have no way to objectively judge their historical significance. But I can tell you this: Six buggies were released in 1988, more than in any other year in Tamiya history. Both Terra Scorcher and Vanquish served out 5 full years on the market, consistent with Tamiya buggy availability average up to that point in history. No way these were not successful, no way they would not attract the same market interest as the “early” re-res today. The first generation of mainstream RC kids, the 10 year olds of 1983, might have moved on to different things by 1988, but 1988 was still buggy age, and for the second generation, these three were the cars to have. Simple as that. The 10 year olds of 1988, by the way, have just turned 40 recently. It is their re-re turn now, so expect the ’88 cars to happen, and sooner than later. Which, after a deep breath, brings us to Sonic Fighter, which is just odd, but think about it… you want one, don’t you? At this point, it doesn’t matter anymore if it handled or what weaknesses it had, or if it was considered to be plain ugly, at this point, your inner collector is telling you that without Sonic Fighter, the buggy re-re run won’t be complete. If every other buggy has a re-re justification, Sonic Fighter (least popular Tamiya buggy ever, by availability) in turn earns its own. And Striker just looks so much better with Sonic Fighter next to it. Ok, this is probably the one buggy that could objectively be called a failure, again judging from its very short two year availability (Striker had 5), but that doesn’t matter, because I want one every time I see one, and I certainly didn't back then, and I have a nagging feeling that this is what re-re is all about. Not individual buying decisions, but ensnaring your inner collector to the point of utter helplessness. After all, you ARE over 40, and you CAN afford more than one of these. You might as well want them ALL. And I have a feeling that you are going to get your chance. Grasshopper II, also released in 1988, was first sneered at by hardened 10 year old veterans of the playground circuits. We were oldschool Grasshopper fans, after all. How dare they replace it? You know how the sequel almost never lives up to the original – but Grasshopper II did. Small wonder, it is the same car, after all, with a minor technical difference and a different body, and it held its own as the resident cheap 2WD buggy for the second wave of RC playground bashers, just like Grasshopper did for the first. Thunder Dragon came out in 1988, too, hot on the heels of 1987s Thundershot, using the Thundershot chassis, just like Suber Sabre used the Boomerang’s. It was the first Tamiya buggy to have a distinctive “Japanese” appearance, and from what I remember, no-one liked it. The Manga craze has been cited as one of the reasons why Tamiya made a Japanese themed buggy, but I don’t know enough about Mangas or any aspect of 80s Japan youth culture to even speculate on that. I thought it was ugly and out of place, and so did everybody else, and unlike Striker, Sonic Fighter and Bigwig, Thunder Dragon hasn’t aged well. It’s still ugly, and unlike almost all Tamiya buggies, it doesn’t have that ”real” feeling to it. All those other buggies, they could at least theoretically have been scale versions of real world buggies, but not Thunder Dragon. It was a fantasy toy first, RC car later. Of all the original buggies, this is the one I can wait for. I’d buy a re-re, just to have the complete set, but that’s about it. 1989 1989 started out with the Fire Dragon, and there is nothing I can say about Fire Dragon that would be any different from what I just said about Thunder Dragon, except of course for one thing: Fire Dragon has been re-released in 2008. That proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that my own personal preferences are NOT key factors in Tamiya re-re decisions. Not that I thought they would be, but I do believe that I do, to a point, represent your average 80s western world buggy kid turned 40+, and this crowd obviously isn’t the only one that Tamiya caters to. Not that this was news to anyone, merely pointing out the significance of the original Dragon car re-release once again. Next came Egress, which was like Avantes bad young brother (Forgive me this rather obscure 1988/1989 reference). Avante, to a degree, was what you knew, a cool, sleek, stylish Tamiya buggy, driver and all, and it might have been way out of reach, and then Egress comes along, blacked out-windows, no driver, no sponsor decals, and every 10 year old knew that the RC world had shifted again. The gloves had come off. Buggy was leaving the mainstream, just one year after the six releases record year of 1988. And Egress didn’t come alone, it brought along Astute, equally sinister business-looking, and we knew that the fun playground buggy thing had come to an end. Those two cars, in my opinion, mark the beginning progression from buggy racing as a mainstream hobby to a buggy racing as professional sport, and are among the most historically significant of the First 100, or at least at the modern end of the First 100 if you’re over 50. Astute is one hot re-re-candidate, if you ask me. It doesn’t matter if Avante, Egress or Astute lived up to the expectations on international racetracks. They clearly brought their point across – the RC world was becoming increasingly competition-focused, and the kids on the streets would have to make do with whatever leftovers they could get. Like Madcap, first new release on the “cheap” end of things. It didn’t make sense to us, at the time. Buggy racing was going professional, and therefore, expensive - from your car park basher point of view, note Egress and Avante. And now they’re making a cheap version of an expensive professional buggy? This wasn’t the affordable Boomerang companion to the upscale Hotshot, this was first making the entire hobby inaffordable, and then presenting a cheap knock-off of the real thing for you to have. The market wasn’t taking you seriously anymore, and this is where the second wave of mainstream RC enthusiasts started to slowly move into other things. Madcap must have worked for the third wave, though, the kids that missed 1983-1988, because it lasted 14 years on the market. It’s the third-last buggy on my wishlist, but I recognize its historical significance. It might easily have been one of the most commercially important Tamiya buggies ever. 1990 1990 is not the last year of the First 100, but things were already clearly changing. Saint Dragon came out and made it clear that Tamiya was now completely out of touch with the playground-hardened buggy veterans of ‘86. This was a toy, like all the Dragon cars, and worse, it was toy on a cheap toy platform, when earlier Dragon cars had at least made use of respected 4WD underpinnings. Yeah, I’ll still get one when it is re-re’d, but just because Tamiya got me hooked anyway. Bring it on, you can have my money, and worse, I’ll still enjoy the build. And I’ll still enjoy owning this monstrosity. Oh, the beauty of reliving your childhood. Equally as-of-yet un-re-re’d Avante 2001 shared the Grasshopper II’s fate – part 2 of nothing is ever as good as part 1. But unlike Grasshopper II, Avante 2001 didn’t get the chance to prove itself. Yes, it made it thru 5 years on the market, unlike the first Avante, but by the time it was discontinued in 1994, buggy racing had left the mainstream altogether, and where it went, an entirely new breed of buggies reigned supreme, one that could do without references to 80s mainstream buggy products. Kit #58085, Avante 2001 really is the last of the traditional First 100, because what came after it is all third-generation stuff. Like Manta Ray, the original DF-01 buggy, heralding in a new age in buggy racing. There have always been “serious” racers, but in the 80s, everybody raced everything, everywhere, and almost anything you could buy was at least in some sense, race ready. But in the 90s, the mass appeal aspect began to vanish, and offroad buggy racing was becoming a thing of the past. On-Road and Rally cars just made more sense to the casual RC user. Those who stayed with buggies really had to mean it, and so the focus shifted to competition, and the playground class disappeared almost entirely. Professional racing was not a Tamiya domain, unfortunately, so they had to come up with something new to carry over the few remaining playground warriors into the new world of “serious” buggy ownership. Manta Ray was the first affordable, entry-level competition buggy, wouldn’t you say? It wasn’t expensive, but it could be seriously hopped up, no driver, no sponsor decals, it was all about being fast and efficient at the lower end of the competition world. Historically significant? You bet. It is also a really ugly piece of work, but at least they spared it the Dragon cars’ “toy” image by opting for a more “Whats that all about then??” look. Must have worked, as it stayed on the market for 11 years. Do I own one? You bet. Do I bash one? Again, you bet. Is it insanely hopped up, brushless’d-out and really, really banged up? Yes. Can you see where this is going? Even in 2018, the Manta Ray is still cheap fast fun, nicely bridgeing the playground-track gap. Well deserved re-release, if you ask me. Even though I still think it’s really, really ugly. 1991 And then it all ended. The last of the 36 buggies among the First 100 came out in 1991, and it would take Tamiya 24 years to release the next 36. Bear Hawk, loosely related to 1986s Falcon, was the first buggy to be released in 1991. Maybe if Tamiya had brought Bear Hawk out in… say, well, 1986, it could have been a success. But in 1991, it looked oddly out of place, an 80s buggy in a 90s competition setting. It is, in my opinion, one of the best-looking late First 100 cars, but it shared Falcon’s fate: Aimed at a market that wasn’t really there, not quite a toy, but nowhere near Manta Ray’s new competition ready buggy class, aimed maybe at the few 80s stragglers still trying to find their way in to the future. It’s the First 100’s rear guard, so to speak, and in my personal opinion, one of the least likely to-be-re-re’d buggies right now. Which is a shame, ‘cause I’d definitely want one. I hope I’m wrong on this. Maybe I am, because Bear Hawk was available for 6 years, one more than the First 100 average, but then again, Tamiya buggies became far, far more long-lived once the 80s boom was over. Super Astute came out just two years after the original Astute, basically incorporating lessons learned from the original car’s competition history. Somewhat like Hotshot and Super Shot, something that had been going on the professional racing circuit for decades. It is the first true “Evo” Tamiya buggy, really, at least in the post-mainstream years. Maybe you didn’t know that you desperately wanted one, but I’m sure you do right now. Hang on for a minute, I need to go check if mine has arrived in the mail yet. Um, no, let’s wrap this up with Top-Force, because if Super Astute is really here, I’ll be busy. Top-Force. #100. One step up from Manta Ray, completing buggy’s transition to a serious competition sport, too "competition" to be an useful basher. Last of the First 100, marking the divide between “then” and “now”. Obvious re-re choice. Hated it back then, admire it now. Put yours next to your Avante and your Hotshot and see the entire history of Tamiya 4WD in one neat package.

Yet another attempt at predicting the future based on what’s happened so far. This is basically the same stuff I went on about at considerable length in earlier posts, just from yet another angle. This continues to be an absolutely theoretical exercise. All I’m doing is rearranging the known re-re facts over and over again in the hope that a pattern might emerge… It’s all speculation. There were 36 buggies among the First 100. In Order of appearance, they are listed below. Re-re'd kits are Black, un-re-re'd kits are Red 1979: Rough Rider, Sand Scorcher 1980: Holiday Buggy 1981: Sand Rover 1982: Super Champ 1983: The Frog 1984: The Grasshopper, Fast Attack Vehicle, The Hornet 1985: Hotshot, Wild One, The Fox 1986: Super Shot, Boomerang, The Falcon, Bigwig 1987: Striker, Hotshot II, Super Sabre, Thundershot 1988: Sonic Fighter, Avante, Thunder Dragon, Grasshopper II, Terra Scorcher, Vanquish 1989: Fire Dragon, Egress, Astute, Madacp 1990: Saint Dragon, Avante 2001, Manta Ray 1991: Bear Hawk, Super Astute, Top-Force Now let me try to group these 36 buggies together in a few meaningful subgroups: THE EARLY YEARS 1979-1982 1979: Rough Rider, Sand Scorcher 1982: Holiday Buggy, 1981: Sand Rover 1982: Super Champ You could also call these the SRB years. All three SRBs have been reissued, and none of them needs an explanation. These are kits from another era, from the heavy metal scale era, and honestly, I think they have crossed the line from collectible RCs to collectible toys, appealing no longer just to the RC enthusiast, but to anyone into “historic” toys. After all, no toy has been constructed like that, not since 1982, when the age of metal ended and the age of plastic began. I can see the re-issue potential here, many times over. That doesn’t explain the Holiday Buggy / Sand Rover re-release, though. The Sand Rover I can see, as the body style itself could be proclaimed “iconic”. In fact, the Meyers Manx, the real-life buggy the Sand Rover is based upon, became available again in 2000, after almost 30 years out of production. If the real thing can be re-released, why not the scale model as well? Still, I wonder. Were these two ever popular, back in their days? They were cheap, entry-level buggies, much like the later Grasshopper, but unlike the Grasshopper, they are from the early years, before 1983’s Frog Boom, before RC went mainstream, if you will. And on top of that, the modern DT-02 chassis takes the “historical toy” aspect away from both buggies. Maybe they are aimed at the really cheap re-re enthusiast, who wants the cheapest way to relive his childhood. Or maybe the idea was to dress up a cheap platform with a timeless, iconic body? I’ll give you that for the Sand Rover, but it just doesn’t apply to Holiday Buggy. Yes, the Hoilday Buggy has real world roots, to, but unlike the Manx, the Corsair Stripper was never built in any significant numbers, with Manx and Manx-type buggies outnumbering the Strippers roughly… 1500:1, I think. TH E BUGGY BOOM: 1983-1987 1983: The Frog 1984: The Grasshopper, Fast Attack Vehicle, The Hornet 1985: Hotshot, Wild One, The Fox 1986: Super Shot, Boomerang, The Falcon, Bigwig 1987: Striker, Hotshot II, Super Sabre, Thundershot You’d really have to break down this era into further sub-categories, but for the time being, I’ll try to deal with it all at once. 1983 is Frog year, the year that apparently saw RC become a worldwide mainstream trend . Everybody knows this, despite the fact that real sales figures are all but impossible to come by. What we do know is that there was just the Frog in 1983, and then the buggies started happening so fast that you’d have a hard time keeping track of them all. The Frog, if you remember, felt like the industry was shaking off it’s heavy metal past and stepping into a bright new lightweight future. “Space Frame” is a word used easily these days, but in 1983, it sounded much like… I don’t know, just hink “Tesla” here, then compare that to the common 20th century idea of an “automobile”. See the difference? One is the future (or a stepping stone en route to said future), the other is clearly the past, and something is happening here, right now, and that’s what it felt like when Frog hit the market back in ’83, at least to a kid, I guess. Or maybe I’m retroactively dressing up my memories here, but in any case, Frog must have been a hit, and then they just kept on coming. Grasshopper was the one affordable kit for that entire Generation of RC enthusiasts who had mainstream- rather than electronics enthusiast roots, and like the Frog, it basically screamed for a re-release. Everybody had one, back in the days, and that goes for the Hornet as well. If you could afford one. After all, it came with a Lexan body, the mark of the true racer! FAV I don’t know. It is based on a real vehicle that saw service with the US Army. Does that explain anything? I’ve always felt that it was a bit out of place in the colorful racing livery world of Tamiya’s dune buggies, and I’m not sure if the RC enthusiast/military scale model crossover idea that has been written about a lot really worked all that well for Tamiya. Must have, one way or another, seeing how the XR311 is on its third release, but then again, where’s the Hummer? Then came 1985, and with it came 4WD Hotshot, and if you were there, you remember that it looked, sounded and drove like something that had just been rolled out of some wild experimental prototype shop, not like anything you’d ever seen before in the Frog-Grasshopper-Hornet universe. It had a brutal utilitarian look to it, and you didn’t even have to see it in action to know that resistance was useless. This was a race car, and yours was a toy. Looking back, it probably really was experimental to a certain degree, and it wasn’t all that good, and didn’t last long on the market, and did you really wish for it to be re-released? Yes, you did, and there’s a green Hotshot and a blue Hotshot parked next to my boxart red Hotshot, just like you saw them back then, and it still looks scary to this day. Ok, got carried away there for a second. Sorry. Hotshot, re-released for obvious reasons. Wild One, the odd two-seater dune buggy. I was in love with it as a kid, and still, I’m not sure if it was a major seller back then. Compared to its Frog-Grasshopper-Hotshot contemporaries, it almost seems to be closer to the SRBs than to the new buggy age of 1983-up. I loved it for its scale realism, and that is not something that kids in the mid-80s generally were paying attention to. I’m somewhat surprised it was re-released before a lot of other, more likely candidates. In the post-Hotshot mainstream buggy world, 2WD just wasn’t all that prestigious. You knew that the Hotshot outclassed any and all 2WDs, period, any real world experience notwithstanding. Until the Fox came along, with gold wheels, lexan body and futuristic single-shock front suspension, and you realized that 2WD was not necessarily just the class below 4WD, but an alternative, a choice you could make. It’s the 2WD Yin to 1985’s 4WD Yang, if you’d be so kind as to allow me an equally 80s themed comparison, and therefore needed to be brought back alongside Hotshot. Balance of the universe and such. Wouldn’t want known reality to come to an end just because we didn’t re-release the Fox, that sort of thing. 1986. Super Shot. Super Shot, quite obviously the outcome of the instable experiment named “Hotshot”, just wasn’t within reach. In a way, to your average hobby shop enthusiast 10 year old, Super Shot was so over the top that you didn’t even ask if you could have one. Hotshot might have separated the racers from the toys, but Super Shot separated the racers from the professional racers, even though in hindsight, that might have been not even remotely true. So you went and got Boomerang, which didn’t feel so out-of-your-league, and wasn’t as expensive, and that justifies the re-release of both buggies very nicely, if you ask me. Bigwig, however, released that same year, was something different altogether. Bigwig, as I remember it, was never seen as a serious “racing” buggy, but not as a playground basher either. It seemed to be about ”design”, and if you take a quick look at real-world supercar design in the 80s, it’s plain to see why something like that would have worked back then, even on a 1/10 scale. I guess there were kids back then who didn’t care, but from my perspective, Bigwig was a grown-up buggy. How it turned into a desirable 80s RC icon I have no idea, but somehow it did. Look at it. With all that design it has going on, it makes no sense to paint it in any other color but boxart, that’s why owning one is enough, but that one is a must have. But where is Falcon? I have several theories as to why I’m still waiting for Falcon to be re-released. My favourite is “because it will be re-released in February 2019”, but we’ll see about that. Another is “it was Tamiya’s first and only serious attempt at a 2WD buggy in the post-Hotshot era (other than the glorious Fox), that wasn’t aimed at the lowest level entry beginners call-it-what-you-will class”. No, seriously. 2WD took the next step forward with Astute in 1989, one year after the Hotshot/Thundershot platform had finally been rendered obsolete by the advent of the Avante platform. Everything between the Fox and Astute was either 4WD or entry level. Everything – but Falcon. Falcon is in a class of its own. Not quite down there, not quite up here. It doesn’t matter if Falcon is classified as an entry level buggy nowadays. It wasn’t back then, not if you were a kid with intent to bash. Racers, maybe. But kids, no. On the street, Falcon was a big step up from Grasshopper, and even from Frog, which despite it’s early popularity, was becoming outdated rather quickly. This, as you might agree, is absolutely no reason to not re-release the Falcon. Neither is its unique suspension. If the Fox is possible, so is Falcon, and if I had to guess, then Falcon did outsell Fox back then. Which brings me back to the first theory: Falcon is about to happen, as Tamiya moves along the original timeline. 1987 brought Striker, which was quite an achievement, as it is the one buggy that outdid Grasshopper, Falcon and Bigwig all in one go. In a negative sense. It was an odd cross between a Falcon-like rear suspension and gearbox, combined with a Grashopper-style front end, and a unique chassis inbetween, topped with a body that… well. That was probably conceived along the same lines of thought that brought Bigwig into being. Again, this is the 80s, and an iconoclastic approach to traditional automobile design might not have been all that unpopular at the time. So there you go, another racecar-turned-offroad-buggy body, just like Bigwig, but minus all artistic skills. It’s a grafted-on F1 body. On a buggy. And really, that it was makes it stand out. It’s easily the most 80s buggy in the entire Tamiya lineup, and clearly deserves to be re-released. The other three buggies for 1987 were all 4WD. If re-re followed any logic principle besides the general timeline, Hotshot II would be a sure candidate for re-release at this point, since Hotshot and Super Shot are already back. Can’t have just two out of the three now, can we? I know I can’t and I’m pretty sure you’d go for all three, too, if you had the choice. Everything else would be ignoring the “collector” aspect of the whole RC re-re thing. I’m sure you are aware that Hotshot II is sort of an in-between Hotshot and Super Shot design, while Super Sabre uses Boomerang’s chassis. Impossible to say, at least for me, which one was more popular back in 1987. Memories seem to be affected by personal preferences. I liked Boomerang better, so in my mind, it was the more popular of the two. Certainly no logical decision prevents Super Sabre from being re-released, I’d say. Thundershot was the last of the 1987 buggies, and first 4WD buggy to be re-released, ever. Why Thundershot? No-one outside Tamiya knows, of course, and from personal preference, Thundershot would have been #33 of 36 buggies to be re-re’d. I can’t remember anyone owning one of these, let alone wanting one of these. As always, that might have been different in your neighborhood. But let’s be honest, the moment Avante appeared, the entire Thundershot platform became obsolete, and it never could live up to the Hotshot. Hotshot was the first 4WD, after all. Before Avante, all 4WDs were created roughly equal, but Avante introduced a new class, one that relegated the Thundershot platform to the same playground class that already held Grasshopper, Frog and Falcon. Yes, Thundershot is the link between the early 4WD cars and the Manta Ray/DF-01 platform, bypassing the Avante family, so it would be a logical kit to start with if you wanted to re-re all your 4WD kits… It is right in the middle of things. Technically. Technologically. Aesthetically. Maybe no-one’s favorite, but on the other hand, good enough for virtually all aspects of the job. I'll leave it at that, for the moment, as this post keeps getting longer and longer. 1988-1991: RISE OF THE AVANTE coming soon.

The following post is for entertainment purposes only. It's meant for those that like to read and guess wildly about future re-re development. It's not based on anything more than what it says. I'm just trying to pass some time here until Falcon is re-released, or at least till Super Astute and Black Avante show up in the mail. Well, yes. Profitability as a re-re decsion factor shouldn't be overlooked. However, virtually no information regarding Tamiya sales figures let alone profit margins is available, not to the wildly guessing consumer-level would-be analyst like me, anyway. The few figures commonly found on the internet all apply to certain models from certain eras in certain markets only, that's no help either. So, more guesswork. I apologize. No other options available at this time. The alternative would be to not guess, I guess, but that would leave me with nothing to do until Super Astute shows up. And I do have a feeling that I am not the only one in this position, so I might as well try to provide some reading entertainment, at least to those who find wild speculations in early December entertaining, which, by the nature of this thing, are not all of those reading this. Again, sorry. Please skip down to the next post if you want. Where was I? Oh, yes, more guesswork: Since this is all speculation anyway, I'll use real-world car manufacturing for comparison: US domestic car manucaturers typically need to produce somewhere between 20.000 and 30.000 units of a certain (mainstream passenger car) model to simply cover operating costs. Not development, not advertising, not research, just operating cost for that model's production alone. This is in no way comparable to making RC buggy kits, but nevertheless represents a number that will become useful if you bear with me. Virtually no consumer product is more complex to make, distribute, sell, maintain and warrant than the automobile. Also, profit margins in the industry are typically low. Yes, there are products in this world that are vastly more complicated - but they are usually not mass-market items. Yes, there are also very simple products with nearly non-existent profit margins, still very profitable due to extreme scales of mass production. Again, by comparison, your average buggy kit is not all that hard to produce on an industrial scale, not that hard to distribute, isn't labor-intensive, but not a huge mass market item either. Now add another set of real-world figures, this time from the niche world of classic car reproduction parts manufacturing. I can attest to this from first hand experience. Take the 1968 Dodge Charger's iconic grille, for example. Modern plastics and manufactruing techniques mean this grille, with all its moving parts, metal frame pieces and brackets, could be reproduced and sold at a rather high, but still competitive consumer price of around $1750 dollars. IF, and that's important, you were to produce and sell at least 1000 units. I use this part as an example because it is the closest thing to a buggy kit available for comparison that I could come up with. No other reason. I'm making this up as I go along. So, to sum this up, real cars need at least 20.000 units a year just to exist, while production break even (less advertising, distribution, and so on) for a semi-complex plastic assembly to be shipped as a kit, made by a small outfit with only semi-industrial production methods is 1000 units, if the price is to remain competitive. While these are both cases of "What's that got to do with anything", both examples, coupled with some common sense and an healthy dose of ignorance, serve to bracket the possibilities here, and quite nicely so: Typical Tamiya kits will become profitable somewhere between 500 and 3000 units. That's a guess, based on the very flimsy facts above. Which I assembled myself. With zero industry insight. Entertainment. While I'm waiting for Falcon. Remember that. (RC Kits are much more complex than the Charger grille, but Tamiya infrastructure is vastly more advanced than your niche manufacturer's. Also, real cars are vastly more complex and among the least profitable industrial goods out there. And, of course, re-res come with reduced development and advertising costs. They are based on products already developed in the past, and already firmly introduced into the market. Most of us are in this for the SECOND time, aren't we? Yes, I'm shooting in the dark, but I'm aiming at a clearly visible light.) So, in any case, 500 to 3000 units. Now take some of the key Tamiya markets, Japan, the US, the UK, Germany. That's what... 600.000.000 people? I really don't know enough about the Asian markets, not even enough as to make more wild guesses, so I'll leave it at that number, though it could be significantly higher. I really, really don't know what percentage of the general population of these four countries is into RC, but hey, even 0.01% would still be 600.000 people. Again, this is wild guesswork based on virtually nothing apart from a general feeling that this wouldn't be too far off and if it was, this whole guessculation still would end up roughly the same. Can you sell 3000 kits to 600.000 generally interested parties when you're one of the world's most well-known manufacturers and your target buyer is over 40 and therefore generally not in the lowest income class? I bet you can. Bottom line: I doubt that there can be such a thing as an unprofitable re-release. I have a feeling that ANY re-released kit will at least break even. Not guaranteed to make money, no, but break even certainly. At the very least, re-re kits are highly visible "new" products - free advertising. In fact, I do believe on the strength of the Fire Dragon re-release only, that the Japanese market ALONE is big enough to support any re-release to the point of becoming profitable. I also believe, simply from looking at continued availability in the past, that Monster Trucks were indefinitely more profitable than buggies, at least after around 1991, that's why Bullhead remainded on the market for nearly one-and-a-half decades, that's why Clod Buster and the Lunchbox platform never really went away, and why the Stadium Trucks went away last and came back early. And still, by numbers, re-re is mostly a buggy thing, raising more serious doubts to the importance of profitability in re-re decisions. And, if you look closely at the list of the Missing 13 buggies yet to be-re-re'd, you'll find Madcap there, all-time Tamiya buggy availability leader with more years on the market than any other Tamiya buggy platform. How could THAT buggy not be profitable? Also, there is Super Sabre - Boomerang wit a different body. How could making Super Sabre be not profitable, when everything but the body and the box are in production already? On the other hand, Tamiya re-released both the Sand Rover and the Holiday Buggy, which in my opinion, missed the re-re target by a wide margin. Do they appeal to me, your average re-re-enthusiast? They sure don't, the messed-up proportions and the modern chassis saw to that. I figure if historical appeal is not their key sales point, then their low price must be... And, if something like that can be profitable at that price, then really, anything can. And then, there's Falcon. Which defeats any arguments contrary to its re-release just because it's Falcon. In fact, Falcon's mere existence proves my point: It WILL be rereleased, if only for the simple reason that if it wasn't, I couldn't get one, and that, as you will certainly understand, is unacceptable. Therefore, by extension of above logic, re-release decisions can't be based on facts, which in turn proves my point entirely. At least I hope so. Yeah... more than likely it doesn't, but that doesn't matter, because Black Avante hit the shops today, and it's only two more weeks 'til Super Astute.

Some random offroad re-re facts while I’m waiting for Falcon to happen. (These numbers are not 100% accurate, mostly due to the wild inconsistencies in the Tamiya nomenclature. While the facts are easy to collect, putting them into perspective is not, as some re-res have retained their original kit numbers, while some have gone thru several new ones, while others were never classified re-res despite obviously being re-res, and still others had stand-alone part numbers despite being nothing but a “Special Color” release, and so on. And of course, these numbers blatantly ignore the fact that meaningful predictions of future developments simply cannot be derived from the very limited data that is the 35 Tamiya re-releases.) In any case, I want Falcon. If that takes the somewhat shady use of somewhat shady assault statistics, so be it. Here’s what will, with absolute infallible statistical certainty, happen next in the Tamiya re-re universe: - There have been 35 Tamiya offroad re-res to date, not counting multiple re-releases of the same model, not counting “special editions”, not counting models (bodies) re-released on new platforms. - Out of the 35 offroad re-res, 22 were buggies, 13 were trucks. - The first re-release was a truck, the XR311 from 1977, re-released under the original kit number in 2000, re-re-released again in 2012, still retaining its original number. - While all re-res until very recently had 58xxx kit numbers, 2WD buggy Dyna Storm (1992) did not. When re-released in 2001, it had a 49xxx number. - Yearly Tamiya offroad re-release average since 2000 is 1.84 models. - There were no offroad re-releases in 2002, 2003 and 2006. - 2005, arguably the starting year for mainstream re-re, had 6 re- releases. - 2011 and 2012 had 5 re-releases each, not counting re-re Super Clod Buster, which has a 2012 kit number but seems to have actually been re-released in 2013. In turn, 2013 either had 3 or four re-releases, depending on where you count Super Clod Buster. - 2011 had 14 (!) “classic” releases – if you count all “special editions”, alternate chassis re-releases and the Blackfoot III. By the same count, it’s 12 releases in 2012 (including the Bush Devil II), and 5 in 2013. - Statistically, the 2005 and 2012 peaks in re-res will be followed by another peak year in 2019. - Offroad truck and buggy re-releases have been, very roughly, alternating. Right now, trucks are overdue. - All original buggies up until 1986's Falcon have already been re-released. - Re-re activity since the peak in 2012 has averaged 1.5 releases per year – up 0.3 from the “slow” years 2006-2010. No recent slowing down in Tamiya re-re efforts, not statistically anyway. - Peak years have always included oddities like new models based on re-released kits, re-re-res, just plain weird stuff and even re-releases of special editions based on re-releases, which makes them… re-re-re-res? - “Classic” releases (including “editions” and alternate chassis re-res) have averaged 3.84 kits per year since 2000. - July is re-re-month, with 7 of the 35 having July re-release dates, followed by December with 5 re-releases over the years. February, September and November are sharing third place with 4 re-releases each. - No re-release came out in May, ever. - August and October are unlikely months for re-res, with only one re-release each in the past. Based on this, 2019 will be a major re-re year. Statistically, we’ll see around 5 re-releases and another 5-6 “classic” themed kits. Following established practice and moving along the 1976-2018 Tamiya timeline, this will include Falcon, either Sonic Fighter or Striker, one of the Avante family cars, possibly Top Force Evolution and a reappearance by one of the Dragon cars or maybe Dyna Storm. But first up will be a new truck re-release or two, most likely one of them ORV based, either long overdue Mud Blaster or one of the advanced ORV designs, while the other is going to be either a “lower” 3-Speed or King Cab/Monster Racer. This is also the year where the impossible is actually statistically likely to happen, and that means Wild Willy or 959/Celica. Yes. Certainly. (Statistically certainly, so not exactly real world certainly, but stilll...) Last but not least, a Ford Escort Rally car, probably on a late-model platform. And of course, one oddity like a… um… no, hang on, oddity, that would be Comical Grasshopper, and that already DID happen in 2018. See? Infallible. It’s coming. In fact, it’s already begun. Expect the big stuff to happen in February, July and toward the end of the year. Statistically.

This is going to be a VERY long post. I apologize in advance. Just trying really hard to conjure up a Falcon here. THE FUTURE OF TAMIYA RE-RELEASES Maybe, just maybe, there’s an underlying pattern to Tamiya’s re-release strategy. Ok, if you look long enough, you’ll find patterns anywhere, but just consider this: Looking at Tamiya’s off-road “buggy” category (excluding all “car” and “truck” bodied off-road vehicles like the XR311, Audi, Opel, Willys, Brat and so on, but including for historical reasons the Sand Scorcher, despite and because of the VW bug body), you’ll find that between 1979 (when the Rough Rider and Sand Scorcher appeared) and 1996 (when parts numbers for the kits crossed the 200 mark), Tamiya released 42 “Buggy” type vehicles. Out of those 42, a total of 24 have so far been re-released, re-re-released or even re-re-re-released. THE BUGGIES OF THE FIRST 100 For the First 100, it’s 36 buggies total between 1979 and 1991 with 23 re-released so far. While re-releases might appear to be random, it just happens to be that those re-releases so far cover the model years 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985 in their entirety. Every single buggy from those first seven years has been re-released. For the 1986 model year, only one out of four buggies is as of yet un-re-released: The Falcon. For 1987, three out of four haven’t been redone: The Striker, Hot Shot II and Super Sabre. The one exception being the Thunder Shot, which happens to be one of the earliest re-releases ever. For 1988, only two out of six have been done so far, those two being the Avante and the Grasshopper II, both icons in their own right. Still missing are Sonic Fighter, Thunder Dragon, Terra Scorcher and Vanquish. 1989 scores two out of four re-released, as we’ve seen the return of the Egress and the Fire Dragon, but are still missing the Astute and Madcap. The Egress needs no explanation, while the Fire Dragon probably can be explained as a JDM phenomenon. 1990 comes in one out of three, that’s the Manta Ray re-re’d several times, while Avante 2001 and Saint Dragon are still outstanding. 1991, last year for the First 100, had three buggies originally released, Bear Hawk, Super Astute and Top Force. Being #100, Top Force of course has been re-released a long time ago, with Super Astute joining the re-re ranks only right about now, and Bear Hawk still missing. (For the record: Only six more buggies were released among kit numbers -101 and -200 or between 1992 and 1996, and out of those, only Dyna Storm has seen a re-release, and that was before anyone came up with the term “re-release”. ) Bottom line: Out of the buggies among the First 100, model years 1979-1985 have been completely re-released, 1986 is almost done, 1987-1991 have been done 25%, 33%, 50%, 33%, 66% respectively. So whileat first glance re-releases have been all over the place with no discernible strategy apparent, there seems to be an underlying long-term progression from A to B, or from 1979 to 1991, so to speak. One might assume that Tamiya are trying to re-release all the First 100 buggies, some earlier, some later, for whatever tactical reasons (shared platforms, anniversaries, market demand… ) might present themselves at the time, but in general they’re moving along the original time line. Or can you think of any other reason why we still haven’t seen the return of the Falcon? Mathematically, it is due, and right about now. In fact, it marks the divide between “Complete” and “Incomplete” re-re model year runs. Out of buggies among the First 100, these are the Missing 13: Falcon, Striker, Hot Shot II, Super Sabre, Sonic Fighter, Thunder Dragon, Terra Scorcher, Vanquish, Astute, Madcap, Avante 2001, Saint Dragon, Bear Hawk. THE CARS And just to complete the picture here – out of the First 100, a whopping 60 were off-road or semi-off-road vehicles, 36 out of those in the buggy category leaving 24 “other” vehicles, namely 18 off-road trucks and 6 semi-offroad or Rallye-type passenger cars (including for several reasons the not entirely off-roadish Willy’s Wheeler. Sorry, it doesn’t fit the on-road categories of the time either). NONE of the car-bodied vehicles have been rereleased, Audi Quattro, Opel Ascona, the Honda City known as Willy’s Wheeler, Lancia 037, Porsche 959 and Toyota Celica, and even though you can’t really put the latter two into the same mechanical category with the others, they’re still car-bodied and – it seems – therefore un-re-released. NONE of the car-bodied vehicles have been rereleased - in what, some 15 years since the re-re-thing began in earnest? The Honda-body of Willy’s Wheeler and the 037’s body have been reused, yes, albeit not in classical re-issue fashion. The Lancia seems to be a bit of an all-time-favourite regular though, with three separate appearances on three different platforms over the years, and the Honda… was that ever successful in the western world? Another Japanese home-market thing, maybe? THE TRUCKS As for the trucks – and this includes stadium trucks, monster trucks, and three-speeds, too – one thing stands out: With the exception of the XR311, NO early (1977-1982) kit has been re-issued – ever (compare that to the buggy class). Cheetah, the SRB F-150, the “lower” three-speeds, even the original Wild Willy (along with Pajero) remain un-re-issued. 1983’s Subaru Brat is the first kit on the timeline to become available again. Yes, the “higher” three-speeds (Bruiser and Mountaineer, the latter being outside of the First 100) and almost all early ORV-based monster trucks HAVE been re-released, but really, on the other hand, the Lunch Box/Midnight Pumpkin “stunt truck” category and the Clod Buster type of trucks, and even the ORV/revised ORV Blackfoot family never really went away in the first place, with Midnight Pumpkin sporting an astonishing 18 years of active service, longer than any other of the First 100, followed by Clod Buster’s 17 and Bullhead’s 14. And that is not counting Super Clod Buster. Yes, the Clod Buster, Mud Blaster, King Cab and Hilux Monster Racer are all missing, along with several earlier truck-type vehicles, but this appears to be more or less random, especially considering the Mud Blaster – technically, it is a Monster Beetle with a Brat body, and therefore already 100% available in the Monster Beetle and Brat kits, so it’s re-release is probably just a matter of time, and Super Clod Buster is still out there. That leaves ORV Blackfoot and Monster Beetle and the higher-level three-speeds as the only two “real” re-released truck platforms, and King Cab/Hilux as the one “really missing” truck, and of course the one totally unexplained absentee from the Re-Re roster: Wild Willy. Sorry, Wild Willy II just doesn’t cut it. If this were true, and trucks are taking a re-re backseat, it would explain why only #3 of the four SRB-based vehicles hasn’t been brought back alongside the other three: #3 had a truck body, that’s why. 1981’s SRB-based F-150 is a truck, and even though chassis and (a close-enough) body are both available in other kits (much like the Mud Blaster’s situation), there seems to be no real emphasis on truck-re-res. Or we would have seen an SRB F-0150 re-re instead of re-re-res for the other three.. Yes, ALL the Falcon-based “Blitzer” type of stadium trucks have been brought back – but they’re not even part of the First 100, and they all had very long model runs (13 years for Stadium Blitzer, 12 years for Blitzer Beetle), they were still on their first time around when Re-Re began to take its course! (All three Falcon-based trucks were discontinued together in 2004). Which underlines one thing even more: THE CONCLUSION Early model off-road Re-Re is a buggy thing. No car-type re-re has been attempted so far, and the early trucks, with few exceptions, never really went away in the same sense that the early buggies did, so no concentrated re-re-effort is being made. So if you’re looking for a pattern, look to the buggy class. That’s where it will be decided, that is the underlying timeline Tamiya seems to be – more or less - following. 1979 to 1985 are done. 1986 is up. 1987-1991 will follow. The timeline of the Missing 13 becomes even more apparent when broken down by model and model year: Falcon (1986) Striker, Hot Shot II, Super Sabre (all 1987) Sonic Fighter, Thunder Dragon, Terra Scorcher, Vanquish (all 1988) Astute, Madcap (both 1989) Avante 2001, Saint Dragon (both 1990) Bear Hawk (1991). So? It isn’t a matter of “if” Falcon will happen, only a matter of “when”. THE FUTURE 2WD EARLY Falcon, last un-re-re’d of the really early 2WDs and last un-re-re’d 1986 model overall, will happen - and open the door eventually for the much later Bear Hawk (1991) currently the last – as in “release date” of the still-un-re-re’d buggy on the First 100 timeline. 2WD LATE Astute (1989) already has it’s foot in the door thru the upcoming re-release of Super Astute (1991), and both will inevitably lead to Madcap and Saint Dragon (1989 and 1990, respectively). Again, there’s the timeline - Tamiya only now (in 2018) got started on this 1989-up platform with the Super Astute, for whatever reason, reappearing first. And if you don’t think Tamiya will bring back Madcap – Madcap served for 14 model years, longer than any First 100 buggy, double the Fox’s time on the market, almost 5 times that of the Hotshot. Hotshot is, by the way, one of the First 100’s most short-lived models, and so is Super Astute. Long availability is not equal to reputation and reputation not equal to commercial success, obviously, and all three may be deciding, but not key factors in re-re decisionmaking… 4WD EARLY Hot Shot II and Super Sabre (both from 1987) – are probably just waiting out Hotshot (1986), Super Shot (1986) and Boomerang’s (1986) current terms to bring up the rear of the Hotshot family. Same goes for the successors to the Hotshot platform, the already come-and-gone re-re’d Thunder Shot (1987), which will probably come around again and maybe bring along either of the remaining Thunder Shot series cars, be it Thunder Dragon (1988) or a second re-issue of Fire Dragon (1989), if only for the sake of the home market. This section of the market seems a bit overcrowded in any case, owning to the commercial success of the early 4WDs and the amazing number of Hotshot/Thundershot-family models released between 1985 and 1990, so it will probably take another 5 years for all of this to happen. Since the target market for these cars probably includes everybody born before 1985 and up to 50 years old, there’s at least another 10, maybe 15 years left for Tamiya to get it all done… 4WD LATE Having said that, in class of their own, Vanquish and Avante 2001 will follow the already re-re’d Avante at some point – Vanquish is a late 1988, Avante 2001 came out in 1990 - which leaves only the 1988 Terra Scorcher’s fate to be guessed at, the unlucky missing link between the Hotshot/Thundershot cars and the Avante and Post-Avante models. OTHERS And of course, the Striker and the Sonic Fighter. While the latter is the most short-lived First 100 Tamiya buggy ever (on par with the Super Shot), the Striker was available for a full five model years – Tamiya First 100 buggy average is around 5.33 years – so “They are ugly and no-one wanted them” doesn’t quite explain why neither of them has been re-re’d yet, but their model year does. Striker is from 1987. Sonic Fighter is from 1988. The bulk of Tamiya’s re-re-efforts however, is still working on getting 1986 squared away. But 1987 is probably ready to go, with 1988 and 1989 coming soon. Now can I have my Falcon, please?