El Gecko

Just FYI, slot cars all the way down to HO scale (1:64) have all of that, even suspension tuning to varying degrees. I have ball bearings in one car, and I added adjustable brakes to one of my controllers. I think the distinction @Kowalski86 was making is that there's still an interactive component of slot cars, where you are the one holding the controller, and you decide how fast or slow it goes. Whereas with a mini 4WD it's a bit like pinewood derby or tether cars or something, it just seems a bit outdated or old-fashioned or simple without that element of control. You build something, and it's techinically pretty cool, and works well for what it is, but the fact remains that you have no control over that thing, and it's just going to follow the track or the control line or whatever until it runs out of propulsion energy. Which is cool if you like that kind of thing, but it's not what most people are after in their hobbies. Slot cars and R/C have been extremely popular all over the world for a long time because of their interactivity, but mini 4WD has never really been more than a niche. And honestly, as a kid, I had no idea what to do with the mini 4WD I got. I had no track and didn't know anyone with one. Everyone had slot cars or R/Cs already, so mini 4WD felt like a step backwards. Sat on the shelf and it's probably ran more in my basement in the past month than ever before.

Mine with standard gearing and an old 17t Trinity motor really moves. Still one of my top 3 fastest cars after all these years (only recently de-crowned by my DT02)

Yep, the Brat can basically run all day on a 5A NiMH now, and drifting around at full throttle is no worry because it only tops out at like 10mph. This is an original Brat, still running the original locked diff/no diff setup, so no worries there, although yes there is definitely less stress on the drivetrain overall, and especially the old hex shafts! I was honestly surprised that the thing just totally wrecked out of nowhere. Thinking back on it, maybe it became airborne (couldn't have been much), and the instant it landed, it started rolling and crashing. I guess the loosey-goosey friction dampers with no damping threw it funny when it hit the bump, and the loosey-goosey sloppy steering/front suspension finished the job by bumpsteering and catching the edge of a tire when it landed. Possibly the locked diff and bald tires had something to do with it, as well

Looking closely at the package (and others posted in the thread) it seems they are "eraser" material, i.e. rubber, so probably not compatible with standard plastic LEGO bricks unfortunately.

That reminds me, I have an unpopular opinion about 4WD. Not sure if I should poke that particular hornet's nest, though

RWD rally chassis?

Like many of you, I run mostly vintage cars, but the only one I've truly de-powered is the Brat, and really I was just returning it closer to stock by fitting a 380. But the main reason for the switch is: I was driving it around with an ancient 27t Twisters 540 (yes, "Twisters" with an S from the 80s, not the popular Twister motors of the 90s) and it hit a tiny bump in the tarmac at close to top speed, resulting in a spectacular cartwheel and a quite severely broken body. I immediately changed the motor as soon as I brought it back inside, because I decided right then that I'm not trying to tempt fate with that car anymore. I'd rather keep the spirit of the stock form and function, and just enjoy it in a less extreme capacity. As @Kowalski86 said, just getting rid of the 4AA box and extra servo helped increase the performance a bit, even with the 380, so it's already doing a bit better than stock anyway. Although perhaps if it had still had that extra weight to lower the CG, maybe it wouldn't have flipped on its roof so easily. Also like a few of you, I have an original Grasshopper, and although I do have the original 380 for it, it's pretty well destroyed and I'm currently running the 540 silvercan upgrade that the original owner installed back in the 80s. One of the mounting holes in the 540 is nearly stripped, but it still rips!

I don't see the harm if the hole is totally stripped out and the only type of fastener that would now provide sufficient holding force is a wood screw. Yes, I am guilty of bodging, kludging, mangling, or sometimes even outright destroying things in order to make them work again. You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs!

Got my old Nikko mini running tonight, although the center driveshaft was binding so I took it out. Still seems to work ok... anyone else running mini 2WD?

I've seen that! Can't remember where though. I also thought about doing that to one of my old ones once it gets rounded out enough, although 30 years later it's still mostly usable so I haven't had the chance!

King Blackfoot is still 2WD right? Traxxas 4174/4172 Pro Star wheels are chrome 2.2 with bearing fronts for 2WD, available from Amazon. HPI Super Star MT wheels are the main chrome 2.2 wheels I always think of first, but they're out of production so the used market is your only option. They were also made in a bunch of other colors. Also old Pro-Line or Traxxas wheels if you can find them, the ones that came on the Sledgehammer and Hawk were like a satin chrome/aluminum color. If it's 4WD you could get some vintage-style Rustler wheels for it (3673/3672 depending on the offset you want), also available on Amazon.

My DT02 will do around 30mph with a 15t Reedy Radon and stadium truck wheels, but I can't run it like that because the gearing is way too tall and I lose steering due to brownout. There's a good list going here if you want to make it official: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/101474-tamiyaclub-official-top-10-fastest-rcers-part-3

Bingo. Besides the smaller wires, I think all those "receiver pack" types are made with smaller cells, which is why they're all lower capacity. (1600mAh vs. 3000mAh of Willy's homemade packs with full size sub-C cells)

That escalated quickly

Nice @Saito2, that's what we were missing. The ad in my Tower catalog only had the V-Spike, not the Split V-Spike like OP's. Looks like there were two molds after all! I agree it was probably a generic set of tires that was relabeled by all those various brands... Twinn-K, TMS, Duratrax all had similar tires in the catalogs around the same time.

I enjoy a good fast dialed-in car as much as anyone, but I think driving old or slow or ill-handling cars is even more fun! (probably a more acceptable statement here than some other RC forums due to our nostalgia factor, also this is a UK-based forum, so many of you are familiar with the "eccentricities" of vintage British sports cars, which probably spills over to your RC somewhat)

I'm not sure if there were different molds used, but I always thought the Duratrax V-Spike tires looked like this: Notice the two halves of the tire are perfectly aligned so the tread meets in the middle. Versus the ones posted above where the two halves are offset like normal tractor style tread.

This has been happening in all hobbies lately as foreign scammers mine forums for content. It has been happening on Instagram and Facebook a ton, with people trying to use someone else's pictures in their own for sale post. I'm honestly surprised no one's antivirus has been triggered, these new shady random sites are probably full of malware, too. Scam within a scam. I don't even understand how you guys are finding these. Searching the web address doesn't get any hits, and I refuse to go to that website directly.

No, but he does have glasses while Skinner does not. The glasses frames are fixed, so the animators had to figure out a way to indicate a blink without moving the outer part of the eye. Thus the blinking pupils.

I've heard fancy stickers referred to as "self-adhesive decals" before

Still trying to put a Hornet body on your GH2 chassis though?

Yes, but... - the rear body mounts on the GH2 chassis need to be extended by about 5mm to reach the holes, as the body sits on the tops of the shocks before the holes engage - the front body mount needs to be reversed or a straight post used (not sure which, I didn't go any further than setting the Hornet body on the GH2 chassis) - the front of the nose isn't quite exactly the same shape, but is close enough in my opinion

I think maybe the smaller diameter tires saved mine? Also, the only tires I ever had for it were bald! Until I got these vintage tractor tires shortly before it went in storage for 20 years, but even now there's not much load on it, especially sans bodyshell One of the reasons I kept and drove my Tamiyas more than anything was because the axles were reliable, unlike some of the Traxxas stuff I had. Even the Brat with its locked diff managed 30-odd years before the hex shafts became truly unusable. But thanks to the trickle-down of parts, the Brat benefitted from the old Mud Blaster axles when I upgraded that one to rere universals. So yes, technically I'm still driving on two sets of original hex shafts!

I always envisioned an AWD system out of a Caravan in a k-car like the Spirit. The R/T version could have been the American Mistubishi Lancer Evo!

Undo the rear mounts and flip the battery strap over.