Ty89m

I'll look at mine when I get home and edit this post. It's always something with these AE kits. Edit: My chassis looks to be ok thankfully. I will say, be careful handling it too roughly as the milled edge around the top is SHARP!

I hear ya - I feel that way about most kits these days, but these RC10s are particularly egregious. I held off on most of the RC10s waiting for something like this. That said, it would be hard to resist a Masami version if/when that shows up.

So who succumbed and ended up grabbing one? I couldn't resist as this is one of my favorites they've done thus far. I did find out that the Mirage SS body comes without cut/scribe lines, so I'm going to have my hands full trying to trim and paint the darn thing!

I may try the clear TRF o-rings that are often suggested for use in the Sand Scorcher dampers so see if they work any better. I'm just surprised that there's so few accounts of leaky Tamiya hi-caps/vqs shocks considering how long they've been around. While I don't intend to run these all that often, I still like to have them prepped and ready, and it drives me nuts knowing they're sitting empty on the shelf. That said, it is nice not to worry about silicone oil finding its way all over my shelves ha!

@Juggular I actually use the DryFluid quite a bit on my helicopters as that's what they were originally marketed towards. I'll have to give it a try as I'm assuming the formulation for both the "RC Cars" and "Heli" are identical.

I'm swimming in Kyosho re-release kits, but was never able to score one of their brushed motors. If anyone is sitting on a surplus and wants to offload one, I'm your guy. Thanks!

I appreciate all the input thus far. I'll have to give the shims a try to add a bit of extra pressure on the o-ring - and perhaps it'll also help prevent the lower cap from twisting and contorting the ring when snugging the lower cap down. I had worse luck with x-rings, as I think they're more suitable for stacks with 2x seals vs. the single seal like many of the Tamiya shocks. I'll try shims as well as getting the perfect amount of oil to prevent excess pressure/rebound so I don't force oil through the seals. Ultimately (and as mentioned above), I'm guessing a bit of leakage when running is par for the course. Not a big deal if you're racing and changing/bleeding oil constantly, but I don't want to deal with it on a shelfer that only sees the occasional run. And to Howards: yes, I use both AE slime and the Protek blue o-ring grease.

Or more specifically, Tamiya VQS/hi-caps with bladders. I made a post in the tips section a few months back that didn't get much traction, so I figured I'd make a more generalized post in the GD forum. Thus far, out of my Egress, Avante Black, Avante 2011, and Top Force Evo (all re-release kits), ALL of them have suffered from leaky shocks; from the bottom where the shaft runs through the o-ring. I don't hear much about the Tamiya hi-cap/VQS dampers being leak-prone, so it's clearly a builder issue in my case. The bottom cap seems very particular about how snug it is, as too much must contort the o-ring, and too little doesn't seal well enough, but I'm fairly confident excess pressure in the shock is partly to blame as well. I've tried numerous things: fresh o-rings, varying tightness of the bottom cap, extra bleeding to reduce pressure/rebound, grease on seals, no grease on seals, TRF x-rings, etc. No luck; they're fine when sitting stationary, but with enough actuation of the dampers, they always start to weep from the seal. So I ask you fine folks, how are you building the hi-caps/VQS dampers with bladders? Do you build as per the manual? Do you bleed a bit extra to get as close to zero rebound (and by extension less internal pressure trying to blow oil past the seals) as possible? Do you run different o-rings vs. the classic red provided in most kits? What's your trick? I'm to the point where I just build them dry (with a bit of grease on the seals), but it would certainly be nice to fill 'em up and not have to worry about leakage! It's worth noting that I have no issues (thus far) with the CVA style dampers on my Super Astute or group-C cars, nor on any of my other kits (though they're mainly emulsion style which I find easier to build/bleed), so I'm confident I'm doing something wrong when it comes to building these bladder style dampers. It's also worth mentioning that I build the seal pack on the shaft and don't attempt to push the shaft through after the fact, thus preventing damage to the o-ring. I'd love to hear if anyone else has noticed an issue, or if they have homed in on a great method to build leak-free dampers. Thanks!

Let me know how you get on with the rear shocks (assuming you're going to use the RC4WD, like the fronts). I only noticed the play prior to installing the axles; there's just quite a bit of axial play once the case halves are put together, though I'll have to check again now that the axles are installed as I'm guessing once everything is installed it prevents any further side-to-side movement. Anyways, I too may try the RC4WD shocks, likely the yellow as they'd go awfully nice with my paint scheme.

Yeah, in my SS the diff has quite a lot of side-to-side play between the case halves. I'll likely shim it up at some point, but nothing about the thing is overly precise, so I'm sure it'll be fine I'll have to double check the shock length on mine and see. I have it build without oil for the time being, though do have the clear TRF shock seals that supposedly help, but better (more modern) shocks would be nice for sure.

I'm in for one for sure. I'm really digging the neon yellow wheels.

I share others sentiment - my Mitutoyo calipers are some of my most used tools and were well worth the investment.

I'll be curious to see if this one comes partially assembled like the original. That's a big reason I haven't felt compelled to grab the Yokomo 834b, so I'm hoping not.

This is my favorite of the RC10 releases thus far, but with that said - bring on the Masami edition! Side note: I'm surprised Amain has already sold through their allotment; that was fast!

For those running the ball diff (buggy champ set II 54897 in my case) did you notice quite a lot of axial play once the two case halves are together? The ball diff is significantly narrower than the stock plastic final gear, so who knows. I can alleviate it once the universal joints are secured, but I would have assumed it would be a minimal amount of play. Just to confirm, while this ball diff it marketed for the Buggy Champ, it's one and the same as Scorcher transmission, yes? Thanks! Also - just for fun - I'm guessing all the Scorcher guys realize that building the shocks as per manual results in hydrolock, leading to a bunch of air if you build them so as to get full extension. I'll give the white TRF o-rings a go and see how long they last before leaking. Frankly, I'll likely leave them empty as I hate dealing with shock oil.