Anthroxoid

Nice job! Gosh that looks fantastic. And wow, that car sure brings back memories as it was my last buggy until 2007. I do hope that they stay in stock for awhile as I’m a bit knocked down and had to reign in the re-re disease for the time being. Stock up on front A arms. That’s what ultimately led to me abandoning my original.

This sounds like an excellent use of the Hotshot series chassis and transmission parts!

Man that is going to cruise over anything. Nice job on the build so far. Something about the freaky long suspension travel on these is just so cool. Keep it up! And didn’t Jr, or maybe it was BK come out with a rebar pattern rear for these guys that hooks up on about anything? Curious to see what the Anaconda pattern looks like. .

I hear ya. I’m tapped out and want all of them as well. I suppose the bombardment co es as AE for one gets on its footing and Yokomo seems to be taking the carpet bombing approach since they’re a bit behind on the scene. Hopefully gear will be in stock for a good while, then no pressure for the building pace.

It’s looking fantastic. That’s awfully str ange that they couldn’t get their Stealth tranny accurately molded. Ipsounds like a revision needed ASAP for the less technically inclined builders out there as modding a gear race or three isn’t easy IMHO. Can’t wait to see your color scheme. This thing is going to just fly over everything with the rest of your family there. Very cool and thanks for the informative build log. —XOID edit:: wow! Looks fantastic. Nice touch with the REEDY decal! Brilliant.

I can’t decide if they’ll go backwards or forwards in time with their next Re-Re. The Gallop would make a lot of sense for novelty and paring with these old Yokomo buggies like you’re thinking plus anything else that may briefly spring up (RC10 4WD conversion anybody?). I guess it’s slightly less likely due to fewer parts carryover from what they’ve already tooled, though who knows maybe the gallop drawings and jigs are sitting somewhere in a Kyosho Warehouse. Heh. We’ll, I think that after seeing these Yokomos gain traction with their crazy pricing, I’ll hold interest for a Works once they swap up the 870c parts for the updates that went into it. It feels like a really big first refined Yokomo design to me, so that’s worth a dollar. You’ve gotta love these old weird designs, tho, and see which corners where the hobby grew out of—trends tried then abandoned or updated, etc. so fun to experience. 😎 —XOID

I think less neon, which hadn’t really caught on quite as loudly in the US until the 90s got a bit more underway, and the squared out body were the main market changing improvements that AE influenced. Some more carbon IIRC as well, and a hefty price tag due to the prize-winning design demand. It was light, let rocks into your drivetrain because nothing spells professional louder than injecting sand and pea gravel into your transmissions, and then of course we all dyed our wheels pink and chartreuse to make sure maximum funk was obtained anyways. One of our users recently posted a lovely Worlds version on their 870c and it caught my attention. I’d forgotten how Chonky the YZ-10 was but that Worlds body was neat—more flare towards the rear wheels and intriguing engine block like humps behind the cab and importantly—some radiused edges. All of them usually had good undertrays, too. Brittle suspension parts, though that was addressed later on. —XOID Crap, now I need this one again too. Bad time to have no toy budget. Hopefully we’ll see inventory carry for a while. And wow, real dirt tires again. Bravo! @kyosho do you see? DIRT tires on off-road ReRes! How strange!

Aww crap, I still need some Javelins and an Optima Pro—at least one, but I’m kinda waiting with my pretend hobby money budget to spend on the Avante (a couple of times) since I’ve got the BS and a single OG Egress NIB, but no OG version of the Avante. When Kyosho does a run on their cars you can find their parts, and also get a glimpse of their upcoming ReRes by browsing Kyosho parts at RCMart, and to a lesser extent reading ti leaves at Tamico also works. Grab a set of suspension arms and gears if you’re just getting one model for play money restriction purposes. You’ll of course break a shock tower and run your gears and A arms for years if you don’t buy one but at least it’s a start! What I’ve found with spares is things such as a base model’s custom components will arrive before the release. A good example would be Optima Mid ‘87 flavor anodized parts were kicking around for months before the kit was announced. Sometimes you’ll also see Yeah Racing make a part for an upcoming model as well (then it’ll show up anodized for the kit in question color matched, etc) so there’s a nice way to feel around. Anyhow, the long wheelbase Optima Mids should appear soon since I blew all of my car money buying conversion chassis for those Mid kits that I was planning to trickle out of the boxes for the remainder 🫣 Try your luck with Horizon’s rebooted version of Tower Hobbies. It seems like a lot of folks who cared and built the industry in Champaign, IL are still kicking around. The $10 Super Saver fee for one year usually gets you oh, sixty, or maybe eighty bucks off of one ReRe purchase as well so that’s a no-brainer source compared to literally anything else available to US-based consumers. Sorry for you folks across the pond, but not sorry as you have the legendary excellence of Tamico! —XOID

That’s a very handsome job! Always curious to learn what others are using for their CAD time on projects and found your screenshot with the rear suspension analysis interesting. Further on that custom fab note, what sort of print creates that ‘sand blasted’ looks to the resin? It reminds of nicely cast iron work. Very cool. —XOID PS—Yeah, give those red chines some detail! Maybe a sponsor decal or maybe a color accent?

I’m subbing for the vicarious experience as well

I’m very sorry to hear about being stopped by medical needs. I’m a bit in the same boat and haven’t finished my first of two summer Optima Mid builds and have left those reading my build log on the first one hanging. Whoops! Must remedy that…heh. Anyhow, get yourself taken care of first and remember that there are toys awaiting your return and that more toys likely follow those! Aloha, —XOID

@Pylon80 it looks awesome except I’m so old that I cannot stand a clear wing! Sounds like you’re already making really good progress on driving technique re: jumping so congrats on the successful build and to more fun ahead. Appreciate the photos. I wonder if I could put a front gearbox into one of these? 😜 cheers, —XOID

This is pretty great to see them paying attention to their market. It’ll really help keep the ReRe segment filled with good designs like this one as with my Kyosho obsession the ReRe parts will get batched out in pretty big numbers and then dry up, so a touch of hoarding extra crap is required. Now I’m tempted to get this thing and stick an appropriate Reedy into that rear motor cage. It drives so nicely for an old design, gah! What is a mother to do?

Very interesting build. Keep it up—it’s always cool to see what the Schumacher crew ends up designing compared to the competition.

It’s still not done! Sorry to say I’m not sure if I’ll have time to complete this one for a bit longer, though I’m very much looking forward to it and will share the shots as soon as I get there. Meanwhile I’ve gotten ahold of some other related items and have gone down a rabbit hole chasing after vintage 540s for this model’s twin brother build or maybe we should say, cousin perhaps more fittingly. Too many projects, and too much real life interference happening but soon!

No way! Everybody deserves nice toys! Re: aeration, I’ve wondered the same after building many modern buggies with bleeders in their shock caps. I don’t like hearing the sound of an aeration damper but like you said they work fine. The important part is what you did in getting them to relax to almost entirely neutral pressure. I would not be surprised that a tiny volume of air gets drawn in through the X-Ring glands as the shocks are worked hard and a new equilibrium gets established as again, I’ve also seen how much “foam” gets created in a damper after you’ve carefully bled it out and then driven the vehicle or just pumped it a bit on the bench top. But that’s the design goal for aeration. That sloshy blend of silicone and air builds a different viscosity as the dampers warm up. FWIW while I’ve got no need for a modern 2WD buggy I’ve been badly tempted to buy this guy too. It seems so utterly refined and for a 4WD guy to get drawn towards a 2WD platform like this is saying a bit. They sure did a nice job on the design. Moar pics! And track report!

I’ve got that same aftermarket steering rack like a million others and it’s got a ton of lash in it. I’d tighten each connection as much as possible to help there. You can put a single turn of Teflon tape here, a drop of CA over a greased balljoint there, and the net results can be night and day.

This. There’re so many hop ups included in the kit it’s a race worthy buggy OOTB, and the gunmetal parts won’t be around for a lot of other builds unless I’m misinterpreting Kyosho’s record and forecasting that wrong. They reused the gunmetal on some parts of the Optima Pro (sadly almost a prebuilt model) and I’ll be surprised if it shows up in much more. They still need to reissue the legendary platinum shocks so I’m guessing thst these will arrive around the time for a LWB Optima Mid. No, not really. The diffs are buttery smooth out of the box. The slipper clutch should in theory keep you from overpowering the ball diffs and burning flats into them, tho that’s the benefit that a harder ball would have. They may also be binned for greater tolerance which would equal and even smoother spinning ball differential. I’d build the box set first, break them in, tighten a touch, and see how you like them. If you wanted to split hairs you could put an oil-filled gear diff up front. This was one of the ways in which racers used to balance power distribution when a slipper wasn’t enough to dump trigger twitch. A rear ball diff would slip a tiny bit so that you wouldn’t fishtail, and the front gear diff can be used to dial in how hard the vehicle pulls out of the corners and always pulls hard, straight for positive steering under heavy power. Balance being, too thick on your front diff oil and the vehicle will trip entering the corners. Smooth ball diffs were nice on dirt tracks, and still very nice for everyday driving. Just make sure that you loosen the slipper clutch up on setup so that it gives before the diffs chirp. There are plenty of instructional videos online how to gauge this, though essentially, full power while you’ve got your arm across the rear tires should make the front end lift up to just shy of a wheelie, and the slipper should squeal as thst max torque is released. If the diff chirps, your slipper is too tight. Chirp the ball doffs more than a bit and they’ll get flattened and need rebuilds. Have fun! —XOID

Well as some wise members here may have guessed this adventure ended up resulting in a weeks’-long search for various vintage motors and parts for them while educating myself on various advances that ok place right up to the advent of brushless dominanc. Some neat things have fallen into my lap and perhaps I can share some of the gritty fun for others seeking the nostalgia of the Bad Days of constant motor maintenance. My justification for spending a few duccats on parts and whole motors was that the price of one good vintage ReRe was more than an entire collection of rebuildabke motors and even an ESC or two. First, taking down the Hackmoto reveals a fairly decent armature. It is epoxy stabilized on the windings like a good hand-wound of yesteryear and mill balanced, and magnet quality seems OK. I have no easy means to measure field strength or flux lines of the various cans that I’ve come across thus far, though will look to increase some tooling to at least view the static flux. I’m also missing a comm lathe, so restoring various armatures which I’ve been pulling is somewhat limited in the sense that I can only hand polish for now. It works with ultra fine wet sand paper on a jig, though I would not try this without some practice and truing of your jig with machine squares else you could taper or gouge your commutator. I did end up ordering some MCI decals both for restoring motors and to match one to my only surviving OG buggy in JRX-Pro flavor (converted JRX-2), so I suppose that my V1 Optima is the closest thing in the shop to being properly matched to some older motors such as the Le Mans and Monster Horsepowers. More on those soon as gear arrives. Next steps are figuring out relatively safe ways in which to clean brush dust out of some of the rougher looking cans that I’ve collected, so if anyone has suggestions for a US-based product (bonus for low VOC) I’d appreciate that. So far I’ve just flushed one or two out with WD-40, then hand wiped residue. I’m contemplating trying a mild abrasive such as Bartender’s Friend to polish up the brush hoods on the more corroded pieces. Perhaps an ultra-fine silver polish would be OK with tooth brush like way back when? Any tips appreciated. Note: I’ve avoided chlorine-free carb cleaner intentionally as it seems like a good way to harm vintage labels. New bearings are a dime a dozen in the US, so I’m getting those in bulk, then also stocking up on new armatures as within ‘reasonable’ budget and availability. The hardest parts to find are replacement cans and NOS endbells. Brushes are plentiful in every conceivable compound and configuration, thus I’m building my first modified based on the P-94’s larger comm contact patch size. That’ll get joined with a Kinwald 5.0 can and a choice of four armatures ranging from Trinity handwound 9T-doubles up to stock 27T Epics (mod only, most likely for now). One of the fascinating and unique rotors is a hexawound 12T again from an old Kinwald. It has lovely craftsmanship and the comm has never been touched by a lathe after manufacturing. Another unique variation for a second flavor is a skewed, Trinity D6 armature in flatwound 10-2. The cross section mil density of copper is very low, so I bet that it spools up extremely quickly. Fun stuff—perhaps once a good can is settled on it’ll make a TT-02 go fast. This endeavor has also been quite educational in learning about how the big motor makers and custom winding figureheads came and went. It’s a broad subject to laser in any RC enthusiast’s focus on for a bit and I’ll aim to share more with the community as my knowledge refreshed and expands. For grins I’ve also placed a wanted ad in the event that anyone has a vintage Reedy Modified green label from the mid 80s. These are all eluding me on my searches as these motors came in so many different “dot” colors indicative of their windings, and they seem popular for shelving. I’d be happy just to tear down and rebuild a single specimen for learning the winding techniques employed and then seeing how Mr. Reedy figured out how to further improve on Yokomo’s designs over the years. AYK, Air Supply, and quite a few other makers have seemingly tiny supply left on the used markets and must be hoarded by collectors. BoLINKs have similarly been scarce as they utilized both OEMs as far as I can tell. Caution: avoid a retailer calling themselves OZ-RC, OZRC, ozrc hobby, or any derivitive thereof. They offer pristine-looking vintage motors for sale, take your payment, then claim that they cannot find your part and offer to replace with another mystical vintage motor or refund. I’ve filed a fraud claim against that shop. Steer clear. A bit more searching of their sales history makes evident that this is their business model. Bait and switch scammers. Anyhow, it’s been a rather deep and rewarding rabbit hole to fall down into and I’m nowhere near at the bottom yet. Perhaps I’ll put some effort into composing a more involved followup after getting another buggy or two pieced together. Cheers, —XOID

I second going with a sensored motor as the only decent choice. This will really help you feel more connected to the car with smooth throttle response and better lower speed driving resolution. You can’t go wrong with most anything HobbyWing so a motor-ESC combo may save you some headache. The XR10 Justock is a 2S-rated ESC with lots of nice features including the ability to turn off low voltage cutoff, so you can just run your NiMH pack down as it sags, or at the lowest intentional cutoff you’d be about 5.2V, so already well discharged and done driving. If you have any doubt what may work before dropping coin just email them. They’ll be able to tell you ideal setups for your goal and this’ll likely only rob you about $110 total. Twinfan’s notion of using a Tamiya dual-motor style ESC is also doable and would save you about half the cost if you already own one, otherwise the firmware on anything HobbyWing will make them the better option under most circumstances including PnP right out of the box.

Oh fun, sounds like a good combination of driving options. I think that you’ll enjoy putting together the Mid. Do a build log here if you have the time to as there are a bunch of us who’ve put together Optimas of various configurations here, and everybody drives them in rather different places so it’s kinda cool to see how the versatility is utilized. Funny about the pa car. I’ve had the BoLINK Eliminator and RC12L on my mind lately. I hadn’t thought about 4-cell class in ages then suddenly some indoor carpet flashbacks hit me. There’s a ton of TC enthusiasts here so I bet that your CRC-II would be another fun build log to see come together. Have fun! —XOID

Yes, every one of them does. That at least get your cars built and if you like to tinker with shock weights the sky‘s the limit.

I mostly only build vintage models yet do like to include a top end kit by one of the big names every so often and gotta say I think that our old models are more fun in a lot of ways. I hope that you enjoy yours. Scroll up and you can see some photos of how that PS54 looks. It’s not quite as creamy colored as the wheels, and I went into a week-long adventure in designing my own color scheme based around it because of how unique a blend of hues it is as I did want to tie in the wheel color fairly closely. Probably should get out my airbrush gear to do a box art version where I’m less concerned about fancy masking as it’s a dead simple paint job. Anways, enjoy your Kyosho. I think that like you I may finally put together my Avante BS, though I may keep that locked away from myself for a bit longer since budget and all, as the Egress is an updated Avante and they should be still available if you’d like to spread your Tamiya 4WD stash a bit farther. I’d been fortunate enough to grab one recently from Tower with excellent discount codes so Lenape it makes more sense to include as a runner. The Egress is a good complement to a belt-driven Kyosho and running brushless 13.5 or so you won’t suffer so much loss to gear efficiency as with the weaker can motors of the day did. Those two cars (or swap in the Avante BS) should make a good 1-2 punch of excellence from the late 80s. Quite different designs, that’s for sure. Both with iconic looks.

Tamiya’s polycarbonate paint color PS-54 “cobalt green” is close and what everybody who’s not mixing their own colors is using. It is just a tad darker tinted than the wheels that come in the kit, but the hue is correct. There are a bunch of other good tips in this thread, and some of us are using a lot of parts (or entire kits) to build custom vehicles from the ‘87 kits. Someday soon here (today?) I may actually get back from my side-track down vintage 540 lane and finish my LWB Custom hybrid based on the ‘87 kit. It’s been a fun project. The regular ‘87 is a wonderful kit to build straight OOTB, too so you’ll probably see a lot of them around at mainland tracks for the vintage 4WD runs. Even the regular ‘22 Optima Mid ReRe is a sweet kit. A touch less carbon (well, a lot less) but the classic livery plus the turbo optima mid’s decal sheet and wing option gives you some room to play.

This motivated me to go grab a pdf of the manual. I’m guessing that the pressure washers were not stacked correctly. Please note that this stack of parts creates the spring tension for compressing the stack of plates on either side of the ball diff spur gear. It is also possible to over or under tighten part MA3 thus leaving the stack too loose or causing incessant wear on the plates via over tightening. In short, it’s adjustable: Note the paragraph bottom right. There are a few ways to build these incorrectly.