Bronski Beetus

It seems like on forums, you're more likely to find knowledgeable sellers, but on eBay the buyer is likely to be the more knowledgeable party. The only bad buyer I had was in forum classified sale. The guy couldn't bind his radio to the plane I sold him. He chastised me for not testing a new-in-box plane before selling it, and expressed skepticism that it really worked even when I sent him a video of it working perfectly after he returned it. I had to pay round trip shipping so he wouldn't have to admit he was the problem. On eBay I've had both of my used Tamiya purchases not go according to plan. One was a few parts short, and I let it slide since the hassle of returning wasn't worth it. The other was WAY off, and I felt bad asking for my money back. Both purchases left a bad taste in my mouth and I probably won't be buying used kits on eBay again.

Thunder Dragon, no question. Boldest styling, lowest cost, proven chassis, pre-cut & painted body. Of the front monoshock models it's, the only one that makes it look like a style choice instead of cost-cutting. Look at it like this: A fast car isn't going to make you into a fast driver, but a cool car actually will turn you into a cool dude.

haha that is probably true. I knew they were supposed to be hard but it still surprised me when I built one. OTOH, Lunch Box tires are easy to mount, and the rear wheels bolt right up to the Grasshopper. The front end takes a little more doing, but easier tire mounting isn't the only thing the Monster Grasshopper has going for it.

I started out in RC flying electric planes, which even 15 years ago was already dominated by sensorless brushless motors and lipo batteries. When I started playing with cars, I was aghast at just how entrenched the brushed motors and NiMH batteries were, and I didn't even give them a second thought. I didn't realize that power-to-weight ratio isn't nearly as important in the power system of a surface vehicle, but low-speed tractability is something that matters a lot. That's probably why sensored brushless motors are popular in cars, but almost non-existent in planes. If money is no object, a sensored brushless power system is going to give you the advantages of brushless & brushed, and will overall likely be the best experience. If you're trying to keep it cheap, you have to decide between the good low-speed manners of a brushed motor or the high performance of a sensorless brushless system. Tamiyas do seem to run nicely with the included power systems. When it comes to batteries though, I'm still firmly in the lithium camp, but LiPo isn't the only option. If you've got a DIY tendency, an excellent option is making packs from 21700 cylindrical lithium ion cells. They offer a number of advantages over LiPo, like ruggedness (they are in steel cans after all), a shape that can easily fit in battery bays designed for nickel batteries, as well tolerating lower voltage than LiPo so using ESCs meant for NiMH isn't the same death sentence that it is for LiPo. They don't have quite the amp-delivery of LiPo, but it's still better than nickel, and the power capacity-to-weight ratio can even be higher than LiPo. Because cylindrical cells have so many mainstream applications, major companies actually manufacture them which allows you to get a lot for your money as well as the kind of detailed information and consistency that just isn't possible when buying LiPo, which are almost invariably sold by someone who didn't manufacture them. Cream-of-the crop Molicel P45B cells are going for $5.50/ea right now and I think that is just spectacular value for money.

This post is to let anyone intimidated by the prospect of drilling and tapping their ORV drive cups, DON'T BE. I just did my re-re Black Foot cups in far less time than this post will take to type, and I have probably tapped 3 or 4 holes in my life, and zero in the last decade. Ball diffs or carbon side plates are sure nice, but for well below the cost of either one of those, you can be set up to do as many ORV screw mods as you want to. (unless you count the cost of a drill). The steps are dead simple: 1.) remove pressed in pin 2.) Tap one side to 2.5mm (usually 0.45mm pitch) . The 2mm hole is already the right size to do this. You could tap it all the way through, but you could probably get away with 3 or 4mm. I did this first in case I messed it up, I could drill it out and try tapping again on the other cup. This is the tap I used: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805629422039.html 3.) drill the other side all the way through to 2.5mm. This is pretty easy with that 2mm hole already there to guide your bit perfectly straight, and you're only removing a little bit of material. I used one of these: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804557838372.html 4.) put an M2.5 screw through the drilled side and screw it into the threaded side just tight enough to hold the sides together and still turn freely. Use loctite on the threads to keep it from backing out, since there won't be any real tension on the threads themselves. I had no difficulty removing the pin from the drive cup with a pair of vise grips - just clamped the pin, jammed a small wrench in the cup slot to keep it from turning, and spun the pin around while pulling until it just came out. Drilling and tapping with the absolute cheapest no-name drill bit and tap from Aliexpress went perfectly. I just tapped down to about where the threads on the tap ended, which lets me run about 10mm deep into that side with an M2.5 screw. I spent maybe 5 minutes on both jobs, taking my time. My tap wrench could barely grab such a tiny tap. The flats of the tap and the unfluted portion of the drill bit both measured 2.4mm. I lubricated them with couple of drops of shock oil because it was nearby in a convenient dropper bottle. The screw itself was actually the hardest part because I had very few M2.5 screws. The total length of the shaft of each cup is about 16mm, so I was looking for a screw in the 20-25mm neighborhood - all the way through the 16mm drilled side, plus enough thread the get a good hold on the threaded side. My nearest hardware store had M2.5x20mm stainless screw with pan heads and slot drive, which I figured was close enough. I went ahead and ground the pan head into a countersunk shape by chucking it into my little "fingernail dremel" and using it like a mini lathe, though this probably wasn't necessary. If you've never tapped a hole before, maybe watch a Youtube video on it. Just remember to back the tap out a fraction of a turn to break off the chips every turn or so, and if you encounter any sudden resistance, back it out and clean out your hole before resuming.

I've been getting pretty frustrated with camming out my Tamiya screws, especially since I was under the impression that my Milwaukee Shockwave bits were among the best. Maybe they are, but the #2 is far from the best for Tamiya screws! As I'm sure others have noticed, even on screws that fit #2, sometimes a #1 Phillips is a better fit. I've heard for years that JIS screwdrivers fit the heads of certain screws (usually Japanese brands) better than regular Phillips, and decided to spend the princely sum of $8 on a few Vessel brand bits to see how they stack up. I had several unused Milwaukee and Bosch bit to compare them to. What I found is that the #2 bits from Vessel fit the common 3mm Tamiya screws better than the others. Milwaukee's #1 and Bosch's #2 bits were both better than Milwaukee's #2, and Vessel's #1 just felt like it was too small to bother. I didn't have any #1 Bosch bits to compare. The #2 Milwaukee takes some effort to keep the bit in the screw head perfectly straight, but the Vessel seems to sink deeper into the head and feels more locked-in when fully seated. After my test, I think I'll be retiring the #2 Milwaukees from Tamiya kit duty completely. I've already got several better alternatives. Of the bunch pictured below, the hands-down victory goes to Vessel #2 slim (lower left-hand corner of "Vessel PH2.jpg") which doesn't seem to sacrifice anything from the normal one, but can get into more places. Eventually I'll be picking up some of those bits in different lengths, but for now I'm going to test fit whatever different Phillips drivers I already have around and see if any of them just happen to fit well into Tamiya screwheads. My buddy just got a set of Vessels and said they were a lot like his (excellent imho) Witte drivers, but I have no idea how closely he compared them. This was my first post on this site, so I wanted it to be a contribution rather than asking for tech support. EDIT: From top to bottom Bosch #2, Milwaukee #1 & #2, Comparison of #2 heads, Vessel #1, Vessel #2