Juggular

I thought the photo was mirror-sided, but I guess not?

I wonder if regular machine screw with a couple of copper tubings would work? It may need one tubing that fits tightly with the screw, and a bigger one over that. I've done it on smaller screws on non-adjustable linkages that didn't have ball studs. Never done it for kingpins, so I'm just tossing an idea into the universe, hoping it might help.

If all trimming doesn't work, try resetting your ESC. If that doesn't work, try exorcism.

You will see some differences of opinions among drivers. If everybody is the same the world would be a terribly boring place. Take everything under advisement and use the info you see fit. Tamiya instructions tend to make you build stiff suspension when it comes to off road cars. For something like TA07, they would assume you are an experienced builder, and not give you specific instruction on oil settings. It's up to you. For on-road shocks, I hardly use anything more than 3 oils they give you in "soft oil set." It has #200, #300, #400 oils, and that should be a good starting point. Even on off-road shocks, I have never used "hard" set (#800, #900, #1000). Unless of course, you want to put in the diffs... for sealed diffs, you'd want the hard set. But many people use other brand stuff too. Just enjoy it. No need to worship the vehicle; build it, drive it, bash it, experiment with it, break it, fix it, and get good at everything. Think of it as a tool to sharpen "you" as a builder and a driver. Watch the tires carefully. The shocks are there to reduce the rebound. But it should not hinder the spring movement too much. If you have sat down on an old style spring mattress and remember how bouncy it was? That's like having no shocks. Aim for a single bounce after a bump. From there, you can go softer to allow more responsive suspension, or go stiff like memory foam bed, depending on your preference. But not too stiff as to have the car bounce on the rubber tire rather than suspension.

Holy... flying centipede! For all that, $235 is a steal.

Welcome to TC. If you had built IKEA furniture and scale model kits, etc, you should be fine with Tamiya kits. I'm into off-road, so I always thought XV01 Rally would be fun. With the motor in the nose, it drives more like a real 1:1 car. Aluminum parts look good, but they don't flex. Obviously, some parts like arms are better if they are rigid. But there is no free lunch: rigid parts are easier to break than plastic parts. Things have gotten better, way back in the past they didn't fit well either...(most fit well now). Replacing parts with aluminum doesn't make things inherently better. I don't think I'd win any rally championship, even if I put a Subaru Turbo engine in my 2004 Forester. It be better to just buy 2019 WRX STi. Instead of spending $400 on the kit + upgrade, I'd just go with something like TA07. Unless, of course, you want to start off with something less tricky to build...

Isn't HG the company that has "duplicated" Tamiya 3 Speeds? They did not stop there like Tamiya did for 30 years. Apparently, the 3 speeds were just a stepping stone. They released HG P408. Metal gearbox and frames, 2 speed transmission, portal gears, lights and sounds + 16 channel radio? It looks decent, which makes me sad. Tamiya should have been focusing on the development, instead of marketing Lunchboxes in all colors of the rainbow.

Kiwi Squadron. None flies, but 4 are delicious. Taxing out. I don't even know if my air brush still works. I couldn't even find anything bigger than "0" brush. I basically hand-painted the whole thing with a needle brush. Brush strokes are quite evident on close up. (The darker color is XF66, lighter color just has some white mixed to FX66). I had a blast building the silly thing. It's Hasegawa Egg Plane series, F-15. Decals (not stickers) include both Japanese and American versions.

Whoa, that'd be very rare. If you watch antiques road show, people bring stuff from Germany, China, etc. That means, once the stuff goes, it could end up in Tibet, for we you know. Then again, you also see people selling a used book as a child in USA and find the book with her name on it in Paris, on vacation decades later. First question: Did you make money on it? (I would definitely pay more, if I knew it was mine) Second question: Was it in good condition?

Yes. It's called BEC (Battery Elimination Circuit). It became so common from early 90's. It's almost impossible to find radios that require a separate receiver battery since then. For Hornet, I recommend cheap and reliable Flysky GT3C. You can get a set for about $45. Relatively simple and easy to use. But it has trim, servo reverse, end point adjustment, etc, more stuff than bashers need. If you happened to buy something else, like Lunchbox, just buy one more receiver for $7. 1 transmitter can control up to 10. 1 at a time though. Next, Radiolink RC6GS. $65 or so. It's similar to Flysky GT3C, but has more functions, and the receiver has a gyro. Say, 30 degrees on the wheel translates to 30 degrees of servo. You turned 30 degrees. But because the ground is sandy, servo's 30 degree didn't turn the vehicle as much. The gyro would make the servo turn more on its own. Or if the ground is too grippy and the vehicle made enough of a turn with less of servo movement, it stops there. The $65 set comes with one receiver. If you want more, you'd have to pay about $17 for an extra one. This one also has 10 model memory. Futaba radios like 3PV is about $120. Fuction-wise, it's weaker than 6 channel Radiolink 6GS with gyro. What you get from Futaba is faster response time. About 8 millisecond, I think? Radiolink RC6GS is about 12ms. 1 millisecond is 1/1000th of a second. So that's 4/1000 of a second difference. I'm told that racers can tell the difference. But with an 80's Hornet with sloppy linkages? I probably could not, so most of my bashers are controlled by Flysky GT3B (GT3C is better since it uses only 4AA batteries, instead of 8).

Is this the #2 that's using portal gears? Tires seem wider than regular Monster Beetle tires. Or do they just look wider?

Driver sizes are always tricky. Here, Senator Amidala looks small. The figurine is 14cm (5.5") in height. Multiply by 12, her real height would be about 168cm. (Natalie Portman is short, like 160cm, so I'd say this is 1/11.5 scale. Still, 1/12 drivers would be too small.) Here is Arnold. He's 6'2" or 188cm. Massive as he is, his head doesn't reach the windows on this newer, taller Unimog. For smaller 405, I'd say most men would reach the bottom of the window. 17cm - 18cm would make a good driver. 1/10th would make the figure 170cm - 180cm in real life. But there are a lot of 6 inch figures, but not many 7 inch figures. I think 1/8th driver would look big inside 405. I don't know what the scale is for below anime girl (there are no legs, it is just a bust). But if her height (if she had legs) is about 23cm, and her real life height is 170cm, this would be 1/7.4th scale. She looks slightly too big. Most people don't know how big Unimog is. So, I'd say 1/8th looks better than 1/12th. Conclusion: 1/10th, 1/9th figures would make good drivers for Unimog 405. (but I don't think armless Grasshopper drivers would be a good choice) Maybe this Arnold might fit. He's 7 inches tall. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Decoration-7-Inch-Man-Driver-Figure-for-1-10-RC-Rock-Crawler-Car-Truck/132831180411?hash=item1eed5af67b:m:mQc9gwzm-QAGbngA2u7HOKA He'll look small in Unimog, but that's how it would be in real life. I wish there was 1/9th figure, just for Unimog. (below is a 16.5cm figure. If this is 1/10th, she'd be 165cm. Looks about right.)

Now that's a happy ending! Maybe you can go for NIB, shelf queen and a runner? Years ago, Tower sent me wrong fuel. They let me keep 4 liters of nitro and sent me the right ones. I think I'll start ordering from Tower again. I'll hope and pray that they get it wrong.

You got me curious. I have 9 of the 80's catalogs + 1978. I wonder what you remember was a sheet catalog for Model Rectifier? I think MRC was the distributor for Tamiya. They might have included sheets that had rockets. I have seen such things in scale model kits, but don't remember rockets. But I never had any interest in rockets, so even if there were rockets, I wouldn't have remembered. Official catalogs are about 90 pages long, and I have never seen rockets in them. Rockets wouldn't be a good idea in a tightly packed place like Japan. It'd be like shooting rockets in the Times Square in NY. Police and the fire department will be crawling all over you. I looked up a few of the old kits I bought from early 90's, but couldn't find any.

I have used RC-Mart before from Hong Kong. But not RC-Art. Google shows old articles going back to 2017, and some drift chassis of their own design? Maybe I haven't heard of it because it's new? I don't know.