Juggular

I've been looking for the cheapest price for maybe 50-70 rubber-shielded bearings. The best price I found is $3.39 for ten. Have you guys seen better deals out there? I've seen other odd sized bearings for less, like $2.80 for ten. But not for 850 bearings.

That is curious. Erasers have plasticizer, which makes them soft. If plasticizer touches plastic for a long time, plasticizer melts the plastic. That's why erasers left sitting on ruler, keyboard, etc, would stick to them. They must have used some special plastic.

Mine came during the work hour. I had to drive a mile to get it from a UPS service spot. It opened to the side like a small kit would. If there are lots of wheels or gears, I always go with full bearings to reduce the rolling resistance. Tamiya gives you a yellow sheet explaining how you can easily overheat your motor. When there are 72 bushings, that's not surprising. I have some fifty 850 bearings, but I'll need more. I don't have 1260 bearings either. That is such a strange size. Looking forward to building them though.

That is one good looking retro-machine!

Something very minor. There was some slop in the front gearbox of my BigWig. Since it's the same Hotshot family, Boomerang may have the same thing. The bevel gears on the front are ever so slightly lopsided--at least mine was. And the hollow you see here allows the bevel gear on the propeller shaft move about. So when they bite into each other too tightly, you could hear them making that cyclic grinding noise from uneven gears. When they were apart, no noise. I put a thin shim to spread the gears apart. The bevel gear stopped from moving to and fro. That resulted in a smoother mesh. You could check it out and decide if it's something worth addressing.

My RC is basically driven by sales items. Tamiya sells track sets for half the price? I'll happily abandon my plan for M-08 or BBX in favor of what's cheap now. If time is money, the reverse must be true; I'll just wait for things to be cheap, even if it takes a year or two for BBX to be $220. A used one is fine by me, too. My RC got rebooted by an item on sale. Some hobby shop in Florida did a clearance sale. I ordered a Montero Wheelie for $85. Including shipping, it was just above $100. After that, I ended up buying 24 Tamiya RC cars over the years. So maybe Tamiya should sell things at cost once in a while. Wait, never mind... Tamiya has nothing to do with it, it's our Max-Profit Capitalism. It seems that Japanese sellers are willing to make small profit by selling a can for $3.40. Amazon Japan sells a can for whopping $5.22 and $4.89 for fancy new colors (including shipping). $3.75 for ordinary colors. If you have ordered from Temu or Aliexpress, you know it doesn't take a lot of money to mail stuff from overseas (unless Temu or Aliexpress subsidize shipping fees. But it would still have to come out from somewhere). So if a seller charges 15 Euro, it's the retailer or the middleman or both. In the US, 1 can used to cost about $6-7 before, when the Japanese Yen was stronger. Considering how weak the Yen has been, it makes no sense to charge as much as $10. Max-Greed will doom us all. Maybe Tamiya USA should sell these directly to us to keep us in the hobby (and make a tiny bit of profit too).

I'm sorry your bearings got rusted. I do wash bikes once a year or so, but just with garden hose, no soap. Water is fine as long as some oil remains, like on bicycle chains. But when you completely get rid of oil, water will rust steel in an hour. After I had my bearings rust (they were salvageable), I use alcohol. If I use water, I put bearings in a cup of alcohol right after. Alcohol loves water (which is why you should never leave nitro fuel uncapped--alcohol will collect water from the air). Tiny drops of water will be mixed in alcohol and evaporate with alcohol when I take them out of alcohol bath. Maybe they can be revived with some WD40? Fine rust dust that made it feel gritty would get pushed away by WD40. If the balls and the races didn't get too pitted with rust, they might run okay if you just get rid of the rust-oil mixture inside the bearings. If there were some pitting so the bearing feels gritty even after WD40 removed rust-dust? You could use grease, instead of light oil. (After removing WD40 with alcohol). Grease will fill the tiny pits and the bearings should run thick like how Tamiya metal bearings are, when they come out of a package. They won't be high-speed like the bearings re-lubed with oil, but still useful.

When I posted this 6 years ago, I thought I was going overboard. Little did I know, TC is filled with overboarders... Metal shields have C-clips on the outside. You can push one tip of C-clip with a pointy art knife. The C-clip would lift up from the outer race and it would pop out. (An eye protection would be a good idea, a broken tip of a knife flying about isn't good for eyes.) It'd be better to remove shields when cleaning. Once you get the hang of it, it's fairly easy. Even so, there would be 1 stubborn clip out of 10. Rubber shields are so much easier to remove because they are a single piece, friction-fit in place. [for people who are just entering the hobby, this is not necessary.] Anyway... I use whatever is handy, like degreaser spray, alcohol. For tough grease, even dishwasher detergent and water with toothbrush (I dry it as much as I could and dump the bearings in alcohol--I don't let water sit on bearings.) If it's dirty, I may use the ultrasonic cleaner also. These days, ultrasonic cleaners cost only $4.80. https://www.temu.com/sparkling-clean-jewelry-lenses-watches-razors-portable-professional-ultrasonic-cleaner-powered-by-battery-without-batteries-g-601099521654611.html?_oak_mp_inf=ENP%2B2Zum1ogBGiA0YzM5OTJhOWE2ODU0NGRhYjk3Y2JkNmZhMTVmOTdlNSDXzLGB7TE%3D&top_gallery_url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.kwcdn.com%2Fproduct%2FFancyalgo%2FVirtualModelMatting%2F6ec44934ccf950244aca6ae49b1bb8be.jpg&spec_gallery_id=2015673226&refer_page_sn=10009&refer_source=0&freesia_scene=2&_oak_freesia_scene=2&_oak_rec_ext_1=NDc4&_oak_gallery_order=1940403946%2C1177261409%2C2091522229%2C1049751702%2C1155902791&search_key=ultrasonic cleaner&refer_page_el_sn=200049&refer_page_name=search_result&refer_page_id=10009_1712889543036_6cx4ndxwci&_x_sessn_id=xuwo1zu7ns Once the grease is out, steel bearings turn like ceramic bearings. It's so satisfying, the way they turn. I am also tempted to see how they run. But I'm afraid the bearings would be loosy-goosy after a couple of packs. I have an old motor with a worn bushing that won't run. I couldn't see the gap, but I can feel it if I shake it. Bearings are not directly rubbing like a bushing is on an axle, but tiny bit of oil would go a long way. Also some rust can really jam up the whole thing, so I figure thin oil is better than no oil. Whatever oil you use, though, the bearings will be much slower than when it was totally oil-free. (But still a lot better than thick grease Tamiya metal shields are packed with.) I use the least amount of oil. Like half a bead of oil on the needle, on just 1 ball. I let that one roll around and lubricate the races. All other balls would pick up a thin film of oil too. Unless something better comes along, I use Labelle 108. It's fairly watery, it's safe on rubber shields, plastic gears and gearboxes. I have a bottle of 3-in-1 oil too. It is supposed to be safe on plastic too, but I haven't tried it on bearings. It feels a bit heavier than Labelle 108. Anyway, after lubing just one ball and turning it around, I don't leave the casings unprotected. I'd have a bit of oil on my hand and touch the bearings, and I wipe them with a paper towel. I put the same paper towel that has wiped oil, through the hole too. Very thin film on the surface would protect it. Along with teflon grease on the gears, re-lubed bearings can allow fairly friction-free rotations. 6x6 trucks like Dynahead where 1 motor has to turn 76 bearings, less friction would be nice. (Since I sealed the seams of the gearbox with plumber's grease, I left the bearings inside the gearbox shield-free.) Cleaning and re-lubing feels calming to me. It's demanding enough, yet boring enough to be meditative... No? Just me?

That might be worth trying! I have no idea what the gear ratios are for the tracks and the portals. But both tracks and portal gears reduce gearing and increase the height. Depending on the diameter of the wheel, it might be possible to have front 2 portals and rear 4 tracks. (The portal gear looks to be about 2:1 reduction ratio. If the track sprocket is about an inch as opposed to 55mm tires of touring cars, then they could also be about 2:1 ratio.)

Diff unloading isn't fun. I see why Tamiya includes the differential putty. (This youtuber installed tracks without using the putty.)

Turning a Konghead into a half-track idea is a really attractive idea to me. So I looked up, but I ran into 2 problems. 1) the track unit reduces the speed. The front tires would be running faster compared to the tracks. I suppose I could remove dog bones on the front. But 2) there is a big height difference. I would need huge front tires. (Which may or may not interfere with the shell or the tracks.) Something like this might work better. Even this could use slightly larger front tires. He had kindly put up his design on thingiverse. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4714521 (I really need to get a 3D printer...) This "box-dude" seems to have experimented with various chassis.

I hate when this happens... (no, I don't) These tracks are so random. I wasn't even looking to get them, yet I just ordered 2 sets. I don't even have a GF-01 chassis! (Oh, I could use them on my CC01 Unimog!) I was sure my next Tamiya was going to be an M08. But there is no surprise when going with a plan, is there? Sometimes little unexpected deviation is more fun. Though, for my RC life, it feels like deviations is the norm. Anyway, thanks for letting me know about the sale!

I'd have gone that way. More likely, after choosing that, I'd drag my feet for years... which is same as not touching what you've already built? But that's my laziness talking. In the end, I prescribe to "a hobby is doing what pleases you," as long as nobody's peace is disturbed. If stacking up NIB kits makes one happy, he should do it. Keeping all of them on the shelves, why not? Buy 10 cheap copper pinions instead of buying 1 steel one? Why not? If you start 10 projects but only finish 1? Sure! If you build it and give it a Talbot treatment for an instant destruction? Sure, if that makes you happy and nobody gets hurt. A hobby should be fun. I often feel bad I have so many projects. But as @Saito2 had said himself, it's only a hobby. Whatever you feel like doing is cool. After all, judging what's cool should only be you too.

Out of curiosity, what happens to the A5 part? (Is this what you are talking about?)

Since I'm unfamiliar with the European market, I was somewhat expecting "Absima has the German engineering spirit" or such. That notion probably made sense when Goonies was at the theaters in 1985 (when Samwise Gamgee was a child, I mean Sean Astin). I just realized even the Lord of the Rings was from 23 years ago. I feel so old...