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I'm sure if you look it up, you can find anyone that owns a new or old one of these 4WD Hotshot's or Hotshot 2's that will say many good things about them along with how fragile some parts are. The stuff not many people talk about though is how awful the design is. I mean it's still a cool buggy, but man! It's like one or a few of the engineers at Tamiya needed the crayons taken away. Some time ago I bought a second hand Hotshot 2, it was before the it had re-release, maybe 6 or so years ago. I completely gone through it, cleaned everything and got it to be a fully functional buggy again. It was not in the best of shape, but it was now clean and good looking from 10 feet away. Knowing that what parts would interchange from other Tamiya models and parts availability at the time, I was not worried about lightly running it. I had some fun with it for a little bit of time and always kept it clean, I even upgraded the motor and speed controller and had it running pretty fast. I eventually put on the shelf and sort of forgot about it. Now here in 2024, I feel like making the old Hotshot 2 a runner again. So while taking care of a few things on it, I was reminded of how questionable of how some of the "features" were designed. Although some of these designs were carried over from the original Hotshot, it was clear that these were some of the things that needed drastic improvement. Maybe Tamiya had some new engineers and rather than using the crayons to draw new much better disigns, they were eating them instead. Anyway, while I was installing some new electronics, I was reminded of how bad the design of the radio tray/box is. It's cramped and I'm sure with an ESC it gets hot due to the lack of air flow. Yes, I know, the temps may have been fine when it had an MSC, but it's still cramped and very annoying to deal with. There is the little hatch, ok, that's cool, but could something be done about shielding the drive shaft? I've been doing this hobby and other real life mechanical repairs long enough to know that the wires I tied in there may not stay put all the time. A simple shield around the driveshaft would have been a major improvement, but you know it's the zip ties and tape those engineers have faith in. Since I'm running new modern electronics and I don't want my receiver in the same hot room as the new Hobbywing 1060 ESC(I fried my Tazer ESC) I've relocated the receiver to small space under the molded driver in the chassis. I'm sure it would have been fine in the same compartment, but this just seemed to work and with some creativity the plastic packaging from the Hobbywing esc becomes a pretty neat self for the receiver and stays there pretty good with servo tape. I rambled long enough about one flaw, time for the next one, and it's a big one. The front bumper on this RC buggy somehow looks goofy and like it belongs there at the same time. I kind of dig it's big goofy appearance, but I have one major issue with it. IT'S MADE OF HARD PLASTIC! Not too hard, but hard enough. Both the front bumper and lower bracket should have been redesigned or improved to withstand any higher speed impacts. Tamiya could have used the same plastic blend that is used in the more flexible bumpers used on many of their other models, like the Blackfoot or the Frog. So now I have to glue the bumper bracket back together with some styrene for now until I get new parts. Ok, fine, l can still enjoy running the Hotshot 2. No big deal right now. If you have seen the photos, you will find that I'm running the 17 turn Method SV2 brushed motor from Team Orion. It's a bit slower than the Reedy Radon I had in it, but I don't like how hot the Radon gets, which is why a cut a hole in the can. Slowing things down should mean reduced chances of breaking stuff and since I already have a couple of these Method motors in my motor pile, I don't have buy a new motor and still be faster than stock. Test drive time! It was now night, so I went to the lit parking lot at the local grocery store. I plugged in my old Venom 4000Mah 20C oval lipo pack and did some zooming passes. It was still pretty fast and the old motor was still pretty responsive. The Hotshot 2 would crisply accelerate with no violence. With the Duratrx Bandito tires transferring the power into forward movement it was quick, almost brushless power quick. Things were going great, despite the buggy's flawed sloppy front suspension when drooped, it was running as straight as an arrow. I decided to do some curb hopping, nothing hard or big, infact the suspension never bottomed out. Unfortunately after just running for a very short time my run came to an end when the right rear dog bone shaft came out. Upon inspection I noticed that three of the rear control arms had broke. I really did not run it hard and the plastic at the hinge pins just gave up. One of the biggest flaws with the Hotshot 2 and other models using similar parts is the brittle plastic suspension arms. They could have been made a bit more beefy in certain areas or used a different type of plastic. Maybe they just got weaker over time, but they were just fine 6 years ago, it's a bummer. Well... now I wait for the new parts to come, thinking maybe I should find some replacement parts that are a bit more heavy duty and a bit more flexible. I'll update when I fix it.

I have a transmitter and receiver that were once bound but have now stopped working together after not using for a few months. I have followed the Etronix instructions and tried numerous different combinations. Rx has bid link in, red led flashes Tx switched on holding down bind button and green led is flashing I continue to hold the bind button but it never goes solid. How do I find out if it's the transmitter or the receiver that maybe faulty? Any help would be great

Hi all, I'm hoping that one of you guys will have a solution for me. I've fully restored my 1989 vintage Madcap 58082 and taken it out for a few runs now. It runs great, especially with the Hop-ups and the GT-Tuned motor, but I keep breaking the C4 part - Front C-Hub (not the steering arm, which is now upgraded to carbon reinforced) I know its 26 years old buggy and not up to todays quality standards, but its so annoying as this is the 2nd time now in a month (and sourcing new C4 parts is getting harder) I know newer models have alloy parts from GMP, Yeah Racing etc. Is there an alloy part that will fit my buggy Tamiya or otherwise?... or am I destined to spend £££ on 3D printing an alloy version. Photo attached Thanks Madcap74

Hi, finished building my M05 only to have a play on the drive and try to jump a small speed-hump and shearing off the front-right hand side suspension mount. When I say small I wasn't being too ambitious, it was about 10cm tall, if that. I've tried epoxy, it worked until I stupidly tried the same thing (I'll never learn), should I fix it the same way again and just not attempt jumps or is there a way of reinforcing the mounts so they don't break again? Thanks Adam