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I have noticed continued questions about drive shafts popping out of drive cups, drive line chatter and other issues related to some of the ORV kits (Frog, Subaru Brat, Monster Beetle, Blackfoot). I wanted to share what I have learned from the comments in a multitude of other posts as well as my own experiences rebuilding these kits. Hopefully this post can serve as a reference to answer some questions for anyone encountering issues. Here are the main points I have gathered, along with photos and descriptions. My preferred setup now is to run the Blackfoot universal shafts with either the deep differential drive cups, or the MIP super ball diff. 1. The Frog appears to have smaller drive cups on the differential than the other kits listed (parts MD15 & MD16), and seems more prone to throwing drive shafts as a result 2. Using the deeper drive cups combined with o-rings seems to help with thrown drive shafts significantly, and eliminates the need to limit travel of the rear suspension 3. There is a phasing difference between the Blackfoot and Monster Beetle swing shafts (part BB15), and the difference is noticeable. This YouTube video does a great job illustrating the impact of improper phasing. 4. Ordering Part# 9808071 from Tamiya will not provide you with the correctly oriented swing shaft to address the phasing issue (I tried and received a brand new set of defective shafts) 5. Ordering the Blackfoot replacement shaft (Part# 19804979) has been confirmed to be correct shafts! (see thread comment below) 6. Ordering the entire Blackfoot screw bag B (Part# 9403295) seems to be the best way another way to acquire swing shafts with the correct phasing Deep vs shallow differential drive cup (shown below) Frog Parts (shown below) Subaru Brat Parts (shown below) Blackfoot Parts (shown below) - Screw Bag B (9403295) Monster Beetle Parts (shown below) EDIT: Post updated to include information from @ruebiracer on suitable correctly phased replacement shafts!

Added some hopups to the ORV chassis and the servo arms. I wasn't sure if all pink would work, but for my first time masking and painting a Lexan body, I'm really happy with the results, even though it's not perfect.

Hello all! This is a quick thread about a Frog I bought for cheap. It is getting rebuilt (not quite restored by some standards) to sit on my TV stand. Maybe run it one day if the appropriate transmitter falls into my lap. Here's the car, how I bought it for $70 off of marketplace. Mostly because it came with a cool motor and was in good condition: I placed an order for some parts, and began the disassembly process. Nothing was broken other than the battery stays/antenna holders on each side. Kinda grimey but nothing horrible. I originally wanted to make this a runner, so I was a bit more concerned about the binding/rock hard suspension. After browsing, I found Mini-T springs were similar in size so I ordered a set. I had tried these out before taking apart the car, and the hardest of the bunch seem too soft. I tried with the valved pistons and 7.5wt and it seems sluggish to return to ride height even without a battery, so I'm not sure I'd recommend this setup. However I am keeping them on with no valves/60 wt. Not great but I am sticking with it for now, and its way better than the bent and binding stock springs. I also used a 12mm front bearing adapter as a lower spring cup. Rear end taken apart, cleaned, greased, and put back together: One of my favorite parts of the car, I think the skidplate really pulls the "frog" appearance together. Front disassembled, cleaned, and mostly reassembled. Waiting on some softer front springs before finishing. This shot shows the rs-540sd Will probably start working on the body and wheels tomorrow. He loves to supervise:

The issue: click click click For almost 30 years we've put up with this until @mheald provided us with a solution back in 2016 (a cheap and effective one that didn’t involve us spending £70 on a ball diff). As mentioned in a few other posts, been trying to develop a new ORV gearbox strengthener with my friend as the @mheald ones aren’t available any more (massive thank you to him as my one is still going strong with a brushless) Mk1 is now in development and have test fitted. We are now confident of fitment and everything lines up we can get the LH side going. this is a single shaped piece that will (hopefully - pending testing) clamp the gearbox and limit/minimise/remove the clicking. I’m hoping that it being a 1 piece solution it will be nice and easy to fit, won’t cost much and will come with bolts. I guess to plan how much more effort goes into this I’d be interested in knowing who’d like one (or two). if you are interested then please reply and I’ll add your name to the list List: @Problemchild x2 @Duvetdo x1 @Juhunio x2 @Frog Jumper x1 @Peter_B x2 @KEV THE REV x2 @J@mes x1 @jlcox7 x2 @toyolien x2 @Badcrumble x1 @tamiya3speed x1 @tamiya_1971 x2 @slimleeroy x1

Since this seems to come up every once in a while, I thought I would write this all down in one spot for the sake of posterity. SRB (Special Racing Buggy) wheels can be placed into (3) groups: 1. Rough Rider/Buggy Champ. 2. Super Champ/Fighting Buggy/Sand Scorcher. 3. Ford Ranger XLT/Brat. The RR/BC wheels are 1.7”, 5 spoke, and silver. The Fast Attack Vehicle uses the same but molded in brown. All of these sets use the square block style road/sand tires. The SC/FB/SS wheels are 1.5”, 5 spoke, and white. These are also used on the Grasshopper, Hornet, and Frog. All of these sets use the same ribbed sand tire on the front. On the rear, the SS and GH use sand paddles, and the SC/FB, Frog, and Hornet use the spiked off road tires. The XLT/Brat wheels are 1.7”, 8 spoke (thanks @mtbkym01), and white. The front wheel on these sets are the same width as the rear so all four wheels use the same square block tire as the rear of the RR/BC. There are some variations to these such as the Jun Watanabe Hornet (black wheels) and the Brat blue edition (black wheels). If anyone else would like to info or corrections, please do so! Also, this might be a good place to list 3rd party manufacturers that made wheels or tires for these cars or in this size range.

Long time lurker, first time poster... I have a question about the rere Frog's grey ORV Chassis. What color paint would match it closest? I'm wanting to paint the base of the driver piece to match the chassis, and hoped to find a close match, if possible, and if anyone here knew it. Thank you in advance.

Hello all, I am looking for some help from all the vintage Tamiya experts on here to identify a rear shock set up that was available for the original FROG (5841). My usual channels for searching have produced no results so far. Attached is a picture of a rear shock set up I am searching for to complete a retro build. Looking for information on either the brand so I can try to locate one, or best case scenario someone who sees this happens to actually have a set they would consider parting with. I know the group here collectively has a vast knowledge of this vintage stuff so I am hopeful someone has some information. Thanks for looking and any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hello all, I am looking for some help from all the vintage Tamiya experts on here to identify a rear shock set up that was available for the original FROG (5841). My usual channels for searching have produced no results so far. Attached is a picture of a rear shock set up I am searching for to complete a retro build. Looking for information on either the brand so I can try to locate one, or best case scenario someone who sees this happens to actually have a set they would consider parting with. I know the group here collectively has a vast knowledge of this vintage stuff so I am hopeful someone has some information. Thanks for looking and any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Everyone! I'm new here and I am in possession of some classic Tamiya vehicles that require restoration. Not sure which to start first, so I'll let you guys decide! Once one of the cars wins, I'll document the restoration process for the group. I'll keep the poll open until Friday 9/22.

A couple of days ago I decided to try rallying my M06, some tarmac slides and some light off-roading. Long story short I decided that I'd be better off with a buggy. I went on ebay looking for a used Grasshopper 2 and ended up with two Frogs. Frog A was the first one, this one came with a body, good back tires, and a controller. I didn't realise until later that it was short a dog bone! So I looked up dogbones, the Universal Driveshaft hop up, I decided to use vintage car restoration logic and buy Frog B which has shafts, posts, and a bumper. Frog B was the first to arrive, I must have spent 20 minutes looking it over un amusement, and not in a cynical "this is so bad" way, I was actually quite fascinated. The front suspension actually had halfway decent damping despite the lack of shocks, certainly better than the friction shocks on modern entry level kits. Unfortunately Frog Bs battery was misplaced I guess, but I did get a card for the sellers social media accounts (which I promptly pitched because I dont care). But I couldn't complain, you'll see why.

I bought this DT03 Neo Fighter last year as a fun buggy. Most of the time, I'm racing my RC10s and Ultimas. I didn't realize this at first, but the kit I got is the super cheap one without the CVA dampers and ESC. I've added bearings, the DT03 turnbuckle set and a set of CVAs that originally came with my TD4. I've decorated it like my re-release Frog by combining the stock decal set with the re-release frog decal set. I think it looks pretty good aside from a few green paint bleeds which are mostly covered with decals. I will probably add a better pic...I was lazy today.

I went online and started searching for Grasshopper 2s, somehow this lead to me buying a cheap original Frog that will need a few things. So what do I need to know about these? I know about transmission braces, and theres tons of rear axle and diff mods. My plan is to re-build it with bearings, fix whatever needs fixing, drop a Bolink beetle body on it, and keep it stock right down to the mechanical speed controller. If theres enough interest I might even make a build thread on it.

Looks like the Subaru Brats shell has been disconinued on TamiyaUSA, and some sites say that the kit itself is discontinued or out of stock. Does anyone know if the Brat kit is still in production?

Hello Tamiya Club. I’ve decided to share my first hobby grade RC buggy build, the Tamiya Frog, or Frogs, (see below). I had a Tyco Fast Traxx back in the day and have done quite a bit of building and painting Warhammer minis but for a change of pace (literally) I’ve decided to venture in to the wonderful world of RC. I went ahead and bought myself a Frog (and the misses a Grasshopper, to race against) and set about painting the driver, because to me there seemed to be no point building the car until there’s someone to drive it! I picked up a dark grey King Blackfoot chassis off ebay as it looked nicer than the standard grey one and started building the kit with the bundled Tamiya ESC and a cheap servo/receiver that came as a starter bundle. I didn’t like the extra orange ESC wire not connected to anything and the brown Planet receiver looks awful. I wanted to build as nice a Frog as possible so began looking in to what bits I actually thought would be nice. I'm not really sure if I’m going way over the top or buying the wrong things as I’m just getting to grips with RC stuff. I switched the ESC for the Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 which is way neater than the TBLE-02 and decided on a cool looking black fast response Savox SC-1257 servo and, thinking I might want more buggies in the future, I've ordered a Futaba 3PV with antenna less receiver. These more compact gubbins should fit better in the slightly cramped Frog space frame. I also did a bit of research and found that a quite a few custom parts are available for the ORV chassis vehicles, and although they’re expensive they seemed great for customising your buggy, so I ordered some random parts, a selection of lights off ebay and some other bits and bobs (MIP Ball Diff, faster Motor, etc), and I’m now in the process of trying to finish it all off. When I bought the buggy I also bought a second body because I knew I wanted to paint 2 bodies, so I could have 2 different colours (I like painting things), having bought all these extra bits I seemed to have acquired more than half of another Frog, so in some strange way the idea of building a second Frog came about. So here's where I'm at: The "Alpha Frog" (on the right) is nearly finished but is waiting for the Receiver to arrive along with a UGT Tuned Motor, it also requires a bit more work wiring up the lights and adjusting the steering. The other chassis is project "Blazing Frog", (I swapped my original grey frame for the Monster Beetle one). I'll build the MIP Ball Diff. into the new gearbox, but then I'll swap it into the Alpha Frog, because I'm thinking of going with the AMPRO double wishbone rear suspension on the Blazing Frog, which I believe has a bit of a gearbox brace built in to help keep the standard diff. gears in check? (I can always upgrade to MIP later if it needs it). Painting the first body took me the best part of a week, trimming, masking, making mistakes having to clean it and start over. I’m still not totally happy with how it came out as I missed some specks of dirt when I was cleaning it and dust landed on it between coats, which show up on the yellow, but the stickers covered the worst of it and at least it’s done. The front lights had to be re worked so the wires would go through the body neatly, and I’m working on a mount for a rear brake light. I’ve used as much stainless steel hardware as possible, (I might upgrade to titanium at a later date), the turnbuckles are titanium and I used the Tamiya High Torque servo horn and low friction balls and cups. I’ve added AW-119 detail stainless steel mesh to the sides of the space frame and extensively used 3M dual lock low profile tape to create the semi-permanent attachment for the driver, ESC, Rx, etc. I've ordered a driver, some shocks and wheels for the Blazing Frog and I'm still waiting for a few more bits to arrive before I can do much more on either of these builds. Am I insane? Probably. Feedback is more than welcome. Thanks for looking.

Hey guys, happy to have found this community as I love Tamiya RC and have nobody to discuss it with! I used to race at my local tracks probably ten years ago and just got back into the hobby when I saw they were selling Tamiya buggy re releases. I have an original Frog that I restored back then but I had no idea re release was even a thing! I had to have some so I picked up a Frog and a Hotshot. My questions are about the Frog, what motor do you suggest for the most speed and power without destroying the car? I have upgraded the front suspension as well as the transmission with an MIP Super Ball Bearing Differential and added larger buggy wheels. I wanted to go brushless but I spoke with the guy who helped create this differential and he said even with the upgrade he wouldn't recommend it other than a very mild brushless motor or a 20 turn brushed motor. I am currently running an old Revenge of the Monster Horsepower Stock motor I had from when I used to race and I believe it's a 27 turn. I found a Traxxas 20 turn brushed motor but I'm not sure what would be best. Please let me know your brushless and brushed suggestions as well as gearing for a good all around basher. I will also be upgrading the Hotshot differentials to ball bearing in the future so I will be able to try a few of your suggestions. Thanks in advance!

I am nearly finished on my Frog build and am checking everything over before I add the ESC and battery for a quick indoor test. Not sure what the technical term is, but the amount of free spin you should have in the rear wheels on the Frog has me questioning if I have assembled the gearbox correctly. I have chosen the "speed" gear ratio if this makes a difference. So, if I hand spin the wheels (no power connected, motor in place), they have no free play in them - the wheels move in opposite directions as expected, but they don't spin. I am comparing the amount of free spin in my rear Hornet wheels, which if you spin them by hand, just keep spinning nicely on their own (no power, motor in place). Is this correct? Free hand spin on Hornet wheels last at least 20 seconds, same force used to hand spin Frog wheels lasts not even 1 second, if at all. Many thanks in advance.

Hi Everyone! I just finished a scratch-built Frog and am looking for input on what I should do for modifications. I currently have the 49T x 19T gears in it, a Redback rear sway bar on it, and some LED fitted pod lights. It also has a GoolRC 4370KV motor and a 120W ESC on 2S Lipo. I have a front sway bar on the way and would like to ask everyone for what they would like to see me do to it.

Hi Everyone, I am new to this site, new to RC but having a blast with it. It is extremely addictive. Anyways, I bought a beat up used frog. Hooked my transmitter up to it and it ran fine. Of course, this was not good enough. I purchased many hop ups. I got all new parts for the gearbox, new gears, ball bearings, etc. I built the gearbox. I also got the 2005 Universal Shafts for it. I followed the directions (in fact several times). Without wheels on it, the gears are nice and tight, sounds smooth. Once I put wheels on, I hear a grind. This last time I put it back together, I left the boots off to try to see what is happening. It appears that the Gearbox joints on both sides slide out of the gearbox, just slightly. This is enough to make the swing shaft hit the slot in the gearbox joint everytime it rotates, making a grind noise. Has anyone else run into this? What makes this worse is I got so frustrated with it, I put the original hex shafts back on and now they do this as well. Just so you know, The entire rear end is brand new, including the rear arms. HELP!!! Thanks.

Hi all, A newb here. Been meaning to join for sometime, but now seems to be a perfect time. I’m currently in the process of building out the new Tamiya Frog and having issues with attaching the stock motor with the BB1 30mm screws. The screws go through the gear box and into the two holes in the motor. The holes don’t seem to have a thread and the screws just won’t take and hence the motor is loose. Pretty sure I’ve followed the instructions correctly. Has any other Frog builder had/seen this issue? Would appreciate any advice or tips to fix this. Thanks, Patrick.

Hi there. I have dug out my 30yr old Frog. When I plug in the power, the motor runs at full belt. Can anyone shed any light on what the fault could be. many thanks

this is my first post on the forum and have recently completed my re-re frog and am wandering on a cheap and good upgrade for it (not ballraces please).

Hi everyone. Just a heads up, I have been in contact with Don regarding his .50 caliber customs CNC rear ORV arms, and he is now considering the option of another parts run if there is enough interest. He is going to contact some local machine shops to work out minimum numbers and minimum pricing required and take it from there. Obviously the rear swing arms are the crown jewel item, but other possible parts if it goes ahead are steering blocks, front arms, rear shock mounts, rear body post brace, and motor cover. Some links to show examples of his parts - https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-frog-brat-orv-aluminum-468167415 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-monster-beetle-black-foot-mud-440019891 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-vintage-blackfoot-monster-481068476 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-monster-beetle-black-foot-mud-401325750 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-frog-monster-beetle-blackfoot-132398427 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/tamiya-frog-brat-blackfoot-monster-137667539 https://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp?cid=97760&id=23382 Don's plan once he knows minimum cost and numbers is to start a go fund me page to raise the capital required. He is happy for me to share his email address so any questions can be sent directly to him, but please genuinely interested inquiries only - Don McAtee - mcateedon@gmail.com Lets all support him on this and cross our fingers in the hope that it goes ahead Cheers, Dave.

Evening folks. I have built many cars over the years- and was an avid racer in the 80s. I have 4 Tamiya hornets, 3 Kyosho Ultima 2s, an original Ultima, a Lunchbox and now a re-re Frog that is DRIVING ME CRAZY. I always wanted a Frog as a kid so decided to pull the trigger on one as an adult. Everything seemed to go together great. On the first drive (pavement) it was ALL OVER THE PLACE. Stability was horrible. It was almost like driving without the steering rods connected. I have searched forum after forum and went over the build diagrams ten times. I can't figure out what is wrong. I can't imagine this is normal for a Frog! Is it? I have spent hours looking closely at photos from the web of many different builds. The front end looks exactly like everyone else! Any suggestions? I have bearings throughout and used the Tamiya RC Frog 2005 Assem Univ. Shaft kit to prevent the dog bones from popping out. Any suggestions? Help!

Gearbox for the Monster Beetle, although it should be a direct fit for all ORV cars. The design has been tested hard in my MB, through several vintage events and bashing sessions in all weathers. This eliminates the main problem with the car, the separation of the gearbox sides and destruction of the diff. With this transmission the kit diff will hold up to high powered motors without needing to be upgraded. You can also move the motor to set the pinion mesh and change ratios, viewing the mesh clearly through a polycarbonate window. What's included: - 3mm carbon fibre gearbox sides, CNC cut and engraved - CNC machined billet aluminium gear box structure - CNC machined aluminium motor mount plate - Polycarbonate end cap - All necessary additional fasteners inc. hex socket screws all round - Shipping worldwide £120

http://r.ebay.com/38p1st I found this during my daily EBAY search... What would be the purpose of this??? Are the benefits worth buying this or making one out of spare parts at home??? Thanks, Terry