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Hi everyone, just received my new Optima Mid Kit and already looking for some tuning parts which I want to accomodate right from the beginning. I havent opened the kit yet (its sitting at home and I am on a business trip at the moment) and I have some hard time to follow the instructions about some option parts. The carbon and aluminium parts are clear. 1-S34010HT: These are five M4 Titanium screws that go into the front gear housing, holding the top plate, right (manual step 33)? Why was that an option part at all? I would unterstand a Titanium screw kit for the entire kit, but changing only two screws? Or do I miss something? BRG007F: Am I right in the assumption that these go into the steering link (manual step 23)? So purchasing OTW143 should already have both included? BRG002: Also manual step 23. I assume they replace part OT267/5. But why would I need four of these bearings? Or is it just the fact that they are only sold as a kit consisting of four? UTW008: These are only two more options between medium and hard for the back dampers, right? OTW125B: They are out of stock everywhere I looked. Does anyone know if they were discontinued? OTW135: Does the Optima Mid have front stablizers? Or does this set only mount to the back of the car? EDIT: Okay my mistake, this set is for both front and rear. UM516: What is the advantage these slipper pads give compared to the standard kit ones? W0201H: Again, whats the advantage of these? Lighter? More durable? LA43H/R: Is this a stronger plastic component compared to the kit one? Would you use them only in combination with with W0201H balls? I must say, I find that despite the Optima Mid was such an asked model from the RC community, there is barely and information on the 2022 re-release...

Kyosho Lazer ZX Sport with Alfa Romeo 155 body for rally. VIDEO:

Hi all, my good friend is toying with the idea of selling his kyosho 1/10 Ford sierra rs500 cosworth, and has asked me to get some insight on what its worth, it is brand new and boxed, with all parts still sealed. I'm into tamiya and haven't ventured into kyosho yet, so didn't want to misinform him. Thanks

Hey guys. If you can believe it, this is my first build thread. I figured I would start a couple since I literally do not have any spare time with full-time work, full-time school and a wife + 2 teen daughters. This way, I have an excuse for slow updates. So this car is a Kyosho Outrage which is a cheap-o Ultima and it actually belongs to my little brother. It was his first r/c car and he has no time to do any restorations since he also works full time but has like 47 kids. I had started doing a bit of a restoration years ago. I replaced the suspension arms, gear case and added some weird purple shock towers I had found. One of the huge issues is that the chassis is cracked in three places. I finally have a replacement chassis plus some other nos parts. So, this will go back to ALMOST stock with some performance updates. The shocks are AE gold shocks which may stay. I have not decided. I do have some period correct Duratrax gold shocks but they leak like a sieve and I think my brother may actually want to drive this since his boys are getting close to the age for driving r/c cars. Also, it's kinda dusty.

So I always wanted a Optima Mid actually since back in the days. Even dough I can remember that I never understood the others how they could consider anything else than Tamiya. But this car is such an awsome buggy, it got the right look and some very nice decals. That said, my Optima Mid is no looker, but I hope I can turn it into an nice survivor car. I have disassembled the car, so that i can wash all the parts. I have already bought a new body (TBG) and decals (MCI Racing). I guess I could just have painted and applied decals to a new body and added some new tires, and this one would have looked stunning on the shelf, but I can’t just get myself to take such an short cut.

Hi, a dream came true when I finally bought the Kyosho Optima Mid Kit. This kit will be for display only and I have a couple of designs I am thinking of for the body work. Unfortunately, cutting and painting lexan bodies isn't my biggest strenght. If anyone could offer the service for me, I am more than willing to pay for it. I was thinking to send the body with decals via parcel service. Since I live in Germany, anything within Europe would be my preferred option. Of course I would pay for the colors, masking tapes, the service as well as the parcel costs for re-sending it to me and other materials that are needed. Thanks

So my second restoration leading into 2022 will be this. The 1/8 scale 4281 Kyosho Porsche 959. This one was purchased from Yahoo Japan and finally (after some real help from a Japanese friend) arrived with me this week. I paid £111 for what you see below. Kyosho teamed up with Hobao on this kit and it was a very limited and expensive issue. The chassis is basically a Hobao Pirate with Kyosho adding front and rear bumpers, exhaust system, wheels and the body. The other thing about them is that parts are almost impossible to find, they are very rare. Also, Kyosho never listed the kit in its product catalogs, I have them all for the period and it isn't listed. I have three in the collection including this black one and have been collecting any parts I have seen for about three years. I have the sum total of about 5 parts bags!! These are the other two So the eagle eyed will notice that the rear wing is missing on the black one. Originally the bumper and wing were cut out from lexan together as this photo from the manual shows. However, over time the rear wing has gone. Now Kyosho only issued the complete body set and as they are selling for approx £500 and are rare that's a non starter. The solution will be to try and 3D print a new one and affix it. I'm hopeful that I know a man that can help there! However, if anyone has one lying around please get in touch!! The other plus point is that the cars of this era generally use very generic hardware and lots of restorable metal parts. This means for example a 3mm cap screw can be replaced with generic hardware and I don't have to hunt out unobtainable Kyosho bags. That said I will have to restore as much as I can due to low availability of the parts. The chassis will be stripped and cleaned and then each piece restored to get me where I need to get to. The chassis plate and rear bumper being metal will probably be blasted and then repainted in matt black. Once this is done I can reassemble on the fly. The alloys on these are actually metal and thankfully the tyres dont appear to be glued. Once clean I will carefully assess them and see whats best. Blast, repaint etc etc. Lastly the car has no engine. No big deal as I can source something appropriate for her. The kit manual calls for an OS 21 size engine so should be able to get one. Maybe a long term one this but stay tuned. One last picture to give you an idea of the size of this thing!! Its big, that a 1/10 mini shell.

At some point, my passion in all things Lancia 037 resulted in me acquiring two of Hasegawa's Lancia 037 model kits in 1:24 scale. I elected for the models of the 1984 Tour de Corse Rally car and the 1994 JGTC entrant at Fuji Speedway, with the latter piquing my interest and the former following for comparison between the Group B racers and the one that found its way to Japan. The "Other Makes" relevance came some time later, as my intermittent love affair with small-scale RC cars had me on the lookout for a Kyosho Mini-Z. However, in my research, I found information on a less expensive alternative: the WLToys K989 1:28 RC car, which shares a few components with the better-known Mini-Z lineup: Several body styles exist; I opted for this Ken Block-inspired rally car. There was an ulterior motive, however! I also owned a Tamtech 1:24 scale RC car, specifically the BMW GTP. It was one of my flings with small-scale RC cars; while I enjoyed it, parts were too difficult to find and the car was a bit too powerful for my purposes. My attention began turning to the possibility of mechanizing one of my Lancia 037 models, in the same fashion as Tamiya's early RC offerings being "models suitable for radio control." The reason I considered the Mini-Z and then the K989 was because I had measured the wheelbase of the 037 shell, and initially measured it at around 98 mm, with a width of around 72 mm. Several types of Mini-Z share these dimensions, and compellingly, so did the K989. I went ahead with the order for a WLToys K989, in a bid to make a project on a budget. I had heard of WLToys before, but was quick to dismiss their offerings. The K989 was a bit different: here was a 1:28-or-so-scale RC car with a genuine metal double-deck chassis and a JST-plug-equipped servo, and true proportional steering and throttle. The car also had full ball bearings, front and rear differentials, and the ability to change wheelbase length (albeit between two settings: 98 mm and 102 mm). It came ready to run at less than $100 CAD, which was a fair bit cheaper than a genuine Kyosho Mini-Z. Sure enough, the first thing that I did to it was remove the bodywork, and size it up next to the 1:24 scale Lancia 037 shell. Incidentally, 98 mm was a bit too short, but extending the chassis to its longer 102 mm wheelbase resulted in a perfect fit: Lots of promise here - I was pleasantly surprised to find that the width was essentially spot-on, with narrow knobbed rally tires completing the look: The other candidate for this project was a Kawada M24 Tripmate; however, those use much of the same technology as the Tamtech series, and are also hard to find. The WLToys K989 is a bit more modern, as you can see here: I chopped the stock body posts to get an idea where the 037 shell would sit for a proper stance: In anticipation, I purchased a Tamiya Mini 4WD motor in the event I should want to swap out the stock 130-type motor for something more powerful There are plenty of projects to be found involving the K989 and 1:24 scale models, which was reassuring. It does beg the question, though: are these 1:28 RC cars really true to their advertised scale? Although the 037 was a small car, if I remember correctly... With the chassis established, it was time to do some scale model building!

Alright! 2nd build post. In the box with lots of shelf wear is an unbuilt Kyosho Ultima RB5. It was for sale at a local shop. The box was opened and several of the parts bags had also been opened. I was able to make a deal and upon a more detailed inspection at home, it was only missing the rear chassis plate. That's the part that connects the transmission to the main chassis. I guess someone opened the box and only removed that part. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The only modification I'll make is adding the Lunsford turnbuckle set. The RB5 in the picture is my original RB5 that I bought back in 2007.

I've had this Turbo Optima Mid SE for probably 15 years. It had a bent chassis and several missing parts. Thankfully, it still had the things that made it an SE including the platinum shocks, silver plated wheels and original Le Mans 240ST. It came with the body which was in bad shape and painted red. The chassis has been replaced along with the other missing bits. I've added the Kyosho turnbuckle set which is weirdly included with the Mid but not the Mid SE. I've ordered a replacement mid body from Kyosho and some SE decals from MCI. I'll post some pics of the finished product. But first, anyone have an idea on the yellow that matches the box art? I'm assuming it's the yellow from the Kyosho polyca paint series though it appears that it might be a little orange-y. I'm not totally sure since I do not own the original box. Also, I do own the belt covers, they are just not installed.

Hello, Hope you are all doing well. So as you might have seen in a previous topic of mine, I wanted to get into RC nitro as a hobby to do with my son. And since I am on my fourties’ and always wanted a nitro RC as a kid, now I want nitro and not electric. I have since pulled the trigger on an old Tamiya TGS nitro that looked really clean and in good condition. I am yet to receive it as it is still in transit. But today, I came across a local advertisement for a Kyosho Inferno Neo ST 3.0 Nitro. The car as complete, looked in good condition, came with a few spares and looked like a car with good specs. And I remember the Name Inferno as it was the TT buggy to have when I was a kid. It looks like a car with good materials, build quality and specs from the little I managed to google. But when I went to see the car and negotiated on 50 euros for the whole thing, I got it right there on the spot. Big impulse buy as I know little to nothing about it, but for 50, I just couldn’t pass it up. Now i am kind of needing your help and some guidance on what to do next. I have attached some pictures I took of the car when I got home with it so you can tell me what you think about it. first thing I am going to try and download the manual and read it. Then I’ll see what to do next, but maybe get some nitro fuel and try to start it. Thank you for your help. And here it actually starts my RC Nitro adventure!

I've finally acquired an F1 GTR longtail body, it's 280mm wheelbase and 220mm wide. * I bought it without a chassis or a plan. Or the knowledge that it wasn't a standard dimension touring car. I just noticed there seems to be two versions of the shell, one includes the roof inlet extension - as pictured with Gulf and Lark livery here. The other appears to be a different mold with no extension, I have the latter. It also appears that the former is a 200mm, wide 260mm wheelbase body. Also note the wing is different. like these:http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=93307&sid=24222 http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=86246&sid=28462 I'd like to make a brushless version on a modern brushless chassis. The closest fit I've found initially is the Redcat Pagani Huyara. It's 210mm wide and 277mm in wheelbase. That seems to be a good fit. The width will easily be used by dished/staggered wheels. I have some reservations about Redcat, but they don't seem to have a dwindling part supply or anything. Anyone have experiences with them? But this gets me thinking, perhaps there's a 1/8th or 1/9th scale brushless chassis that could be downsized easily? Maybe even a Tamiya? *if anyone has the decal set unused, I'd love a scan. or a parts tree for the wing/mirrors/etc.

Does anybody remember playing Ace trumps/ Top trumps / Quartet trumps games in his childhood? I loved them and had created my own card set with drawings I made of the dream cars; kyosho optimas, tamiya hotshot, ayk viper, etc. Now that I modeled most of them, I decided to recreate a new set with my own pack of illustrations I made for my Artbook. If you want to play with your friends again, just order the card game and have fun! https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/optimahouse 32 cards, full color, poker size Contains: Kyosho Optima & Optima Mids series AYK Sidewinder, Buffalo, Bobcat, Viper, Radiant Mugen Bulldog Hirobo Zerda Yokomo YZ834B Dogfighter Marui Hunter, Galaxy and Samurai All the iconography is original © 2021 Optima House All rights reserved Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any remarks for improvement!

I've picked up a banged up original Ultima with the intention of getting it back on the road but it is missing a few bits. Most seem to be available on the rere. Tyres, radio plate, roll cage are the main things but it is missing some gears and the shafts they sit on. Does anyone know if the gears off the re-release wil fit the old version? They look very different but if they fit the old mounting plate positions it might work? I'm planning on keeping the original diff if possible? Cheers

So as ever I usually have around 8 or 9 projects on the go. As the David Jun TNX and the Kyosho Turbo Burns near completion I have been wondering which kits to do next. I picked this up from Japan recently and thought it would be good to do next. The Pajero along with the Citroen ZX is one of the rarer nitro cars from this family. Most people would of heard about the RS200 and the Peugeot 405. I have an RS200 to restore and I have already done the 405. The Citroen ZX body I have just needs a chassis. So the Pajero has a badly cracked body, to bad for me to want to use it so I have used some body tape to hold it together and it will get sold off. The Pajero does look good though The chassis is pretty much complete but needs some love Having looked it over there are a few plastic parts missing and I have already ordered them, mainly some mounts, the aerial holder etc. The parts aren't too rusty and I am hoping I can recover the tyres and wheels with some care. A few plastic parts are bent (body mounts) but they should straighten up. Most parts from these chassis are still available in the Kyosho FD- range. I already have a new body so that will be painted for this restoration by @jonboy1 The engine on this is the Kyosho GS-11R and it is seized solid. Its also missing the carb but that was easy enough to find. The rest of the engine restoration will be documented. Next steps will be to strip the car down, time to get dirty again!

**** SOLD *****

Years ago, I restored my Turbo Optima. It's a combination of NOS parts including an Option House belt drive conversion and some solid used parts. I used an RCScrewz set also. At the time, I couldn't find a body so I used an Associated ProTech body. It came out rather nice. In order to get the body on, I used a CRP shock tower and made some body mounts from Tamiya parts. Thankfully, it's all reversible and I can reinstall the original shock tower. Since Kyosho has rereleased the Turbo Optima, I purchased a new body set, wheels and motor guard. In my excitement, I already installed the wheels. Now, the goal is to paint the body box art, reinstall the original shock tower and install the motor guard.

Knowing next to nothing about Kyosho except that I love their re releases I need some of your collective wisdom. I've been fascinated by the Gallop Mk2 for years and I currently have a NIB on its way to me. What I'd like to do is to use it as a vintage racer. Is this feasible? I'm not looking to be competitive on any scale, I'm just after enjoyment. Will any parts from the re released Optima or Turbo Optima fit the Gallop, or am I destined to pour money into ebay when something inevitably breaks? Any insight or wild guess is highly appreciated!

For sale are parts I had in a box that I dont need anymore, nothing special really but could be of use maybe to somebody. for some parts I cant really identify them I know only from who they are made but not the model of car. Thank you for looking. 1. Tamiya DT01 stock kit dampers 90s - 9€ 2. Tamiya Lunchbox stock kit dampers - 8€ 3. Tamiya Lunchbox stock kit dampers unbuild - sold 4. Tamiya Lunchbox stock kit wheelie bar, little use - 5€ 5. Aluminium Chrome oil Dampers 2x 90mm - 14€ 6. Plastic oil dampers 2x 85mm - 10€ 7. Plastic damper 1x 90mm - 3€ 8. Carson Touring dampers 2x 62mm with original Carson springs - 12€ 9. Tamiya DT02 parts tree (bodymounts etc) - 4€ 10. HPI touring car dampers for parts repair - 5€ 11. Tamiya DF02 servo holder reciever tray and upper arms steering link - 3€ 12. Front bumper mounts Tamiya / Carson 2€ each 13. Drive shafts 61mm 4x good 2x bent - 6€ 14. drive shafts 58mm 2x - 4€ 15. Tamiya TT01 spur 61T 2x - 3€ 16. 72T spur 32P - 3€ thats it for now, will update once I find more. ask for shipping.

Hi guys, I know there aren't many Shadows around, and I was wondering if I should get rid of mine to buy something different. I always thought it's a beautiful car from the Kyosho late eighties golden era, the body is actually pretty nice, an interesting mix of Kyosho bodies, and decals are pretty nice too. The car is in good shape, it's not pristine NIB, there are the normal scratches below, some small 2mm cracks in the body here and there.. Ot-66's are in a decent shape too.. the job paint is bad but as it's just one color it just needs more paint.. I recently cleaned and put new oil in the dampes which are working perfectly.. Unfortunately I don't have the original box anymore. What do you guys think? Is it worth selling? Any idea on how much could I get for it ball park? Thanks! PS: Hope I am not breaking any forum rule with this.. I am not selling it yet.

Here’s a little trick stand I made using LEGO. It’ll keep from developing a flat spot due to all the weight of the bike resting on the front tire when sitting on your shelf for a prolonged period.

Hi all, My next documented restoration thread takes me away from Tamiya. As you all probably know I mainly collect Tamiya nitro however now and again I tend to drift towards other makes. In this instance Kyosho. The Turbo Burns came to me from Ebay UK. I paid £46 for it delivered in this condition: Obviously missing a body, it has the wrong wing (its not an Inferno either) and covered in muck. First thing I have done with it is to jetwash the whole thing. Now that seems harsh but in actual fact it will be fully stripped, the RC gear will be scrapped anyway and the motor will be fully serviced. Other than that there is nothing that will get damaged. So jet wash done I am left with this to look over: She is complete all bar the body, wing and air filter pretty much. Bodies are available as repro items along with the wing and decal set and the filter I think I already have. Wheels and tyres will be a challenge but we will see what happens. The car is fitted with a nice period Mondial motor and I will try and restore that. It isn't seized so that's a good start. Some of the metal components are showing signs of rust and that awful jubilee clip exhaust tube will be going. It has some nice aftermarket shocks fitted, hopefully these will clean up well. The rear arm threaded bars I already have new. Chassis plate has a few marks but confident these should sand/polish out. I may replace it if I find a new one because I'm not a fan of extra drilled holes and this has a couple. All in all though a good starting basis. More to follow soon when I strip her down.

I need to vent for a moment. I've spent way too much time lately looking for 0.8mod pinions for use in Tamiya and Kyosho vintage cars. Seems most manufacturers group 0.8mod with 32p calling them "the same". They are close. Very close in fact, but THEY ARE NOT EXACTLY THE SAME. And when you are talking about mechanical tolerances measured in 0.1mm variances, it makes a difference. You can have PERFECT gear mesh between the pinion and spur, but if they are not the exact same gear pitch, you will have extra noise and extra wear compared to when both gears are the exact same pitch. 32p = 0.7938mod 0.8mod = 31.75p Practically speaking, DOES THIS MATTER? For the most part, no it doesn't. You can use 32p pinions with 0.8mod spurs and not have any trouble. Many, many people will attest to this, including racers that really push their cars. I'm sure there will be replies this post confirming that using 32p with 0.8mod spurs is perfectly fine. But, if you categorize yourself as a perfectionist, anal, or autistic, it will bother you that you are mixing 32p with 0.8mod. It bothers me. I won't say which category I fall into. I wish manufacturers were honest and factual when representing their products. If the pinion is machined as 32p, say so. It if is machined as 0.8mod, say so. Do not say 32p/0.8mod. It is false advertising. The math proves this. It cannot be both at the same time. The machining setup required to grind the gear teeth is different between 32p and 0.8mod. It is one, or the other. From my research it looks like the choices for true 0.8mod pinions for 1/8" shaft motors are few and far between: You can buy the butter-soft Tamiya aluminum stock pinions. Too many to list, but they are cheap at least. But you risk stripping out the spur once the pinion has worn down enough. If you keep track of wear, you can avoid spur damage in most cases. These do not last very long as most of us on this forum know. That's why switching to a steel pinion is one of the most common recommendations to make to someone that asks "I'm about to build ______. What hop-ups should I add to my car?" You can buy the Tamiya steel pinions: Tamiya 54628 Steel Pinion 17T 0.8mod Tamiya 54629 Steel Pinion 19T 0.8mod But as you can see, there are only 17T and 19T choices. You can buy Kyosho vintage pinions: W-5009 - Hard Pinion 9T 0.8mod W-5010 - Hard Pinion 10T 0.8mod W-5011 - Hard Pinion 11T 0.8mod OT-23 - Aluminum Pinion 12T 0.8mod OT-50 - Aluminum Pinion 13T 0.8mod OT-51 - Aluminum Pinion 14T 0.8mod OT-24 - Aluminum Pinion 15T 0.8mod OT-52 - Aluminum Pinion 16T 0.8mod OT-53 - Aluminum Pinion 17T 0.8mod UM-24 - Aluminum Pinion 19T 0.8mod Since these are vintage, they are usually a bit more expensive and harder to find. And the aluminum ones are butter-soft like Tamiya stock so you don't want them anyway. You can buy the Carson steel pinions: 500013400 - Steel Pinion 10T 0.8mod 500013401 - Steel Pinion 11T 0.8mod 500013403 - Steel Pinion 13T 0.8mod 500013439 - Steel Pinion 14T 0.8mod <--- Yes, part # is correct. 500013404 appears to be some Audi Quattro S1 1/10 scale body. 500013405 - Steel Pinion 15T 0.8mod 500013406 - Steel Pinion 16T 0.8mod 500013407 - Steel Pinion 17T 0.8mod 500013408 - Steel Pinion 18T 0.8mod 500013409 - Steel Pinion 19T 0.8mod For 5mm motor shafts, Robinson Racing makes some high carbon steel 0.8mod pinions. Their website is broken, so you can't see the part numbers for them and I don't care enough to look it up somewhere else because I don't use 5mm motor shafts. So far I have not been successful in finding any Chinese manufacturers of 0.8mod pinions for 1/8" motor shafts. I've just placed a ridiculous order ($$$) with Tony's Tamiya Parts for Carson 0.8mod pinions because there is literally no other choice, which is rather frustrating. I live in the USA, so Carson is generally not available here except through sellers like Tony's. Thanks for listening to my rant. I feel a little bit better.

Any idea why the optima platform sounds like a fighting cat? It feels quite different to any other car.. highly pitched I would say. Is it because of the chain? Does the belt version sound any different? Deeply trascendental question, I am aware

Hey! First of all I must confess I am a Kyosho person, so apologies in first place :) When I was 17 I bought a Kyosho Shadow 4WD which I discovered resting at my parent's place and after some cleaning and new electronics is still working pretty good, it's not a high end car, but still pretty capable for having fun. Now fully immersed on my midlife crisis, I am considering getting one of the 2WD legendary series car. I can't afford all of them ( meaning my wife would kill me ) so I need some advice on which might be the best for me. I like the Tomahawk the most, I find it a gorgeous car and love the platform better than the scorpion one, I've seen also that in Japan there's a bunch of people using it for classic racing. My next choice would be the beetle, I just love the way it looks, and finally I am considering the Turbo Scorpion. Nowadays it's almost impossible getting the first two, so I am considering getting the Turbo Scorpion, which is also a beautiful car, easier to drive, better shocks, and with more evolving options and parts as far as I know. Questions: Might both the Tomahawk or Beetle bodies be easily fitted into the Turbo Scorpion chassis? I really like the TS body but if I can get a Tomahawk or Beetle body and swap it sometimes, it could be fun. What do you think? Can't find any specific info on that, but I've seen this kind of things in Japanese pictures, even using on other platforms like Tamiya DT03. What about wheels? I know the TS uses regular 2,2" rims with hex fitting, but could I try the TH or Beetle ones on it? And final question, Do you guys think the Shadow 4WD might be worth selling? Thanks!