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Shhhh! Be still. Close your eyes, slow your breathing and cast your collective memories back to those heady days when the young(er) youse (Scottish plural for ‘you’…look it up) were building your first Tamiyas. Remember the excitement of opening that box for the first time and the eager anticipation you felt as your car slowly materialised out of the morass of plastic, metal and electronics? And as you throttled-on for the first time, perhaps in the street outside your parents’ house, experiencing the contentedness of knowing that you had built the masterpiece in front of you? Do you remember? Excellent wasn’t it! Now, open your eyes again before you fall asleep. Well, what follows is my homage to those moments; a celebration of the simpler times by building a simple, honest, grin inducing, rough-around-the-edges but loveable machine. My first Tamiya was a Mud Blaster, so it seems natural to return to the off-road for this build. An ORV would be an obvious choice of course, but perhaps too obvious. If we’re talking about a non-ORV off-road truck then there is only one contender in my mind… one which I so very badly wanted when I was a youngster. Ladies and gentlemen: I present my Midnight Pumpkin build. Courtesy of a generous birthday present from Mr and Mrs Middleagedgrup senior, I just happen to have a nice black edition sitting in my pile of shame waiting to be built. To it, I shall be adding: Tamiya torque tuned motor; GPM Aluminium Hi-torque Servo Saver 25T With Aluminium Tie Rod (GPM LB025TM); GPM Aluminium Front Knuckle Arm (GPM LB021); full bearings; 3D printed rear axle brace; Tamiya CVA Short Shock Set II (50520) x2; and a homemade front shock tower brace. Compared to some of the other mind-boggling and hugely impressive builds on here, the simplicity of what follows will hardly set the world alight, but that’s kind of the point. And if my little bit of mindfulness above has managed to spread a bit of joy to you, dear reader, then I guess that alone justifies this build!