Ultra 4WD Buggies!

[FromageTheDog 65]

6 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

As re releases go, I can't think of any to add.

But, vintage 4wd's on my wishlist include PB mini mustang (one came up on Facebook the other day ,for £200.....🤔), Kyosho Rocky and a Tenth Teck Predator X10.

One I've got, which I love, is a resto modded LWB Mid (started life as a Mid Custom). Fit a modern slipper and they lap up modern electrics, but not sure how it'll compare to the Modern Mid to land very shortly....

Predator X10 is definitely interesting!  The laydown front shocks and ultra-low profile look mean as all get out.

I'd forgotten about the Rocky (and Turbo Rocky, for that matter).  The reverse-rotation chain definitely stands out...  Along those lines, Kyosho also made the Shadow, which was interesting in being their only shaft-driven 4x4 (albeit in 1/10 scale).

In theory I have a Turbo Mid with the LWB conversion from my childhood that's somewhere in my parent's attic, but I haven't seen it in decades and fear it got lost in one of their moves...

[FromageTheDog 65]

4 hours ago, Willy iine said:

@FromageTheDog I decided that my interpretation of Tamiya's ultimate buggies are Hotshot, Avante, and Egress.

I shall have my Hotshot later in the week to decorate my pretend RC shop. 

Holy smokes, that's awesome!  Love the hump pack; haven't seen one of those in forever!

I probably should have bought an Egress when I had the chance; the Avante was my white whale, so after I got that I kind of stopped paying attention to that lineage.  I regret it now -- Egress is a beauty, especially when the two are paired up like that.

[Willy iine 18805]

9 minutes ago, FromageTheDog said:

Holy smokes, that's awesome!  Love the hump pack; haven't seen one of those in forever!

I probably should have bought an Egress when I had the chance; the Avante was my white whale, so after I got that I kind of stopped paying attention to that lineage.  I regret it now -- Egress is a beauty, especially when the two are paired up like that.

Thanks man, I’m really not a buggy guy, but these two are just beautiful together as you said and I could not resist.

 

[GeeWings 2830]

There are two for me... The Hotshot and Egress.

I only got back in to Tamiya recently and my first purchase was an Egress. It was introduced just as I was leaving the hobby the first time around. The Avante was the last car I got to drive back then (thanks to my older brother buying one) but then the Egress came along but was way too much money for me to even consider. 

When I got back in to Tamiya last year I knew this was the buggy I wanted.  

It really is so good to drive and it was amazing to build. In fact it was my first solo build as all the cars I used as a kid were shared with my brothers who did most of the building. I loved the engineering but not the box-art so after some discussions with my son we took our design cue from the Cat...

 

In the 80's my eldest brother had a Hoshot which he hopped up (to something close to the Supershot) and eventually built a custom chassis plate for.  It looked incredible and the handling felt light-years ahead of the Grasshoppers and Hornets that came before it.

As a bit of nostalgia I recently picked-up a Hotshot that I plan to hop-up little too. The custom chassis plates are some way off though

Here's mine, ready for a strip down and rebuild:

So these two are the pinnacle of 4WD for me. The Hotshot because it was the best thing I drove way back when and the Egress because it was the unattainable which some 30+ years later was finally mine!

Actually there is a bonus third which tops both of them, at least emotionally... The Boomerang.
When my brother moved out of the family home he gifted me a slightly beat-up, hopped-up Boomerang. I adored it and ran it in to the ground. I keep nearly buying one now but I'm still hoping my original is sitting in my Dad's loft. Problem is I live in Oz, he lives in France and the loft is in his flat in London  It never drove as well as the Hotshot which had been so well put together and tweaked to perfection but I loved it!

 

[bRIBEGuy 3044]

On 3/2/2022 at 3:47 PM, Willy iine said:

 

I shall have my Hotshot later in the week to decorate my pretend RC shop. 

@Willy iine That setup is beautiful!  Love the Willy figure by the beetles!

What bug body is that on the (assumed) GF01?

[Willy iine 18805]

2 hours ago, bRIBEGuy said:

@Willy iine That setup is beautiful!  Love the Willy figure by the beetles!

What bug body is that on the (assumed) GF01?

Thanks!  Yes, the left one in the back is on a GF01.  I cut about 60mm off the Sand Scorcher body and glued it together.   It was taken from an idea @JennyMo came up with a while back.   

This is another one I did off a Blitzer body.. you can sort of see where I joined the pieces together.  

Ended up with this..

[Willy iine 18805]

Finished the HotShot so here are mine.. the three 4WD buggies from Tamiya that are most important and iconic.. well, to me atleast.  

[FromageTheDog 65]

Here's my contribution -- will be a trio whenever the Optima Mid is released.

Envious of your gold Hot Shot rims!  By the time I got mine, they'd reverted to the plain white plastic...

[Willy iine 18805]

3 hours ago, FromageTheDog said:

Here's my contribution -- will be a trio whenever the Optima Mid is released.

Envious of your gold Hot Shot rims!  By the time I got mine, they'd reverted to the plain white plastic...

Thanks, I spent like $70 on the gold wheels.   Silly yes, but I just had to have them.  

[paullyjay 182]

Hotshot was always my dream 4WD buggy - I've just recently finished building my new Re-Re Super HotShot... The only other 4WD buggy I lusted after was the Marui Ninja...

My SHotShot:

Marui Ninja:

[DaveBuildsRC 210]

Any of the Kyosho optima’s are my fav.

[Willy iine 18805]

3 hours ago, DaveBuildsRC said:

Any of the Kyosho optima’s are my fav.

[moffman 5752]

On 2/19/2022 at 12:57 AM, Willy iine said:

Is Avante the ultimate Tamiya buggy or the Egress?  Because I thought I read the Egress was the modified version of the Avante so in essence Egress > Avante, no?

(I could be wrong, I'm not much of a buggy guy so..)

The avante I think is the ultimate tamiya buggy (purely my opinion only) and yes it was way over engineered which in turn was its Achilles heel together with over weight (a bit chubby on the metal parts) so definitely the egress was the better out the two for racing but the avante is just so all over a stunning looking buggy! Putting that to one side and going on the personal ultra buggy and a lot of you guys will probably think "really" my ultra choice has to be the boomerang! Because I had the most racing success with my boomerang! Believe it or not back in the day it seen Optimas, hotshots including super hotshots and ninjas and all the others for dust the only rc buggy that would be a challenge to my humble boomerang (with the hotshot hp suspension set on it) was the gold pan rc10! So you could say the best ultra 4wd buggy is the 2wd team associated rc10 classic? 

[FromageTheDog 65]

21 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Beauty!  Mine is set up with the chain -- mostly since I was curious what it sounded like...  Shelf queen now.

[FromageTheDog 65]

16 hours ago, moffman said:

The avante I think is the ultimate tamiya buggy (purely my opinion only) and yes it was way over engineered which in turn was its Achilles heel together with over weight (a bit chubby on the metal parts) so definitely the egress was the better out the two for racing but the avante is just so all over a stunning looking buggy! Putting that to one side and going on the personal ultra buggy and a lot of you guys will probably think "really" my ultra choice has to be the boomerang! Because I had the most racing success with my boomerang! Believe it or not back in the day it seen Optimas, hotshots including super hotshots and ninjas and all the others for dust the only rc buggy that would be a challenge to my humble boomerang (with the hotshot hp suspension set on it) was the gold pan rc10! So you could say the best ultra 4wd buggy is the 2wd team associated rc10 classic? 

Agreed on all points...and the RC10 is legendary...but not 4WD.

But you submitted photos of your Boomerang, so all is forgiven!  

[Willy iine 18805]

17 minutes ago, FromageTheDog said:

Beauty!  Mine is set up with the chain -- mostly since I was curious what it sounded like...  Shelf queen now.

Thanks!  Yeah, mine is also setup with chains.  I am running a SportTuned motor and it just seems so slow because the car handles so well.   I think I should get a hotter motor for it.  

[moffman 5752]

6 hours ago, FromageTheDog said:

Agreed on all points...and the RC10 is legendary...but not 4WD.

But you submitted photos of your Boomerang, so all is forgiven!  

What I remember is no matter what I did to my boomerang even entered into the modified class (remember this was back in the late 80s!) So I had 8.4v and technigold motor that rc10 was just such a sorted chassis it always sticks in my mind how good it was! Mind you in my defence I was a zitty teenager with a weekend job to pay for my hobby the guy who owned the rc10 was a lot older than me and an electrician that owned his own business that hired out industrial sowing machines to the then booming rag trade! And turned up every Friday night in his Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI or Ford Sierra XR4i and parked it next to my BMX.................I wasn't bitter

[moffman 5752]

On 5/14/2022 at 5:33 AM, Willy iine said:

That javelin is absolutely gorgeous top job! Brushless?

[Willy iine 18805]

2 hours ago, moffman said:

That javelin is absolutely gorgeous top job! Brushless?

Thanks!   This is just running a SportsTuned at the moment, but I may change to SuperStockBZ like the others.  

[Kol__ 3377]

On 3/7/2022 at 7:42 PM, Willy iine said:

Thanks!  Yes, the left one in the back is on a GF01.  I cut about 60mm off the Sand Scorcher body and glued it together.   It was taken from an idea @JennyMo came up with a while back.   

This is another one I did off a Blitzer body.. you can sort of see where I joined the pieces together.  

Ended up with this..

Ah I had no idea that's what it took to get these shortened versions, I know next to nothing about the GF-01. Top work mate!

I've been thinking it might be cool to lower the roof on a hard body such as the Blitzer, like they do in chop shops in the US. Not sure how doable it would be on a 1/10th abs body, but looking at these shortened bodies I guess it could be done.

[Willy iine 18805]

1 hour ago, Kol__ said:

Ah I had no idea that's what it took to get these shortened versions, I know next to nothing about the GF-01. Top work mate!

I've been thinking it might be cool to lower the roof on a hard body such as the Blitzer, like they do in chop shops in the US. Not sure how doable it would be on a 1/10th abs body, but looking at these shortened bodies I guess it could be done.

Thanks, yes, it just takes some patience to do, but basically anything is possible on hard shells, I believe.  GL with the project if you decide to move forward with it!!  

[Saito2 6686]

1 hour ago, Kol__ said:

I've been thinking it might be cool to lower the roof on a hard body such as the Blitzer, like they do in chop shops in the US. Not sure how doable it would be on a 1/10th abs body, but looking at these shortened bodies I guess it could be done.

Having participated in doing the real deal on a 1:1, it helps to have a hole in the roof i.e. big sun roof or rag top. As length is taken out of the pillars to bring the roof down, the roof technically needs stretched in all dimensions to line the pillars back up. A big ol' hole in the roof makes this easier since you're not saddled trying to stretch/recreate the whole curvature of a rounded roof like a VW's.

[Kol__ 3377]

3 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Thanks, yes, it just takes some patience to do, but basically anything is possible on hard shells, I believe.  GL with the project if you decide to move forward with it!!  

Ah I see, I guess you cut just before the windows dropped at each end to keep the same height where the windows meet again when put back together? The process must've been a bit nerve racking!

2 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Having participated in doing the real deal on a 1:1, it helps to have a hole in the roof i.e. big sun roof or rag top. As length is taken out of the pillars to bring the roof down, the roof technically needs stretched in all dimensions to line the pillars back up. A big ol' hole in the roof makes this easier since you're not saddled trying to stretch/recreate the whole curvature of a rounded roof like a VW's.

Ah yes I see, so you would cut the top off and remove some height, and then have to cut it in half to meet the A pillars etc. again and then patch it all up

[Willy iine 18805]

@Kol__ The basic idea is what you mentioned, however I used heat to bend the roof just aft of the a-pillar to match the height, and also cut out the center of roof to match the width with the front section.  

Considering I restore used M38 bodies with cracked off fenders and such, this is a actually a tad bit easier as I get to decide where to cut.. and the cut is as clean as my ability allows so it is within my control. 

This is just after the initial gluing process.  From here it’s all putty and sanding/shaping. 

[94eg! 834]

For me the ultimate vintage 4wd is the Avante. It was a unique moment in RC history when the the leader in RC aesthetic attempted to enter the RC competition market through sheer engineering will power.  The result was a one-of-a-kind blend of new ideas wrapped up in an out of this world form factor. This will never be duplicated.

 

But......if you want a track weapon, also get yourself a DB-01 or a TRF501 (or later). Even a well worn used example will blow you away with the level of control and smooth handling.