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Robert5000

Schumacher Cougar Classic

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6 hours ago, Big Jon said:

Associated/Thunder Tiger molds were lost when several companies were seized while HPI was collapsing.

Correct. I heard that directly from Associated's president on a podcast. Of course, he also said the topic of bringing an original RC10 back pops up nearly weekly IIRC, but hey, why give people what they want? Its not their fault the Worlds Car languished on shelves with transmission problems but now sell for crazy money. I guess incorrectly made parts/questionable QA and stolen molds are just part of the risk you take when you sell out and take your manufacturing overseas chasing the almighty dollar. Bitterness aside, I'm cognizant that it was probably a necessary evil just to survive.

On topic, does Schumacher still produce the actual cars in Northampton? 

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2 hours ago, moffman said:

Yeah he's quite an interesting guy he used to work for the SV section for Ford who were part of the RS division and he was the chief designer in the diff that went I to the Sierra cosworthB) pretty cool? I've seen his son who basically runs schumacher now at quite a few rc racing weekends very nice guy and totally hands on and plenty of time for everyone (very enthusiastic guy)

That is just so cool! And how his entry into RC was making ball diffs for his son in his spare time, and then that sort of took off. 
And it’s amazing that they still develop and manufacture in the UK. 
 

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@Saito2 Associated must’ve gotten burned so bad on the reissue attempts, if I’d had to guess I’d say more so on the Worlds. If not they’d surely do another run of either the RC10 or the Worlds, or another model. 

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3 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Correct. I heard that directly from Associated's president on a podcast. Of course, he also said the topic of bringing an original RC10 back pops up nearly weekly IIRC, but hey, why give people what they want? Its not their fault the Worlds Car languished on shelves with transmission problems but now sell for crazy money. I guess incorrectly made parts/questionable QA and stolen molds are just part of the risk you take when you sell out and take your manufacturing overseas chasing the almighty dollar. Bitterness aside, I'm cognizant that it was probably a necessary evil just to survive.

On topic, does Schumacher still produce the actual cars in Northampton? 

I thought it was a bit strange that something as popular as the original rc10 didn't make a few come backs in different spin off kits? now I know!

As regards to schumacher I've been told two different theories yes everything is in house when it comes to actually producing the kits with tooling etc and I've also been told they contract out the  CNC machining? I would like to think everything is in house looking at the size of the place?

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7 hours ago, Robert5000 said:

@Saito2 Associated must’ve gotten burned so bad on the reissue attempts, if I’d had to guess I’d say more so on the Worlds. If not they’d surely do another run of either the RC10 or the Worlds, or another model. 

They could barely give away the Worlds kits in the end. They were sitting in shops in the USA for a price that was equivalent to £130.

There is no way AE will do another re-re of the RC10 in any of its forms IMO. Have a look in the re-release section of RC10talk.com. It's dead. Even the most dedicated fans of the buggy aren't interested in the re-released versions.

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41 minutes ago, Wandy said:

They could barely give away the Worlds kits in the end. They were sitting in shops in the USA for a price that was equivalent to £130.

There is no way AE will do another re-re of the RC10 in any of its forms IMO. Have a look in the re-release section of RC10talk.com. It's dead. Even the most dedicated fans of the buggy aren't interested in the re-released versions.

They're not talking about probably because they all have one and don't want the crazy prices people are paying for them to tank!;) yeah I remember my local hobby shop at the time had 3 worlds editions in his window for so long the boxes were all faded and he sold them for half price to get rid of them (£70-80 if I remember) 

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I imagine that section of RC10talk went dead because after everybody bought, assembled and showed off theirs, that was the end of it. Any technical questions of other discussions would be handled in other parts of the forum. With a finite number of kits, that forum section was doomed to go dormant. I always thought the RC10 Classic sold well enough. They even "found" some later that AE sold on their site exclusively I believe, Of course the price was over $400 by that time.

I am actually excited about this Cougar though. It might be my first leap into Schumacher.

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On 6/9/2022 at 11:37 PM, moffman said:

The cat xls was indeed the most difficult and frustrating build I've done to date:o! But with my hand on my heart after the build its probably the best rc buggy I've got in my collection:wub: yes its not the most technical which begs the question why was it so difficult to build? I think for a few reasons firstly you had a lot of fettling with parts to make them fit properly yes you could fit and make do but it was a kit that if you put more effort into you would reep the rewards and second I'd never experienced a kit of that type I was just used to tamiya follow the instructions and hay presto a buggy appears schumacher kits are definitely not that so when I built the topcat it was far more easier because I knew what to expect?, I bit of information which I required just after Christmas (literally) I was in my LHS and one of the directors of schumacher was in the shop and I was having a good chat to him about the schumacher classic range and he told me after a bit of friendly banter/persistent asking what was next and he told me but didn't tell me;) cougar classic was next!! And they haven't forgotten about the very first cat which I think is the SWB;)!

20210111_174021.jpg

Which ESC do you have in the Cat, moffman?  I've been trying to fit a 1060 but no dice, it fouls on pretty much everything. Am I hopeless as per usual, or are you running a smaller than regular sized ESC in  yours? 

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11 minutes ago, Robert5000 said:

Which ESC do you have in the Cat, moffman?  I've been trying to fit a 1060 but no dice, it fouls on pretty much everything. Am I hopeless as per usual, or are you running a smaller than regular sized ESC in  yours? 

Trident XT12 it's very slim I've pulled it out of situ!

20220613_204858.jpg

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And this is it in place still very tight though 

20220613_205010.jpg

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Cheers! You're running a shorty lipo as well by the look of it, so I'll do a search for that Trident chap. 
And I have to say -I'll never forgive Schumacher for telling me to mount the undertray so early in the build, and I'll never forgive myself for doing as told, but the Cat build just got better and better! Next time around the undertray will be one of the last things I mount. Can't wait to build a Cougar now! 

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14 minutes ago, Robert5000 said:

Cheers! You're running a shorty lipo as well by the look of it, so I'll do a search for that Trident chap. 
And I have to say -I'll never forgive Schumacher for telling me to mount the undertray so early in the build, and I'll never forgive myself for doing as told, but the Cat build just got better and better! Next time around the undertray will be one of the last things I mount. Can't wait to build a Cougar now! 

Yeah I did exactly the same until right at the end I thought (probably just like you?) "Why did I put that undertray on so early?".....it kept on slicing my fingers nevermind the 3 pairs of hands I needed to keep everything together!

I've used a shorty because it uses less space and even though its 18t turn brushed set up the lipo gives it a good bit of punch and it's very quick!

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9 minutes ago, moffman said:

Yeah I did exactly the same until right at the end I thought (probably just like you?) "Why did I put that undertray on so early?".....it kept on slicing my fingers nevermind the 3 pairs of hands I needed to keep everything together!

I've used a shorty because it uses less space and even though its 18t turn brushed set up the lipo gives it a good bit of punch and it's very quick!

That was my reason for going for a shorty as well. Now I just need to order a small ESC, should probably rebuild the front shocks for the third time in order to try to get them sorted. The back shocks was easy peasy, but I've built the front ones twice, and they're still hard and slow. Building shocks seems like a complete voodoo enterprise to me, sometimes they work, sometimes they just won't behave as intended. And I can't for the life of me understand what it is I do when they work and what I do when they don't work. 

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10 minutes ago, Robert5000 said:

That was my reason for going for a shorty as well. Now I just need to order a small ESC, should probably rebuild the front shocks for the third time in order to try to get them sorted. The back shocks was easy peasy, but I've built the front ones twice, and they're still hard and slow. Building shocks seems like a complete voodoo enterprise to me, sometimes they work, sometimes they just won't behave as intended. And I can't for the life of me understand what it is I do when they work and what I do when they don't work. 

I seriously can't remember how them shocks go together and if I can remember you don't get the choice of piston holes just one hole I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) try just taking a tiny bit of oil out of them I've had shocks in the past that have practically cam locked because the diaphragm can't move up or down properly then I took the tiniest bit of oil out and they've worked fine?

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4 minutes ago, moffman said:

I seriously can't remember how them shocks go together and if I can remember you don't get the choice of piston holes just one hole I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) try just taking a tiny bit of oil out of them I've had shocks in the past that have practically cam locked because the diaphragm can't move up or down properly then I took the tiniest bit of oil out and they've worked fine?

Ah, my go to solution is always to add more oil :D I'll absolutely attempt to remove a little at a time to see if that does the trick. Thanks! 
Oh, and I just emailed Mardave, as it seems the re released Cobra Sport EVO has disappeared from their website. Finishing the CAT has really given me a taste for the british kits. 

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6 minutes ago, Robert5000 said:

Ah, my go to solution is always to add more oil :D I'll absolutely attempt to remove a little at a time to see if that does the trick. Thanks! 
Oh, and I just emailed Mardave, as it seems the re released Cobra Sport EVO has disappeared from their website. Finishing the CAT has really given me a taste for the british kits. 

I'm not familiar with cobra sport evo I'll have to look it up! All I remember about mardave was when me and my cousin used to race at a local school hall club back in the 80s we had in attendance Optima's, rc10s, tamiya hotshots etc etc all at the time supposedly top racing machines and this 2wd mardave meateor that was cheap as anything that my cousin bought and raced left us all for dust week after week:blink:

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13 hours ago, Robert5000 said:

Ah, my go to solution is always to add more oil :D I'll absolutely attempt to remove a little at a time to see if that does the trick. Thanks! 
Oh, and I just emailed Mardave, as it seems the re released Cobra Sport EVO has disappeared from their website. Finishing the CAT has really given me a taste for the british kits. 

The Cobra reres are gone for good apparently due to issues with manufacturing 

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1 hour ago, rwordenjr said:

The Cobra reres are gone for good apparently due to issues with manufacturing 

Yeah, they replied with a "they were discontinued long ago, sorry."  So I was too late to that party, and no Mardave for me. All the more reason to look forward to the Cougar. 

 

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1 hour ago, Robert5000 said:

Yeah, they replied with a "they were discontinued long ago, sorry."  So I was too late to that party, and no Mardave for me. All the more reason to look forward to the Cougar. 

 

Mardave have missed a golden opportunity there? I must admit I'm looking forward to the cougar although is basically a topcat with proper front suspension! I've not ordered one yet hopefully my LHS will reopen shortly so I can begin to catch up with projects that have fallen behind with.

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@moffman, agreed -I thought the Mardave looked really cool, the box as well, so it's a shame they've discontinued it. @rwordenjr's explanation seems reasonable, as it doesn't seem it was available for long, or in any quantities to speak of. 

 

In other news, tamico have opened up for preorders, and I was quick to comply. Will order the pro transmission upgrade so it's ready when the kit arrives. 

 

image.thumb.png.264786c17b803e7f8dcc268ce35e0d22.png

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Will a Cougar 2 body fit on this without any mods?

If so, I actually could be tempted as its a much better looking design than the Cougar 1.

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How have people gone with the build? I’ve had a few Schumacher’s so didn’t find it too bad. Not as easier as a Tamiya but I kind of like that.

The only issues I’ve had is the diff. I did as the instructions said and tightened it fully and then loosen the screw but it’s just spinning now and the diff is loose. I’m hoping I can recover it as I don’t want to buy the whole diff again. Would be just as easy to fit the pro transmission if that’s the case.

Also, this is a bit soft but my fingers are still sore from the turnbuckles 🤣😂

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@Calvino I found the turnbuckles tough until I realised you can use the funky UJ tool thing to help!!

Diff was okay but I couldn’t tighten the belts on the transmission (hope they are ok!!)

Main issues for me has been around fitting everything together correctly (shocks!) and getting the cross hub things into the drive shafts. Mine is currently in bits as I am fitting the wheels on the last step and realised that the hubs aren’t the same! I had an incorrect piece in the drive shaft bags which meant one is shorter than the other. Schumacher customer service are ace and another is on the way this evening.

Enjoyed the build but frustrating in parts. However, this is my first Schumacher kit and perhaps I am just adjusting to the complexity vs my Tamiya kits.

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Also do yourself a favour and buy a kimberworth servo saver. The one in the kit is a nightmare to use. 🤣😂

DF981C23-ADC8-4C37-899E-688593F42C5E.jpeg

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CC67F0B6-EEA4-477E-9AD2-3C0C87D428C4.thumb.jpeg.747c32a05c1667ee295bef90f2c6a38d.jpeg
Finished mine this evening! Loved it in the end and can’t wait to give it a proper run later this week! 

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