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Mokei Kagaku

Initial production never run Grasshopper for peanuts

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Won an auction tonight for a never completed and obviously never run Grasshopper, but it's incomplete and the stickers poorly applied on an unpainted body.

Who cares?!?! :P It's an initial production Grasshopper with all the small peculiarities and flaws that were corrected after just a couple of months after release! And I paid less than half the price of a re-re for it. I feel lucky!

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s-l1600 (13).jpg

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56 minutes ago, Mokei Kagaku said:

It's an initial production Grasshopper with all the small peculiarities and flaws that were corrected after just a couple of months after release!

Great find!

Can you educate us on the things Tamiya corrected after the first production runs?

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14 hours ago, bavee said:

Great find!

Can you educate us on the things Tamiya corrected after the first production runs?

I intend to make a comparison with the later production original release Grasshopper as soon as I receive the one I bought tonight. To be honest, I don't think I can list all differences from the top of my head.However, but a few are easy:

1. When the Grasshopper was first released, the Hornet was still in the pipeline, so the initial production Grasshopper has chassis tub marked "Off Roader" and not "Hornet", and doesn't have the hole for the front body post. The Grasshopper/Off Roader chassis tub as a spare part was available for only a short time, being replaced by the Hornet chassis tub for both the Grasshopper and Hornet. Initial production Grasshoppers that have survived typically have had the original tub replaced with a Hornet tub decades ago. Original tubs in good or like new condition are very rare.

2. The initial production Grasshopper was prone to broken "axle tubes"; ie. the axle tubes would break off from the gear box pretty easily. Tamiya improved the design for later production.

3. For some reason I still can't imagine, the initial production Grasshopper came without battery connector on the MSC. The buyer thus had the choice between 6V and 7.2V connector explained in the manual, but as the typical Grasshopper buyer would be a novice, I honestly think it was pretty stupid to leave the task of fitting a connector to the buyer.

4. The initial AND early production Grasshopper came without bullet connectors for the motor and MSC.

5. Intial production Grasshopper came without protective "cage" for the resistor. 

6. A change that was made relatively late was including a 850 bronze bushing for the spur gear as the initial (and early?) use of the black 850 plastic bushing caused many ruined gear boxes. I can't remember exactly when that change was made, but I clearly remember the bronze bushing being provided in a separate plastic bag (in the kit) with a small instruction sheet explaining how to use the bronze bushing instead of the plastic bushing as according to the manual. In the later revised manual, the bronze bushing is covered. Also, the part itself was packed with other parts and not separately. 

7. Initial AND early production Grasshopper MSC's included a fuse. Later omitted.

I've probably forgotten a few details.

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2 hours ago, bavee said:

things Tamiya corrected after the first production runs?

I seem to remember the early version using a different connector on the speed controller for the old 6V battery pack that was later changed to the standard Tamiya/Molex connector we're more familiar with today to allow use for 7.2v packs. 

Original Grasshoppers used black plastic bushings off of the gearbox sprue (I think) and not the separated white nylon bushings we commonly think of in Tamiya kits. The small 850 bushing was also black plastic and not the minimally bronze bushing used in that spot today. Unlike the re-res, the chassis was capable of handling 6V flat and 7.2v flat packs as well as 7.2v hump packs. 

I seem to recall somewhere along the line, Tamiya beefed up or reinforced the axle tubes molded on the gearbox halves to reduce cracking

 

Ah, @Mokei Kagaku beat me to it. He was more thorough and correct anyway;) 

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1 minute ago, Saito2 said:

@Mokei Kagaku, did the early versions use black ball connectors too?

Yes, but that was changed to white relatively late. I don't remember when the change happened, but unlike many of the changes mentioned by you and me, also later (than initial) production Grasshoppers came with black ball connectors.

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9 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

I seem to remember the early version using a different connector on the speed controller for the old 6V battery pack that was later changed to the standard Tamiya/Molex connector we're more familiar with today to allow use for 7.2v packs. 

Exactly. Initial production Grasshopper came without connector, early production got the 6V connector and late production the 7.2V connector. 

Similarly; initial production Grasshopper wihout resistor cage, early production with resistor cage as a separate part mounted with a screw to the resistor plate, late production with installed cage held with folded tabs.

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On 6/28/2022 at 10:05 PM, NWarty said:

@Mokei Kagaku

Talk to me about the wheels. Are those sprayed silver?

Yes, they are just sprayed, probably decades ago. The auction included several more photos and in one of them, it's visible how nuts and screws also have been sprayed. I need to replace them with unused original wheels I have. The model hasn't arrived yet, but I've already dug out the parts that can be identified as missing from the auction photos. 

I'm also excited to get the included initial production Grasshopper manual. I didn't care to get one "back then" and it's one of relatively few manuals I don't have. 

 

s-l1600 (13).jpg

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Interesting! I got my original Grasshopper in July of '86, which was what, two years into the production run? It had a 6V connector and a screw-on cage over the resistor, and I seem to recall the supplementary sheet for the bronze bushing. I know it used the black bushings from the parts trees for the others. And I swear I remember having to drill a hole for a front body mount when I replaced the original body with a Parma Stinger body.

I guess it's possible that some old parts found their way into slightly later kits? Or my kit sat on a warehouse shelf for a year or more before I bought it? That seems unlikely, since these things were selling like hotcakes in the mid-80s.

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19 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Interesting! I got my original Grasshopper in July of '86, which was what, two years into the production run? It had a 6V connector and a screw-on cage over the resistor, and I seem to recall the supplementary sheet for the bronze bushing. I know it used the black bushings from the parts trees for the others. And I swear I remember having to drill a hole for a front body mount when I replaced the original body with a Parma Stinger body.

I guess it's possible that some old parts found their way into slightly later kits? Or my kit sat on a warehouse shelf for a year or more before I bought it? That seems unlikely, since these things were selling like hotcakes in the mid-80s.

Of course I don't know anything about Tamiya's or MRC's (back then) logistics, but as you also indicate, the Grasshopper sold very well. Also, (storage) space is expensive in Japan, so I think it's rather likely that Tamiya, MRC and US hobbyshops had depleted their stocks of initial production Grasshoppers long before you got your Grasshopper in 1986.  I generally don't support the conception that allows a Tamiya model to be clearly categorized as Mk. I, Mk. II etc. depending on when they were manufactured in the model's production lifespan. After all, rather than having distinct irreversible break points, Tamiya generally tends to do running changes, which sometimes aren't even in chronological order. With this in mind, I reckon that there may have existed more than one variation of each that can be referred to as "initial" and "early" production Grasshopper.  Furthermore, I reckon that if Tamiya for some reason had Grasshopper tubs in stock after principally having replaced it with Hornet tubs in the Grasshopper kit and after the release of the Hornet tub as the spare part for both the Grasshopper and Hornet, there's really only two things they could have done with them; 1. scrap them or 2. include them in Grasshopper kits, of which option 2 makes by far the most sense in my humble opinion.

So, as your Grasshopper came with a 6V connector, resistor cage and Grasshopper tub, it seems pretty clear that your kit wasn't from initial production, but probably of early early :P production and that MRC and/or the shop had it in stock for an unusual long time before you got it. I don't remember when the MSC in the Grasshopper kit got the 7.2V connector, BEC plug and bullet connectors, but probably a bit later than 1986.  If I recall correctly, the colour changes of the MSC and resistor plate happened even later. I wonder how many different versions of the Grasshopper kit that ever existed, not counting the re-re? Definitely more than three.

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