A stroke of Genius

[Busdriver]

As much as I love hard bodies and particularly Tamiya ones but I have to say again especially Tamiya ones the quality of Polycarbonate bodies are amazing . Not only the quality but also the fact that being painted on the inside protects the paint finish it’s a genius idea for RC cars. Question is who was the genius??? Was it Tamiya or someone else?

[Saito2]

8 minutes ago, Busdriver said:

Was it Tamiya or someone else?

Polycarbonate bodies existed well before Tamiya. Many of Tamiya's first RC cars were all amazingly detailed hard bodies borrowed from their 1/12th model car line. IIRC the first Tamiya's Porsche 934 used the model's body as a way to spread out the high cost of developing the model kit (they bought and disassembled a 1:1 Porsche to do it).

[87lc2]

Good question, I have no clue   I know my first RC (RC10) was a lexan body, but I'm sure there were some before even that.

I just wanted to comment that I love lexan bodies.  Don't get me wrong, hard bodies are very cool for crawlers and scale vehicles, but poly bodies are much easier to paint and have look perfect with minimal work.  I also mostly run monster trucks and the 1:1s have fiberglass bodies so the lexan bodies are actually pretty realistic for modern race trucks.  

[markbt73]

Lexan bodies started out with slot cars in the '60s. I don't know who did it first, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was Parma or someone like that.

[SupraChrgd82]

1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

Lexan bodies started out with slot cars in the '60s. I don't know who did it first, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was Parma or someone like that.

Hmmmmmm. That’s an astute observation.  Many early RC’s resemble scaled up versions of slot cars with similar mechanical attributes.  

[Busdriver]

1 minute ago, SupraChrgd82 said:

Hmmmmmm. That’s an astute observation.  Many early RC’s resemble scaled up versions of slot cars with similar mechanical attributes.  

Good point. A friend of mine still has his old slot cars from the 70’s and they are lexan on a pan type chassis 

[SuperChamp82]

@markbt73 is spot on - lexan bodies started with slots … with the first being released in the US around 1965 I think  ? 🤔

Japan noted (then improved) almost all innovation back then  - and, as far as I know, Tamiya beat Kyosho, Parma and Mardave to upscale lexan to RC ?

Their first was the tricky VW Golf in 1981.

Tamiya then beat everyone else to lexan detail with the first blown mould Porsche 959 - which put ambition above rigour to be fair …

@Saito2 is also spot on - hard bodies existed well before RC … with the earliest being a bulky, US model train in the late 50s from memory ?

Tamiya was then the first to realise static shells could be easily motorised - then controlled - in 1976 … with the first run Porsche 934 / 58001 bodies being white statics because the green RC wasn’t ready 

Edai, Otaki, Kyosho and others quickly followed by 1979 but it’s always nice to be first past the post 👍

[GeeWings]

1 hour ago, SuperChamp82 said:

ambition above rigour 

That's a great line and one Tamiya could almost have as their tagline

[markbt73]

Associated's price list for the 1/8 scale RC1 lists Lexan bodies available as far back as 1972. I'm pretty sure Parma and Bolink were making them in the mid-70s as well. Tamiya was actually late to the Lexan party.

https://www.associatedelectrics.com/teamassociated/cars_and_trucks/RC1/RC1/pictures_videos/