Hotshot or Frog?

[alvinlwh 5292]

Planning my next buy. So far, I had shortlisted to the Hotshot or the Frog. Part of the reason is I intend to get the comical version of whichever one I end up with. 

I believe these two are no match for the more modern buggies? I already have a DT-02 and Thunder Dragon BTW. 

Which one will be a better choice? 

[YelloMello 99]

Sorry, but in this case you have to buy both of them.  For me the Frog is the grandfather of all modern buggies and an iconic piece of RC history.
The Hotshot it the mother of all 4WD buggies. I personally cant give a favor. Sooner or later you have to get them both.

Acually I have a NIB ReRe Hotshot waiting to be build. The Frog is hardly available, but if I get my hands on one, I will get it (when I have the money to hand). 

[Frog Jumper 3478]

I have no opinion to offer, but I was reminded of this article…
 

https://tamiyablog.com/2021/09/the-hotshot-4wd-makes-a-new-appearance-in-a-comical-way-building-the-tamiya-58685-comical-hotshot-gf-01cb/

[Gebbly 547]

I suppose an easy question would be would you have more fun with a 2WD or 4WD?

[Juggular 4661]

To run or to worship?  The Hotshot isn't a favorite of mine.  Mono shocks are interesting to build. To run? Not really. It runs almost like it has rubber pads for suspension.  For a shiny shelf, you need a Hotshot.  I cannot say that the Frog looks even remotely as good looking as the hotshot.  

So... if you intend to run I'd recommend the Frog.  Put some sticky grease on the diff, it's fun to drive, even today.  It's not as capable as DT02, but the loosey-goosey fun of the 80s never gets old (for me).  

 

 

[alvinlwh 5292]

47 minutes ago, YelloMello said:

Sorry, but in this case you have to buy both of them.

This very same advice was given here 12 years ago too! 🤣

 

[alvinlwh 5292]

22 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

I suppose an easy question would be would you have more fun with a 2WD or 4WD?

Well, I do enjoy my TD more than the DT-02 but I am a casual basher and a crap driver. So... It is kind of hard to decide. 

[alvinlwh 5292]

22 minutes ago, Juggular said:

To run or to worship?  The Hotshot isn't a favorite of mine.  Mono shocks are interesting to build. To run? Not really. It runs almost like it has rubber pads for suspension.  For a shiny shelf, you need a Hotshot.  I cannot say that the Frog looks even remotely as good looking as the hotshot.  

So... if you intend to run I'd recommend the Frog.  Put some sticky grease on the diff, it's fun to drive, even today.  It's not as capable as DT02, but the loosey-goosey fun of the 80s never gets old (for me).  

To run. All my cars are runners. Looks wise, I actually like the both of them. The Hotshot just looks... HOT in red. The Frog looks ugly but a good ugly... My wife actually prefer the looks of the Frog to the Hotshot. 

The mono shocks are what drew me to the Hotshot, the same reason I got the TD out of all the Dragons, for the front mono shock. 

I will probably go for the Frog, but as advised earlier, probably will eventually get both! 😁

[Bwaaatch 514]

Drove a Hotshot for the first time yesterday. 
 

Drove a Frog for first time today!

My hot take… Frog 🐸

[Willy iine 17939]

Frog is great, but got eaten by a Fox and I was so embarrassed and dissapointed I was traumatized for months.   I ate the same Fox with a HotShot a few months later..  heck I ate most all cars at the time except for the adult buggies like the RC10 with super fast motors. 

I've not built the Comical HS yet.. NIB sits on display..

Anyway either car would be great to have for display.. maybe I will get a Frog again down the road.  

[Saito2 6033]

The Frog was the first "competition" version of the ORV chassis which had all the hop-ups in the kit over the earlier Brat and Lancia on the same chassis. They were much lighter and more sprightly than the SRBs they replaced. That being said, they were somewhat transitionary. They used much more plastic (though not as intricately molded as the Hotshot components) than the SRBs, but also plenty of stamped metal pieces too. The only diecast pieces were the uprights, holdovers from the SRBs. The Frog is light but also very bouncy in stock form. The Fox seems far more composed than the Frog, which seems only a step above the Hornet. Frogs can turn well and have the unique feature of adjustable caster. They are a classic, bouncy early 2wd buggy from Tamiya. Many hop-ups existed for these BITD and they along with the Scorpions were the hot 2wds before the RC10 showed up.

The Hotshot is more of a molded masterpiece of engineering compared to the Frog. Its fully in the "plastic" era and for its time seemed cleverly complex. Its arms are long and slinky compared to the stubby ones on the Frog. They have girth and heft to them which seem to plant them to the track along with the 4wd system. In muddy, sloppy tracks these buggies could take on RC10s (before they separated the classes) as this terrain hampered the 2wds giving the 4wd Hotshot an edge. The drivetrain is rugged and tough, if not the most efficient. The shaft drive is trouble free. It was unlike anything before when it came out.

Performance-wise, the geometry for the mono shocks is all wrong. The front shock is compressed from below its ends which creates an odd, non-linear action that leads to bottoming once the shock passes an over-center point. Tamiya corrected this in the following versions of this buggy with revised mounting points or twin shocks. The rear shock works well as each wheel travels individually, but when the wheels are compressed simultaneously, travel is cut short as the geometry kind of self-defeats. The buggy understeers a good bit and the bumpsteer can be outrageous. I keep stock one around to enjoy its quirks but when upgraded to 4 shocks, the buggy really comes into its own.

On relatively flatter dirt surfaces the Frog is fine, quick and agile. On rugged terrain, the Hotshot is superior. If I had to keep one, it would be the Hotshot, even with its fascinating but wonky suspension. They really were top-of-the-line Tamiya at the time.  

[Nicadraus 5721]

As a Subaru/Frog owner in the 80s and my younger brother had the HS, I'd definitely go with the Frog. As mentioned above, the HS is not fun to run. Lousy with the mono-shocks set up. The Super Hotshot is a different story.

[Gebbly 547]

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Hotshot or the Frog

 

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

I intend to get the comical version of whichever one I end up with

I'm pretty sure I saw a review that said the comical version of the hotshot is NOT a mono-shock. There is a molded piece of plastic on the front that looks like a mono-shock but it is for appearance only.

[alvinlwh 5292]

3 hours ago, Gebbly said:

 

I'm pretty sure I saw a review that said the comical version of the hotshot is NOT a mono-shock. There is a molded piece of plastic on the front that looks like a mono-shock but it is for appearance only.

Yes you are right. I had seen that review too and it makes the car looks strange. At least the comical Frog side fake shocks look like part of the body work. 

 

[alvinlwh 5292]

After consideration, I have decided to go for the Frog pair first. Cheaper to start with, about £300 for the pair. Hotshot (1/10) can come later and I will probably not bother with the comical Hotshot as it looks strange to have 3 shocks on the front. 

[Robert5000 928]

Congratulations on an excellent choice! I've always wanted a Frog, as it looks so magnificently cool, but never gotten round to it. 

[Badcrumble 3926]

Enjoy your builds @alvinlwh, I almost suggested sending you the basket case Frog and Hot Shot I have in the garage awaiting restoration. But that wouldn't be fair - you'll be wanting to enjoy your builds, not slog through my old rubbish!

One 'shot' Hot Shot

 

[alvinlwh 5292]

9 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

Enjoy your builds @alvinlwh, I almost suggested sending you the basket case Frog and Hot Shot I have in the garage awaiting restoration. But that wouldn't be fair - you'll be wanting to enjoy your builds, not slog through my old rubbish!

One 'shot' Hot Shot

 

What do you want for them mate? My wife will be happier if I try to put beat up old crap right then to buy a brand new full price kit because I will "waste" more time to get it right, more bang for the buck. 

Personally, I like to troubleshoot and like the satisfaction of putting something right. 

So if the price is right, I will take one or both off your hands. Drop me a PM if you are interested in off loading them. 

[alvinlwh 5292]

A little update, I ended up getting a Comical Frog as there is a seller on ebay offering it at nearly £20 cheaper than anywhere else. Even at Fusion, with the 10% discount, a Frog will cost £26 more than this, for a different body. However, I still intend to get a Frog sometime and perhaps the Hotshot as well. 

[Frankster 1892]

On 7/11/2022 at 5:17 AM, YelloMello said:

Sorry, but in this case you have to buy both of them.  For me the Frog is the grandfather of all modern buggies and an iconic piece of RC history.
The Hotshot it the mother of all 4WD buggies. I personally cant give a favor. Sooner or later you have to get them both.

Acually I have a NIB ReRe Hotshot waiting to be build. The Frog is hardly available, but if I get my hands on one, I will get it (when I have the money to hand). 

Fully agree with this statement.  But hotshot should be close to your Thunder Dragon… get the Frog first as your intro into the ORV chassis

[alvinlwh 5292]

35 minutes ago, Frankster said:

Fully agree with this statement.  But hotshot should be close to your Thunder Dragon… get the Frog first as your intro into the ORV chassis

Yeap! That's what I end up getting. 

[WillyChang 1809]

Frog is best variant of ORV for a runner. 

Hotshot is probably the worst runner of its family  only iconic because it was the first. Best runner with Hotshot genes/drivetrain is with the Boomerang tub, then maybe the Pigwig. 

[Frankster 1892]

5 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Frog is best variant of ORV for a runner. 

Hotshot is probably the worst runner of its family  only iconic because it was the first. Best runner with Hotshot genes/drivetrain is with the Boomerang tub, then maybe the Pigwig. 

I like Monster Beetle for the ORV chassis…. Proper dampers with iconic Beetle body makes it a classic 

[alvinlwh 5292]

Started with the building yesterday and some observations. 

The age of the kit really shows. 

The molding machine is pretty worn, lots of flashing, rough edges and injection marks. Very much like a 80s Panther tank I built. If I received a static model in this condition today, it will go straight out the window. 

It has to be the most tricky build I had since the M-06. For example, some nuts of the front suspension cannot be accessed using the standard Tamiya "t" wrench requiring a long nose pliers. This was originally planned for my wife's first build and I am glad I didn't go ahead with that plan. 

The "flow" is pretty bad, all 4 screw bags had to be opened by step 2 or 3. Further more there are screws and other metal fittings in other bags? 

As some of you mentioned, this is a great intro the ORV chassis, I think it also has the "bonus" of giving me the feeling of "BITD" (the oldest I had built so far was just a Lunchbox). Not difficult but somewhat challenging and different from the usual Tamiya "shake and bake". 

So here it is, after an evening's work, finishing at step 6.

[Frog Jumper 3478]

Yeah…. Bitd the Frog shared parts bags with the Brat etc so you ended up with extra bits….