Which Tamiya kits just work?

[TurnipJF]

14 hours ago, JimBear said:

No, I haven't, not yet. Now I know what to expect ... gaaah! *running off, screaming*

So, I guess the answer to the original question is frankly, a big "no". Tamiys models never work. Fact. Done. Now, shall we have some tea, please?

Fortunately the fix is very simple, using some heatshrink tubing on the pushrod to lift it clear of the tub edge. The model is otherwise pretty bomb-proof.

[alvinlwh]

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[TurnipJF]

45 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

What is the meaning of "work as intended"? What is the intention? Who's intentions?

Yours? Mine? Tamiya's?

I suppose if we are considering how Tamiya intended them to work, which seems to be in a manner that encourages the user to go out and spend more money on hop-ups, then they pretty much all work as intended! 😁

45 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Thunder Shot chassis - it works fine as it is out of box. You did mention the weak A5 part, but that is know to fail in a crash, so how about not crashing? It is not advertised as a bumper car after all, and crashing is driver error, no?

In my experience it doesn't take a crash to break an A5. Simply landing a jump is enough to do it, at least with the original plastics. Although @Twinfan points it that the re-release ones are more robust, so maybe you need to crash then to break them? 

[alvinlwh]

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[Nikko85]

I guess there are two ways think about this, which sets just work out the box with zero hop ups needed, and which chassis just work without any "fixes" at all, although of course they could be improved with hop ups?

I'd say the grasshopper, GF01, WR02 all work really well for what they do. Make a GF01 nicely, put greased up bushings in, and give to a kid and no issues at all. These chassis work.

Whereas my MF01x has that rear dogbone issues that really is a design flaw, no matter how you package it.

I was going to out my CW01 in the first list, but then I remembered a)- don't the rear springs that keep the rear axle in check constantly break and b) the body posts break in a way that's not good design either. So I can't say it "just works". I've 3D printed fixes for mine.

I was consider my next purchase and the comical grasshopper has caught my eye - it's around £125 if I get lucky, and comes with motor, ESC and CVA shocks. So if I have to spend a few pounds on a pinion and bearings, it's still pretty good value. A bigger issue would be something like the CC01, where I would have to get the expensive non Tamiya upgrade to allow it to steer properly.

 

 

[alvinlwh]

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[alvinlwh]

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[Tamiyastef]

On 10/7/2023 at 9:09 PM, TurnipJF said:

Bearings?

I ran my Grasshopper and only my Grasshopper BITD for a year of two without bearings. It took the plastic bushings over a year to grind grooves in the front axles.  

[Kowalski86]

2 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

In the spirit of this discussion, I had sometimes came across that screw pins "must" be replaced with stainless steel shafts. So is that a design fault or user error? Point to ponder?

To me they're more of a "nice" hop up, not really essential. On top of not rusting they don't chew into suspension arms each time you install and uninstall them.

That being said, a few of the screw pins on my M05 have their share of rust but they still rotate fine.

[alvinlwh]

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[Grumpy pants]

The Blitzer chassis based models work straight out the box, no dramas or mods 👍

[Kowalski86]

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[toyolien]

For me I'd vote for the XV-02. Used mine a lot with a 10.5t and it's been absolutely faultless. 

[alvinlwh]

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[Howards]

On 10/6/2023 at 7:48 PM, TurnipJF said:

which (if any) kits simply work as intended if built box-stock as per the instructions

DB01 / Durga.  Pretty bomb proof out of the box. You could probably smash a 8.5t brushless and lipo in it and it would mostly be fine. With the R versions you could do that and do some pretty wild jumps on track and it wouldn't flinch.

DN01 was pretty solid OOTB too in the same way. 

[Wooders28]

On 10/7/2023 at 8:13 PM, TurnipJF said:

Isn't the front of the chassis prone to cracking, and the idler gear prone to premature wear?

In bog stock form, they're not that bad tbh.

Slap in anything hotter than a silver can, and you need the rear diff mod and a slipper, you only need to mod the main shaft gear, with low turn brushless and 3s+ lipo.

As a few alrwady said, I'd probably go with the anything on the Grasshopper chassis or the CW-01.

Not going to win races, but their basic (?) design means they're fairly bulletproof (okay, maybe not the hopper battery cover, have you even owned a hopper, if you haven't had the battery dragging behind the car, and had to search for the cover? 😜) 

[Pylon80]

8 hours ago, Tamiyastef said:

I ran my Grasshopper and only my Grasshopper BITD for a year of two without bearings. It took the plastic bushings over a year to grind grooves in the front axles.  

That is how it was done back in the '80's when ball bearings were only made in countries like France or Germany or Japan and people would not seriously consider spending this much to upgrade a GH. Today's world is very different and great quality bearings are available for just a few $. By the way plastic bushing do not rust

[Kowalski86]

31 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Not going to win races, but their basic (?) design means they're fairly bulletproof (okay, maybe not the hopper battery cover, have you even owned a hopper, if you haven't had the battery dragging behind the car, and had to search for the cover? 😜) 

When I owned a Hornet, it took less than 5 runs to loose the battery cover and rip the rear wing off in a rollover (which they do a lot!).

Thankfully, I was able to fix both things just with  some tape.

[SlideWRX]

Any of the first ~100 I would mostly give a pass to; It was early on. Gearbox designs were gonna break, dogbones are gonna pop out. For those early vehicles I'm not even concerned with bushings - as others have said you could run those for a year or so and then upgrade to bearings as they wore out.  It was a cheap solution to the expensive (back in the day) problem of bearings.  With inflation, each bearing would cost around US $10 today! Premium high end ceramic bearings are even cheaper now than regular bearings were back in the day.

Re-releases, however should have addressed it. When bearings got cheap they should have at least put them into the gearboxes, then as they got cheaper put them everywhere. Nothing these days should really come without bearings...Maybe the Grasshopper re-re. Re-res should fix the weak points that became apparent over the years. Reduce the flex or reduce the slop on whatever is loosing dogbones. They don't have to be perfect, just better than before.  Seal the gearboxes better, give them a bit more strength in the weak spots. Anodize the aluminum pinion, or go brass or steel.  Re-res really should consider the market they are re-introduced into - cheaper power, 12mm wheel hexes, square lipo cases, that sort of thing.  They updated to an esc instead of a manual 3 step speed controller, although considering how little else changed, they could at least offer the old speed controller setup as a 'hopup'...maybe with some blue anodizing on it somewhere.

In terms of just working, in isolation each one provides entertainment. Yeah, the bushings 'work'. The friction shocks 'work'. Wooden wheels would work too. Some models are meant to be bouncy as part of their appeal, some are simple for beginners to tackle, some are complex and adjustable for competition, some are meant to be 'the first hit is cheap' in a hopup addiction... To 'just work' partly means a different thing for each model, however no-one wants to loose a dogbone, no-one wants to crack a chassis, no-one wants a shock mount to break off. No-one wants a 'sealed' gearbox shredded with sand, no-one wants to actually try to assemble the three piece Hornet wheels...

 

[Kowalski86]

8 minutes ago, SlideWRX said:

no-one wants to actually try to assemble the three piece Hornet wheels...

In a week or two I'll get to enjoy doing just that! Ordered some old Rough Rider wheels that'll need tires.

I do agree with you on re-res, keep them the same but toss in some bearings, use better plastic (at least on the expensive ones), and try to actually "fix" some of their bigger faults.

It always did bug me how Tamiyas "fix" for the Frog/Brat, was to replace the hex axles with a much more troublesome dogbone setup, and ignore the transmission issues (couldn't toss in a brace or re-design the diff). Oh, and sell it here for far more than other countries (over $200).

The Brat was "fixed" by adding a thin lexan shell for running, however, now there are no decals for the hard body. And the lexan body doesn't even have window masks...

[No Slack]

The kit/chassis that works for me is the TamTech Gear GB01. Slow in standard form but every thing is there. Only a small Sport Tuned motor is needed if you want more speed.

[Nicadraus]

I believe the Astute, Wild One and Frog are nice out-of-the-box kits. They're not perfect but they're more than decent and perform well for how they were designed. I owned and raced the Frog and Astute, while I currently have the Wild One. But of course, I slowly modfied them along the way to make them perform better like bearings, tuned/modified motors, ESC, universal shafts, etc. But as I mentioned, they're still more than decent from a straight build.

[F-150]

My answer is all of them....all of them work as intended. 

I just built an Associated b74.1 and there were a few things to modify or replace. The rear arms didn't quite fit perfect without a bit of trimming and I upgraded the bellcrank to aluminum to take out slop, plus the plastic bulkhead was replaced with aluminum due to it being know to break easily. I have to tell you tho....it drives so smoothly and is awesome. I'm planning to race in some stock spec races this winter on carpet.

Even so, for the money I payed, that car was not perfect out of the box either. Even the ball bearings it came with I was told to replace, cause they suucccckkk. I was told that from racers at this track 

[RallyX]

My M-05 worked just fine bone stock. 

I was going to say that my XV-02 did as well, but then I remembered that I broke the steering bellcrank on the very first day.

[RallyX]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:00 AM, toyolien said:

For me I'd vote for the XV-02. Used mine a lot with a 10.5t and it's been absolutely faultless. 

Are you still running the stock plastic steering parts? Everybody around me who got one broke the steering parts in the first week or two.