Missing parts

[TexVan]

In general, how common is it for Tamiya RC kits to have missing parts?  I'm building a Hot Shot 2 Blockhead, and I'm missing 4 screws so far.

2 (2x12mm) screw pins.  Can't assemble the second fog lamp.

2 (3x32mm) tapping screws.  Needed for the front suspension.

I'm pretty sure the Hobby shop I go to will have them, but I can only go on weekends.  :(

[OoALEJOoO]

I've built 50+ Tamiya RC kits and never had a missing part, same with Tamiya static kits (built around 70). The few times that I thought I had missing parts (but later found every time), was because:

• I confused bags
• Installed the hardware I thought was missing on the wrong step, then had to disassemble
• Got buried between other parts

On the contrary, after building so many kits & hop-ups, I've amassed a significant pile of extra parts & hardware. This has allowed to build several TT-02 and MF-01X cars just by buying a few spares.

[Mad Ax]

Same as @OoALEJOoO, usually if I can't find a screw it's because I got confused with how the bags are labelled (particularly on big rigs, where there are step-related bags plus generic screw bags), or because I incorrectly used a screw for a later step in an earlier step.  It's an easy one to catch you out.

The only time I genuinely couldn't find a part, it was an entire parts tree in a TT01 MAN truck.  I had previously unboxed the kit and took all the parts out, so for days I was convinced I had taken the missing parts tree out and it had slipped down the back of a chair or something, but after searching and searching and searching it never showed up, even after completely moving out of that room a few years later.

[TexVan]

Well, I did end up finding the tapping screws, but the pins were definitely missing.  I just stole some from my Wild Willy 2.

[Snappy1]

About 5 or 6 times over the years I was sure the kit at the time I was building had parts missing, but it was always my mistake, the parts have always been there

[Otis311]

I as well cannot remember missing parts in any kit I have built. Regardless, if you live in the US, TamiyaUSA would likely provide the parts for you if you email them. Their customer service department has been very responsive in my experience.

[RichieRich]

So missing hardware not parts? Missing parts would be a first.

[Juggular]

I vaguely remember something like a misshapen part before.  I can't remember what it was.  As other members mentioned, it's very rare.  I'm surprised that there aren't collectors of malformed parts like rare coin collectors.  

 

On 4/29/2024 at 2:32 AM, Mad Ax said:

The only time I genuinely couldn't find a part, it was an entire parts tree in a TT01 MAN truck.

It's the Borrowers using the truck shell to live in. There is even a historical nonfiction written about them...  

 

[Twinfan]

I have only ever had one thing missing - a rubber seal for the snap connector on a motor.  It was a silver can and I was replacing it anyway so it made no difference, but it was odd that it made it through the production system.

I have also had one shaft/rod within a GF-01 combined gearbox and chassis that was just a touch oversized in diameter.  A plastic bushing fitted fine but a metal bearing wouldn't go on.  I built the car with a bushing then a couple of months later ordered a replacement shaft as I couldn't live with knowing that I was one bearing short within the kit!  

Oh, and the Pac-Man ghost on my Novafox was either too thick or warped so the screw wouldn't engage with the threads in motor.  I had to swap in a screw 2mm longer.

[Mad Ax]

4 hours ago, Juggular said:

It's the Borrowers using the truck shell to live in.

I'm pretty sure we have those.  We definitely had them in the flat I used to live in.

Back in the mid-to-late-00's I bought an NIB King Blackfoot body, back when they could still be found NIB for not too much money.  I prepped and primed it, but then moved to a flat, so everything got put away.  I unboxed everything at the flat and I'm pretty sure I had the NIB body and the tailgate part at that flat, because I was working on a Reign K2-3S / Stampede / TLT scaler, but when I came to do the final paint on the KBF body, the tailgate was nowhere to be found.  I looked high and low (literally, all my stuff was stored in the loft space, up high, but the rafters were very low, so I was crawling around on my knees).  I never found it.

I figured it would eventually turn up after I moved to my new home a few years later, but after moving in and unboxing everything, it wasn't there.

I sometimes wondered if it fell onto the insulation foam and slipped under a ceiling joist or under some loft boarding.  If so, it's probably still there.

Actually I build a secret little workshop in that loft space.  I screwed a fitted workbench between some diagonal rafters, put a light over it, and in one corner I fully boarded and insulated a section to use for painting.  I had an extractor fan and lights in there, and although I took all that with me, the boards and insulation and power sockets were still there.

I always wondered what the new owners thought of that...

[tamiya3speed]

I have never had any parts missing that I didn’t find later, but once I was assembling an M-04 and one of the holes for the screw pins was missing in the rear.  I never drilled through to see if it was completely solid or not.  Should have kept it, probably worth money!

[Juggular]

On 5/1/2024 at 1:26 PM, Twinfan said:

metal bearing wouldn't go on.  I built the car with a bushing then a couple of months later ordered a replacement shaft as I couldn't live with knowing that I was one bearing short within the kit!  

That happen to me once before. (Might have been the BigWig?)  

I tried many different 1150 bearings purchased from various vendors, and one bearing eventually fit.  The gearbox could have shrunken at different temperature. But apparently not all 1150 bearings were the same size, so it worked out.  

The original Wild Willy has 1 very small bushing, like 640 or something.  I couldn't find a bearing.  6mm bearing with a 4mm hole means the balls had to be smaller than 1mm.  One bearing short has been eating me alive for the past 20 years...

 

[Pizza Frog]

My old rere Hornet wasn't missing any parts but it was missing the thread inside one of the d13 parts,  I know other people have had the same problem.

I had to make a slurry out of glue and plastic to glue the piston shaft into it.  

[GTodd]

The only issue I ever had was one of the cvds for the 801xt werent threaded for the grub screw.  All part trees etc always present. 

[Nick-W]

I was just about to post on here to announce that a 3x8 self-tapper was missing from my second Group C build. But then I started cleaning up! 

I blame my fluffy “helper”