Its not a Blackfoot

[Saito2]

I dunno. It looks like a Blackfoot. It said Blackfoot on the nice, new re-release box. Somehow, it didn't feel like the old crumbling original 'Foot it replaced. No, it was the different grill that a certain group collectively lost their minds over when the Blackfoot re-release hit the scene years back. It wasn't the lack of legit sponsor stickers either. 

I think it was/is the shocks. Tamiya saw fit to upgrade the new version with black oil filled CVA 2 shocks. A nice addition on the surface. But when it comes down to it, those oil filled shocks take it away from the feeling of an old-school BF and move it a notch closer to being a Monster Beetle. Its kinda like the Grasshopper/Hornet corundum. A 540 added to a Grasshopper moves it closer to being a Hornet. In the old days we thought nothing of upgrading. Today, where upgrading these old designs for better performance might not be as crucial (there's better performing platforms everywhere and top performance isn't the point of a re-release anyway) these upgrades can take away some personality. Is this an anti-upgrade post? Nah. RC is always about doing what ya like. For me, with both a Monster Beetle and Blackfoot in the fleet, I think I'll put on some friction shocks and relive the feeling of a more stock Blackfoot.

[TurnipJF]

It must be a Blackfoot. It says "Blackfoot" on the side!  

[JimBear]

Perhaps it is a Black Foot, this one?

Yes, I see your point - sometimes hot new stuff isn't needed. I had no idea that the Blackfoot had pogo sticks, always thought it was a Monster Beetle truck version. 

[Mouc-RC]

Fully understand

I'd even say that the front suspension is better working with pogo's. The geometry isn't that great anyway...

My favorite front susp. for an ORV is the Frog one, with the springs inside the chassis. Did that mod on my re-re BF, was very happy seeing it "soaking the bumps" !

[OCD]

When the 12-year-old me was presented with the choice of a Mud Blaster with the friction shocks or the Monster Beetle with the yellow plastic CVA's for a bit more $, I opted for the Mud Blaster because I knew I'd be hopping it up, and that was a big part of the appeal for me. Ended up learning the hard way that none of those hop ups really improved the chassis materially anyhow. Which was the style at the time 

[Juggular]

I love how some of the old suspensions work.  Namely Wild Willy 1, and XR311.  So bouncy. 

Especially since Tamiya's suspension became wooden after that. 

For about 40 years, Tamiya put oil to freeze the springs; not to work with the spring.  I just left out oil from the front shocks of M-06.  On average, I'd say only 1 out of 10 chassis had a decent suspension setup.  The nail head pistons for the re-issued Blackfoot are horrendous. I had to file the edges of the head to allow easier movement of oil. 

The yellow plastic shocks were usable, after drilling more holes on the pistons.    

I preferred the undampened Grasshopper over the Hornet... until I learned to cut about 5mm of the spring off the Hornet on the front. 

I did whatever was necessary to make them more supple.  

Tamiya's suspension becoming good is quite a recent phenomenon.  Compared to all that, there is simple fun in undampened springs.  

 

[Saito2]

4 hours ago, Juggular said:

For about 40 years, Tamiya put oil to freeze the springs; not to work with the spring. 

I agree. In a lot of cases, Tamiya's stock set-up seems very over damped.

Conversely, in the case of an original stock Blackfoot with its friction shocks, one can see the front springs really working up and down. The Monster Beetle's over-damped front end skates over the top of bumps (made even worse by the Monster Beetle's lighter body). So would altering the MB's pistons take away from its character now because that makes it more like a Blackfoot? lol. Now I'm splitting hairs. At least the dampening in the original MB (I hate the new nail head pistons) is meant to be adjustable. 

[JeffSpicoli]

Personally I hate the plastic oil filled shocks.  When I was a kid, the only shocks I remember being plastic were just plain shocks.    To upgrade to oil filled, you also got an aluminum shock body.   To me what's the point of using plastic oil filled shocks?   They're cheap crap.

My childhood Blackfoot I bought had gold Kyosho oil filled shocks on it when I bought it, and it handled pretty well.   So I don't even know what a Blackfoot feels like with crappy stock shocks.

I would just upgrade them.

[TurnipJF]

23 minutes ago, JeffSpicoli said:

Personally I hate the plastic oil filled shocks.  When I was a kid, the only shocks I remember being plastic were just plain shocks.    To upgrade to oil filled, you also got an aluminum shock body.   To me what's the point of using plastic oil filled shocks?   They're cheap crap.

My childhood Blackfoot I bought had gold Kyosho oil filled shocks on it when I bought it, and it handled pretty well.   So I don't even know what a Blackfoot feels like with crappy stock shocks.

I would just upgrade them.

My experience has been the complete opposite. I have come across many poor quality alloy oil shocks, but Tamiya's CVAs have always worked. They don't look all that awesome, but they seldom leak or jam, and assuming that you have the right oil, springs and pistons for the application, they do their job well. Can't say the same of most alloy shocks at the same price point.

[MadAnt]

1 hour ago, JeffSpicoli said:

Personally I hate the plastic oil filled shocks.  When I was a kid, the only shocks I remember being plastic were just plain shocks.    To upgrade to oil filled, you also got an aluminum shock body.   To me what's the point of using plastic oil filled shocks?   They're cheap crap.

My childhood Blackfoot I bought had gold Kyosho oil filled shocks on it when I bought it, and it handled pretty well.   So I don't even know what a Blackfoot feels like with crappy stock shocks.

I would just upgrade them.

Tamiya CVAs are usually fine depending on the use case. Most of the popular RC cars come with plastic oil filled shocks and FYI, they work as intended. I agree with @TurnipJF, there are poor quality Aluminum shocks, they are cheap and alot of people would assume it's an upgrade when in reality it's a downgrade and a waste of money.

[El Gecko]

20 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

My experience has been the complete opposite. I have come across many poor quality alloy oil shocks, but Tamiya's CVAs have always worked. They don't look all that awesome, but they seldom leak or jam, and assuming that you have the right oil, springs and pistons for the application, they do their job well. Can't say the same of most alloy shocks at the same price point.

I don't know, I have 3 sets of super budget alloy shocks from 3 different unknown manufacturers, and they all seem to work more smoothly and consistently than any of my plastic shocks, whether they have oil in them or not. The plastic shocks just seem to flex too much IMHO, and are impossible to use with clamp-type shock collars. If you tighten the collar too much, it restricts the movement of the piston inside the shock. That was one of the reasons we upgraded to alloy back in the day: it's much easier to tune spring rates with shock collars instead of replacing the whole spring.