How do you write?

[Wrc action]

heres one that puzzles me. whats the correct notation for tamiya chassis?

is it for example TB01, TB-01 or TB 01 all seem to be used but which ones correct?

regards Ryck

[mr_pushrod]

Well according to Tamiya it would be TB-01 judging by the system they have used for these new items;

http://tamiya.com/english/news/news0606/news1.htm#58373

[Wrc action]

yeah but whislt its TT-01 its also TA05 - so dam ambiguous hence the confusion lol.

regards Ryck

[mr_pushrod]

Very true and also very odd.... I prefer them with the dash anyway, makes things a little clearer IMO.

[Wrc action]

I use the dash - its clearer and more logical + its looks better. sub consciously Tb-01. the mind sees Tb as a line assciating it with other shaft drive cars TB-02, TB-03 and then the 01 as a version.

regards Ryck

[HunterZero]

Doesn't matter to me how they're written, easy enough to understand either way (although I usually include the dash). Most do seem to have the dash, except as you say for the TA05.

It's a bit odd that Tamiya changed the TA line from shaft to belt drive, then resumed the shaft drive line with the TB series. Would have been a bit nicer to have TB for Touring - Belt.

Similar to how DT seems to be for Two wheel drive, and DF is for Four wheel drive. No idea what the D is, or what TL and TT would be.

As it is, it doesn't look like there hasn't been much consistency in their chassis naming method other than two letters, two numbers.

Wonder what the TA-09/TA09 will be like? []

- James

[DJTheo]

Yes, it all seems very inconsistent, seems that for TA, F, FF, TG, TRF and TL they don't use a dash, while for all others they do. http://tamiya.com/english/rc/manuals.htm But it could be said that the ones without dashes are older existing series, so maybe at sometime they turned to dashes but didn't want to change the older name series as this would cause problems/inconsistiencies in their (and their sellers) databases?

Cheers

[Mad Ax]

I personally don't consider it to be that important.

If I'm searching on eblag or whatever I'll search DF03 DF-03 DF 03 for example...

[Wrc action]

Yeah i search with all the variations I can think of - just thought it'd make a nice topic to discuss. I mean CC-01 does that imply that there could be a CC-02 and the cc meaning cross country?

regards Ryck

[DJTheo]

Both correct, actually before the Touareg the chassis was called just XC (x=cross c=country), so maybe a CC-02 will come one day, or will it be the F350? Only time will tell...

Cheers

[Tamiya King]

Yeah, it is confusing as some have dashes and some don't. But when looking for stuff on eBay, I always try all of them and some people are kind enough to list their stuff with all ways of typing it in the header.

[Hibernaculum]

I've got to say....

I just read a thread like this, and I laugh. Does no one else suspect how ridiculous it is to name everything with initials?

Back in the old days, everything had a real name. Imaginative names, for imaginative minds. That was the foundation of this hobby.

Now, just look at the madness on the link Theo posted.

TA04-R, TA04-SS, TT-01, DT-01, TG10, TGS, TL-01, TB-01.....

The badword?

Tamiya will get little sympathy from me on this. They started down this road in the 1990s, slowly casting aside most of their colourful Anime undertones, and began copying the bland American R/C style of kit naming, or rather, chassis naming.

Perhaps this was all inevitable. Maybe the need for performance parts identification gave Tamiya no choice, so that in this computer age we may all behave like machines ourselves, identifying our cars like mindless drones muttering barcodes, all in the quest to eek out further tenths or hundredths in performance....

But no matter how creative the...er...acronym, none of this will ever be as fun, nor as memorable in the minds of the grassroots audience - kids - as giving cars fun names that stir the imagination.

Which is probably my point. R/C was once the sole domain of children, and their equally fun-focussed grown-up counterparts. Racing meant finding mates with cars and going to the park.

Nowadays, it's more like a science - something that must be critically analysed, discussed and  debated - and not by children at school, but by adults on the internet. These acronyms were not intended for kids. Kids will have a hard time remembering any of this. But kids aren't really where the market is. Toy cars are a lot more serious now. We must debate performance, analyse compounds, and speak in a foreign language consisting of letters, numbers and hyphens.

I'm not criticising anyone here. I'm just tossing a line in....casting a different angle. I suspect that every new hobby goes this way eventually. Things get bigger, better, faster, and/or more serious. The model train hobby is notorious for it's cardigan-wearing enthusiasts, meeting in basements and trawling the net for missing carriage bogeys for the 44211, all for the purpose of reliving a childhood love of.....something, although they're no longer sure of exactly what it was.

And so - the products evolve to reflect the needs of the buyers.

But so often I wonder if, in some small way, it destroys what we grew up loving.

So that's all I wanted to say []. Just swinging through this thread on a vine []....

Back to your regularly scheduled discussion....

cheers,

H.

[Wrc action]

I see where u come from Hibernaculum that as our hobby gets more and more technical and serious that the fun we joint it for disappears. I found this with my last hobby warhammer - started of just a bit of fun but then rule changes and updates all the time made it more serious and as thus it lost its appeal.

I refer to most of my cars nt by the chassis but by the shell's. I am conscious of keeping away from racing and getting all nerdy with tenths of a second for thats what u do at work and school, constantly look for those extra marks in a test or bit of performance in your solution at work.

However i don't have an issue with tamiya labeling chassis e.g. TT01 and TL01 for ease of identification - who else could you describe  TT01 "ahh its that one with the ..... style arms" or whatever. For the shell and image of the car are what makes its appeal - perhaps being 16 I never had named cars so haven't experianced these imaginative names that you speek of but i stil refer to my TA05 as my merc or c class not my TA05 tourer for a personal matter as I chose my c class shell - its what makes it unique to me.

Regards Ryck

[Tamiya King]

I've got to say....

I just read a thread like this, and I laugh. Does no one else suspect how ridiculous it is to name everything with initials?

Back in the old days, everything had a real name. Imaginative names, for imaginative minds. That was the foundation of this hobby.

If you think about it, real cars are about the same, just not quite as bad. But a lot of real cars are going to numbers and letters rather than names. Funny huh?

[Jcbiker]

I just do anyting i feel like, as any of them is recognised as the same chassis..

[Wrc action]

indeed - but different combiantions of the same car always come up with diff results. I get over double the results using one version of TB01 to the other TB-01. That must show something about commen perception of the way its to written

regards Ryck

[rajicon]

Hibernaculum, I too prefer a name. But I also think that it is near

impossible to find a name that is half decent. Lets face it, with cars

(automobiles that is) the names are usually quite lame. And in Japan

they seem to be even worse (granted that English is not their native

language, yet they still choose to use it for the naming).

What the badword is a Wingdom? Or even a Lupin?

[mr_pushrod]

I think chassis codes are vital, it makes buying spares, hopping up and

generally talking about a car so much easier. It must be remembered

that many Tamiya cars still do have names such as the Desert Gator and

Double Blaze so this tradition hasn't been lost. As Rajicon suggests, we should be glad Tamiya don't take after some of the Japanese car makers and start using really weird names. Would you want a Tamiya Bongo Friendee, Cedric, Toppo BJ or Cuore Avanzato TR-XX R4?

[Wrc action]

yeah - thank God that we don't have names for our cars like lamos and picanto. At leadt tamiya uses manly words like impact and dark for there models.

rajicon - I thought Lupin was a character from harry potter or am i showing my age? lol

regards Ryck