Tamiya Promo Vids

[Karmann]

Is it just me?

They have this power that makes me want models i never even liked

I think its the music and the guys voice, they could probably sell me anything!

I think i'd better stop watching them before i spend even more money.

Anyway, where were they shown? They seem to vary in length between 30 secs and 4-5 mins. Were they just shown in model shops etc or were they on TV?

[akemag]

Youre right about that. Theres cars i dont really like that much, that in the videos make me go on Ebay looking for one right away!

[ryanbored]

Youtube is good, before you know It it's way past your bed time and you have no modelling done! You do have to sift through alot of 'junk' before finding the something relevant, and don't look at the "related" vids bar on the right, as I find myself so easily distracted!

Maybe we could get them hosted on TC with a pinned link?!

[Malakite]

Youre right about that. Theres cars i dont really like that much, that in the videos make me go on Ebay looking for one right away!

Hi, I notice you have an avatar of the Monster Beetle! Is that the original one or have you purchased it? I am excited about the Hornet and Lunchbox being re-released, and am keeping my fingers crossed that the same will happen with the Monster Beetle! Does anyone know if this will happen?

[mongoose1983]

Hi, I notice you have an avatar of the Monster Beetle! Is that the original one or have you purchased it? I am excited about the Hornet and Lunchbox being re-released, and am keeping my fingers crossed that the same will happen with the Monster Beetle! Does anyone know if this will happen?

That Beetle in the picture is the QD newer -and smaller 1:12 version. That one's a funny one to drive, but the first Monster Beetle came up in 1986 and was 1:10 scale. As for the Q, not sure if they'll ever going to release the Monster Beetle again. That would have some pros and cons though.

Have a nice day!

EB

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[WillyChang]

anyone know what genre of music that muzak actually is??

i know we joke of it as 1970s cheesy pron sountrack... but i haven't actually found anything similar (soundtracks that is, not cheesy pron)

[Hibernaculum]

Anyway, where were they shown? They seem to vary in length between 30 secs and 4-5 mins. Were they just shown in model shops etc or were they on TV?

Pretty sure the promos you see on YouTube were just for use in Hobby Shops. Though Tamiya have advertised on TV - I remember their ads on TV in Australia around 1994 (cars featured were things like the Super Hornet, Stadium Blitzer and Manta Ray).

Totally agree though - the old promos are as great as anything else Tamiya did back in those days (catalogues, box art, the cars themselves....).

More questions...

1. Which promo is your favourite? I think the Hotshot, Wild Willy and Super Champ clips stand out.

2. Does anyone have a comprehensive list of all the promos? Because some cars have 2 or 3 different promo clips, which I am assuming were the result of yearly edits designed to refresh the promo and include it as part of a line up with newer models.

I am also thinking that not all of the variations that were ever made, are available on the web yet. Because some cars, like the Grasshopper and Pajero, have only a very short promo on the web. Perhaps a longer one came out the first year they were released.

cheers,

H.

[robster959]

I hear what you're saying about the videos making you want cars you never considered buying before. Take the Thundershot. I never would have given it a second look - after watching it in the video and seeing how it performs I'm dying for one. The videos even make those QD cars look appealing.

Favorite? the 959 vid. It's what got me back in this whole scene in the first place. I love the videos where they go into detail about the chasis or the features that make that model unique or give it that "racer's edge". They're done with such conviction you actually start to believe everything they say.

Rob

[Saito]

I too have wondered about the short promos like the Pajero's. One of my favorites is the first SRB video without narration. The music is just awesome, straight out of the 70's. That low important-sounding music that opens the clip just before we first see the Rough Rider pop over the dune is classic. The Hot Shot vid was neat how they "actually shot in slow motion" so you could see the suspension working. I like how they cut away form the Wild Willy when it jumps. There are some jumps you just KNOW the Wild Willy coundn't have landed from. They take the Super Champ off one heck of a jump. It launches off a dune and just keeps falling and falling, but lands unharmed. Rugged? You bet! I always found the Clod Buster video funny. With its limited suspension travel, it just bounces all over the place! They weren't kidding when they said "shuffle" through a traffic maze either. That sloppy four wheel steering had those huge tires going in every direction.

[robster959]

I don't much about Clods and have only seen one run in the promo video. I was surprised to see how the suspension action seemed to coming from the tires. Would fitting different softer shocks and springs change that? Again I don't know about Clods, but seems like there not much weight sitting above the shocks.

Rob

I too have wondered about the short promos like the Pajero's. One of my favorites is the first SRB video without narration. The music is just awesome, straight out of the 70's. That low important-sounding music that opens the clip just before we first see the Rough Rider pop over the dune is classic. The Hot Shot vid was neat how they "actually shot in slow motion" so you could see the suspension working. I like how they cut away form the Wild Willy when it jumps. There are some jumps you just KNOW the Wild Willy coundn't have landed from. They take the Super Champ off one heck of a jump. It launches off a dune and just keeps falling and falling, but lands unharmed. Rugged? You bet! I always found the Clod Buster video funny. With its limited suspension travel, it just bounces all over the place! They weren't kidding when they said "shuffle" through a traffic maze either. That sloppy four wheel steering had those huge tires going in every direction.

[mongoose1983]

I don't much about Clods and have only seen one run in the promo video. I was surprised to see how the suspension action seemed to coming from the tires. Would fitting different softer shocks and springs change that? Again I don't know about Clods, but seems like there not much weight sitting above the shocks.

Rob

Hiya, Rob

Well, that is true. Most of the Clod's weight is already on the axles so the only true suspension system working is really, as you pointed out, the tires themselves. This isn't a very bad feature, because this is a realistic model of the 1985 Bear Foot monster Truck. That full sized truck worked the same because them military axles weighted far more than the Chevrolet C-30 truck itself (yes, those days they used real trucks). So I'd say that, above anything else, the Clod Buster remains painfully realistic to the truck it depicts as a model.

Have a nice day!

EB

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[robster959]

Hi,

Well, it's interesting to know that it's actually scale in performance

I do like the old days when they were based on real trucks - I'm not really a big fan of the whole "shell" on vehicles style. Don't really like how NASCAR cars are not based on the car they're supposed to be either.

Oh well, that's cost of performance.

Rob

Hiya, Rob

Well, that is true. Most of the Clod's weight is already on the axles so the only true suspension system working is really, as you pointed out, the tires themselves. This isn't a very bad feature, because this is a realistic model of the 1985 Bear Foot monster Truck. That full sized truck worked the same because them military axles weighted far more than the Chevrolet C-30 truck itself (yes, those days they used real trucks). So I'd say that, above anything else, the Clod Buster remains painfully realistic to the truck it depicts as a model.

Have a nice day!

EB

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[mongoose1983]

Still, the Clod Buster truck is WAY faster than the real monster truck. Those days those trucks were so heavy and slow that I'm sure most kids would say they're a total bore if watching them videos!

Have a great Sunday!

EB

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[robster959]

Hi,

No kidding about the speed - that's the deal with scale speed across the board. 1/10 scale cars going 20-30 mph - that's up there in scale speed eh?

I never saw much of the old monster truck action , but I seem to remember them sort of just rolling over those cars, not jumping right over them!

Kids today.

Rob

Still, the Clod Buster truck is WAY faster than the real monster truck. Those days those trucks were so heavy and slow that I'm sure most kids would say they're a total bore if watching them videos!

Have a great Sunday!

EB

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[terry.sc]

The videos were just shown in model shops. For the videos avoid Youtube and go straight to Rc/Grabbag where you can download then in better quality.

[mongoose1983]

...go straight to Rc/Grabbag where you can download then in better quality.

Thank you! Cool site!

Regards,

EB

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[Karmann]

yep, great link that

[larbut]

There is a few more Tamiya promo videos here : http://www.tamiyabase.com/video/video.htm

And for the Clod Buster, I believe the "Samson 1" is more likely to have been the Scale Reference :-)

Pictures of it here: http://www.tamiyabase.com/1to1scale/real_58065.htm

Sorry for the shameless plug for my site...

-Lars

[Karmann]

great, theres a few more

Was there a vid for every car?

[Live Steam Mad]

When YouTube and the like allow the videos to be streamed at 720 x 576 in 50 fields / sec. interlaced or 25 frames progressive, in MPEG-4 at around 2.5 Megabits per second, that's when it will finally be worth uploading them

They may look quite good in a 2 inch wide box on a 20" CRT at 1280 x 1024 but just try ripping them out and putting them onto DVD and watching them on a 43 inch diagonal with a video projector, that really shows up which videos are great (SD broadcast TV) and which are good (my VHS tapes encoded into SD at 5 Mbps) and those which are bad quality (all of YouTube and the vast majority of web videos) LOL. Also the sound quality from YouTube sucks, it's got way too much compression for my liking, it "warbles".

Actually, VHS can be surprisingly good across a 43 inch diagonal LOL.

But YouTube videos watched on any decent sized TV sucks really bad. It's not really so much because it uses a low resolution (320 x 262) because a video which was originally in broadcast quality SD reduced to this size can still look fairly good on a large TV with some sharpness boost, as long as the noise is low. Instead the reason is because the YouTube videos use an appallingly high amount of compression, making for macroblocks of a huge size (hence the horrid blocky appearance on a large screen)

Also a lot of YouTube (from the videos that I have seen) users don't seem to know the difference between frame rates etc. resulting in jerky movement from what I assume are unnecessary standards conversions...

Basically the uploading or downloading of these videos in good quality is not practical at present, at least in my eyes.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[B.M.T.]

anyone know what genre of music that muzak actually is??

i know we joke of it as 1970s cheesy pron sountrack... but i haven't actually found anything similar (soundtracks that is, not cheesy pron)

I believe that's typical of Japanese disco and other poppy sounds of the day...

[Olly_Lunchbox]

My favourite promotional vid is the Lunchbox one, it's SO period, regarded as cheesy now but you can't help but smile at it.

I also love the voiceover guy. Every video without fail he fluffs a line

Check out the Blazing Blazer & Toyota Hi-Lux promo vid at 12 seconds in (a new record for him) as he fluffs the description of the three speed gearbox.

http://www.rcgrabbag.com/?page_id=33

I hope Tamiya didn't pay him much because not only does he not have a clue about RC cars but he also only ever seems to do one take.