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Which 2wd Vintage Buggy?

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Well the vintage the vintage has bitten hard!

I loved building my re-re HS!

Now i want a 2wd vintage buggy.

Which one in listed the title would you recommend..?

I really like the looks of Wild one but i dot know too much about it...!

I also like looks of the frog

The Grasshopper/Hornet seem to be simple and fun!

The Fox and the Falcon! oh my!

The car will be run box stock with bearings and a mild brushed motor( i dont like modifying vinatge buggies)

So which one would you take?

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Well the vintage the vintage has bitten hard!

I loved building my re-re HS!

Now i want a 2wd vintage buggy.

Which one in listed the title would you recommend..?

I really like the looks of Wild one but i dot know too much about it...!

I also like looks of the frog

The Grasshopper/Hornet seem to be simple and fun!

The Fox and the Falcon! oh my!

The car will be run box stock with bearings and a mild brushed motor( i dont like modifying vinatge buggies)

So which one would you take?

Go the frog or brat ,easy to get, fun to bash and not too expensive, plus with a superstock rz they hammer, having said that ,everyone knows the only proper solution is to get them all ;)

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i have a strange love of frogs ! lol it was my second offroad buggy after i killed my sand scorcher . i still have the frog ! , it getting on in age . the grasshoper/honet buggy ! well , you flat out trying to kill them ! parts are cheap and you can pick up whole cars of ebay for next to nothing .

the fox and falcon are more upmarket , spares had to find and not cheap , like a complete buggy , here in oz , they go for around $200 on ebay for a good one ! , but they are great to drive and if i had a wild one , it woyuldnt be a ''basher '' thats for sure , the originals are getting hard to find .. i would start with a grassy or hornet and see what comes up .. just remember ..hornets are versitile little fellas ! .....this started life as a hornet chassis .. lolsemi012.jpg

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Grasshopper or Hornet. I prefer the Grasshopper body for the looks. The Hornet arguably handles better, but the ruddy wing keeps getting ripped off the thing and that just irritates me no end. Otherwise, they handle horribly and are lots of fun to drive - yes, its a contradiction, just go with it :lol: . Parts are cheap and cheerful, assuming you somehow manage to break one. ;) Pretty hard to do actually.

The others are fine but getting harder to find and parts are becoming more and more scarce. I would LOVE a Wild One or Fox, but just don't relish the part finding aspect. If you run it, you'll break it, and difficult to obtain and expensive parts tend to diminish my enjoyment factor. Frogs intrigue me, but as of this moment I've never bought one. It'll happen eventually though.

If Tamiya ever re-res the Wild One I'll be all over that like a buzzard on a gut wagon though, have no fear of that.

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i have a strange love of frogs ! lol it was my second offroad buggy after i killed my sand scorcher . i still have the frog ! , it getting on in age . the grasshoper/honet buggy ! well , you flat out trying to kill them ! parts are cheap and you can pick up whole cars of ebay for next to nothing .

the fox and falcon are more upmarket , spares had to find and not cheap , like a complete buggy , here in oz , they go for around $200 on ebay for a good one ! , but they are great to drive and if i had a wild one , it woyuldnt be a ''basher '' thats for sure , the originals are getting hard to find .. i would start with a grassy or hornet and see what comes up .. just remember ..hornets are versitile little fellas ! .....this started life as a hornet chassis .. lol http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c227/com...uff/semi012.jpg

If all Hornets were that Beefy, surely they wouldn't fly, right? ;):lol: I like it! :lol:

Although if you are looking for a car to keep in stock form (apart from the box-art colours perhaps), I'd definetely go for the Wild One! I like the looks of it so much! Although parts are slightly more of a problem than re-re's of course, and I heard the reliability of the gearbox isn't superb in stock form - though I wouldn't expect a bulletproof car when I'd build something vintage :lol:

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I'm a huge fan of the Fox and the Frog.

Fox is the best handling of these. It's a very similar chassis to the Hot Shot in construction, but with independent rear shocks. It's like a 2WD Hotshot. Big issue is that it hasn't been re-released, and has a LOT of unique parts. Some of the parts that break namely the chassis and rear suspension arms are very hard to find, as are the gold wheels (read: EXPENSIVE). Best way is to buy a couple of used examples and use one as spares for the other. It has a small toothed washer that allows different pinions to be used, instead of the set plates on the Hotshot. Front tires are only available as old stock, but on the plus side, it uses the same rear tyres as the Hotshot so these are easy to get now. And it just looks COOL. If I had to choose one, this'd be it.

Frog is good fun, very simple, but the chassis does have some problems. Has quite a large number of pressed metal parts, and the space frame chassis is cool. On the original, the rear gearbox plates tended to bend and allow the diff to skip and eat itself when used with powerful motors, and the hexagonal driveshafts don't last very long unless they are constantly maintained. The front end is very light and bouncy, the rear suspension is too stiff. The wheelbase is short and with the high CoG due to the high motor position it tends to traction roll when cornered hard. On the re-re, the car has updated driveshafts but tends to shed the new dogbone driveshafts too easily, and the front steering knuckles fall apart. Has three gearing options and these are provided in the kit as three paired pinion/spur gears, but the whole gearbox has to come apart to change gearing.

Can't really go wrong with the Hornet or Grasshopper for a bit of fun. However, after building the Hotshot, building either of these is going to seem way too easy. They have a very low parts count, you can build one in a fraction of the time of a Hotshot. The handling isn't great, but they are very light, and with a moderately powerful motor, these cars are uncontrollable missiles. No gearing options, although I think you might be able to gear down using Lunchbox bits?

Falcon - Hard to get some parts for now, eg R parts, but it's a decent enough car. It was intended as an entry level car, but had suspension with 4 oil dampers that was a bit above previous entry level cars. Tends to chew up and spit out the plastic driveshafts it has, the rear wing rips off very easily, and the front bulkhead breaks too easily in a crash. While the front suspension is excellent, the rear trailing arm setup doesn't work very well at all and the rear end is way too bouncy unless you use the damper piston with 4 large holes and softer springs. No real gearing options. Front tires are very hard compound and last forever, the rear spike tires wear quickly but these are the same as the Thundershot, so new rear tires can still be found.

- James

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Go the Wild one.

The tough as nuts, genuinely perpetual & controllable tailslide fun, and they're unusual in that they somehow don't give one the feeling of needing to mod it. Real "use" models.

Every year it's my most used model. Reliable old friend. :lol:;)

100_6496.jpg

100_6487.jpg

March1516009.jpg

100_6512.jpg

100_6518.jpg

100_6519.jpg

While on the topic of vintage 2wd, any excuse for my fav DS photo too :lol:

Partslot020-1.jpg

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I would say avoid the Frog because of that terrible gearbox.

Foxes are nice, but there don't seem to be many around, so parts might be tricky.

Hornet or Grasshopper is a good bet because of parts availability and that they're more or less indestructable.

I'd also put a vote in for the Falcon because I love mine, but if you're not keen on doing mods, then probably wouldn't suit you.

Wild One would also get a vote on pure looks alone!

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hopper/hornet all the way.

foxes and wild ones are hard to find/get parts for and the frog is a waste of time IMO.

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Just for fun lets says ALL of these buggies would be re-releases! <_<

The Frog doesnt seem to have alot of friends!

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Go the Wild one.

The tough as nuts, genuinely perpetual & controllable tailslide fun, and they're unusual in that they somehow don't give one the feeling of needing to mod it. Real "use" models.

Every year it's my most used model. Reliable old friend. :D<_<

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...la/100_6496.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...la/100_6487.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...arch1516009.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...la/100_6512.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...la/100_6518.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Pro...la/100_6519.jpg

While on the topic of vintage 2wd, any excuse for my fav DS photo too :D

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j265/Projectshangrila/Partslot020-1.jpg

Nice pictures! That Dyna Storm body looks familiar by the way :D Either way, with a Wild One, or a Dyna Storm, you cannot go wrong!

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Hornet/Grasshopper is most certainly the cheapest to maintain and is the most robust. A Grasshopper I would upgrade to Hornet spec atleast. I prefer the hard body Grasshopper over the lexan Hornet body however.

Wild One/FAV would be the most realistic. Again I would take the hard bodied FAV in a civilian theme over the lexan bodied Wild One everytime.

Fox is the most expensive to maintain. Replacement parts are hard to find and expensive. I so wish they would do a re-re. The Fox would handle the best out of all the vintage 2WD buggys.

The Falcon is fragile from my experience. Looks OK, goes OK, it's never been high on my 'like' list nor do I want one.

The Frog (or any of the ORV chassis) is just plain odd. Rear suspension is almost right, but then doesn't work as you would expect. The gearbox sides flex and could have been so much better. And what the h*** is that front suspension? The body and style is iconic though.

The one you missed is the Bear Hawk. Great buggy beng Blitzer based. Handles great once you get on some grippy tyres and some oil dampers. But I consider this and the Dyna Storm to be the beginning of the modern chassis buggys and have lost that quirky vintage chassis feel. Much the same as the Manta Ray DF01 was the beginning of the modern 4WD chassis buggys.

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Hi,

if you want a all year vintage basher then i highly reccomend the fighter rx, mainly because i have one and mod the nuts off it!

They are very reliable and look vintage when in stock form. However you can race them aswell! Cheap cheap cheap!

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Hi,

if you want a all year vintage basher then i highly reccomend the fighter rx, mainly because i have one and mod the nuts off it!

They are very reliable and look vintage when in stock form. However you can race them aswell! Cheap cheap cheap!

The DT01 is like a modern Grasshopper/Hornet. Reliable yes, but no sorry, they perform terribly and racing one would be a waste of effort if you wanted to be competitive. They bounce all over the place even with quality oil dampers, and the bumpsteer is the worst of any model I've seen.

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I'm going to stick up for The Frog. Its a great buggy to run but does need a few mods from standard from to make it more enjoyable. The stock rear dampers are hard as badword, no wonder the rear suspension deosnt work. Swap them for nice soft damper set up & the handling is vastly improved. Upgrade the front end to a set of proper dampers & shock towers too.

The rere gearbox is lovely & smooth. I find a Frog with the above set up will out handle any Grasshopper or Hornet.

My Wild One is probably my favorite buggy but as mentioned above if you gaoing to do hard running/bashing then the price/availabilty of spares is a bit off putting.

If I was buying one of the rere buggys for a bit of fun then I would buy The Frog or The Grasshopper (only because I prefer its looks over the Hornet) & carry out a few mods on them to improve the handling. You only need a Sports Tuned motor in either buggy & they really get a move on.

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If Tamiya ever re-res the Wild One I'll be all over that like a buzzard on a gut wagon though, have no fear of that.

Great quote! Must remember that one.

+1 for the Bear Hawk btw, having fun with mine - check out the orange beastie in my showroom.

P

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The Frog doesnt seem to have alot of friends!

Hey, I'm flying the flag for the "Friends of the Frog Fraternity"! (FOFF for short!) None of the problems with the Frog are that major. They're certainly not deal breakers!

The gearbox isn't that fragile unless you start putting serious motor power through it. If you stick with a Sport Tuned, the car is plenty fast enough, and the gearbox will last ages. You can always solve the problem with a slipping worn differential with a couple of 5mm shims (easiest way), or tapping a screw through the diff and fixing it in with Loctite.

The re-re rear dampers are a lot better than the originals. If you use the original tires, it helps as they form part of the damping. And there is a universal set available for the rear driveshafts which helps the shedding driveshaft problem.

If you add coilovers to the front with aftermarket shock towers, then you need to take out the little springs inside the chassis, and the front springs/oil have to be quite soft because the front of the car is very light and the suspension arms are tiny. Some people have even gone so far as to fit longer arms and turnbuckles to the front.

- J

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i am going to join the F-OFF club too . my old frog and i have been together for 30 old years .. moded the snot out of it years ago , it was a stadium racer well before the blackfoot and monsterbeetle turned up and i've never had a major break .. now shes a shelf queen full of 50caliber alloy parts .. front and rear oil shocks that work .. plus what other tamiya model can you buy a complete chassis on ebay for under 10 bucks ?? not that you will ever need one unless you are real rough .. heres a pic of the early days as a SRT.. then as a baja bug ..frogtrucknearlydone.jpgrccars034.jpgrccars028.jpg

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How much effort do you want to put into this project? The Fox and Falcon have not been re-released yet so it's gonna take a lot more effort than getting a new Grasshopper or Frog. You'll have to start paying attention to auctions and start collecting parts cars or be willing to pay for a NIB kit for a Fox or Falcon.

BTW, did you consider a RR/SS? IMHO no vintage Tamiya collection is complete without one now that they have be re-released :)

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This is a fun thread... OK, so those of you who were kids in the early '80s... Let's all take a trip back in time and remember. Any kid who had a Hornet or a Grasshopper wished they had a Frog - any kid who had a Frog was one lucky kid... LOL. I say go with a Frog. The are the most fun to build and definitely the most fun to maintain. They all handle like @#$%, it is all just for fun.

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I'm going to stick a vote in for a Grass Hopper / Hornet. Had both as a kid. Raced them (they were giant killers in their day) and ragged them. Have a re-re Hornet now. For fun and bashing you do get lots of smiles per £. They are pretty quick, and the handling adds to the fun. Nice and tail happy. The Grass Hopper shell looks prettier, the Hornet eats shells and rips its wing off. See the video below for a clip of me playing today - indicates why the wing goes. The car in the video is a standard Hornet with my basher shell on, ball-raced and running and Sniper RV12 waterproof ESC.

I would say, if you like nice bodywork, a bashing body and a good body are needed on a Hornet.

Mine has a few bodies:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQKxuNJT74

HornetBoxArt.jpg

HornetRunner.jpg

HornetGrassHopperBoxArt.jpg

HornetGrassHopperAlitalia.jpg

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