Blackfoot re-release #58633

[Percymon]

11 hours ago, Nitomor said:

I wonder why they chose to release pics to the internet, but not display it at the show? Or, will it find it's way there in the next couple of days?!

I think the Blackfoot will be there, and as a running model. Watch the Tamiya Live video; there are two mounds on the driving demo area perfect to drive an off roader up and over. Looks silly at the moment driving the Honda NSX and Mann truck around the humps

[Nitomor]

Will look even better with a rere 3 speeder on the final day

[Fuijo]

14 hours ago, beefmuffin said:

What I want to know is, if Tamiya is so sheepish and loath to use real branding on any of the re-releases (god forbid licensing them like some contemporary competitors are doing ... psst, Tamiya - we'd pay extra to cover the licensing cost) how on earth have they never, ever stopped using the silver VW badge on the Blitzer Beetle, Sand Scorcher, or the extremely recent Monster Beetle???

 

14 hours ago, TWINSET said:

It's not 'any' of the re-releases - there's two Toyota Hilux bodied models on 3spd chassis and a Subaru Brat not so long ago

Oh, and a Honda City Turbo

 

Did they ever stop producing a Beetle shell? Maybe they never lost the licensing.

If I was asked to speculate I might wonder if there's some kind of gentlemen's agreement among Japanese companies about using their product-names, Toyota, Honda and Subaru being Japanese, but Ford not.

Also the re-re of the Nissan R91CP has had the GoodYear decals deleted, but the Japanese sponsor decals are still there, at least most of them. Is NGK Japanese? If so I can't explain that one.

It also strikes me that in the eighties they probably didn't pay anything to use sponsor decals, yet the kits were still out of reach of most of us. So I'm not sure why they would want to start paying for

the priviledge now and make the kits even more expensive. It would be a bit of a gamble whether they would recoup the costs. Some of us may be happy to pay extra for it, but based on the

number of people I've heard state that the Hornet is already too expensive (not on this site admittedly), I wouldn't want to bet real money on it.

But let's face it, we're all modellers here. And if we're not happy with the way a bodyshell or decal set looks, then we change it until we are. No one can stop us!

[Nitomor]

Exactly with regards to logos, plenty aftermarket options exist to recreate the original and make yours more original than the many generic rere's if desired.

On the fake sponsors, it appears that Tamiya are trying to build up the illusion of these fabricated brand names, maybe they'll tie them in later with their own hop up products, such as the vise crawlers which is their own hop up tyre. They're being consistent with these sponsors across the range. Maybe they'll release a brite lite led kit or something! The BF goodrich is an odd one, because they have tyres with BF Goodrich on the tyre walls already and those Bruiser design tyres are based on the original BF tyre tread.

I agree with Japanese manufacturers being cool with use of their property, they must be delighted to have their products placed and represented like that. Maybe once someone else pays for the licensing they have to grant them an exclusive as part of the deal? Who knows what agreeements might be in place. The Amarok is also VW badged, except mine because I put the badge on upside down so its my initials on the grille lol and because I'm not a huge VW fan anyway, that's modelling license for you  !

 

 

 

 

[beefmuffin]

5 hours ago, Thirteen30 said:

Never thought I'd see so many people complain about what they have wanted for so long? What did you guys expect? We all knew was going to happen. I think it's rad, I can't wait to see them slap the body on the SRB chassis!

For me, the problem is what I would really have enjoyed is a nice re-release of the full KIT experience.  Not just a basic runner... but something approximating - celebrating - the cool and well-done experience of the original kits.  To make something that not only could be slapped together and bashed for cheap, but something that shows respect for the heritage and gives people a special experience.  They did something like this with the re-releases of the Sand Scorcher and Buggy Champ... why not this??

The bottom line here is that it's hard to be grateful, as opposed to disappointed, by a kit that could have been so much more when you could easily do an equivalent or better job of making the end result on your own using existing re-re parts and some widely available decals.  I mean, the BF3 body I slapped together for my runner months ago looks infinitely more authentic than this thing (see below).  What exactly does the Blackfoot 2016 give us?  Literally, only cheap new wheels and abominable decals.  And original wheels aren't all that expensive or hard to find.

[mheald]

Just to keep things up beat, I'm just going to say YEY and express again how absolutely stunning I think it looks  

I literally have no complaints, but I have wanted a brand new Blackfoot since I was 10.

 

[moffman]

3 hours ago, Fuijo said:

 

Did they ever stop producing a Beetle shell? Maybe they never lost the licensing.

If I was asked to speculate I might wonder if there's some kind of gentlemen's agreement among Japanese companies about using their product-names, Toyota, Honda and Subaru being Japanese, but Ford not.

Also the re-re of the Nissan R91CP has had the GoodYear decals deleted, but the Japanese sponsor decals are still there, at least most of them. Is NGK Japanese? If so I can't explain that one.

It also strikes me that in the eighties they probably didn't pay anything to use sponsor decals, yet the kits were still out of reach of most of us. So I'm not sure why they would want to start paying for

the priviledge now and make the kits even more expensive. It would be a bit of a gamble whether they would recoup the costs. Some of us may be happy to pay extra for it, but based on the

number of people I've heard state that the Hornet is already too expensive (not on this site admittedly), I wouldn't want to bet real money on it.

But let's face it, we're all modellers here. And if we're not happy with the way a bodyshell or decal set looks, then we change it until we are. No one can stop us!

I think your right about the gentleman's agreement and if ford are anything like what they are with there warranties tamiya must of thought it's not really worth it!. It our work we normally keep our vans for one year after the warranty runs out but because ford have been a nightmare to work with we got rid of the ford vans early and replaced them with Peugeot I don't know exactly why? the mechanic's just said they were very awkward and difficult to deal with if an issue appeared and it got in the way of running a fleet!

[TWINSET]

So, given the body is all wrong, have they actually re-released the Blackfoot with a different body or a Super Blackfoot with a different chassis and stickers?

[Saito2]

I don't mean to start anything, but literally EVERY time a re-re comes out we all bemoan the fake sponsor decals. I know it's not cool, but I think we can just stop hoping at this point. We're not going to get real sponsor decals on most (if not all) re-res. Period. Some random observations on another note : the grill oddly happens to be the same as the one found on the 1/32 Blackfoot Jr. Granted, the Jr did have a little Ford oval in the center. Also, hasn't the Ford logo been missing from Blackfoots since the "Super" version came out? Purely speculating here, but do you think some manufacturers are less willing to give out licensing to non-current vehicles? When the Clod Buster lost its Chevy badge, I think Chevy had moved to the new body style like the USA-1 (something Kyosho did get licensed). The F-350 High Lift was the current bodystyle when it came out, fully licensed. Just a random theory.

[scoobybooster]

hear about a BF rere for the first time:

 seeing the grille it comes with :

[moffman]

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

I don't mean to start anything, but literally EVERY time a re-re comes out we all bemoan the fake sponsor decals. I know it's not cool, but I think we can just stop hoping at this point. We're not going to get real sponsor decals on most (if not all) re-res. Period. Some random observations on another note : the grill oddly happens to be the same as the one found on the 1/32 Blackfoot Jr. Granted, the Jr did have a little Ford oval in the center. Also, hasn't the Ford logo been missing from Blackfoots since the "Super" version came out? Purely speculating here, but do you think some manufacturers are less willing to give out licensing to non-current vehicles? When the Clod Buster lost its Chevy badge, I think Chevy had moved to the new body style like the USA-1 (something Kyosho did get licensed). The F-350 High Lift was the current bodystyle when it came out, fully licensed. Just a random theory.

I would like to know who the people are that make these decisions on licencing because I think your right about them being less willing to give permission on non-current vehicles and why they make that decision because it can't do any harm having a product that is basically advertising to a car mad ordinance? (eg look how the mini struggled with sales until the Italian job movie 1969 came along!) And its definitely not tamiya's fault that they can't get licencing for the Blackfoot!

[73robb]

Personally I'm very pleased this has come back out.  No, it doesn't have the original decals, but they are available elsewhere.  No, it doesn't have the Ford lettering but these are also available.  No, they probably haven't fixed the gearbox issue present with the MB re-re, but there are workarounds for this.  Granted, the grill is awful, but on the plus side we now have access to red chassis parts and wheels that are not brittle with age, and plentiful spares for body mounts, etc.

It would have been nice to have seen it released in it's original form but re-engineered to eliminate the inherent problems with the drive train, but then it would have cost a lot more.  Part of the fun for me is the build and tinkering with them to sort out the problems and generally trying improve them, so I'm really looking to getting my hands on this.

[Fuijo]

I really can't help but feel sympathy for Tamiya over this. I mean this car is theirs, their awesome characterful model, their baby. Do you really think

they want to make do with anything less than a perfect replica of the vehicle that was so well received they can sell it all over again decades later? Just

because of a bunch of excessively greedy marketing departments?

So next time you feel disgruntled about the way a re-re has turned out, try to imagine how they must feel about it. And rest assured that

if there was way to do it and still make the exercise worthwhile, then they would have done it. It's obviously a necessary evil, but **** it

must have annoyed them like crazy that they can't re-make their own creation the same way they made thousands of the things in the past.

You may well be annoyed. They will be more annoyed. They have a good reputation that they don't want to lose because of matters beyond their control.

 

I have a model boat. Quite a large beast made by the German company Graupner. It's of a Sunseeker motor yacht. The production run for this was

very small and was curtailed abruptly. Apparently, by the time Sunseeker wanted the license fee renewed, Graupner still hadn't sold enough kits to

cover the cost of the last installment. Oviously this was unsustainable, but Sunseeker wouldn't budge.

I'm afraid I don't much like marketing departments.

 

[moffman]

29 minutes ago, Fuijo said:

I really can't help but feel sympathy for Tamiya over this. I mean this car is theirs, their awesome characterful model, their baby. Do you really think

they want to make do with anything less than a perfect replica of the vehicle that was so well received they can sell it all over again decades later? Just

because of a bunch of excessively greedy marketing departments?

So next time you feel disgruntled about the way a re-re has turned out, try to imagine how they must feel about it. And rest assured that

if there was way to do it and still make the exercise worthwhile, then they would have done it. It's obviously a necessary evil, but **** it

must have annoyed them like crazy that they can't re-make their own creation the same way they made thousands of the things in the past.

You may well be annoyed. They will be more annoyed. They have a good reputation that they don't want to lose because of matters beyond their control.

 

I have a model boat. Quite a large beast made by the German company Graupner. It's of a Sunseeker motor yacht. The production run for this was

very small and was curtailed abruptly. Apparently, by the time Sunseeker wanted the license fee renewed, Graupner still hadn't sold enough kits to

cover the cost of the last installment. Oviously this was unsustainable, but Sunseeker wouldn't budge.

I'm afraid I don't much like marketing departments.

 

Well said!

[mheald]

Also another good point to make is how cheap this will be. I've been bowled over with how cheap the MB is, its insanely cheap and the BF will be too. I mean, a nice re-re for around £120 is rather marvellous IMO.

 

In fact, I'm pretty sure the MB and BF were about £90 back in the day. If you take into account inflation, this should be easily more than the £120 we're paying now. We are getting a veritable bargain gents!

[mheald]

All I hope now is that they re-re the Mudblaster now as that one was always my personal favourite and if I'm right, that one would only require decals? I'm guessing Tamiya now have all those parts already made  Stickers, box, instructions...come Tamiya, get them made and give me a NIB Mudblaster please!

[TeaMonster]

1 hour ago, mheald said:

Also another good point to make is how cheap this will be. I've been bowled over with how cheap the MB is, its insanely cheap and the BF will be too. I mean, a nice re-re for around £120 is rather marvellous IMO.

 

In fact, I'm pretty sure the MB and BF were about £90 back in the day. If you take into account inflation, this should be easily more than the £120 we're paying now. We are getting a veritable bargain gents!

This will be a must buy for me, it was another kit that I never had back in the day and although it looks cosmetically different I will still enjoy the build and running of it. And as mheald said the price is a bargain, will hopefully sell loads and it will keep me happy until the next re-re launches.

[Thirteen30]

On 13/05/2016 at 9:40 AM, beefmuffin said:

For me, the problem is what I would really have enjoyed is a nice re-release of the full KIT experience.  Not just a basic runner... but something approximating - celebrating - the cool and well-done experience of the original kits.  To make something that not only could be slapped together and bashed for cheap, but something that shows respect for the heritage and gives people a special experience.  They did something like this with the re-releases of the Sand Scorcher and Buggy Champ... why not this??

The bottom line here is that it's hard to be grateful, as opposed to disappointed, by a kit that could have been so much more when you could easily do an equivalent or better job of making the end result on your own using existing re-re parts and some widely available decals.  I mean, the BF3 body I slapped together for my runner months ago looks infinitely more authentic than this thing (see below).  What exactly does the Blackfoot 2016 give us?  Literally, only cheap new wheels and abominable decals.  And original wheels aren't all that expensive or hard to find.

I'm still trying to find out what the major differences are besides the grille, decals, and the fact it's got an esc instead of a speed control. Does it have prebuilt components or something? 

[Theibault]

I love all the moaning here. It's a Blackfoot. Approximately 12 people actually care about the grill. These are toys. Meant to be played with. I personally could not care less had Tamiya used the old grill or stickers. I don't drive those. I run the chassis. I don't have time to read the Ford lettering or Pennzoil when I'm launching it off a sweet jump lol. The funny part is, had they made it original, then the other 12 people who are purists would be here complaining how Tamiya ruined the integrity of the originals. Just give me my Blackfoot now Tamiya so I can build and run it!!!

[Wandy]

Sorry, but I'm with beefmuffin on this one. This re-release is at best frustrating, and at worst a disappointment. The thing that made the original Blackfoot so special was all of the Ford branding and detail as it showed that the model was a true mini-scale replica of a "real world" vehicle. Those extra little details just make this body "pop", making it that extra bit special. When the subsequent Blackfoots were released, minus the the branding etc, they became more bland, generic and toy-like. And I don't buy any "poor Tamiya, they did their best but nasty Ford prevented them from adding all of the extra detail" argument. They may have not been able to add the Ford badges but they still could have brought back the original grille.

And what is it with Tamiya's modern photography skills? Yet again they show that they have gone backwards in the way they present a model, compared to how it was done originally. Could they have made this thing look any more underwhelming? The use of lighting in this photo is simply awful.

It's a shame, as they have done a great job on the chassis itself. A perfect reproduction of the original together with the very welcome black CVAs. And the additional Monster Beetle half bumper is a nice addition too.

 

[mtbkym01]

Ok, so it's the grill and lack of Ford branding (and sponsor decals) that everyone is dissappointed with? What else is different from the original, I've never owned a Blackfoot, and never really even had a proper look at one. Just curious as to why it's so underwhelming.

 

cheers

[beefmuffin]

@Wandy agree with everything but the half bumper!  A purpose-designed bumper, fine.  A hatchet job from other parts.. No thanks.. Are they gonna include the whole Monster Beetle bumper/body mounts tree?  If so, they'll prob be popping up for pennies on ebay.. Guess I'll snatch a few.

The real shame for me is I *love* the original Blackfoot.  And I love NIB kits.  I don't even currently have an ORV-based Blackfoot runner, so if this wasn't so underwhelming I'd probaby buy one and build it.  But I don't think I'm going to buy one at all.  I got a re-re Monster Beetle to hold onto for a rainy day.  I just don't see a point also getting this.  If it pushes the price of parts even lower for say, the BF3 body and red chassis parts I may do a parts built runner and only buy what I'd use - without paying for the grill, tailgate, decals, box, instructions, etc I never want or use.

[beefmuffin]

8 minutes ago, mtbkym01 said:

Ok, so it's the grill and lack of Ford branding (and sponsor decals) that everyone is dissappointed with? What else is different from the original, I've never owned a Blackfoot, and never really even had a proper look at one. Just curious as to why it's so underwhelming.

cheers

It's alot like the Novafox for me.  Would it have killed them to call it the Fox still?  Imagine if they'd called the re-re Boomerang the Badaboomerang and had Padlatrack branding on it.  The overall effect for me is that they - to say it G-rated - compared to trying to make it special (at all) really half-donkeyed it and pumped out the lowest possible incarnation of a reissued Blackfoot that could qualify at all as a reissue.  Even if they'd done the one thing: making the proper grill, which would have violated nothing licensing wise and couldn't be cost-prohibitive to produce, would have counted for alot and shown some effort.  Instead, they just took the same mold as the Monster Beetle wheels and pumped them out in yellow and slapped on their existing black short CVA3's.  Exactly like if they had a meeting and said let's brainstorm how to do a Blackfoot reissue with as little effort as humanly possible.

[Plopes]

Maybe shapeways can print a grill for us.

 

[beefmuffin]

34 minutes ago, Plopes said:

Maybe shapeways can print a grill for us.

We all need to beg @Pintopower to produce one - or at least a piece that can be put over the front of the grill or something.

This is his Shapeways page: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/ampro