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THE SMOOTHEE

Tamiya promotional movies, your favourite takes.

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I think many of us drooled over them as kids.....

I remember standing in my local hobby shop watching a Tamiya promo tape as it played over and over again. I would have stood there all day if I was allowed, trying to work out which car I was going to ask for as my Christmas present. Tamiyas' guide books had a similar allure for me also, having me flicking from page to page, going through all the descriptions, and specs on each buggy.

These days I find myself watching the promos all the time on YouTube. And it's got me wondering, who else out there has a favourite line or piece of footage from these movies?

Mine is from the Super Champ movie. The narrators line is "Rugged, you bet it is." The accompanying footage is appropriate too, it's gotta be at least a ten foot drop for the Champ.

Please share your favourite narrator lines, snippets, or just what promo you like best here. Not asking for links, just your thoughts.

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The Hornet...

"Look at that power!" (1:15)
When seeing the Hornet driving up an embankment.

 

I also like the sometimes crusty sounding narrator's voice due to the old age of the promo tapes... "Tamiya blastic mobell combany, furst in gwalidy arround the wurld"

Great topic by the way!

 

EDIT: Other lines suggested for Tamiya promo BINGO:

"Competition differential"

"High quality engineering plastics"

"Minimum of maintenance"

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Any on the beach, jumping dunes etc, it feels like their home.

So all of them then!?! 🤔

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The Lunchbox and Hornet videos are two of my favourites. 

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You can not beat this with a stick if you tried...

 

[Edit:] A few years later (:

 

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I just found some German commercials for Tamiya R/C cars (1/10 and QD) of the early 90s.

 

 

 

The German narrator provides a rather bland staccato of features instead of forming complete sentences. He can't really hold a candle to Tamiya's old English narrator's personality. However, what is nice is seeing a lot of cars not featured on the English commercials. Pro-tip: Try Youtube's automatically generated and translated captions for having a quick laugh! :)

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Great topic! The Super Champ drop is definitely one of my favorites. I love seeing the Bruiser barreling down that dune. It looks like such an improvement over the earlier Hilux video where the trucks are slowly descending a hill and bouncing all over the place. Speaking of bouncing, I love how Clod Buster bounds all over the place in its promo. The sheer size of it coming along with a Lunch Box is impressive too. The Thundershot always seemed to float over the rough terrain on camera, compliant and supple. 

On the audio side, I laugh when the narrator says at the 3:45 mark on the Lunch Box promo, "Yes, fun, fantasy and an American dream. It can all be yours with the Tamiya Lunch Box". Wow. Now that is quite a statement. The Wild Willy promo is great. "...jump turns are easy with this fun-filled vehicle" What is a "jump turn" exactly and why does the narrator say fun-filled like he's about to get a root-canal? "Wild Willy will bring enjoyment to all that operate it and to those who just watch its amazing versatility" um, uh, no comment on that quote. I swear someone drops the cue cards at the :50 mark "those large tires are not just for show......they really absorb the ...shock... and they really propel the vehicle in amazing performance." One of my favorites though is the awesome 70's music in the first SRB promo, which actually lacks narration. 

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Ok, maybe not all.

That re re bruiser one is rubbish! 

(Original one, brilliant)

Crawling in front of waves doesn't do it for me.

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""For those who want even more brutal power, slip in the RX540 VZ Techinigold motor"

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The music in Tamiya Hilux promo! Specially when it start to run down the dunes!

 

 

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I got two Tamiya/Conrad VHS that I digitized and posted on YouTube, German narrator but the videos are funny. I will post the links later on or search for my username.

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Thanks THE SMOOTHEE,

After watching tamiya promos endlessly, I now have an itching to buy a frog, a hornet, a boomerang ,a.............

Oh, and to find a beach with dunes! 😊

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14 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Thanks THE SMOOTHEE,

After watching tamiya promos endlessly, I now have an itching to buy a frog, a hornet, a boomerang ,a.............

Oh, and to find a beach with dunes! 😊

LOL. Sorry 28. They are awesome though aren't they. The Frog movie is one of my favourites too. There are two Frog promos I have seen, both can be found on YouTube.

From what you've written, I recommend you buy the Frog first too. It is really a great car. As the narrator says "It is an off-road vehicle of the first rank" 😎

It's a nice build, looks tough as, and I think it is very underrated in its performance. We need to keep in mind this is a very early model, not to be put up against with what's around today by any means. I raced back in the early eighties, and the highest jumps found on my local track were as recommended by Tamiyas guide books at about 20cm in height. Still relatively high for a 1/10th scale buggy, but the Frog would handle them with aplomb. It's got a great turning circle too. A true classic every Tamiya fan should own. I have one original NIB, an original mint runner, and two re releases, one boxed, one built. Also a complete boxed original body kit, and some extra original decal sets too.

Leap ahead with the Frog. 👍🏽

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I've got a re re frog in my eBay watch list ! 🙄

The original frog was my first car!

Unfortunately, I got fed up having to replace gearbox parts and getting beaten at the track, so bought an ultima when they first came out. Absolutely no idea what happened to that frog!?!? 

 

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THE best Tamiya promo video ever....end of discussion. :D This video is singularly responsible for my obsession with the Hotshot and love of all things Tamiya in general. The jump that the buggy makes in this video at 3:35 is a scene unparalleled in any other Tamiya vid IMO. 

"Now heeeerrre's the buggy you have been waiting for...The Hotshot!"

 

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1 hour ago, Wandy said:

THE best Tamiya promo video ever....end of discussion. :D This video is singularly responsible for my obsession with the Hotshot and love of all things Tamiya in general. The jump that the buggy makes in this video at 3:35 is a scene unparalleled in any other Tamiya vid IMO. 

"Now heeeerrre's the buggy you have been waiting for...The Hotshot!"

 

interesting , it has the supershot gold wheels & tyres ( pin type ) . Great video & i can see why you can be hooked on this .

Who made the copy of the on bench cut down display model on TC ? .  Now i know why we are all Tamiya nut'z :lol: .

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21 hours ago, matman said:

interesting , it has the supershot gold wheels & tyres ( pin type ) . Great video & i can see why you can be hooked on this .

Who made the copy of the on bench cut down display model on TC ? .  Now i know why we are all Tamiya nut'z :lol: .

Yeah, it just goes to show that the gold wheels & pin spikes that eventually showcased on the Supershot had actually been created more than a year before that buggy was even released.

The car in the promo video is actually one of the prototype models. One of our members, gordb, is seemingly the only person on TC to own one of these prototypes. http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=114140&sid=9880

It was TamTom who made the copy of the bench model.

 

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The Tamiya promotional videos likely influenced me to stock my collection with vintage Tamiyas at a time when the company was approaching model 500. Thanks to the re-releases, some are more attainable than others, and I can even run a few of them as intended.

I have memories of the ad-libbing for the Tamiya Audi Quattro/Opel Ascona 400 promo:

- "Continuing in the rally racer lineup are the Audi Quattro and the Opel Ascona - 1982 champions in world class rally- championships... Both of- these famous rally racers are in 1/10th scale..." Like he was going to say either 'world-class rally racing' or 'World Rally Championship,' but stumbled. But I overlooked that due to the ultra-electro '80s music and footage of the cars bouncing along (and kind of manoeuvring between cones). It was enough to get me an Audi Quattro, which was far worse in this day and age than the promos suggested, and influenced me enough to alter a WR-02C just to put an Opel Ascona shell on top! (the new car is much better and more befitting the original premise)

There was the Subaru Brat/Lancia Rally promo:

- "In company with the Brat is Tamiya's new rally racer of the well-known Lancia Rally car. As rally racing is done on all types of terrain surfaces, special engineering was incorporated to ensure the highest performance on these differing road surfaces." The casual music and the slowed-down filming of what was already a slow car seemed to make light of the Lancia Rally, but there was no denying the capabilities of a car with as much ground clearance or the size of tires that the Lancia had. When I got interested in rally racers, I immediately remembered this car, and the rest is history...

The Fast Attack Vehicle:

- "It's almost too realistic." Even with friction dampers, I had to agree while watching the footage!

The Tamiya Striker's spot made the car seem way more capable than it was, but not like I cared:

- "Hit the trails and strike out the competition!" To this day I have fantasies of overhauling my spare Striker chassis and turning it into the racer that Tamiya suggested it could be. Nice music and visuals helped, too.

The "ultra-electro '80s music" was what I liked about the short Mitsubishi Pajero Wheelie spot, too. And for some reason, I like the abridged Hot Shot promo better than the full-length one, impressive as it is. The abridged one had better music, I found.

Music was also the reason I loved the Sonic Fighter promo, despite the fact that it never made me want to own one. The theme was frenetic and fast-paced, with funky bass and keyboard parts.

The Monster Beetle one was as fun as the vehicle (you know, when the dogbones stay in).

- "It stands tall out in the wild." And the suggestions that it could go racing conjured images in my head of a Monster Beetle rolling with sleek racing buggies.

And, as most of us can attest, it was always fun to watch the Hilux 4 x 4 and Bruiser run roughshod through and over things!

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I spent many happy hours watching the Lancia Rally video again and again and the 3 speed Hilux video was hust amazing. 

Fantastic memories. Thanks for starting this thread.

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Wasn't there a thread many years ago where folks discussed who the announcer was? I recall that it was disclosed he had passed away (not surprising given the time period here).  Was he an employee of Tamiya USA?

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Well, Tamiya USA did not exist back in those days. Back then, MRC was Tamiya's importer. Tamiya formed Tamiya USA after the two went their separate ways. However, I don't seem to recall the announcer mentioning MRC in the promos (I could be wrong) which meant who he was is anybody's best guess.

 

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The vid, or part thereof, where the Frog does a jump off a (probably small) cliff.
It is also seen scooting down a beach thru water occasionally.

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I would almost include "RX-540VZ (8.4V) Technigold Motor," but is it less common than I think in the promos?

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