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Tamiya Top Force Re-re-really!

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Just reading through the manual and saw the horrid Aluminium drive gear on about the 3rd page, remembered it was suggested that anything other than a silver can turned this into grinding paste so I have ordered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-50529-4WD-Touring-Rally-Car-Plastic-Gear-Set-TA01-TA02-NIP-/263004839478?epid=1608110328&hash=item3d3c4f5e36:g:6WAAAOSwX61ZKCIQ

Say not compatible with off road buggies but Percymon's rebuild thread here: 

Says otherwise.

Once I see what performance and temps are like with the kit alloy pinion I'll order a steel one with the correct teeth. Maybe get some hi-caps or GPM dampers if I'm not happy with the CVA's which are the newer poo non-tunable ones so not really Constant Volume 'Adjustable' at all. Looks like a nice car and semi pro apart from a couple of bits.

Carl.

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Quite a straight forward build other than one little problem! front prop drive that the manual stated it was in bag B (MB) but it isn't it's in bag C but other than that is pretty good but I forgot how much I hate those micro E clips!, I'll finish the body over the weekend 😉!

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Good afternoon.

I ordered a Top Force 2017 too. I bought the blue rims also.

Now I am looking for the best body color for my Top Force.

I prefer white body and blue decal and rims. But I need blue decals. Where can I buy blue decal?

If I use the white rims and green decal, which is the best body color?

 

Is the bottom cover included?

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2 minutes ago, Madcaper said:

Good afternoon.

I ordered a Top Force 2017 too. I bought the blue rims also.

Now I am looking for the best body color for my Top Force.

I prefer white body and blue decal and rims. But I need blue decals. Where can I buy blue decal?

If I use the white rims and green decal, which is the best body color?

 

Is the bottom cover included?

I think you can't go wrong with the box art green! But that's my personal choice everyone's different, I think your going to have to go down the reproduction (copies) road if you want the decals a different colour? Yeah you do get the under cover I'm not sure if I'm going to paint mine or leave it clear?

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my top force rere rere money has been spent on a mfc-03 so i wont be buying it again never mind i still have the original instead 

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2 hours ago, topforcein said:

my top force rere rere money has been spent on a mfc-03 so i wont be buying it again never mind i still have the original instead 

 I missed the original because life got in the way mortgage, house, kids then when the re-re came along I was still paying for my kids food, shoes, university etc you know the things that stop you having fun😉! Now they've flown the nest so to speak I wasn't going to miss it this time! 

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I have one more question about the 2017 Top Force.

How many ball bearings are used? Which set should I buy? Seidel sell a set from Carson which includes 22pcs. Stella sell a set which includes 26pcs.

In another threat I found a picture from the Top Force manual. It shows only 10pcs "850" because 16cs "1150" are in the kit  included.

bearing.PNG.d9404c459415996f085da5ac37b2df5d.PNG

 

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2 hours ago, Madcaper said:

 

I have one more question about the 2017 Top Force.

How many ball bearings are used? Which set should I buy? Seidel sell a set from Carson which includes 22pcs. Stella sell a set which includes 26pcs.

In another threat I found a picture from the Top Force manual. It shows only 10pcs "850" because 16cs "1150" are in the kit  included.

bearing.PNG.d9404c459415996f085da5ac37b2df5d.PNG

 

There's no ball bearing in the kit it's all metal bushings and 4 of the "850" bearing are for the steering so taking away them 4 "850" is 22 I never used the 4 for the steering no real point so it was 22 in my set! (Hope that helps!)

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7 hours ago, Madcaper said:

 

I have one more question about the 2017 Top Force.

How many ball bearings are used? Which set should I buy? Seidel sell a set from Carson which includes 22pcs. Stella sell a set which includes 26pcs.

In another threat I found a picture from the Top Force manual. It shows only 10pcs "850" because 16cs "1150" are in the kit  included.

bearing.PNG.d9404c459415996f085da5ac37b2df5d.PNG

 

For 2017 Top Force, 16x 1150 + 10x 850 including steering ballraces.

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I turn my back for 5 minutes...

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3 hours ago, Craving4Tamiya said:

Moffman, your story sounds like the perfect script/storyboard to a commercial for Tamiya re-res.

Ya right it does (when I've just read it back😄) but it's true!, Would the Tamiya commercial have a man quietly trying to hide his latest bought RC from the missus? Because if she new how much he's spent on them she'd have an absolute freak out?😉

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1 hour ago, moffman said:

Would the Tamiya commercial have a man quietly trying to hide his latest bought RC from the missus? Because if she new how much he's spent on them she'd have an absolute freak out?😉

Looks like that could be the script for a sequel to the first commercial!!! 😉  I stopped hiding my purchases from my wife a long time ago. She much prefers that I spend my spare time staring at the rear of an rc car and winking at a droop gauge over me doing the same with the rear of a young lass. 😁

 

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On 2017-6-23 at 11:01 PM, moffman said:

 I missed the original because life got in the way mortgage, house, kids then when the re-re came along I was still paying for my kids food, shoes, university etc you know the things that stop you having fun😉! Now they've flown the nest so to speak I wasn't going to miss it this time! 

i didnt buy the original either i opted for the manta ray and did start the converstion but swoped it for a pair of jamo d5 laser power speakersthat was back in 1993 i think 

my mate brought the topforce at the same time as i got the manta ray and we used them every sunday for a couple of hours then we just stoped using them and the topforce got put away and about 12 years back i asked him if he still had it and to my surprise he did so i asked him if i could buy it he said no but instead he gave it me along with a built unused hornet witch shocked me the paint on the shell wasnt to my likeing as it wasnt boxart so i managed to get a shell along with another manta ray of malcolm mc dougle of here already boxart colour.i would love to buy a new one but tbh i know it would never be used and i dont have the display space for it so i opted for the mfu instead 

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Great thread guys.

I'm easing back into things after a 30 year absence (!) and 4 builds with my kids is tempting me back into buggy racing.

Is the 2017 Top Force honestly better than, say, a Shumy CatXLS after being hopped up in the right places ?

I'm just thinking of something broadly competitive that's not going to cost more than £1k including a 7.5T ish brushless / sensored combo and reasonably sensitive   radio set.

Thanks in advance,

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After more than a year of inactivity I decided I really didn't want to miss out on this so made my way down to my LHS and picked one up. Fancied trying something other than green so went with Tamiya PS10 purple (although it's more blue than purple to my eye). I think it works quite well. I could have done a better job with the stickers, but it's a runner so I'm not too concerned :)

DSC_0244.thumb.JPG.69e3a65302c3629234fdb5191826d49c.JPG

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On 2017-6-23 at 3:45 PM, drcarlos said:

Just reading through the manual and saw the horrid Aluminium drive gear on about the 3rd page, remembered it was suggested that anything other than a silver can turned this into grinding paste so I have ordered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-50529-4WD-Touring-Rally-Car-Plastic-Gear-Set-TA01-TA02-NIP-/263004839478?epid=1608110328&hash=item3d3c4f5e36:g:6WAAAOSwX61ZKCIQ

Say not compatible with off road buggies but Percymon's rebuild thread here: 

Says otherwise.

Once I see what performance and temps are like with the kit alloy pinion I'll order a steel one with the correct teeth. Maybe get some hi-caps or GPM dampers if I'm not happy with the CVA's which are the newer poo non-tunable ones so not really Constant Volume 'Adjustable' at all. Looks like a nice car and semi pro apart from a couple of bits.

Carl.

Looking forward to seeing yours finished. I think I'll be ordering the plastic gear set. I was considering a hot motor for mine, but after seeing the performance with the kit silver can I think something more mild will be more than enough: maybe around 19/20 ish turns. What motor are you using? I'll need a decent pinion too, I'm just using the kit one at the moment, but I know from bitter experience I'd be better off using one made from cream cheese! :D

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On 25/06/2017 at 8:08 PM, SuperChamp82 said:

Is the 2017 Top Force honestly better than, say, a Shumy CatXLS after being hopped up in the right places ?

In a word, no. If it's all about competitive ability for you then spend another £50 and get the Masami CAT next month.

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On 6/23/2017 at 3:45 PM, drcarlos said:

Just reading through the manual and saw the horrid Aluminium drive gear on about the 3rd page, remembered it was suggested that anything other than a silver can turned this into grinding paste so I have ordered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-50529-4WD-Touring-Rally-Car-Plastic-Gear-Set-TA01-TA02-NIP-/263004839478?epid=1608110328&hash=item3d3c4f5e36:g:6WAAAOSwX61ZKCIQ

Say not compatible with off road buggies but Percymon's rebuild thread here: 

Says otherwise.

Once I see what performance and temps are like with the kit alloy pinion I'll order a steel one with the correct teeth. Maybe get some hi-caps or GPM dampers if I'm not happy with the CVA's which are the newer poo non-tunable ones so not really Constant Volume 'Adjustable' at all. Looks like a nice car and semi pro apart from a couple of bits.

Carl.

I had those crappy metal plungers in my DT03 kit. Aside from the fact it's well pony tamiya putting them in a £180 kit, I replaced mine with TRF shafts 54043 in my short shocks. All you need is some 2mm e clips and you can use the pistons on the damper body sprues.

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Oddly Tower Hobbies list twice in their description that the Top Force comes with bearings. Once in bold with other high lights and once in the features list where it says bearings: shielded for long life.  

The first Top Force re-release wound up being my very first new-built shelf queen. I put it together with the intention of running it and stood back and thought to myself "its too beautiful run (and possibly ruin it)". At the time we had no idea where or how long this re-release train would go. Sure the Lunch Box, Grasshopper, Frog and Hornet were around, but the Top Force, Thundershot, and Manta Ray disappeared in the blink of an eye. Now, all these years later, I'll get to run one, a buggy I could only dream about back in the early 90's.

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I just ordered a 2017 Top force kit off ebay for $184.99 from Omni models. Plus for some reason, eBay itself sent me a $15 off of a $75 purchase to use on anything. So it worked out to $169.99 shipped. Whats puzzling me is how Tower Hobbies does say it comes with ball bearings, and some on here are saying no it does not. Guess I'll wait to see. My recent Novafox build was a surprise with all but 4 bearings for the front wheels, the rest were provided in the kit, no mention of bearings in that kit at all.

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Well I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to build it, but with a global IT cyber attack and having to stay at home to co-ordinate restore efforts saw me yesterday have a long day with mad flurries of work interspaced with long periods of inactivity. I looked at the kit and got cracking. So by 5pm it was built. As was said it's fairly easy with the ball diffs requiring care and a steady hand but that's it. I had bought enough bearing to fully ball race it (including steering) and my plastic gearset arrived Monday so that went in.

So only the body left to cut out and paint now. Depending on what happens with work today depends on whether I start on those tasks, but I think I will get asked to go into the office to be able to do sod all.

i can confirm I had no bearings in my kit at all. As for the Fox/Novafox, it was always ballraced at the rear out of the box, I guess due to the racing pretensions.

Carl.

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21 minutes ago, drcarlos said:

Well I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to build it, but with a global IT cyber attack and having to stay at home to co-ordinate restore efforts saw me yesterday have a long day with mad flurries of work interspaced with long periods of inactivity. I looked at the kit and got cracking. So by 5pm it was built. As was said it's fairly easy with the ball diffs requiring care and a steady hand but that's it. I had bought enough bearing to fully ball race it (including steering) and my plastic gearset arrived Monday so that went in.

So only the body left to cut out and paint now. Depending on what happens with work today depends on whether I start on those tasks, but I think I will get asked to go into the office to be able to do sod all.

i can confirm I had no bearings in my kit at all. As for the Fox/Novafox, it was always ballraced at the rear out of the box, I guess due to the racing pretensions.

Carl.

At least some good came out of that cyber attack!

When my Novafix arrived I did some research as I knew nothing about them and found that the Novafox was ballraced except the front wheels as it was a way to improve runtime mostly, but of course overall performance increased too. Apparently the Fox wasn't ballraced though

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21 minutes ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

At least some good came out of that cyber attack!

When my Novafix arrived I did some research as I knew nothing about them and found that the Novafox was ballraced except the front wheels as it was a way to improve runtime mostly, but of course overall performance increased too. Apparently the Fox wasn't ballraced though

i can only quote based on experience with my brother Fox from the 80's. When he got it it was exactly like your Novafox, ballraced back end and nylon bushed in the front wheels. It was bog stock in all other ways so I assumed that it was supplied like this. We merely added a Kyosho Le-Mans 240ST motor and bearings on the front which made it fly!

Carl.

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