What other truck should I buy

[ST 0]

Hi, today I went around my local model shops to purchase another Monster truck to accompany my Wild Dagger, because my son wants one. Well actually I bought the Wild Dagger for my son, and I was having so much fun with it that I wouldn't let him have it. Eventually I had to give in because he's pretty big for his age and he's still only nine[]. So the truth is that I want one now, but I'm afraid that the only two reasonable contenders I found were either another Dagger or a King Blackfoot. The salesman assured me that the blackfoot is actually faster than the dagger (both with standard motors). I really did fancy a model other than the dagger and the thought that I could beat my son pleased me more[}], because there would be nothing more humiliating than getting beaten my own 9 year old son[!]. Well folks, any comments about the Blackfoot?

Regards

[Whitewalls 0]

hi stephen

i have a king blackfoot & i love it. i had an original blackfoot when they came out in the 80s, & i have to say that tamiya seem to have sorted all the probs i found back then.......the drivetrain & susupension mainly are much improved, & your shop is right, it is surprisingly quick out of the box. having never run a dagger i cant comment on a comparison. also the body on the KB looks awesome doesnt it??lol

hope it helps

paul

[aconsola(2) 0]

I know this is the tamiya forum and all, and I love my tamiyas, but if you really want a good runner electric truck, I'd suggest looking at the Stampede from traxxas. The kit is less expensive than any tamiya truck, and it includes a slipper clutch, bearings for the transmission, and oil-filled shocks.

There are a host of upgrades for it, and they are quite sturdy.The body leaves something to be desired, but if you run it a lot, no body will look good for long.

Just a thought,

-Anthony

[jwc74 0]

I certainly understand where the previous tamiya member is coming from - for the money nothing beats the Stampede. However, putting one together can be an excercise in frustration as it WILL NOT assemble as nicely as either of the Tamiya vehicles. Furthermore, you will quickly realize that the quality and feel of the plastics is several notches below that of a Tamiya.

Having built and run all three of these vehicles (Stampede, King Blackfoot, and Wild Dagger) I think it's safe to say that out of the box the Stampede will be the fastest and best handling of all three trucks.

But I, like many people around here are hund up on Tamiya, so we'll talk a little about the Dagger and the 'Foot. The biggrst different between these two trucks is that the WD if 4WD and the KB is 2WD. As well, the WD comes with a light polycarbonate body and the KB comes with a hard plastic body - very nice, but it makes the truck very top heavy and prone to rolling. I could not believe the improvement in performance I got by installing a polycarbonate body on my KB - night and day!

The WD is a more modern design than the KB. While the KB has been improved over the original, it still has an archaic front suspension that has about 1/2 the suspension travel of the Stampede. The plastic friction shocks don't help the matter, either. I feel the WD, even though it too comes with friction shocks (my biggest "beef" with Tamiya vehicles), has a more fluid suspension, even if the travel is still very limited.

Out of the box the KB might be slightly faster, only because it has less gears and less weight. It will cost much less to install bearings into the KB (the WD takes 24 compared to 12 I think for the KB) Furthermore motor upgrades with the KB will be much cheaper as it has 1 motor compared to 2 for the WD.

So, if you can get a ploycarbonate body, a few bearings and some nice Duratrax gold anodized aluminum shocks for your KB, it would be a very nice truck.

Or you could save yourself a pile of money and get the Stampede, which will likely waste your son's WD out of the box. But that would be so very un-Tamiya wouldn't it? jwc

[ST 0]

As much as I love the Wild Dagger, I most certainly wouldn't get another one, not with stock motors, shocks or speed controller. Today we had a few more 'friendly' races and a small ramp was added on the track, I was really dissapointed of how poorly the Wild Dagger handled it. It always nose-dived, due to the fact that it's front heavy relative to the others, mostly modified Monster Beetles and a super fast Blitzer. The Dagger's superiority only showed in turns (thanks to 4WD) where I almost always tackled them on full throttle and the others either had to slow down or run wide run wide and onto the tall grass and get stuck there, at least when that happened to me I just get out of it relatively easy. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade it with any other truck because I know that the dagger has potential with some expensive trade offs, it's just that I want something different. About the Stampede, it actually was first on my list, but I could not find it locally (Malta), so that means I have to send for it outside my country and I'm just like a little kid, I want it NOW[!].

Thanks for your help, I will buy the Blackfoot tomorrow, and the first thing I would change would probably be the body for a lighter one.

Regards