Snake Plissken 0 Posted April 6, 2005 I noticed that Tamiya released these two buggies almost together (one month apart). That means that at some point during 1985 Tamiya had on the drawing board two distinctly different designs: the Fox, with it's high performance handling but not-so-scale looks, and the Wild One, with it's high scale realism but not so good handling. I wonder what was the reason for this double release: Did Tamiya try to appeal to the racing crowd AND to the scale people (realizing that a scale buggy can't be competitive enough)? If so, did the low sales of the Wild One compared to the Fox (just an assumption here...) discouraged Tamiya from releasing more scale buggies since? I wonder how successful a modern scale looking buggy would be these days, say based on the new DT-02 chassis (Super Fighter G) but with a Rough Rider/Wild One type body… Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mud4fun 1696 Posted April 6, 2005 Good point, although from my experience with scale R/C cars such as Sand Scorcher, Rough Rider and other hard ABS plastic bodies such as ClodBuster they break too easily when rolled. This means either you drive the car really carefully, leave the car on the shelf or be prepared for high parts costs. A lexan bodied vehicle will take far more abuse and cost less but doesn't look as scale. However, Tamiya do generally make the most 'scale' looking lexan shells and most touring cars look very 'to scale'. I prefer to run my cars so I have replaced the ABS shells on many of them with lexan alternatives anyway. The chassis design is something else. Tamiya generally try and make full use of a given chassis for ALL applications from scale model to entry level race car, hence the TL01 chassis is used on a bewildering array of vehicles, some scale some not. I think prior to the touring car boom Tamiya made different chassis for different applications but realised that to keep up with the competition and to reduce costs having a single chassis was a better option. Market forces drive most of Tamiyas decisions surely? I guess most people buying these R/C cars want reliability, strength and speed rather than outright realism. The number of youngsters that I see in my LHS drooling over 'jelly mould shaped plastic none scale heaps of junk that go insanely fast' far outways the number like me who drool over the scale looking slower models such as Tamiya Dump Truck/big rigs. If you want scale looks then you can always buy Nikko - seriously, they produced a gorgeous 1/6th? scale Toyota Hi-Lux shell that had fully detailed interior, opening doors, lights etc, etc and all for a really cheap price. The chassis was rubbish but the shell looked pretty good. I've not seen anything from Tamiya that came close in terms of scale appearance since mid 80's except for the extremely expensive Tractor units and Tanks. It is odd that Kids toys are now getting more scale looking than Tamiya cars - what a turn around in such a short space of time. I was admiring the latest Bratz vehicles in Toys'R'us last saturday. They get better and better, look very close to scale as well. They are also quite big so would I'm sure make excellet conversion onto a suitable Tamiya chassis. They were a couple of scale looking ATV and Buggies in there as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bholio 0 Posted April 6, 2005 quote:Good point, although from my experience with scale R/C cars such as Sand Scorcher, Rough Rider and other hard ABS plastic bodies such as ClodBuster they break too easily when rolled. id="quote">id="quote"> Its ironic that the ClodBuster and Jugg bodies are about as far from scale looking as you can get from a real 1:1 monster truck. Lexan bodies are perfect replicas of 1:1 monster truck bodies. 1:1 monster trucks use fake plastic bodies with headlight painted on and cheesy graphics and slogans. No metal. No chrome. Some don't even try to look like a real truck. A full size Traxxas t-maxx monster truck has recently been built for competition. The body looks just like the 1/10 one. http://www.t-maxx.com/ I think thats kinda funny. I do agree about how nice the toy RC car bodies are looking these days. Check out the newBright 1:6 Hummer H2 and avalanche. Really nice... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
grusomkis 0 Posted April 12, 2005 quote:Originally posted by bholio Its ironic that the ClodBuster and Jugg bodies are about as far from scale looking as you can get from a real 1:1 monster truck. Lexan bodies are perfect replicas of 1:1 monster truck bodies. 1:1 monster trucks use fake plastic bodies with headlight painted on and cheesy graphics and slogans. No metal. No chrome. Some don't even try to look like a real truck. id="quote">id="quote">In the days when the Clodbuster was made, monstertrucks did look like that. Check this for example http://www.monstertruckracing.com/tribute/.../bearfoot63.jpg I also have a video from the eighties with a MT called Taurus. it looks exactly like the Clodbuster. It even has a Van just like Vanessas Lunch box Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
