Old timer trying to get back in, Hi

[Hoyty 0]

I am new here and had a few questions. I started with Grasshopper in 1986. Then got Big Bear followed by Thunder Shot and finally a RC10 Graphite. Everything has basically been in a box since 1990 or so. It all moved from Italy back to US and then from one side of US to the other. Around 2000 I bought a TL-01 Lexus GS400 kit. I finally finished putting it together and painted just last week. I now see all my kits are considered vintage.

My first question is does the plastic get brittle at this age? I broke a mount off the TS front differential on first run on a track. Ordered replacement and going to rebuild soon. Not sure how old replacement parts are though. Also ordered some new aluminum shocks of ebay since those broke too.

Second question - Everything I have is Novak ESC. I see they died in last few years. I don't know any of the current ESC brands, is there a commonly recommended one? Just want simple reversing one that is reliable as my 30 year old T-1's are.

Third question - I have gotten the bug again maybe and have liked the re-re-release of Avante. I am confused by Base (58072) vs. Black (47390). It seems the Black has about $100 of hop-up parts but is usually less cost? Also why are some shops outside US hundreds of $ cheaper? Are they knock-offs or something?

Fourth question - I had to replace all my batteries and got some of the Dynamite Speedpacks. I got some of the 5100 mAh (wow, my best was 1700 back in the day) but it was too big to fit my cars and had to return and got a 3300 and 2400. the 5100 was just fractionally larger but enough. Are all the larger power cells slightly bigger than the old 1200 / 1700 Tamiya packs?

Last question - If I do buy a new kit like Avante I will need some radio gear. All my old stuff is Futaba and other than my stupid battery leak stuff it still works great. It seems Futaba left the 2 channel market for most part. Any recommendations for reliable yet inexpensive 2 channel brands?

Thanks for any answers. Been lurking around here for a month or so and lots of great memories for me.

[Jonathon Gillham 4607]

Welcome back.

USA has MAP pricing which makes them far more expensive compared to the Hong Kong based sellers, but once you add in shipping and taxes they are probably much closer. They're not fakes.

The go to ESC for general running are the Hobbywing 1060 for brushed, or Tamiya TBLE-02S if you want the option of silvercan brushed motors or brushless motors. I prefer the TBLE-02S for my backyard runners as I usually run silvercans and if I upgarde I go with brushless rather than brushed motors. Check out Hobbywing as they do a whole range which are good quality at good prices.

Yep the cells are bigger. I have 3800 packs and they fit the Fox, Monster Beetle and Boomerang but not a F103. 

Radio gear - most decent car gear is 3 - 7 channel now, there aren't many 2 channel sets around. You don't need more than 2 channels but the 4 channel receivers are useful as you can power a fan and transponder if racing. I like Futaba, the quality is great, performs well and its cheaper than Sanwa. Look at the 3PV which has 10 model memory and all the functions you'll need, or the 4PV/4PM if you have the budget. Otherwise the 3PKRA performs well but is much more basic.

There are cheap ones like Flysky which do the job but they just feel cheap and the response rate is lower. It doesn't matter for backyard bashing but high end gear is much nicer. It may seem like a lot to spend upfront but you'll have it forever. There are a lot of rebranded Flysky sets out there as well. The major benefit of Flysky is the receivers are very cheap, like about USD7 cheap, so its very cheap to set up the fleet. Or you can buy a couple of sets so others can use them too.

Chargers have also come a long way. For not much money you can pick up a charger that does all types of battery and charge in less than 30min. I have found SkyRC to be good. I have the S60 but would look at the D100 as it does 2 batteries at once

[Champ85 609]

First of all, welcome to TamiyaClub!

Now, your questions:

2 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

My first question is does the plastic get brittle at this age?

Yes it does.  Some plastics get more brittle with age while others not as much.  But there are definitely some plastics used in Tamiya kits that become easier to break as they get old.

4 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

Second question - Everything I have is Novak ESC. I see they died in last few years. I don't know any of the current ESC brands, is there a commonly recommended one?

Yeah, Novak decided to close shop a couple of years ago.  I think the influx of cheaper non-US manufacturers was taking its toll and Bob was ready to retire.  I'm sure others will have suggestions for ESCs.  I generally use a Tamiya TEU-105BK or Tamiya TBLE-02S with brushed motors.  I've heard that the Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 is a good choice also.

9 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

I am confused by Base (58072) vs. Black (47390)

58072 is the original Avante.  58489 is the re-released version from 2011.  47390 is the Black version of the 2011 model.

11 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

It seems the Black has about $100 of hop-up parts but is usually less cost?

Yeah, this is certainly odd.  I just looked at Tower Hobbies, and sure enough the Black edition is a lot less than the regular version.  It might have to do with the new MAP pricing that Tamiya is now enforcing, but not really sure.

13 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

Also why are some shops outside US hundreds of $ cheaper? Are they knock-offs or something?

No, they generally are not knock-offs, especially if you are looking at the usual Asian sites like RCMart, Stellamodels or Banzaihobby.  Within the past year, Tamiya has decide to implement MAP pricing in the US/North America and maybe some other countries.  MAP stands for "Minimum Advertised Price", and it is tactic used by manufacturers to ensure that the prices customers see stay above a certain level.  Any distributor or retailer that does not adhere to MAP pricing is subject to restricted access to stock or possibly terminated from carrying Tamiya entirely.  To me, it's some mumbo-jumbo garbage about "creating value in the eyes of the consumer" and is supposedly a marketing tactic to keep or add value to the brand that would otherwise supposedly look "cheap" with non-MAP pricing.  IMO, it's just a way for Tamiya to ensure their kits are not sold too cheaply.  When you buy from overseas, they call it "grey market" and you do not get warranty service.  It is not illegal to buy a kit from overseas, but they sure wish it was.  Sometimes the price difference is too great to ignore, even after adding shipping costs.

26 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

Are all the larger power cells slightly bigger than the old 1200 / 1700 Tamiya packs?

In my experience with NiCd and NiMH packs, the 2000 to 3000 NiMh packs are about the same size as the original 1200 - 1900 NiCd packs. At least close enough to fit in most cases that I've seen.  The 5000 NiMH packs, however, are a bit thicker and longer which could make them hard or impossible to fit into certain restrictive battery holders of some models.  

24 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

Any recommendations for reliable yet inexpensive 2 channel brands?

I'd recommend going to the "All Things Electric..." forum here and poking around.  This question has been asked before for sure.   You will find answers to your "which ESC" as well, I think.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/forum/34-all-things-electric/

[Hoyty 0]

Thanks for all the great info. One interesting statement you made

11 minutes ago, Champ85 said:

you do not get warranty service

What is warranty on a self built RC model kit? I guess I never thought about that anyway.

[Champ85 609]

11 minutes ago, Hoyty said:

What is warranty on a self built RC model kit? I guess I never thought about that anyway.

If the kit is missing a part, for instance.  If you didn't buy it "in-country" with proof via invoice from authorized reseller, the in-country distributor may not honor sending replacements since it is deemed "grey market".  But these days, at least with Tamiya and the USA (in my case), it's easier to buy replacements from eBay or Asian resellers anyway, so grey market doesn't concern me and I don't care about warranty.

[ThunderDragonCy 7886]

Welcome! Although there is a bunch of good I do here, if your novak and futaba gear still works then use it. I got back into the sport a couple of years ago and I still use my acoms 27mhz and some futaba 40mhz AM radios for some of my cars. Novak ESCs are meant to be amazing and you pick up pretty hot brushed motors for really cheap now too, so don't automatically assume you need to junk the gear you have just because it's old. My oldest ACOMS 27mhz radio is over 30 years old and I still use it! 

[Palfertronic 74]

Dont dump the old 27 mhz gear just yet!

I have spent the last couple of years buying up old RC cars off Ebay...after a fresh battery is installed, about 90% work straight away!

Some of these are 30 -40  years old!

Another vote for Quicrun 1060 ESC s...for general use, they are pretty much bulletproof!

As for battery packs, I have bought 2400 mAh packs for my fleet, and they fit just fine in "vintage" Tamiyas, they are twice the capacity of your old 1200s, so plenty of run time...

Welcome back!