Buying old nib kits for bashing

[TDanny 146]

Hi Guys,

This week I spotted a nice NIB Tamiya Dual Hunter at my LHS and was thinking about buying it for making a good runner/basher. Before I convinced myself to hit the "BUY" button I started thinking about how these old NIB kits will take the beating. Don't get me wrong, I know that Tamiya makes high quality stuff and their plastics are over this world but the fact is that this car is sitting on the shelf for more than 10 years now. It wont be a problem if I wanted a shelf queen or so but what about bashing these old kits. Will they take the beating like new kits or they break more easily? Any toughts on this would be welcome.

Best regards,

TDanny

[waterbok 1282]

Dual Hunter ain't that old and you still can get all parts. Just upgrade to alloy shocktowers. That's where the plastic takes the biggest hits.

[markbt73 5316]

I don't know about "taking a beating," but yes, it should hold up to use as well as it would have 10 years ago. Plastic doesn't degrade that fast unless it has been sitting in the sun.

[Maverick74 63]

Just remember,  plastic does brittle with age.  You may see parts that are NOS but will depend how it was stored for a NOS suspension arm for a Tamiya Falcon stored in a basement will hold up better than one stored in an attic or shed.  I wasn’t the believer in this until I experienced it first hand just hitting small little jumps.  If it were me it would all depend how supplied the market is in obtaining extra parts.  The last thing you want to do is pay 80.00 for a shock tower that use to cost 4.99.  I am right there with you.  Just giving my opinion,  

[87lc2 2666]

If it's only 10 years old and been in the box the whole time it should be fine.  However, cars that approach 15-20 years old are definitely more fragile as the plastic ages.  Can't tell you how many original Clodbusters, TA01/02s, etc I've bought used and had to replace pretty much every plastic part at some point due to cracking (other than nylon gears, they seem to hold up pretty well regardless).  Definitely has a lot to do with how they were stored, but there's no way getting around the plastic aging poorly at some point.

[Juggular 4964]

56 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

If it's only 10 years old and been in the box the whole time it should be fine.

I agree.  It seems UV or ozone in the house are two biggest destroyers of plastics (and rubber).  

WR01 chassis is capable of much greater articulation.  You can get shock towers and install bigger shocks.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALLOY-FRONT-REAR-DAMPER-SHOCK-TOWER-PLATE-B-TAMIYA-WILD-DAGGER-TWIN-DETONATOR/380522732009?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

[waterbok 1282]

8 hours ago, Maverick74 said:

Just remember,  plastic does brittle with age.  You may see parts that are NOS but will depend how it was stored for a NOS suspension arm for a Tamiya Falcon stored in a basement will hold up better than one stored in an attic or shed.  I wasn’t the believer in this until I experienced it first hand just hitting small little jumps.  If it were me it would all depend how supplied the market is in obtaining extra parts.  The last thing you want to do is pay 80.00 for a shock tower that use to cost 4.99.  I am right there with you.  Just giving my opinion, 

Thats the good thing with the WR01/WT01 is still an actual chassis and on sale so spare parts are not NOS but NNS (Blackfoot III, Mudblaster II, Wild Willy Family)

[Stefan(2) 89]

I don't see a issue,  i recently punished ( driving skills .. not so good ) some models who where sitting on a shelf / in a box for over 10 years..

Slapped some gas in it, some small fixes.. and off they go ..

And those where already older models before they went into the box !

 

NIB they are far better protected 

[TDanny 146]

Today I placed my order for the Dualhunter and a few minutes later my LHS called me that there was a stock problem on their site and the DH is no more available  

But they offered me a NIB Double Blaze... what do you guys  think? Its even more old than the DH but nice little truck. Will it be ok for bashing? 

[MICHAELs TopForce17 586]

According to tamiyabase it’s the same chassis as dualhunter and the last year made was 2008. Not that old and it’s a NIB so you should be good!

https://tamiyabase.com/?option=com_joodb&view=article&joobase=21&id=78&Itemid=1063#models-with-wr-01-chassis

[waterbok 1282]

13 hours ago, TDanny said:

Today I placed my order for the Dualhunter and a few minutes later my LHS called me that there was a stock problem on their site and the DH is no more available  

But they offered me a NIB Double Blaze... what do you guys  think? Its even more old than the DH but nice little truck. Will it be ok for bashing? 

Much cooler body, identical chassis, go get it.

[nowinaminute 2815]

There's no hard and fast rule from what I can make out. The vast majority of my collection is Tamiya and Nikko and there's only a vague correlation between age and how brittle the plastic is.

I think storage conditions play a much larger role. I've had two identical 33 year old Nikko buggies from the same year and one has nice strong plastic that still flexes and perfect tyres, the other was literally crumbling and the tyres had turned to goo. It's the same with Tamiya, some age better than others.

Long term storage in extremes of temperatures or humidity seems to play a large factor. I have a small collection of genuine Nikko spares and the stuff that was sealed has held up perfectly but some of the stuff that wasn't sealed has small cracks in the usual places such as where screws hold a gearbox casing together and other areas of high stress.

Has plastic gotten better over the years too? Certainly none of my Nikko stuff from the mid 90s and onwards seems to be affected. Its a simialr story with Tamiya plastics. I know it's easy to say that's because it's younger but you'd think some of this stuff would be starting to show signs of fatigue now that it's starting to hit 25 years.

I think sometimes the plastic from different batches ages better than others too. I have never seen A Nikko Dictator MK1 that didn't have cracked wheel adapters and usually cracks around the gearbox screws and shock towers too and yet I have never seen a Dictator mk3 with the same problems even though they are only about 36 months apart.

I also had two Nikko Hurricanes, both the same year but one made in Malaysia and the other in Japan. The Japanese one was like glass but the Malaysian one you could hammer nails in with it and it would be fine.

So to sum up, what I'm basically trying to say is that I haven't got a clue 😂🤣😂

I think there's a good chance it will be fine though if it has been stored in half decent conditions. Anything vaguely room temperature and moderate humidity and it will probably be just fine.