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Grumpy pants

Kyosho Beetle Information Quest!

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So I’ve been after one of these since they were rereleased in 2014 but for one reason or another I’ve never bought one, however this was listed on eBay and the advert spammed Tamiya so it got my attention and it was considerably cheaper than a new kit.

It is a vintage model with a possibly a TBG body and maybe originally a Scorpion?

Any information you can share with me and even better still a link to a manual would be really helpful, the plan is too one day in the distant future strip it down and run it on the beach 😊   

I don’t have any use for the Scorpion body or wheels so they will be sold on, if they have any value.  

 

171EF9D8-9D80-4904-A3D8-03014F177053.jpeg

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(may belong in Kyosho subforum)

Hmm...  I will need more pics. But what I can tell you...

Scorpion/Parts

  • Front and Rear tyres are vintage (they are also the ultra rare Goodyear ones, which came in only the earliest of the vintage kits of Scorpion, Beetle and Tomahawk)
  • Front bumper is not related to either of these models.
  • Body - I am unsure.

Beetle

  • Body does not seem original, and probably not Kyosho (therefore it is probably TBG)
  • Front bumper is non-original/non-Kyosho?
  • Rear tyres are Kyosho remake tyres (released with the remake Scorpion, Beetle and Tomahawk - I can tell because they have more knobs per row in the tread pattern)

Feel free to contact me via website Grumpy, if you want to continue nerding out about what's original with these buggies ^_^  Many years ago, I paid dearly to obtain a new in box original Kyosho Beetle. It cost me over $2000, and as far as I know its one of only a handful of NIB kits of the original Kyosho Beetle, left on Earth... or at least, I am only aware of one or two others. I will never, ever build it :D  So at least it gives me/us/everyone a chance to learn precisely (from one kit) what parts an original Kyosho Beetle kit officially contained.

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Superb, that’s gives me a good head start thank you.

More pictures to follow! 

Do the Beetle, Scorpion and Tomahawk all use the same components a bit like the SRB’s with different body shells, posts and wheels? 

Are the parts rerelease parts useable on my vintage model? 

The Scorpion body set and tyres will definitely be sold on then,

The front bumper  can be repurposed by me or donated to a TC member.

Can you tell me anything about the decal set? 

It looks and feels vintage and reads Kyosho Beetle but don’t look like the right set for this model. 

The only way this purchase will work for me is as a hybrid runner (vintage and rerelease parts)  and ensuring the cost of it comes in a lot Lowe than a new kit. 

The whole bundle inc P & P owes me £113 and the cheapest kit was £210 inc delivery. 

 

 

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16 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

1. Do the Beetle, Scorpion and Tomahawk all use the same components a bit like the SRB’s with different body shells, posts and wheels? 

2. Are the parts rerelease parts useable on my vintage model? 

3. Can you tell me anything about the decal set?  It looks and feels vintage and reads Kyosho Beetle but don’t look like the right set for this model.

Numbered for convenience :P

1. Kind of yes, with a few differences. The Tomahawk was released in 1983 and had a differential included and a better speed control with electronic transistor, the other two didn't have these (they were released in 1982, and the diff was optional at that time). So there are definitely a few differences in the kits, but they are based on the same platform - these cars were effectively Kyosho's answer to Tamiya's SRBs, but were lighter and faster and they redefined 1/10 racing when they came out.

Tyres in these kits started out as: Block pattern "Goodyear". Then changed to Block pattern "Sand Super". Later, the Tomahawk kit also received the Spike pattern "Sand Super' tyres, which were standard in the Turbo Scorpion (1985).

There were other variants in the kits also, mainly concerning the Scorpion kit. - e.g. earlier ones had disc style wheels without holes. I am not aware of variants in the Beetle kit other than the tyre wording issue (mentioned above). But the kit did have 3 different releases: Kyosho (original), Cox (USA), and Graupner (Germany).

2. When Kyosho released remakes of these models, they largely did not use the original molds because they had been lost. So Kyosho had to redesign the models from scratch. I don't own any of the remakes currently, but from what I have seen (and heard from others) they are entirely different and very few parts are even interchangeable due to size/fit issues.

3. Interesting. Those decals are not the ones from the Kyosho remake (which are very different to the original). They resemble the originals a bit... but while they contain most of the same logos from original decal sheet I have, the decals are configured differently. Perhaps these are related to the TBG body and maybe they are reproduction decals? I am not familiar with the reproductions.

Additionally - it's worth mentioning that the original decals supplied in the original Kyosho kit were not enough to create the appearance of the box art photo car. Some decals were used from other Kyosho kits for the photo (I have researched this extensively and sourced most of them). And the stripes were not produced by Kyosho at all - they would have needed to be painted.:o

And this brings me to one of the very few occasions where I would ever personally mix vintage with remake - the remake Beetle kit came with a second set of decals containing the stripes etc :)  Since this was the first time Kyosho had ever produced those stripes and no original stripe decals exist, I'd be ok using the new stripes on a vintage model (since painting the stripes is going to be a massively tricky task and probably end up looking rubbish with my skillz :D ).

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The Scorpion body set has now been sold and posted today and the tyre set is next.

I’ve started to think about selling the car  now as I’ve just spent quite a lot on a Super Champ. 

Not sure yet which way to go, will revisit this over the weekend.

 

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The car has now been sold to someone who will restore it and run it on the beach 👍

I’d like to think that I’ll pick another on of these up as a long term keeper 😊

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