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What has been the least popular tamiya model?

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On 7/22/2019 at 2:38 PM, markbt73 said:

Lightning, made by Yonezawa, sold in "complete" kit form (radio included) in the USA by Monogram Models:

img37_26052012225221_1.jpg

Aristo-Craft/Hitec Kangaroo, almost certainly made by some Japanese company but I don't know who. Sold by Aristo-Craft (now Hitec) as an RTR, the first that I know of to include an ESC.

img19069_25062010191653_1.jpg

I quite like the Lightning/land Dash in red.

img470_22112014143423_3_1100_.thumb.jpg.6876fe2c4e02b95f5b2fd530dc556b9f.jpg

As for the other one, not sure I can say much in its defence and I usually like an underdog! It's just too busy and too many things going on at once.

kangaroo_ad1.thumb.jpg.3ba35b3c07714821a721a7199c615264.jpg

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5 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

I quite like the Lightning/land Dash in red.

img470_22112014143423_3_1100_.thumb.jpg.6876fe2c4e02b95f5b2fd530dc556b9f.jpg

 

Oh wow! My brother and I had a pair of those as kids, pre Tamiya like. I’d never quite remembered the name ( Land something) till you posted this. One was red, not sure if the other was blue. Lots of fun, but plagued by those really short battery lives. Of course they’re long gone, but fond memories :)

a little search makes me think mine was silver

img15829_16052010210240_4.jpg

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5 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

Aristo-Craft/Hitec Kangaroo, almost certainly made by some Japanese company but I don't know who. Sold by Aristo-Craft (now Hitec) as an RTR, the first that I know of to include an ESC.

img19069_25062010191653_1.jpg

I had the chain driven 4wd version, the Dolphin. The front knuckle disintegrated on the first test drive for no apparent reason. After finding a replacement, I didn't have any other problems. It was uninspiring, but serviceable. I think all Aristocraft vehicles were based on roughly the same architecture. I remember the Kangaroo, Dolphin and Koala buggies and the Wildebeest and Mammoth (although I've only seen the Mammoth referred to in print, never pictured) monster trucks. The Wildebeest just might be ugliest RC truck I've laid eyes on (as usual, just my opinion, not meant to offend any Wildebeest fans out there). Aristocraft did make one of the first truck pulling sleds, the draggin' wagon which was actually pretty good looking.

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59 minutes ago, jupitertwo said:

Oh wow! My brother and I had a pair of those as kids, pre Tamiya like. I’d never quite remembered the name ( Land something) till you posted this. One was red, not sure if the other was blue. Lots of fun, but plagued by those really short battery lives. Of course they’re long gone, but fond memories :)

a little search makes me think mine was silver

Yonezawa sold it as the Land Dash and also the Missiler with a different shell:

img470_24112014143007_3_1100_.thumb.jpg.d82bf89c8302472a1ef675348a6d1080.jpg

They were pretty cool buggies, definitely an entry level hobbygrade in an RTR package IMO. Not a high tech hobby grade but certainly in the realms of a Grasshopper but with the power of a Hornet. and you can swap the plastic bearings out for real ones which is pretty cool.

Monogram sold their own rebadged versions known as the Thunder and Lightning with the benefit of proper parts support.

A year or so later, Radcon aka Digitcon aka Suncon aka Jetcon (phew!) made a clone of it that was admittedly excellent and had an ingenious battery compartment with a 3 position switch that allowed access to either the main 7.2v battery tray or the compartment for the AA batteries depending on the switch position. This model gained the most fame when Radio Shack sold it as the Red Arrow:

s-l1000.jpg.3808e91fc28012b478da0cb44c83a53f.jpg

The Red Arrow was like a best kept secret because it offered the same Mabuchi 540 performance of the range topping Golden Arrow but at a significantly lower price!

I will stop waffling now!

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12 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

The Red Arrow was like a best kept secret because it offered the same Mabuchi 540 performance of the range topping Golden Arrow but at a significantly lower price!

...along with the largest bumper ever created by mankind! Honestly though, looking at all these bumpers, manufacturers sure knew kids were going to crash into stuff. You're spot-on about the Red Arrow being a nice little performance secret in the Radio Shack range.

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I remember being really tempted by the Lightning and Thunder, because I was (and still am) a big fan of Monogram's static kits. But the local hobby shop owner pointed out that the included radio couldn't really be transferred to another car later, so if (I mean, when) I wanted another vehicle, I'd have to buy a radio anyway. But it was a nice well-thought-out package. 

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21 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I had the chain driven 4wd version, the Dolphin. The front knuckle disintegrated on the first test drive for no apparent reason. After finding a replacement, I didn't have any other problems. It was uninspiring, but serviceable. I think all Aristocraft vehicles were based on roughly the same architecture. I remember the Kangaroo, Dolphin and Koala buggies and the Wildebeest and Mammoth (although I've only seen the Mammoth referred to in print, never pictured) monster trucks. The Wildebeest just might be ugliest RC truck I've laid eyes on (as usual, just my opinion, not meant to offend any Wildebeest fans out there). Aristocraft did make one of the first truck pulling sleds, the draggin' wagon which was actually pretty good looking.

Whoa...I've never even seen ANY of those buggies other than the Kangaroo! I learned something new today! :P

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23 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I had the chain driven 4wd version, the Dolphin. The front knuckle disintegrated on the first test drive for no apparent reason. After finding a replacement, I didn't have any other problems. It was uninspiring, but serviceable. I think all Aristocraft vehicles were based on roughly the same architecture. I remember the Kangaroo, Dolphin and Koala buggies and the Wildebeest and Mammoth (although I've only seen the Mammoth referred to in print, never pictured) monster trucks. The Wildebeest just might be ugliest RC truck I've laid eyes on (as usual, just my opinion, not meant to offend any Wildebeest fans out there)

I liked the Dolphin a lot more, still not a looker but certainly better and the addition of the chain was ever so cool. I found the Wildebeest awesome for the same reasons, it apparently drives really nice for an MT because of the buggy underpinnings.

I would definitely agree about the body shell though, it looks like what you might get if you were at a loss for your kids birthday cake and your friend said "I know someone on facebook who makes birthday cakes, they are really good!"

Usually, when you persue a vintage model, everything you find is let down by a damaged or missing shell. In the case of the Wildebeest it would be a blessing.

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13 hours ago, NWarty said:

Whoa...I've never even seen ANY of those buggies other than the Kangaroo! I learned something new today! :P

I've learned about a whole new world of rc that I didn't know existed. When I was first into rc in my early teens, i only knew about Tamiya and Kyosho, i didn't see any of these other kits in the hobby shops I went into.

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On 7/22/2019 at 11:38 PM, markbt73 said:

Aristo-Craft/Hitec Kangaroo, almost certainly made by some Japanese company

Aristocraft was Korean. An early example of Korea trying to get in on the action, and I have to say, they did ok too. They didn't simply rip off and counterfeit everything. And the Aristocraft buggies (Kangaroo, Dolphin and Koala) were at times.... raced in some competitions.

Also...

On 7/24/2019 at 6:04 AM, nowinaminute said:

Yonezawa sold it as the Land Dash and also the Missiler with a different shell:

Yeah, so...

Yonezawa is the original manufacturer of these. The Land Dash and Missiler (both released in 1984) were the original incarnations of them.

Here's a Land Dash in box I sold a while back. I actually love the action photo on the box of this model.

image.png.230444d163fba09264f8028451a31f4c.png

https://rctoymemories.com/items-for-sale/for-sale-2-yonezawa-land-dash/

Monogram bought them from Yonezawa, and sold them in the US an elsewhere under the other names - like "Lightning" etc.

The Red Arrow meanwhile, was manufactured in Taiwan by a little known company called Radcon

It was in fact, the Radcon Wild Fox...

image.thumb.png.81b87fbc3bfe9fab398beaca4ec0adb1.png

 

Tandy/Radio Shack purchased this model, and re-sold it under their branding as the Red Arrow. This complimented the naming of the "Golden Arrow" they already had, which had in fact been custom manufactured for Radio Shack, by Nikko.

Red Arrow...  https://rctoymemories.com/2017/01/28/tandy-radio-shack-red-arrow-buggy-1988/

image.thumb.png.24b2aa4ad36fd6950e55bdc675c2e688.png

 

Golden Arrow...

https://rctoymemories.com/2013/04/29/tandy-radio-shack-golden-arrow-1987/

image.png.bff36efa16f0907bc1229fa19d132934.png

 

 

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Apologies to @nowinaminute as I just realized I have repeated some info he already posted - but you get the idea ^_^  We are both nerds for some of these lesser known models.

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Some great info and memories from this thread!

In this era I was still running the Frog I got for Christmas 1984, trying hard to keep it competitive with my brothers Fox which he was starting to enter in local races. Our kid sister wanted in on the action and was given a Taiyo Jet Hopper which wasn’t a bad little thing and hugely popular here in Oz. They must have sold 1,000s of those things.

ED8A5873-FA0E-49E5-B8BF-42F66F2C61B8.thumb.jpeg.f071b1bcbbfde42e933d488d602c8afb.jpeg

She ran it for a while and eventually upgraded to a Hornet, but by then her older brothers were into road cars, F1s for me (Adelaide had the Grand Prix in the late 80’s, still my passion today) and an RM 956 for middle bro. 

What great times!!

 

 

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44 minutes ago, Hibernaculum said:

Apologies to @nowinaminute as I just realized I have repeated some info he already posted - but you get the idea ^_^  We are both nerds for some of these lesser known models.

Lol cut from the same cloth in that department!

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10 minutes ago, rjg1973 said:

Some great info and memories from this thread!

In this era I was still running the Frog I got for Christmas 1984, trying hard to keep it competitive with my brothers Fox which he was starting to enter in local races. Our kid sister wanted in on the action and was given a Taiyo Jet Hopper which wasn’t a bad little thing and hugely popular here in Oz. They must have sold 1,000s of those things.

ED8A5873-FA0E-49E5-B8BF-42F66F2C61B8.thumb.jpeg.f071b1bcbbfde42e933d488d602c8afb.jpeg

She ran it for a while and eventually upgraded to a Hornet, but by then her older brothers were into road cars, F1s for me (Adelaide had the Grand Prix in the late 80’s, still my passion today) and an RM 956 for middle bro. 

What great times!!

 

 

This is one of those toy grades that epitomises the phrase "they don't make em like that any more"! Built to a spec and not a price, some awesome stuff came out of the toy grade wars and they had a lot more in common with hobby grade back then too. 

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That Jet hopper looks really "alike" the first rc car what was in our familie ( dad bought 1 , as well.. low funds.. )

We drove that thing to pieces over the years.

Had a white abs body ,and no "spare tire" on the back.

* never * found what it was..  but i assume it was a dickie or a tayco(??) as that was what we had around here.

 

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1 hour ago, Stefan(2) said:

That Jet hopper looks really "alike" the first rc car what was in our familie ( dad bought 1 , as well.. low funds.. )

We drove that thing to pieces over the years.

Had a white abs body ,and no "spare tire" on the back.

* never * found what it was..  but i assume it was a dickie or a tayco(??) as that was what we had around here.

 

Tyco stuff was usually made by Taiyo so it could well have been a relative to the Jet Hopper. Dickie also sold stuff made by Taiyo.

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Perhaps the "white" Jet Hopper from @Stefan(2) 's memory was in fact the Taiyo Jet Fighter.

for-sale-5-taiyo-jet-fighter-005.jpg

Or perhaps it was the Taiyo Jet Racer 4WD...

for-sale-6-taiyo-jet-racer-4wd-005.jpg

These were Taiyo's premium models that were released in 1987, following the success of the Jet Hopper.

For the record - there are some known sales figures for the Jet Hopper in Australia, and also the Tamiya Fox in Australia. :) 

To quote myself (apologies, but it's easier than retyping :P) - https://rctoymemories.com/2016/09/11/metro-taiyo-jet-hopper-1986/

Quote

20,000 Foxes that were sold in Australia during 1987/1988. Tamiya even heavily discounted around 7000 of those Fox kits for Christmas in 1987, resulting in them being sold in some very unusual places – such as Franklins and Woolworths supermarkets.

But now consider this: In 1987, Taiyo sold 150,000 units of it’s Jet Hopper R/C car in Australia. During 1986/1987, the total number of Jet Hoppers sold in Australia topped 300,000.

These figures I used were official figures from distributors for Tamiya, and legal documents related to Taiyo.

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7 minutes ago, Hibernaculum said:

Perhaps the "white" Jet Hopper from @Stefan(2) 's memory was in fact the Taiyo Jet Fighter.

for-sale-5-taiyo-jet-fighter-005.jpg

Or perhaps it was the Taiyo Jet Racer 4WD...

for-sale-6-taiyo-jet-racer-4wd-005.jpg

These were Taiyo's premium models that were released in 1987, following the success of the Jet Hopper.

For the record - there are some known sales figures for the Jet Hopper in Australia, and also the Tamiya Fox in Australia. :) 

To quote myself (apologies, but it's easier than retyping :P) - https://rctoymemories.com/2016/09/11/metro-taiyo-jet-hopper-1986/

These figures I used were official figures from distributors for Tamiya, and legal documents related to Taiyo.

Great info!!

 

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Good finds ! however, nope.

he had buggy wheels like the Jet Hopper 

"simular" rear wing, and i can't remember the front for the life of me.

It did not have a "turbo" option .

Think it took 8 (?) penlights / AA's for power.. or 4 .. * mutters about not remembering *.. but hey, that was over 30 years ago :) :) :) 

give me a break :)

TImewise..  anywhere between '85 and '89 is my best guess

 

As far i can recal, it did not have visual schock Absorbers , front was rigid ,as it would "bounce" all over the place.

( ah, now i remember.. it also did not have a "servo" for going left or right, but that "other type" 

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Oh man. For Kyosho, it's really hard to say, because they tried so many weird things over the years (remember the RC Surfer and "Surfer Lisa"?). There are always oddball Kyosho models (or variants thereof) coming out of the woodwork that I had no idea existed. But if I had to guess, I would say that the 4-stroke-powered Super Ten from the 90s was pretty unpopular. I've never seen one outside of the box. But I'm sure they had earlier obscure flops I don't know about.

As for Marui, um... everything except the Big Bear? No, but seriously, if I had to guess, I'd say Shogun. I didn't even know it existed until I joined this site!

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Spotted just now in the Annex Market NYC....speaking of Radio Shack....

 

0C5C7AFA-9F88-48F8-B7D0-02B2E23EDAB2.jpeg.9ce9263c4e73074c090d74dfbdc5d0c2.jpeg

 

 

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On 7/26/2019 at 9:32 PM, markbt73 said:

Oh man. For Kyosho, it's really hard to say, because they tried so many weird things over the years (remember the RC Surfer and "Surfer Lisa"?). There are always oddball Kyosho models (or variants thereof) coming out of the woodwork that I had no idea existed. But if I had to guess, I would say that the 4-stroke-powered Super Ten from the 90s was pretty unpopular. I've never seen one outside of the box. But I'm sure they had earlier obscure flops I don't know about.

As for Marui, um... everything except the Big Bear? No, but seriously, if I had to guess, I'd say Shogun. I didn't even know it existed until I joined this site!

I have a Kyosho Super Lazer Porsche 956, i think from the late 80s. I have searched in vain to find another and there isnt even any infomation on the net about this kit, no pictures, listings or history even on Kyosho's own site. Does this make it unpopular ar just plain rare?

superlazer.jpg

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On 7/23/2019 at 8:28 PM, Saito2 said:

I remember the Kangaroo, Dolphin and Koala buggies and the Wildebeest and Mammoth (although I've only seen the Mammoth referred to in print, never pictured) monster trucks.

Digging up and old thread lol.

But I saw this on ebay. A rebrand of the Wildebeest called the Wildecat but perhaps most interestingly, it came with a spare Mammoth sticker sheet!

Screenshot_20211217-094735_eBay.jpg

Screenshot_20211217-094612_eBay.jpg

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For me the problem with the Road Wizard and any other "on-road" car is that I had (and still have) no place to run them.  I did not have have a large flat area to use for a track.  Contrast that with the off-road buggies of the time and I had all sorts of places to run them.  Back when I was a kid, I didn't want a "display model" or "shelf queen".  I wanted to drive them.  Thus, the Road Wizard and other on-road cars were never of interest.  But besides the lack of a track, that style of car just wasn't as appealing to me back then, and even now.  I don't have a desire to drive on-road cars.  The most temping thing to come out recently was the re-release Kyosho Fantom and I almost bought one just for the cool looking chassis, but with no place to run it, I decided against it.  I will, however, be buying two Kyosho Optima Mids as soon as I can pre-order.

My point being:  Perhaps the Road Wizard and others like it weren't as popular due to the restrictive running requirements (very flat track due to limited ground clearance).

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