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Kyosho Ultima 2019

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Looks like it's a thing, thanks to Dirt Burners for a great article.

Lee

20190810_074349.jpg

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Looks perfect, really hope they don't spoil it with 2.2" wheels with the end product!!

 

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I see they are doing away with the aluminium shock towers then . I like the polished alu look of the original ;)

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4 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

I see they are doing away with the aluminium shock towers then . I like the polished alu look of the original ;)

Probably going to be an option house extra! Cool I always like the look of the ultima 👍

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LHS had told me they were working on this.  I guess it was true!  All the rere cars from Kyosho have been so we'll executed.  I'm sure this will be the same!

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This is interesting because up to this point Akira Kogawa's re-releases have all been in chronological order, but this time they are skipping the Optima Pro and the Salute to get to the Ultima. It makes sense to me because I think the Ultima is going to be a good seller and I don't think the Optima Pro and Salute were very popular and not much different than the Turbo Optima. After the original Ultima the Optima Mid was released; if the Ultima re-release is a good seller maybe the Mid re-release will be next and that would be so rad. I will buy at least two Ultimas if only to support Kyosho's re-release program if that means the Mid is next!

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Guess we should have seen this coming... the Ultima was such a very big deal for Kyosho when it came out tha they'd be fools not to cash in on that. Remember all the "Next World Champion" hype? It seemed like annoying bravado... until they proved it right.

And the Ultima platform was around for so long, and spawned so many variants: Turbo and Pro, but also the Outlaw Ultima, the Sideways, on-road and rally cars, even the Tracker monster truck (although they had switched to the plastic Ultima II chassis by then). What would be brilliant on Kyosho's part, and really cool for us, is if they offered "Nostalgic Conversion Kits" to go along with this re-issue. Want a Sideways re-re? Buy the Ultima, and the Sideways option kit.

I doubt they'll do it, but...

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This is awesome. I have been half watching for a decent original but never pulled the trigger so to speak. 

Kyosho Legendary Series are such a pleasant build, I hope they continue the releases and maintain the superb presentation of the rest of the line up.

Congrats to the designer for getting the new owners to produce it (from the article).

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I am absolutely ecstatic about this. What with all of the rumours of Kyosho restructuring and the possibility of the Legendary Series being scrapped, I feared that the Turbo Optima would be the last one that we would see. 

An Optima Mid re-release must surely be on the cards now too. Happy days. B)

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16 hours ago, geniusanthony said:

Congrats to the designer for getting the new owners to produce it (from the article).

 

15 hours ago, Wandy said:

What with all of the rumours of Kyosho restructuring and the possibility of the Legendary Series being scrapped, I feared that the Turbo Optima would be the last one that we would see. 

I don't know if and certainly won't claim that no firm information has been available, and when new investors came in to make money, it was pretty logical that they would turn a lot of stones and carefully study the product line and possibly delete parts of it to reduce loss. Also, after the first Kyosho re-releases, it seemed pretty obvious that further re-releases would follow unless the existing ones were poor sellers.  You all know this, so I'm stating the obvious.

However, I suspect that TomEG (the article writer) is the originator of much of the "inside information" in this case too. Even though he practically always presents his "inside information" in such a way that he has an "escape route" every time it turns out to be wrong, he was caught lying so many times here in the forum and admitted it on several occasions before leaving in rage, and in my opinion he reveals himself this time too. As always, he claims having sooooo good contacts inside Kyosho and access to inside information, but now writes that when he confronted them with photos that without hardly any doubt proves that an Ultima re-re is in the pipeline, they wouldn't confirm it to him!!!!!  Even I have better contacts and friends inside Kyosho than that, and I have absolutely NONE!

As I have stated before, TomEG has pretty good knowledge about Kyosho products (credit where credit is due), but so have many others (I don't), but most of them aren't passionate liars. At Dirt-Burners TomEG has obviously found an audience that mostly don't think twice about the lack of logic and the all too recognizable "escape routes" TomEG constantly creates for himself to have an excuse every time his "inside information" is revealed as wrong. And when he turns out to be right, it's not rarely because it's based on no-brainers that even a person like me, with just minute knowledge about Kyosho, would be capable of. Just with the difference that I would never pretend it to be firm information from an insider. Also, isn't it "slightly" strange that a company that most likely even fights for survival and being Japanese, traditionally and generally isn't very open towards foreigners about topics that affect their business, would inform a foreign hobbyist who isn't even an employee or a distributor employee about future plans that have a big risk of a significant impact on their financial situation if the information reaches the market prematurely? And why on earth would they continue to share information TomEG claims them to be so coy about when they repeatedly experience that TomEG shares it with the entire internet?

My conclusion is as numerous times before; a lot of people contribute with valuable information and put their pride in being honest and credible. TomEG is certainly not one of them.

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I dont know anything about tomeg being a liar or having inside info but i thought it was ballsy and ridiculous that he was asking for donations to purchase old rc mags for “archival info”. He should of said for his collection lol. Either way i have no real  interest in an Ultima, ill wait for a turbo Ultima or optima mid. I always wanted them as a kid. 

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Ultima 2019?? Its now mid August, not many months away till the holidays, not even a pre-order in sight. Kyosho has a history of delays, this may be a 1st quarter release. Ultima 2020.

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Come on guys. Let's have some excitement here.  I know it's not tamiya but it's an Ultima.  Come on.  These are absolutely awesome cars.

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Well, I'm excited ;). I was a bit bummed out by the Associated RC10 rerelease affair. The Classic was cool but sold out quick and the Worlds was evidently plagued with some kind of transmission problem. It was fun while it lasted though. Now, however, we get a chance to own the RC10's first real competitor. I've been waiting for this one for awhile. Kyosho's rereleases are positively excellent. Real quality stuff.

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Agree with @KEV THE REV re the look of the new shock towers

But they may have finally fixed them snapping or the anchor nuts threading ?

Its hard to tell if they improved anything else ? but agree with the general excitement here 

The Ultima - esp carefully hopped - beats the RC10 any day in my book 

So yes - another 2 will go on order when it’s released 😬

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On 8/10/2019 at 4:39 PM, Idaho said:

This is interesting because up to this point Akira Kogawa's re-releases have all been in chronological order, but this time they are skipping the Optima Pro and the Salute to get to the Ultima. It makes sense to me because I think the Ultima is going to be a good seller and I don't think the Optima Pro and Salute were very popular and not much different than the Turbo Optima. A

Is there a complete (!) list that shows the chronological release of these classic Kyosho buggies?

I know that there is some information at Wikipedia, but it seems to be incomplete. And I found other websites, but they only focused on some special series, but not on the complete range.

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On 8/11/2019 at 8:13 PM, Hobbimaster said:

Ultima 2019?? Its now mid August, not many months away till the holidays, not even a pre-order in sight. Kyosho has a history of delays, this may be a 1st quarter release. Ultima 2020.

I was thinking that, which ,selfishly, kind of suits me...

(I'm at the end of the summer, and the holiday spending aftermath to sort out, then it'll be Christmas and the dreaded creditcard bill, so hopefully by April 2020, I'll have some cash to buy one .. 🤔😁)

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Having never raced and my only encounter with Kyosho is the Javelin I built and still run last year, very impressed with I might add, and since that build I’ve had a keen eye for the Turbo Scorpion for a 2WD Kyosho addition to the fleet. 

How does the Ultima compare to the Turbo Scorpion?? 

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Must have for the shelf, no reason one cannot love the Ultima, RC10, JRX2, Astute and on.  The fact that Kyosho bragged it would win IFMAR and then did, well that's cool.   I love all the racing buggies from that time frame, was a great time to be a racer.  Shortly after early 90's all the cars started following a formula and distinction between manufacturers became much harder to find. 

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7 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

How does the Ultima compare to the Turbo Scorpion?? 

I'd say they's an evolution change just between them. The Turbo Scorpion sat at the top of the trailing arm/metal suspension era. On the right surface, in good hands it could still hang with the RC10, but the RC10's design was still clearly the way forward (from a performance perspective). The Ultima on the other hand, was Kyosho's step toward making a car more in line with the RC10. The RC10 was completely dominant in the US until the Ultima came out. The Ultima remained its only real competition until the JRX2 was released.

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3 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I'd say they's an evolution change just between them. The Turbo Scorpion sat at the top of the trailing arm/metal suspension era. On the right surface, in good hands it could still hang with the RC10, but the RC10's design was still clearly the way forward (from a performance perspective). The Ultima on the other hand, was Kyosho's step toward making a car more in line with the RC10. The RC10 was completely dominant in the US until the Ultima came out. The Ultima remained its only real competition until the JRX2 was released.

I fully agree, and as you mention the RC10 versus the (Turbo) Scorpion, I'd like to add that a Scorpion actually won the (rather inofficial) ROAR World Championship against RC10 prototypes/preproduction carss at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1984. The Scorpion was admittedly very heavily modified with aftermarket parts, if I remember correctly, with 1/8 scale Kyosho dampers, Holiday Buggy rear tires on CRP aluminum wheels and a lot of other CRP parts. 

The car was built, set up and supported by Swedish Kyosho distributor employee Jörgen Andersson, who was a brilliant RC-mechanic and -driver and who's now into real vintage formula 1 racing.

The car was driven by the Norwegian Eivind Loyd Pettersen, at the time the owner of the Norwegian Serpent, Basilisk, Tomo, CRP, Thorpe, Mirage, JG and Associated distributor. Jay Halsey came in a very close second with his RC10. So though the Scorpion was outdated at the time the RC10 was released, it still had a chance in the hands of talented mechanics and drivers for some time.

I never had the opportunity to run that Scorpion, but I borrowed an Optima that Jörgen Andersson had built and set up for Eivind Loyd Petterson a couple of years later and I ran it at a local race. It was by far the best Optima I've ever run.

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Beyond stoked for this. I've just completed an Optima and a Javelin. Been waiting for this one. 

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On 8/20/2019 at 3:46 PM, Carrera124 said:

Is there a complete (!) list that shows the chronological release of these classic Kyosho buggies?

I know that there is some information at Wikipedia, but it seems to be incomplete. And I found other websites, but they only focused on some special series, but not on the complete range.

These are the classic Kyosho electric buggies originally designed by Akira Kogawa according to what I could find online (years may be wrong):

  • 1982 – Scorpion
  • 1983 – Beetle
  • 1983 – Tomahawk
  • 1985 – Optima
  • 1985 – Turbo Scorpion
  • 1986 – Javelin
  • 1986 – Turbo Optima
  • 1986 – Optima Pro
  • 1986 – Salute
  • 1986 – Ultima
  • 1987 – Optima Mid
  • 1987 – Turbo Optima Mid
  • 1987 – Turbo Ultima
  • 1987 – Maxxum FF

After the Maxxum FF Akira Kogawa left Kyosho but the next seven buggies are still evolutions of the classics:

  • 1988 – Turbo Optima Mid SE
  • 1988 – Ultima Pro
  • 1989 – Ultima Pro XL
  • 1989 – Turbo Optima Mid Special
  • 1989 – Optima Mid Custom
  • 1989 – Optima Mid Custom Special
  • 1990 – Ultima II

Theres also the Gallop, Progress, Icarus, Pegasus, Raider, Shadow and Aerostreak, all electric buggies that I believe were released in the 80s,  but they were not designed by Akira Kogawa, who is currently the head of the Kyosho re-release program so I doubt we will ever see them re-released.

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2 hours ago, Idaho said:

Theres also the Gallop, Progress, Icarus, Pegasus, Raider, Shadow and Aerostreak, all electric buggies that I believe were released in the 80s,  but they were not designed by Akira Kogawa, who is currently the head of the Kyosho re-release program so I doubt we will ever see them re-released.

Thank you very much.

My question wasn't intended to be restricted to a special designer, so do you also have the release years for these other buggies?

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This is the re-release that I really wanted Kyosho to do. It's right up there as my favourite buggy of all time, that and one or two others.
Should this be re-released I'm getting one.

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