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markbt73

I still can't get used to the "alphabet soup" nomenclature

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I noticed something today when I was surfing these forums: I barely know what car anyone is talking about any more. CW01? TT02R? XV08? TK421? GLG-20? No idea. Often I can figure it out, but it makes me feel old and out of touch. I really miss the days when cars had names; I instantly knew what someone was talking about. Boomerang? Yep, I have a picture of it in my mind. DF05 Type S? Could be anything.

It's actually worse in the electronics forum: "Hey, can I use a TrackZapper 9700kv motor in my TX07RRR?" "Yes, but you need a SpeedThingy YYZ2112 ESC, you can get them off eBay for cheap." "No, get the BigSpeed XLR8 instead, it can handle 6S lipo." Huh?

This isn't at all a slight against anyone who does understand all that, and if you enjoy it, more power to you. (Literally, often, it seems.) But it does reaffirm my decision to stick with good old silver-can motors and basic electronics, and cars with names instead of numbers. Guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

Anyway, just an observation. Carry on...

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Didn't you get the memo? The car with the most letters wins :D

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Total agreement. The alphanumeric thing is not only confusing at times but also high impersonal. It reeks of a company soullessly stamping out product. In Tamiya's case, here's the same chassis we've been shoveling you with a new body dropped on it. Tamiya isn't souless but the "new" (alright, it hasn't been "new" in well over 25 years, gosh, I'm old) naming system is. It started with the touring cars but at least they had box art right? Then we got generic shoeboxes with a photo sticker slapped on to differentiate with body you were getting. Whats worse, is Tamiya felt the need to go back and retroactively apply alphanumerics to existing chassis. It not a CW-01, its a Lunch Box darn it!

It might make parts identification easier or packaging cheaper but it still sucks. It took just the slightest bit of knowledge to know that, hey, the Lunch Box and Midnight Pumpkin are related. If you said Hot Shot series, you knew that meant from Hot Shot to Super Sabre and all the 4wd buggies in between. Even when Tamiya initially did acknowledge "families" of cars officially, they were "SRBs" or "ORVs", acronyms that actually made words not some code to be deciphered like WR-02 or DT-03.  I'm left handed and hate numbers. Even at my job, my mind doesn't register a 55720, but call it a longitudinal actuator, and I know exactly what you're talking about. Numbers are cold, hard, devoid of personality. A buggy with a good name? Well, that conjures up all kinds of cool images in the brain. I'll go back to yelling at clouds now.

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ok let's crack out our fountain pens & compile a definitive list... :) 

 

Early 1/12 pan sportscars - 934, 935, 936, Countach, Celica LB. CS Competition Special variants.

Early 1/10 F1s (and F2s). CS Competition Special variants.

B2B sidecar

Early 1/12 pan hatchbacks - Kamei Golf and Renault 5

Tyrell 6-wheeler

Cheetah, XR311

Sand Rover, Holiday Buggy

Special Racing Buggy - RR, SS, Ranger (name on radiobox but never acknowledged), ok ok SuperChamp can join too

RM Mk.x Racing Master - 1/12 RM01 Lola, RM02 280ZX... got up to 6 or 7... then T goes and spoils the pattern by calling the 2012 reboot "RM-01" too 

RM01 1/12 pan car from 2012

Wild One, FAV 

Fox

3spd (metal) - Hilux, BB, Bruiser, Mounty

ORV (did name get mentioned on box? Never on car) - Brat, Lancia, Frog etc

Monster ORV - Blackfoot, MBeetle, then they got trailing rear susp SuperBF

Tamtech 1/24 onroads short monocoque (Testarossa, 961 etc), 1/24 sportscars long monocoque (Brabham, March, 962C etc), some 1/14 F1s. They all used the original TamPack 2x3 square battery.

TamTechGear 1/16, includes GT01 onroad RWD (934, 935, GTO), GB01 off-road RWD (mini Fox, mini Frog), GB02 off-road RWD (mini BuggyChamp), GB03 off-road 4WD (mini Hotshot). They all used newer 3x2 TamPack stick battery. 

Road Wizard (or does that become the first F101?)

GrpC chassis - 787B, XJR15, F40, NSX, IMSA 300ZX etc

Grasshopper, Hornet, GH2 

Hotshot - everything that uses Hotshot gearboxes 

Thundershot - everything that uses Thundershot gearboxes

WildWilly - M38, Wheeler, Quattro etc

Grasshopper-derived Wheelie - Montero, Lunchbox, Pumpkin (later called CW01)

Striker, Sonic Fighter

Falcon, Bearhawk... begat Stadium Blitzer, Blitzer Beetle etc

Monster (stadium) Racers - Kingcab, Hilux Monster Racer

Dyna - DynaStorm, DynaBlaster

Astute

Avante - Av, Av2001, Vanquish, Egress. Ok ok Vajra too.

Skyline (R32 GT-R) - later became TA01

MantaRay - later became DF01

Clod - ClodBuster, Bullhead etc

Juggernaut - (not really called)-1 & 2

TXT - 1 & 2

**ok here comes the codemonkey rot**

F10x RWD 1/10 F1s. Variant F103GT is Touringcar sized. 

F201 4WD F1

XC Cross Country - PajeroMTW, Wrangler, CRV, Mu, later around Pajero Rally Sport got renamed CC01

TAxx Touringcar A-league & Awfully-noisy due to lotsa gears. Might have belts sometimes. Must still have gears, mucho lotsa gears. 

TBxx Touringcar B-league, or Better with shaft. Begat TB Evolution sub-series. 

TL01 Touringcar, Lite

TTxx Touringcar Terribly-plasticky

Mxx M-chassis. Even x for RWD, odd x for FWD 

FFxx Frontwheeldrive Front(ish) motor touringcar. 

MF01X M-sized Fourwheeldrive

TRF20x RWD offroad pro racer

DN01 Zadhak is a plastic version of TRF201.

TRF50x 4WD off-road pro racer

TRF4xx Touringcar pro racer, all belt driven so far

TRF10x 1/10 RWD F1

DFxx Dirtbuggy Fourwheeldrive, started with DF02 then MantaRay got relabelled DT01 posthumously. Variant DF03Ra is Touringcar sized.

DTxx Dirtbuggy Twowheeldrive... think it also only started with DT02  

RookieRabbit, became MadFighter, begat MadBull & now merged into DT01?

WR02 - all new Wheelie Reardrive chassis for reborn WildWilly2000 in 1999. (Does that mean old M38 is WR01? No! No sign of WR03 yet to continue trend). Variant suffixes for farm tractors WR02G, Wheeler comical WR02C and Comical Buggy WR02CB.

WR01 debuted by a Wild Dagger 4WD running 2 motors thru independent gearboxes, modular design. One of those gearboxes is what WR02 used.

WT01... umm it's a single motor/gearbox RWD Truck version of the WR01 

CW01 Classic Wheelie, grasshopper-derived

CR01 CRalwer-wannabe (sic)

CC01, CC02 - ex X-Country, now joined by new design common only by CC naming

GF01 Fourwheeldrive shoehorned into WR02 shaped chassis

G601 6x6x6 extension of GF01

XV01 Touringcar sized 4WD, front located motor

TLT1 Tamiya Little Truck - Rockbuster (aka mini TXT1) & MaxClimber (err it's an SUV!!). They're tiny 1/18 but fitted big 540 motor... and RockBuster appeared same time as Novak SS5800 brushless motor system... heh heh heh!

HiLift/HighLift - F350, Hilux, Tundra (LWB); new 3spd gearbox, axles recycled from TLT1

SemiTrucks 1/14

T3-01 lean-steer trike StarRider 370 motor - Dancing Rider, Dual Rider

SW01 wheelie StarRider 370 motor 4WD - mini Lunchbox

 

*** and now for some smelly nitros ***

TG15T very first Tamiya Gasser with 15 engine, racing Truck style.

TG10/TGS 1/10 Touringcar nitro 4WD

TGX/TGR SuperTen sized nitro 4WD

TNS nitro 1/10 both touringcar & buggy sized; think they were all only sold as XB eXpert-Built RTRs?

NDFxx Nitro Dirtbuggy Fourwheeldrive, 1/10 buggy size

TGMxx Gas Monster... TGM01 Mad Bison is 1/10. Then TGM02 TerraCrusher became 1/8 with neat reversing gearbox. TGM03 is TNX super sized, then TGM04 is TNX 5.2 with even bigger engine. 

Nitrage 1/8 buggy

BMT... Tamiya never made their own 1/8 canam track racers but they did resell some made by BMT (Blitz Model Technica) of Italy, aka BMT 931 & 941  

 

---------------

Happy Australia Day 2020 everybody! :) 

 

 

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Nice work @WillyChang

@markbt73 I couldn't agree more on this though...

I suspect it has also affected the long term collectable nature, desirability and value of the models too. 🤔

When Tamiya's RC line was organised by "Car name first" and cars had simple names, and parts lines were based around a specific car - every kit and parts line felt special. Like it was a unique and special beast. The fact some kits shared parts was secondary info.

When Tamiya began consolidating and organizing their RC line by "Chassis ID first" and spruiked loads of interchangeable body shells.... it made the kits more generic. Just a platform for a shell.

And when people hear the words "desirable", "collectable" or "valuable", do they also think of the word "generic"? Nope. Generic and desirable do not go well together. And maybe that is additional factor (on top of the "80s RC boom") that explains why mid-90s-onwards Tamiyas are still less desirable now at age 25 (year 2020), than the 1980s Tamiyas were at age 15 (year 2000).

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9 hours ago, markbt73 said:

I noticed something today when I was surfing these forums: I barely know what car anyone is talking about any more. CW01? TT02R? XV08? TK421? GLG-20? No idea. Often I can figure it out, but it makes me feel old and out of touch. I really miss the days when cars had names; I instantly knew what someone was talking about. Boomerang? Yep, I have a picture of it in my mind. DF05 Type S? Could be anything.

It's actually worse in the electronics forum: "Hey, can I use a TrackZapper 9700kv motor in my TX07RRR?" "Yes, but you need a SpeedThingy YYZ2112 ESC, you can get them off eBay for cheap." "No, get the BigSpeed XLR8 instead, it can handle 6S lipo." Huh?

This isn't at all a slight against anyone who does understand all that, and if you enjoy it, more power to you. (Literally, often, it seems.) But it does reaffirm my decision to stick with good old silver-can motors and basic electronics, and cars with names instead of numbers. Guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

Anyway, just an observation. Carry on...

Yeah me to! If someone is talking about cr01 dt02  dn0 whatever etc etc I have to look on the internet at what they are talking about? but like you rightly said if they talk about hotshot, Optima, wild one lunchbox etc etc I know instantly and don't get me started on brushless and lipo battery and programmable cards and sensored, sensorless different kv ????? OMG give me strength:blink: give me a brushed motor with a standard esc! With a battery that doesn't need to be put in a explosive bag in order to live with it in your house! 

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7 hours ago, WillyChang said:

TG15T very first Tamiya Gasser with 15 engine, racing Truck style.

Lets call it TR and add it to the Dyna family ;)

Did all of this came out of your memory?

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7 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Skyline (R32 GT-R) - later became TA01

Good job on that. When I read the title I too though of the touring car movement as having started the chassis naming convention. I have a 58099 in the attic, I should have a look if it says TA01 on it anywhere. Also have the D2 Benz, nib, I am certain it reads TA02 by that point though.

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I'm split on this.  I actually like the numbering convention because we have multiple models sold on the same chassis.  So I like that I can look up parts for a TA-02 and know they will fit on (mostly) any TA-02.  I don't have to search for a specific car model, then again for another car model that used that chassis, then again, and then be careful not to search for that one specific car because it was on both the TA-02 and later the TT01, etc...

A Midnight Pumpkin is a Midnight Pumpkin but a Lunchbox is not.  Having a chassis code means I can look up parts that belong to both.

That said, I still love the idea that every model to come out of Tamiya was once different.  I appreciate there is a lack of romance when the TT01 had a brazillion different bodies attached but OTOH, if every car to come out of Tamiya's factory should have had its own chassis then we would have had far, far fewer high-quality touring car bodies from a company that makes very good touring car bodies.  Because it would take a lot longer to bring a whole new chassis to production for each new body.  Given that the majority of touring car bodies do not match the chassis layout anyway - even the 4wd bodies are rarely mid-motor with wishbone suspension at each corner in 1:1 design - I don't see what benefit we'd get.  If Tamiya were in the business of making semi-accurate chassis replicas of their body designs then maybe we'd want a different chassis with each body.

I think the same can apply to buggies too, although it is kinda nice that the non-competition (or pre-competitive) buggies do have their own uniqueness.  But let's remember that even though some early buggies do have unique chassis, there is still some parts-sharing.  Actually I think it's romantic that the Falcon and Bear Hawk share the same tub, even though they have different suspension and drivetrain.

I dislike not being able to decipher the codes.  What is used in one branch is contradicted by use in another.  And I still can't work out if WT-01 is the 2wd monster truck or the 4wd.  'T' denotes 2wd in buggies.  'R' would make sense for Rear Gearbox or Rear Wheel Drive.  'T' could mean Two Wheel Drive or could mean Twin Gearbox.  It makes my brain hurt.  I tend to use WT/WR interchangeably in threads since it makes little difference at a practical level.

I also hate that there is no consensus on the dash - i.e. is it TT01 or TT-01?  The TT range tend to universally be described as TT01 but the DT range are more often referred to as DT-02 etc.  The difference is neglible at a human level but huge when using a primitive search engine.  And who really trusts a smart search engine to ignore / include the dash?  I just end up searching twice, which I hate.

Maybe we are all longing for some sense of romance from an era that has long gone, not just in the RC world but in the world in general.  Everything is changing, homogenising and losing its individuality.  That's part of the evolution of design - every different concept will ultimately home in on the one perfect design.

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"alphabet soup" makes lot of sense with touring cars, whera body became consumable item. It makes looking for part easier, however, it becomes ridiculous when one chassis gets several variants - like XV-01 TC PRO, DN-01RRR, TRF415MSXX

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I don't mind the chassis codes...  I've always had a mind for acronyms, numbers, stock symbols, physics constants, etc...  I barely look at the model name and look at the chassis code first to decide if I might be interested in buying it.

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