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Is the Blackfoot and the Monster Beetle the same?

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Just wondering if the Blackfoot and Monster Beetle are exactly the same? Or are there differences? Can you just pop on a Blackfoot body to a Monster beetle? 

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They are mostly the same. Body mounts are different, wheels and tyres are different.

In the original releases Blackfoot had friction shocks and Monster Beetle oil filled.

The re-releases both have oil filled, although the plastics are different colours - yellow for the MB and black for the BF.

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Most important; all you need to mount the Blackfoot body on the Monster Beetle chassis, are the three body mounts (front body mounts have different lengths despite looking identical at first glance.)

As for differences between the kits, it depends on whether we're talking about original releases or re-releases.

Originals (in addition to different body mounts): 

Blackfoot: black friction shocks / Monster Beetle: yellow CVA shocks.

Blackfoot: soft version of the Bruiser tires / Monster Beetle: new tires in relatively similar design, but with additional spikes.

Blackfoot: yellow wheels / Monster Beetle: gold coloured chrome plated wheels.

Additions to the Monster Beetle:

Steel brace for the servo saver, which necessitated longer upper screw pins for the upper front suspension arms

Rear skid plate and antenna mount, which necessitated the two bottom screws of the gear box to be a bit longer (30mm vs. 27mm, if I recall correctly)

That's all I can recall from the top of my head.

 

Re-releases (in addition to different body mounts):  

Blackfoot: black CVA II shocks / Monster Beetle: yellow CVA II shocks.

Blackfoot: tires same as original release / Monster Beetle: tires same as original release

Blackfoot: yellow wheels / Monster Beetle: gold coloured chrome plated wheels.

The Monster Beetle's servo saver brace isn't included in any of the re-releases.

The Monster Beetle's rear skid plate is included in both re-releases, but on the Blackfoot, only the lower part without antenna mount is used.

That's all I can recall from the top of my head.

 

(Note: There are quite a lot of differences between each of the original releases and a their re-release siblings, which are not mentioned above. I just tried to cover the differences between the two originals and the differences between the two re-releases.)

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I am looking at the re-releases. I wanted a Blackfoot but can't find one for a couple months on backorder. Should I pull the trigger on a monster beetle?

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17 hours ago, Clodbusterfan said:

Will the MIP ball diff solve the rear axle problems for the Monster Beetle?

It solved it for me. The standard diff lasted a few runs with the kit motor on NiMH. The MIP diff has lasted 2 years and countless packs through it and its been flawless. Still the kit motor but lipo now

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I did skim through this thread a little bit I think everyone missed the title question?

I am surprised @Mokei Kagaku didn't pick up on this he's normally very astute. (Did you see what I did there?) Lol

"Is the Blackfoot and the Monster Beetle the same?"

No. The Blackfoot is a pick up truck and the Monster beetle is a VW bug. Lol. 

Sorry been in the sun all day. 

 

backs away from phone.

  • Haha 8

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One of my old friends living in Colorado has some Blackfoot in her (so said her family lore).  When she did a gene test, her gene was from farther South, like Southern California.  Maybe the gene test didn't have enough native American gene pool to pinpoint.  

At any rate, if you like Blackfoot, you could get a shell later, but it's going to be expensive.  

 

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So the Monster Beetle's rear axle DOES NOT pop out with the MIP ball diff? This is very important to me! If it doesn't fix the problem I will go with a Blackfoot! I heard from someone else that the MIP ball diff did not fix the problem with the rear axle.

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7 hours ago, Clodbusterfan said:

So the Monster Beetle's rear axle DOES NOT pop out with the MIP ball diff? This is very important to me! If it doesn't fix the problem I will go with a Blackfoot! I heard from someone else that the MIP ball diff did not fix the problem with the rear axle.

They have the exact same drivetrain and rear suspension. So yes it will pop out on both of them with or without the mip ball diff in. 

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8 hours ago, Clodbusterfan said:

So the Monster Beetle's rear axle DOES NOT pop out with the MIP ball diff? This is very important to me! If it doesn't fix the problem I will go with a Blackfoot! I heard from someone else that the MIP ball diff did not fix the problem with the rear axle.

If you can find a Monster Beetle, get one.  I know there are a few MB Black editions still available out there and maybe an odd "original" red body one.  Can't go wrong with either one. If you're in the US, Tower Hobbies has a red monster beetle in stock right now and with a coupon it'll be like $175 shipped at most.  Grab a bearing kit and the MIP ball diff and you're good to go. 

I built a rere-blackfoot recently with the MIP ball diff.  I've run it several times and only when my son did a head-on crash with his racing fighter to my blackfoot did one of the rear axles pop out.  For me it's not a chronic problem although in looking at them the axles do sit very shallow in the drive cups so I can see why it's a problem. I've done some jumps and bounced around a lot but until that violent collision, the axles stayed in.    

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  • You need the "old frog mod" or something like that, it's called, lol
  • Someone will hopefully provide a link to the mod itself.
  • I don't know how to turn off bullet points. Lol
  • Haha 1

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1 hour ago, Clodbusterfan said:

No. I think that's a standard axle set.

Hang on. I'll have a look..

Try this link

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=24674&sid=3142

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Just a quick note to say that the information in this thread was great. I was looking to restore a monster beetle which I purchased on Ebay several years ago to get the parts to build a good beetle. In looking at the information above it appears that I have both a beetle and a blackfoot which was a big surprise.

Below is the chassis which were in the bundle

85478610_img1.jpg.230314599d3670d9d77c608c93026f4d.jpg227854384_img2.jpg.cb4383047659bfe530264d5b6282ba0b.jpg1606533988_img4.jpg.0e60abbb74e8ecc9bf1e6282985daacb.jpg1689434862_img3.jpg.422da0908f6daebe962930f19bf69ca5.jpg1354400755_img5.jpg.dbfbec6dc44401947c530260be437a7e.jpg

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12 hours ago, Pinoy808 said:

Just noticed towers has the Blackfoot in stock if you're  still interested:

And the Super Clod. Darn you for providing me that information. Now I need one.

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On 5/28/2020 at 5:47 PM, wolfdogstinkus said:

You need the "old frog mod" or something like that, it's called, lol

frogshot

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