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Fire Dragon re-re-release 47457

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Cool news :)

I bought an NIB re-re from someone on here when they were available last time around.  Didn't pay a lot for it, had fun building the chassis but only ran it once with a dodgy and ill-fitting pickup body, then sold it.

Kinda fancy one as a crazy vintage race entry now (even though I have a Super Hotshot to build for next season).

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Might grab one.  It was the last car I got and built/drove before I got out of the hobby and started chasing girls. 

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Why did Tamiya choose to re-rere the Fire Dragon in preference to the Thunder Dragon? 
Is the fire dragon is an easier hit while the factory is running at reduced capacity?

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Hopefully it will be priced at or below the Terra Scorcher price given that it may possibly lack some of the TS upgrades. 

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7 minutes ago, Nova1 said:

Hopefully it will be priced at or below the Terra Scorcher price given that it may possibly lack some of the TS upgrades. 

The fire dragon was nowhere near the spec of the Terra.  None adjustable top links, no ballraces or ujs.  Though would still rather buy one of these than the massively overpriced vqs

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4 hours ago, Ministrone said:

Why did Tamiya choose to re-rere the Fire Dragon in preference to the Thunder Dragon? 
Is the fire dragon is an easier hit while the factory is running at reduced capacity?

Possibly one reason was this....

In 2005 when the tshot was rereleased, not a lot of changes were made...

Box had disclaimer type text regarding reissue, sticker changes, body had plastic covering on, I think some part numbers changed (but not in manual, on separate order sheet)

Bonus wing was an after thought, manual was near enough the same, basically a quick few changes and additions and put out for sale.

Three years later, the fire dragon didn't need as many changes (although motor mount was shiny this time), however Tamiya made a bigger and better effort with the manual, showing hopups and build order tweaked. 

Now to re-release the thundershot now, maybe they considered the rush job that came before would now need more effort like the fire dragon had?

Plus the super storm dragon has been released and the fire dragon ties in with that model better in Japan regarding sales? 

If the thunder dragon was also in the comic, maybe its release will be determined on the sales on the dragons?

(Who knows!?)

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Hopefully Tamiya won't remove the antenna hole on the body (like they did with the terra) .

A return to the original motor mount and drive shafts with no ball bearings should hopefully drop the price of a kit to £130-£140 (so this would require no mods from tamiya apart from the model number on box and manual)

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23 hours ago, taffer said:

Hopefully Tamiya won't remove the antenna hole on the body (like they did with the terra) .

A return to the original motor mount and drive shafts with no ball bearings should hopefully drop the price of a kit to £130-£140 (so this would require no mods from tamiya apart from the model number on box and manual)

Yeah, we noticed the loss of antenna hole on my daughters new Terra Scorcher, not a huge problem for her as she uses 2.4Ghz and just runs the short lead along the tub. She is not keen on antenna tubes anyway. However I like to have a short tube sticking up with my antenna lead run into it, if for nothing else to keep it from wrapping around the propshaft.

Agreed, the new motor mount is pants!  No pinion sizing stamped into it like the original steel one and can't use the pinion setting tool either. I still use the old metal plate on my thundershot and I swapped a motor last night, took about 5 mins flat, easy to see which holes to use for which pinion and super easy to set the correct offset for the pinion on the shaft using the tool. No idea why they changed it as it has worked fine for me for 30 years and I've been running a range of motors including 13T and 8.4v in it, and I have never experienced overheating issues or melting gearbox???. 

I wouldn't hold out much hope for it to be less than £180-200, have you seen modelsport have increased the price of the Terra Scorcher they have in stock to £209! We bought my Daughters only a couple of months ago for £189, so that is quite a jump in 2 months.

Glad they are re-releasing another thundershot car though, it keeps the spare parts flowing.

I wish they would swap the yellow shocks for black though, surely an easy thing to do, they have the tooling, they just need to use a different colour plastic? My youngest doesn't like the yellow on her thundershot so she has made herself a set of black shocks from my spares pile, just waiting on some new springs as the kit ones are too firm for her use. I am using firm springs on my thundershot which I have also switched to black shocks and lowered to race on tarmac. Looks kind of cool lowered, no good for off road use though so I will revert to my trusty yellow springs for that. It does look a little more modern with black shocks IMHO, I think the yellow puts a few people off? Maybe they could offer an alloy hop-up option for it too, I think the hi-caps fit with minor changes, I used to have my old Egress hi-caps on my thundershot in the past.

Some pics of my thundershot (with some Terra Scorcher upgrades and fire dragon front shock tower) in tarmac racing mode with black shocks (including spacers to lower the buggy), 2.2 inch wheels and tyres. The mini pins work great on wet tarmac and we have carpet tyres for dry tarmac. Tub now modified to fit a square section LiPo in and race weight inc battery now 1387g.

ts_low (2).jpg

ts_low (3).jpg

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I did manage to use the pinion setting plastic part with the new mount, very fiddly though.

I like antenna holes so I can use a flag, nice to see it flapping around at speed.

Wouldn't want them to change the shock colour either, yellow is proper retro!

I do think there should be more shock colour options available as hopups.

I appreciate what you have done with your thundershot but I don't think you can beat the original boxart, the colours of Tamiya (white,red and blue) suit it very well and to me place it in the category of a 'hero' car rather than dark colours which represent the 'villian', as it were 😁

 

img2692_328201990300_1_1100_.jpg

Lovely!😁

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Regarding modelsports price hike, disappointing they have resorted to a cash grab like this to take advantage of their apparent stock they have...

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On 10/14/2020 at 11:04 PM, MICHAELs TopForce17 said:

i hope they do spare bodies for the terra scorcher and now fire dragon. only option so far is tbg.

It beggars belief that they release a new car and no replacement bodies. Tamiya infuriate me with this stuff all the time. TAMIYA. WE WANT TO RUN YOUR CARS BUT WE CAN'T COS WERE TOO SCARED OF BREAKING THEM AND THEN THEY BECOME AN EXPENSIVE PAPERWEIGHT. 

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7 hours ago, taffer said:

I appreciate what you have done with your thundershot but I don't think you can beat the original boxart, the colours of Tamiya (white,red and blue) suit it very well and to me place it in the category of a 'hero' car rather than dark colours which represent the 'villian', as it were 😁

Yeah, my middle daughter has both her Terra Scorcher and her Thundershot in box art colours so there was no point in having two, especially when we race them together, it would get rather confusing, the iridescent purple is my race colour, youngest has black and middle daughter has blue/white. :)

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Modelsport have it listed for £175.  I'm glad I bought a terra scorcher when they were £189.  I'm happy to see them rereleasing more models on this chassis but wish they'd do the thunderdragon so I can get a new body for my original one. 

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5 hours ago, davidwj95 said:

Modelsport have it listed for £175.  I'm glad I bought a terra scorcher when they were £189.  I'm happy to see them rereleasing more models on this chassis but wish they'd do the thunderdragon so I can get a new body for my original one. 

What’s the differences between terra and fire ?

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1 hour ago, taffer said:

£209 when I view?

Screenshot_20201017_053558_com.android.chrome.jpg

Hes saying the fire dragon is 175 and he was able to get the Terra for 189 awhile back. 

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Yes until very recently the terra scorcher was £189.  It seems to have jumped up to £209 in the last couple of weeks.

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2 hours ago, rwordenjr said:

What’s the differences between terra and fire ?

They are the same chassis but the terra has some hop ups - full ball bearings, universal drive shafts, rear anti roll bar and adjustable camber links. 

 

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Well fusion will price match that plus remove the ESC and fusion 10% discount makes it £148 ish which is ok, a bit top end on price

 

Actually £138.60! That's better

Screenshot_20201017_093943_com.android.chrome.jpg

Edited by taffer
Price update

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1 hour ago, davidwj95 said:

They are the same chassis but the terra has some hop ups - full ball bearings, universal drive shafts, rear anti roll bar and adjustable camber links. 

 

and turnbuckle steering arms too :)

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