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Top force evo!!! Thunder dragon !!! 2021

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So great to see these starting to pop up! Now if only ze Germans could hurry up and get mine here. I thought preordering with Tamico was the wise move, but once again the allies defeat the axis. 

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7 hours ago, moffman said:

Yeah I'm in the same boat! My order is fully paid for just waiting for it to come in but as of today it hasn't arrived 😡 my local hobby shop did contact me to basically say the likes of modelsport got priority from the hobby company everyone else tough!, if that is the case then what the hobby company/tamiya need to realise is there are other rc car manufacturers that we can switch our allegiance to that make some fantastic products and this £200 topforce evo which tamiya is asking £400 is probably only selling because of nostalgia I've just built a schumacher and it's far superior to the tf evo for 2/3rds of the price and I've just looked at the schumacher cat L1 evo which is probably one of the best modern top of the range racing machines and give or take £20 I could buy one of those for the price of tamiya's topforce evo! So I'm thinking the hobby company/tamiya stop taking your customers for granted and treating them like fools because we can easily just walk away🤷‍♂️

i'm real lucky in my lhs dont ask me for deposits or to pay until anything i order comes in.

yeah i agree the price is rediculous  but like every one else and me never had the chance first time round so has to scratch that itch.

i only really brought 1 schumacher and that was a truck a storm i think and i ended up taking it back to the shop as it had a gear box problem out the box and they could not sort it so i ended up takeing it back to schumacher it self and they ended up replaceing the complete gearbox then sold it not long after IMG_20190227_161159.thumb.jpg.68ae855431d060b6cefa3d50c913fb0b.jpg

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42 minutes ago, topforcein said:

i'm real lucky in my lhs dont ask me for deposits or to pay until anything i order comes in.

yeah i agree the price is rediculous  but like every one else and me never had the chance first time round so has to scratch that itch.

i only really brought 1 schumacher and that was a truck a storm i think and i ended up taking it back to the shop as it had a gear box problem out the box and they could not sort it so i ended up takeing it back to schumacher it self and they ended up replaceing the complete gearbox then sold it not long after IMG_20190227_161159.thumb.jpg.68ae855431d060b6cefa3d50c913fb0b.jpg

I miss proper HPI Superstar wheels  :(

Why won't HPI remake those too?!

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49 minutes ago, topforcein said:

i'm real lucky in my lhs dont ask me for deposits or to pay until anything i order comes in.

yeah i agree the price is rediculous  but like every one else and me never had the chance first time round so has to scratch that itch.

i only really brought 1 schumacher and that was a truck a storm i think and i ended up taking it back to the shop as it had a gear box problem out the box and they could not sort it so i ended up takeing it back to schumacher it self and they ended up replaceing the complete gearbox then sold it not long after IMG_20190227_161159.thumb.jpg.68ae855431d060b6cefa3d50c913fb0b.jpg

That's a good retro group of cars👍 yeah I didn't have to pay but I'd just sold on a dark impact white edition and a few other surplice items on Ebay I didn't need anymore so I just put it straight onto the topforce evo when it was announced so I didn't spend the money! The schumacher cat xls that I bought when it originally re released was an absolute pain to build and it did make me think twice about schumacher cars but honestly the cougar laydown I'm in the process of building is an absolute dream and the quality is up with the rest of the best👍

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1 hour ago, Robert5000 said:

So great to see these starting to pop up! Now if only ze Germans could hurry up and get mine here. I thought preordering with Tamico was the wise move, but once again the allies defeat the axis. 

I think everyone will get one eventually and I'm glad in a way the internal packing is just standard because if tamiya had done what they did with the egress and avante it would have been a bit harder to want to build it! Makes a change that the UK seems to be ahead of the rest I thought tamico would be the first in Europe to get them because the guy from tamico reviewed it a few months ago!

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4 hours ago, moffman said:

Well Sean at sc models just phoned me to say mine is in so I arrived before he had even put down the phone to me!.......I still think it a lot of money for what it is the boxart is absolutely superb but tble-02s esc and stock silver can motor?? 

20210525_130525.jpg

The lack of a prestige motor is definitely inexcusable. They would have been better off just leaving a motor out altogether, as a bog-standard 540 just waters-down the whole "special" feeling of the kit.

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wooooooooooooo just got a call from lhs to say my evo has arrived so will be a proud owner of one in a day or 2 and he sounded more happy than i was on the phone :lol:

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14 hours ago, Wandy said:

The lack of a prestige motor is definitely inexcusable. They would have been better off just leaving a motor out altogether, as a bog-standard 540 just waters-down the whole "special" feeling of the kit.

I need a few bog standard motors and with the cost of shipping from Hobbyking it may be worth buying a few of these kits for the motors...you reckon my wife will buy that?

  • Haha 3

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1 hour ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I need a few bog standard motors and with the cost of shipping from Hobbyking it may be worth buying a few of these kits for the motors...you reckon my wife will buy that?

Without a doubt. :D

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I forgot how good the top force is to build very straight forward! The shock springs are a lot firmer than the upgrade hop-ups and you don't get the option of the adjustable collars they are in the kit but the screws for them aren't their just the plastic spacer it tells you to use but I'm not a fan of those? But I found some Allen screws that fitted perfectly from a set of split rims of a crawler I once had and those microscopic balls you fit in the plastic washer are almost impossible to see never mind placing them even with grease applied just be careful!

20210527_111118.jpg

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Thunder Dragon manual available to download at last, at least it's something to read, albeit not much different from the other chassis manuals

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23 minutes ago, taffer said:

Thunder Dragon manual available to download at last, at least it's something to read, albeit not much different from the other chassis manuals

They've even been quite lazy with the manual. Still contains info about cutting and painting :D

Good to see the alloy motor mount and turnbuckles although just noticed it states plastic bearings.

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1 hour ago, taffer said:

Thunder Dragon manual available to download at last, at least it's something to read, albeit not much different from the other chassis manuals

Is this reading material available on the tamiya site? I just checked to see other re releases and I guess the TD will be posted soon.

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Being able to have a look through the manual for the Evo would be great once it is up on Tamiya's manual page.I tried Youtube to see some reviews or such but there only seems to be "unboxing" type vids as yet.And it is literally ...unboxing,but leaving the bits in the bags.Usually these type of vids are " I got sent one so I'll read off the box for the spec"  :/ 

As far as I can tell , the tyres ,diff components,turnbuckles,hi-caps and their fitment/springs ,motor mount and bearing type seem to be the parts that could benefit from investigation, regarding the original.

Am I right in thinking that there has been no mention of titanium screws in any official specs? so regular hardwear is expected?

The box art suggests the lightweight kingpins, and steel wishbone pins and C clips should be there, along with the assembly type UJ's instead of the ... err top force UJ's.the diff outdrives appear to be the darker "hard" type too.

I thought it was kinda odd my 2017 Top Force came with the original front UJ's but the 2020 Terra Scorcher got assembly type front and rear instead.

The tble02 instead of the 04 is a weird one ,infact twice as weird,why supply a silver can and an esc at all?does it come with an "AV" pinion too?

 Moving in mysterious ways again Tamiya :D

*oops edit* nearly forgot ...I chuckled at the youtube unboxers finding the undertray under the red box part funny .. I wanted to call out in a pantomime voice " it's under the red box you're holding!"XD

Im off to jack the tyres off the local kids baja king ... I mean errr ... umm :D

Edited by finder75
forgot abit

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The evo and TD manuals are linked on Tamiya blog site so you can check them out from there.

yeah it has an AV pinion. So you need to swap out with a steel 0.6 one.

makes sense what they did with the car- suits most people for minimal effort.

part bags already being split and listed on eBay...

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5 hours ago, Alangt4 said:

The evo and TD manuals are linked on Tamiya blog site so you can check them out from there.

That's good to know, thanks :)

The bottom fixing of the Hi-caps seems different compared to the Top Force bagged Hi-caps set.The set gives 5mm ball studs into the wishbone for the regular ball joint to snap onto from Sprue Y.

The Evo looks like it has plastic balls and different damper base from a new sprue X5 and X1? Sprues N and Y are present ,but mostly shaded as unused.

The top Hi-cap mounting hole is precise to the 6mm ball ,bushing and rubber support part they provide ,smooth as you like with no slop.

I wonder if the 6mm bottom ones are less sloppy?

 

I know all the 5mm ones on my Top Force are 4.8mm balls in 5mm sockets and when you add a few in a row, like on the steering , it gets sloppy quickly.

Same with the damper bottom fixing point , lifting the car off the ground gives a little click as the ball shifts in its socket.

Something I noticed straight away with the Terra Scorcher re-re was the little brass collars to seat the CVA dampers on are precise fit and no slop at all.

Not a ball but a flanged brass tube ,that the original style CVA's used both top and bottom.

Won't lie, I'm stunned neither original nor Evo re-re came with the alloy motor mount as standard , especially for the price Oo

 

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6 hours ago, finder75 said:

Won't lie, I'm stunned neither original nor Evo re-re came with the alloy motor mount as standard , especially for the price Oo

Yes, me too - from the God-like status the original TF Evolution seems to have, I was surprised to find out recently that it, too, didn't come with the aluminium motor mount. 

And I still find comments saying that this new Evo is somehow inferior, when in fact, from what I can tell, it is - aside from the lack of titanium screws - equal or better than the original.

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Thunder Dragon due date seems to have vanished from a few stores. Jadlam (where I ordered from) hasn't updated its April estimate.

Hopefully it's not much longer now. Getting desperate lol

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On 5/29/2021 at 8:13 AM, rich_f said:

Yes, me too - from the God-like status the original TF Evolution seems to have, I was surprised to find out recently that it, too, didn't come with the aluminium motor mount. 

And I still find comments saying that this new Evo is somehow inferior, when in fact, from what I can tell, it is - aside from the lack of titanium screws - equal or better than the original.

Tamiya have managed to make titanium screws for the TA08 Pro (#47476 Tamiya - TA-08 PRO Titanium Screw Set), so I don't see why they couldn't on the TF Evo.

Maybe it will be offered as an upgrade?

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44 minutes ago, nowinaminute said:

Thunder Dragon due date seems to have vanished from a few stores. Jadlam (where I ordered from) hasn't updated its April estimate.

Hopefully it's not much longer now. Getting desperate lol

I've got to the stage where i'm checking the release date on Fusion's website daily.

On Monday it was 18th June and now its the 25th. :(

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Finally, this morning I got a shipping notice from Tamico, so the TFE are on their way. Seems the first batch they got is sold out, as the next date for availability is set to end of July. Not sure that means they've sold a metric ton of them, or if the first shipment they got was a small one. 

Now I'm off to obsessively refreshing the tracking page. 

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12 hours ago, Robert5000 said:

Finally, this morning I got a shipping notice from Tamico, so the TFE are on their way. Seems the first batch they got is sold out, as the next date for availability is set to end of July. Not sure that means they've sold a metric ton of them, or if the first shipment they got was a small one. 

Now I'm off to obsessively refreshing the tracking page. 

It's really suprised me that tamico did have an abundance of topforce evo's they always seemed to get the lion's share of tamiya releases of the past! 

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On 6/2/2021 at 2:03 PM, Ministrone said:

I've got to the stage where i'm checking the release date on Fusion's website daily.

On Monday it was 18th June and now its the 25th. :(

3rd September now :o

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