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silvertriple

Marui Hunter(s) and a Galaxy RS too

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Hi everyone,

A Marui Hunter. My first buggy was a Marui Hunter. There was two stars on the box, it came from Japan, but it was from another brand than Tamiya. It has a weird front suspension, the rear chassis structure looked like a copycat of the Tamiya's holiday buggy, but it has something different. It was nice in my eyes.

After months, I finally found a Marui Hunter chassis fior a rebuild. 

YQpmWrz.jpg

When I saw it, I did not took the time to look precisely the pictures and ask for how much delivery before confirming I'm taking it. The add was removed shortly after, and I did not even asked for more picture before taking my decision (I would not have it otherwise, I guess - because one looking at it would have been probably ready to pay more).

It's finally arrived, and I got the time to inspect the chassis. It is is in nice condition (no broken parts from what is present). The differential is in within nice condition as well. And wheels/tires are perfect taking into consideration of their age (not even flat - it seems it was kept in right condition).

That being said, there is missing parts:
- Motor and motor support
- Iddle gear and iddle gear axle, and fixation
- gear enclosings
- radio box and pilot figure
- roll bar and body mount
- servo saver
- MSC (or ESC)

I believe the body shell is ok and I should have a way to clean it and repaint it, while there is reproductions for the stickers (even though, I may try to keep the orginal ones - not sure yet on how to do that).

 

I already found out there is some of the parts I can find repro on shapeways. I would prefer orginal ones if possible, but that would be a plan B in case I can't find them.

 

If you have a Marui Hunter/Galaxy motor mount, it would be great if you can provide pictures with measurements so I can rebuild one... As well I would need the measurements for the gear cover (the one next to the motor) as there is no repro available on shapeways for it.

Anycase, I willl update in this thread about the progress on this project.

 

See you!
 

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Does it have inboard dampers or torsion bar type suspension? Will be good to see more pics of your refurb progress

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18 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Does it have inboard dampers or torsion bar type suspension? Will be good to see more pics of your refurb progress

I does have inboard springs. I will do more pictures at some point over the week-end to document the current state. The front suspension to say the least interesting.  It has already double triangles. I know that at that time some people put short dampers in place of the spring, but the place is very much limited. On the rear side, the damper mount is quite complex as well, with a very well known weak point of the chassis : basically, the triangles used for the damper actuation are the weak points of the chassis and it will need for sure some reinforcement (just to make it clear: I intend to have this car runing :-D)

I'll post pics later over the week-end...

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Over the week-end means now, as I'm currently having battery on charge.

Here is the front suspension: 

AGIB8u9.jpg

Looking at the lower triangles, they are not original ones apparently. They are from a Galaxy rather than a Hunter, as they are damper ready...

Here is a front look at the rear damper:

6TLctSh.jpg

And a rear view

ug04Gh0.jpg

Lot of part missing, but what is present is in good condition...

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1 hour ago, silvertriple said:

Here is the front suspension: 

AGIB8u9.jpg

Wild! I had forgotten just how funky the Marui Hunter's front suspension setup was...

Looking forward to your progress on this one! These really are interesting buggies.

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3 hours ago, Grastens said:

Wild! I had forgotten just how funky the Marui Hunter's front suspension setup was...

Looking forward to your progress on this one! These really are interesting buggies.

For what I remember of my Marui, back in the eighties, it worked quite well. Much better than the rear side... That was funky, yes, but it worked quite well. Handling was quite good. And it was faster than any Hornet among the street...

I have some good memories of it. In front of my parents home, there was a big area with asphalt, we played a lot on it with all the other young teenagers of the street. We had cones to mark turns, and even ramps. The Marui Hunter was quite good at it... I was the king until one of my neighbors upgraded to a Kyosho Beetle slightly over motorized...

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5 hours ago, silvertriple said:

 

.....

Looking at the lower triangles, they are not original ones apparently. They are from a Galaxy rather than a Hunter, as they are damper ready...

 

What an excellent find. The Galaxy was my first RC purchase in the 80s and I loved it.

The triangles should be from the Hunter as the Galaxy didn't have them. The Galaxy had individual shocks on the back mounted to either blue or red towers.

I can get you measurements of the motor mount(and gear cover) in the next day or two (it'll take a day or two as all my gear is currently boxed up as I am about to move). And I'll check if I have a spare roll bar, I should do, but freight out of Australia might be a little high. If I have one, it's yours, just pay for freight,  whereabouts are you? I'll see what other spares I have too. Unfortunately I don't have a spare motor mount or idler gear, they are becoming like hens teeth.

Also good to see the rear bar is in good condition, my original one didn't last that long from hitting things. And indeed most cars I have bought over the years, that bar was usually badly damaged.

As for the idler gear, it just sat one thin metal rod and dropped into those two holes in the chassis. The motor mount held it in place. I was the weak point of the chassis as it would wear, making the idler gear skip.

 

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3 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

What an excellent find. The Galaxy was my first RC purchase in the 80s and I loved it.

The triangles should be from the Hunter as the Galaxy didn't have them. The Galaxy had individual shocks on the back mounted to either blue or red towers.

I can get you measurements of the motor mount(and gear cover) in the next day or two (it'll take a day or two as all my gear is currently boxed up as I am about to move). And I'll check if I have a spare roll bar, I should do, but freight out of Australia might be a little high. If I have one, it's yours, just pay for freight,  whereabouts are you? I'll see what other spares I have too. Unfortunately I don't have a spare motor mount or idler gear, they are becoming like hens teeth.

Also good to see the rear bar is in good condition, my original one didn't last that long from hitting things. And indeed most cars I have bought over the years, that bar was usually badly damaged.

As for the idler gear, it just sat one thin metal rod and dropped into those two holes in the chassis. The motor mount held it in place. I was the weak point of the chassis as it would wear, making the idler gear skip.

 

For the triangle, I may have forgoten the RS behind the Galaxy. The Galaxy RS has 4 dampers. So those triangle are likely from a Galaxy RS.

For the rest, I was really surprised by the good condition of the tires, the bumper, and the chassis itself during the visual inspection. That being said, i'm curious to see why it is not complete. there might be some of the thread which are stripped... I'll see and adapt when I'll progress in the restauration. 

On my own original chasis (back in the eighties), I did not have issue with the iddle shaft. The real issue was the oiless bearings : they started to drill the chassis and the differential started to move down each time the car was back on the ground after a jump... and that what was killed the idlle gear and the differential. I've not check the chassis at that place yet, but I plan to put the iddle gear on proper bearings, as well as proper bearing everywhere.

For the roll cage and other parts you may propose, I'm located in France, Isère, post code is 38110. It may effectively cost quite a bit to shop from down under, I guess. At least you may start with the measurements and detail pictures of those parts: that may be interesting (and not only for me) if I refer to the fact I can't find them anywhere. I'm quite sure some other people maybe interested by this.... And it may not even cost shipping for this :-D

Thanks a lot for this !

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RS is what I had (blue frame) and there was a red one, maybe that was the non-rs version, but it was essentially the setup the same, I think the RS had a better motor and the wheels were silver instead of white.

Oh, I'll have plenty of pinion gears too, so I will dig out a set, both types of kits came with the same three.

Do you have the hunter manual? (I can send you the scans if you want) This shows the build of the rear suspension for the hunter:

Marui-Hunter-Manual-page_007.jpg

 

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9 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

RS is what I had (blue frame) and there was a red one, maybe that was the non-rs version, but it was essentially the setup the same, I think the RS had a better motor and the wheels were silver instead of white.

Oh, I'll have plenty of pinion gears too, so I will dig out a set, both types of kits came with the same three.

Do you have the hunter manual? (I can send you the scans if you want) This shows the build of the rear suspension for the hunter:

Marui-Hunter-Manual-page_007.jpg

 

Thanks. For the Hunter manual, I found the pdf on Tamiyabase. I downloaded a few months ago while getting back into rc cars.  I did remember the way my buggy looked like but not the name and the brand. The two stars on the box made me think it could be a Tamiya... After a lot of research I found the name back, and the manual as well. I started to collect data and links about it as I was searching for one. My first rc car is an important one, and while I had already quite a lot of r/c cars built in the last 4 months, I really wanted one Marui Hunter... I saw few on ebay, but they were both too expensives and with two much issues to sort out, as there is parts which are very difficult to source... This one was not expensive, and was about 35 kms from my home, so I could not let it go.

Let me know what you can find on your side. On my side, I may have found a donnor chassis, but it is also uncomplete. But some elements missing are apparently present (full gearing & gearing enclosing, motor mount and motor)... I hope to have it with me somemtime at the end of the week early next week... Will post here while I have it, and will report what is still missing...

By the way on the rear damper, I may have to find a way to reinforce the chassis: that is known to be the key weak point (although that was not what broke on my buggy while it has a lot of jumps in its life). I'm thinking adding an L-profiled aluminium against the links mount and fix it to the gear enclosing (or at least on a 3D repro of it)... It may also work for the broken chassis...

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yeah, the rear seems to be a weak point, but maybe more so on the Hunters. I never had that issue on the Galaxy, it was always the idler gear wearing out the slots in the chassis.

I found a motor mount and have measured that, its to scale so if you print it without fit to page select you should be able to get all the measurements from it. If not, I'll add them in

https://vintagerc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/marui_galaxy_engine_mount-1.pdf

I also found one roll bar, but its not in very good condition and has been broken off where it mounts to the chassis. I have more packed away at work, but I'm not there until Tuesday. For postage out of Australia, if its under 20 mm thick, then it goes as a letter and that cost between $3 and $12, weight being the main factor. That bar ends up being about 15 mm at the widest point, so should fit in an envelope, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for padding.

I might be able to print you a decal set too. I have a proper outdoor sticker printer (it even prints white ink), just need to set up the artwork, which I need to do for myself anyway, so will have a go at that. It might take me a week or two though. I've done the Galaxy RS sticker set, and can borrow bits from that, I just have to trace the Hunter logo.

If your initial car had two stars on the box, it's a good bet it was a Tamiya. What did it end up being and do you have any pics of it? 

cheers

Johann

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6 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

yeah, the rear seems to be a weak point, but maybe more so on the Hunters. I never had that issue on the Galaxy, it was always the idler gear wearing out the slots in the chassis.

I found a motor mount and have measured that, its to scale so if you print it without fit to page select you should be able to get all the measurements from it. If not, I'll add them in

https://vintagerc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/marui_galaxy_engine_mount-1.pdf

I also found one roll bar, but its not in very good condition and has been broken off where it mounts to the chassis. I have more packed away at work, but I'm not there until Tuesday. For postage out of Australia, if its under 20 mm thick, then it goes as a letter and that cost between $3 and $12, weight being the main factor. That bar ends up being about 15 mm at the widest point, so should fit in an envelope, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for padding.

I might be able to print you a decal set too. I have a proper outdoor sticker printer (it even prints white ink), just need to set up the artwork, which I need to do for myself anyway, so will have a go at that. It might take me a week or two though. I've done the Galaxy RS sticker set, and can borrow bits from that, I just have to trace the Hunter logo.

If your initial car had two stars on the box, it's a good bet it was a Tamiya. What did it end up being and do you have any pics of it? 

cheers

Johann

Johann,

Thanks for the engine mount measurements! Great work!

A decal set, even a repro would be great... I have a laser color printer, but I'm not able to print white, and I suspect it would not stick on vinyl material...

As for the two stars on the box,  unfortunately I don't have picture of my original buggy box. But if you search for Marui Hunter box on internet, you'll understand more clearly what I mean. The Hunter on the box was Yellow and white, and the box and it was on front of two green stripes, on which there was two white stars... When looking at the box, no questions why I was searching for Tamiya models first. I searched for Tamiya Hunter at first... but did not found any, then thought I may be wrong about the name of the buggy, and continue searching on Tamiya  club and other about Tamiya rare models... And at some point found one pic of the front suspension of it, and the rear links... And that was it, next was the box image and then it was clear... I don't know what happen with my original buggy. It was at my parents home, and I'm not sure what happened to it. I didn't put in the bin myself, there might be some remains of it somewhere at my parents place if my brother's son did not took the stuff to try make something out of it. I will have to investigate next time I'll go to my parents place (it's 600 km from here, and we are only allowed to 30 km right now due to confinment again in France)... My father searched but did not found anything. Not sure he is looking at the right place, but on the other hand, the place changed a bit, and my parents may have done some cleaning, and put some stuff in the bin at that time... I've send some pics to my brother of my acquisition, and he is trying to find out if some parts are at his place as well...

Anycase, it is great to find help!

Thanks,

Marc

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On 4/25/2021 at 1:03 PM, yogi-bear said:

I found a motor mount and have measured that, its to scale so if you print it without fit to page select you should be able to get all the measurements from it. If not, I'll add them in

https://vintagerc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/marui_galaxy_engine_mount-1.pdf

Johann,

I just tried to print and measure, and horizontally, it looks fine. Vertically, it's another story. Not sure which paper size you use down under.

I believe it may help, if you indicate all measurements on the plan (including diameters for the holes). It maybe the pdf format which makes it this way. May I suggest to provide a png file rather (then I would be able to cut it with the Silhouette Cameo and make sure measurements on the cut are right - at least to prepare the metal cut, using stickers I would stick on the aluminium sheet)...

Thanks for your help

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2 hours ago, silvertriple said:

Johann,

I just tried to print and measure, and horizontally, it looks fine. Vertically, it's another story. Not sure which paper size you use down under.

I believe it may help, if you indicate all measurements on the plan (including diameters for the holes). It maybe the pdf format which makes it this way. May I suggest to provide a png file rather (then I would be able to cut it with the Silhouette Cameo and make sure measurements on the cut are right - at least to prepare the metal cut, using stickers I would stick on the aluminium sheet)...

Thanks for your help

we use A4, maybe check that "fit to page" isn't selected when you print. Measurements of holes is to the centre of the hole.

new pdf with more measurements

https://vintagerc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/marui_galaxy_engine_mount-2.pdf

and a png file too

marui_galaxy_engine_mount.png

 

 

cheers

 

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6 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

we use A4, maybe check that "fit to page" isn't selected when you print. Measurements of holes is to the centre of the hole.

new pdf with more measurements

https://vintagerc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/marui_galaxy_engine_mount-2.pdf

and a png file too

marui_galaxy_engine_mount.png

 

 

cheers

 

Cool!

Just printed and seems adjustements are sligtly better now than before. I still have 1 mm off on the vertical side on the measurement superior to 15mm. On horizontal side it is perfect similar to the indication. Seems my printer doesn't manage well. But that's good enough, specially considering than within the day, I found someone on a french speaking forum with a broken chassis which seems to include the complete gearing, motor mount, motor and gear enclosing, and it's on the way from Belgium. It has a lso a body, a roll bar, and likely the body mount.  I will have to check once I get the thing delivered, but it may have everything needed to have at least one running... And if this one is confirmed to come with the roll bar, I would let you save yours for another desperate guy. I'll confirm this once I get it delivered and checked (likely at the end of the week).

That being said, I'm still interested by your proposal of decals :-).

And for the triangle, I confirmed by doing some search on rc-paper.com in french articles about the Hunter and the Galaxy that the Hunter did not have damper mounts on the front suspension originally. That being said, the parts NIP from Marui were Galaxy's triangle with Damper mounts, and were labeled "for Hunter/Galaxy"... That clears this. I also came to know there was 2 edition of the Hunter, and the second one may have included the triangle with damper mounts wich may explain as well... The first edition had also a different format for the shock tower mounts, with less material and a rounded top while square on the second edition (see attached pics taken from rc-paper.com)...

image.thumb.png.6b2f850ba897ee3a84b15b812ade7fcb.png

There might be other differences, but at least, I can say the chassis I got now is a second edition one...

Interesting bits of the history. Not sure how much it reinforce it. In anycase, I'm curious to see the incoming chassis. I'm not able to say if my original chassis was a first or a second edition. I'm almost sure there was damper mount on the front triangle, and I never broke the shock tower, which seems suprising based on what I read so far on all the Marui Hunter. Mine jumped a lot, and very often on hard roads (asphalt)...

Thanks for your help again!

A+

Marc

 

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awesome that you will probably have the bits you need. I won't look for the roll bar then, but I'll still finish off the artwork on the decals (almost done anyway).

I never knew there was two versions of the Hunter, that's good to know. I'd be keen to see an example. I have a hunter manual (and about 4 cars) and they all have the triangle rear  and internal suspension at the front, so maybe the first gen was short lived or not available in all markets.

I saw the bottom pic of your car on Tamiyabase, and it looks hardly used, so that is good too (that would also probably explain why the rear bumper is still intact too).

I'll post the artwork for the Hunter decals up here when done (should be over the weekend),

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6 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

I never knew there was two versions of the Hunter, that's good to know. I'd be keen to see an example. I have a hunter manual (and about 4 cars) and they all have the triangle rear  and internal suspension at the front, so maybe the first gen was short lived or not available in all markets.

I was not aware myself until I found mention of it in a post somewhere (not sure where I read it). The first iteration has rounded rear shock towers (as in the pictures from the article I uploaded in my previous post). On the second iteration of the chassis, those are square. As per my understanding, the Galaxy came after the Hunter, and the square form was introduced to support the shock tower extensions of the Galaxy models, and they applied this to the Hunter chassis as well. Key difference between the two was still the color : grey on the Hunter, black on the Galaxy.

For the front triangles, I believe the first version (rounded shocks tower as pictured my previous post) did not have the damper mounts on the triangles. The damper mounts in the triangles were added when they released the Galaxy. It seems all Hunter I can see out there has those damper mounts in the lower triangle. They are not present/indicated in the Hunter manual I found on tamiyabase. May be they are documented on later ones. Interestingly, the same manual figure out the rounded shock towers (so clearly v1 of the chassis)... That being said, both iteration had the internal suspension at the front.

I believe the one I got initially back in 1984 (likely) was from the first iteration. The chassis I got now is definitely from the second iteration.  If you still don't see the elements I'm pointing to, I'll drop additional pictures I found on internet with elements highlighted...

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I had a Hunter some years back , it was a nice bit of kit - like Tamiya but just slightly different in it's own right . A Super Champ style rear damper and basic front spring set-up . The rear gear cover was stamped 'HUNTER' . I had other covers stamped 'MARUI' , so there is a specific 'Hunter' gear cover . The rear bumper was intact , I had a broken one too , so these are a weak point . Pic below shows repaired body . A nice buggy that I should have kept ;)

hunter driver 2.JPG

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well, I checked out the Hunter chassis I pulled out of storage to measure that motor mount and it turns out one was of the ver 1. The version 1 chassis I have here has been stripped of parts, but do have more packed away somewhere. I'll be keen to see if I have a rear gear cover stamped "Hunter" :D 

hunter-ver-1-and-ver-2-1.jpeg

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5 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

well, I checked out the Hunter chassis I pulled out of storage to measure that motor mount and it turns out one was of the ver 1. The version 1 chassis I have here has been stripped of parts, but do have more packed away somewhere. I'll be keen to see if I have a rear gear cover stamped "Hunter" :D 

hunter-ver-1-and-ver-2-1.jpeg

Nice! A proof of the existence of the two chassis versions in one single picture :-D. It's funny how small elements can indicate a lot of things...

I should receive the broken chassis and parts today or tomorrow, Inspection within the evening following the reception, and pictures as well... Can't be soon enough :-)

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3 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

well, I checked out the Hunter chassis I pulled out of storage to measure that motor mount and it turns out one was of the ver 1. The version 1 chassis I have here has been stripped of parts, but do have more packed away somewhere. I'll be keen to see if I have a rear gear cover stamped "Hunter" :D 

hunter-ver-1-and-ver-2-1.jpeg

Quoting this again, while you have the two version of the chassis, could you please take a picture of the underside of both : I would like to check something :)

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here ya go. Top is the version 1. All I can see are extra holes next to where the servo is mounted.

hunter-ver-1-and-ver-2-1-1.jpeg

 

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43 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

here ya go. Top is the version 1. All I can see are extra holes next to where the servo is mounted.

hunter-ver-1-and-ver-2-1-1.jpeg

 

Thanks, That was exactly my assumption : v2 has extra holes, unused on the Hunter, but used on the Galaxy :-D

Really interesting...

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This arrived today

CWq7wco.jpg

AlQrR0b.jpg

I unmounted the gear covers to check the iddle gear and the transmission, it's complete and ok (could be better as there is signs of wear on the smaller part of the iddle gear, but I have some ideas on how to deal with this. The  differential itself seems in perfect state.

Roll bar is here,  the chassis itself have been really abused: multiple elements broken or damaged.

Still missing :

  • Radio box
  • driver
  • fog lights
  • Servo mount and servo saver (but that is eventually easy to fix with some remains of Tamiya clusters and a Tamiya servo saver)

I will have to think about my next move. At least I have now whatever is needed to build a running car (if using some of non Marui elements)...

In anycase, there is a nice project ahead...

 

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