Are these Re-Re's cheaper quality than the og stuff?

[Rider400 353]

Im wondering if some of the REs are cheaper quality than the original cars from back in the day. Or do they use the same amount of metal where the old ones did and use a decent plastic material etc.

Im working on building some older stuff but on a whim bought a Midnight Pumpkin Lowride (not technically a Reissue I know) but man it seems cheap as badword. Everything is plastic and I felt like I was gonna break **** near every piece I was installing.

Is the newer Blackfoot for instance pretty comparable to the old original ones?

[FromageTheDog 65]

The modern plastics are much more durable, at least in my experience.  I remember all the 80's plastics being quite brittle, whereas the re-res seem to hold up better.  Maybe I'm just better on the sticks...

[Rider400 353]

5 minutes ago, FromageTheDog said:

The modern plastics are much more durable, at least in my experience.  I remember all the 80's plastics being quite brittle, whereas the re-res seem to hold up better.  Maybe I'm just better on the sticks...

I think the Pumpkin Lowride is probably just a low end truck period. Good to know the others are a bit more solid. Thinking of getting 1 or 2 reissues.. This back order **** is killing me seems no matter what you are into these days there are availability problems.

[DeadMeat666 1675]

With costs going down for all kinds of manufacturing processes and materials, while at the same time Big T continues to be able to charge premium prices for their kits, I don't see a legitimate business reason for the quality to slip. If anything, lessons have been learned and things have been improved here and there.

I just finished building a re-re Sand Scorcher, and while my memory of my dad's 1980 Rough Rider may not be 100% accurate, the Scorcher seems every bit as solid if not more so.

Conversely, I built a re-re Firedragon (2020) and like many others I found that there was a gearbox bevel gear that was improperly formed and caused a racket until I replaced it with a vintage part, but I'd consider this an exception rather than the rule.

For the most part I'm very happy with the quality of the rereleases.

[Fuijo 880]

For the cars where I have both vintage and rere, I would say the Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider are a bit better on materials, but that the Sand Scorcher rere parts-bin body is worse.

The Fighting Buggy is better in every way. Obviously the original stickers' styling looks better, but the rere ones are better quality.

Although the original instruction manuals were good, the new ones are much better.

Those are the only 3 cars that I can compare side-to-side. Not sure about the others.

[moffman 5752]

This is a question I often pondered on myself until I built a re-re blitzer beetle and a few weeks later I built the metallic special edition which was an original (mechanical speed controller, full back window etc) but the one thing that stood out was the re-release plastic parts were more malleable ? You didn't have to really force the screws!, the original some of the plastic screw holes were going white and you could easily feel the plastic was more ridged now that could be the age but I'm thinking its more to do with the use of a more user friendly plastic? And if it's more malleable its surly going to take a bit more abuse? So what I'm thinking is the re-releases are no better or no worse just naturally more advanced in the materials they are made of ?.

[Saito2 6686]

Tamiya often retains material usage from original model to re-release model. In other words, if a part was originally ABS, PC or PA, the re-re part is the same. I can't be 100% certain this true all of the time, but in my experience, it is true in most instances. Occasionally, materials are updated in a newer model. The TXT-2 Agrios used stronger, glass-filled versions of the same parts used by its predecessor, the TXT-1.

Several factors might be at play. Mold wear, as previously noted, can be an issue. There were some rumblings that the newest Clod Buster's parts didn't quite fit with the accuracy of the earlier versions. Considering the Clod's long lifespan, this is possible. 

Plasticizer migration is also possible in older parts, even those kept NIB. While factors like UV speed up plasticizer loss, simple storage over time takes its toll resulting in poorer mechanical properties. In a sense, the flexibility, durability and resilience of most typical Tamiya plastic based parts degrades over time.

While Tamiya may have made subtle changes to the make-up, the core material composition remans the same, i.e: ABS is still ABS, PC  is still PC etc. What we may deal with in some cases is simple evolution of our "opinion" on materials, so to speak. As a kid, I found Tamiya plastics, often dubbed as "engineering grade" in ad copy, as quality stuff. Indeed, compared to may other manufacturer's vehicles at the time, aside from higher end things from the likes of Associated and Kyosho, Tamiya plastics and their precision was very good. Their precision, for the most part, is still pretty decent, at times exemplary. Stronger plastics with a more "quality feel" have come about making the unchanged Tamiya materials feel a bit dated to our hands at times. Just a possibility. 

[MrBlz 21]

I have a Manta Ray from 1990 that my boys got for me and I recently cleaned it up, added an ESC and off I went.  Inspired by that I purchased a Terra Scorcher and a Bigwig for my grandsons.  Fun building and in my opinion I found the quality to be similar.  A great fun experience for all.

[Shodog 1835]

I think some are better. The rere bruiser is better than the original. 

[moffman 5752]

24 minutes ago, Shodog said:

I think some are better. The rere bruiser is better than the original. 

Yeah I think your right also the avante re-re is better than the original the dodgy weak parts have been improved!