is this a redundant feature?

[jonboy1]

I've been building my Zahhak/TRF201 over the past couple of evenings and I noticed something odd. 

When you get to step 11 you see these called up:

Which do absolutely nothing! Now, recalling the build on my Durga, I recognised these as stabiliser clamps, which were a hop up (that obviously I added to mine!) and suddenly made sense to me. So, I checked the manual for the TRF201 - no stabiliser set. Hmm. Check the Tamiya website for TRF201 hop ups - nothing there either. I'm pretty sure (but haven't checked, but I will) that the 501x/DB01 set won't fit here, as this looks pretty wide compared to them. So was this a case of Tamiya planning on making stabilisers for it and then just didn't bother? It's not even as if this shock tower was used on anything else to make me think it could've been used later on.

Does this sort of thing crop up on any other chassis'?

 

And before you ask - yes this is a slow work day  

 

[TurnipJF]

Pretty much every chassis in my fleet has extra bulges, screw holes, standoffs and attachment points that serve no purpose on the model. Some are legacies from the days of mechanical speed controllers, some are for alternative configurations such as shorter wheelbase, taller shock towers, etc, but many don't seem to have any purpose that I can fathom. I guess it is just a Tamiya thing, planning for all sorts of possibilities, only some of which make it to production. 

[Alexei]

looks very much like those are used to attach stabilizers. maybe stabilizers was available at some point. FF-03 also have something like this, and stabilizers are hard to find.

[Willy iine]

Yes, I believe they are just tying to cut down on tooling modifications so will add extra or just leave characteristics that may not be used today.  

[BuggyGuy]

I believe one of the 501 stabilizer bars should fit there (pretty sure I read that on Oople recently while researching for my 201 build)

[Problemchild]

Yeah for the stabiliser bars

 

JJ

[jonboy1]

15 hours ago, BuggyGuy said:

I believe one of the 501 stabilizer bars should fit there (pretty sure I read that on Oople recently while researching for my 201 build)

Sadly I can confirm that I checked last night and they won't fit - the straight section between the 2 arms is way too narrow.