Why is the Fox such a unicorn?

[A-Baum 352]

Browsing through Tamiyabase reminded me the Fox was a one-off product.  Seems like almost every other chassis Tamiya built, they released at least two kits (usually more) on that chassis.  It made a lot of sense from the business side where you didn't have to design a chassis for every kit, just repurpose them, add a couple different parts/wheels/tires and a body and you can sell a new kit and we all bought them. So why did they never revisit the Fox chassis?  It's certainly more reliable and robust than the Falcon chassis for example which has been reused for half a dozen kits.  Anyone know the deal?    

[TRF201-Driver 14]

The Fox came out around the same time the RC10 did.  Tamiya probably quickly realized that the chassis design was nowhere near as competitive as the RC10 and that they needed to go another route.

[A-Baum 352]

But they never went another route to competitiveness.  If anything, they leaned more toy-grade for the next few years before rolling out the Avante chassis.  We need a Tamiya documentary.

[BelknapCrater 179]

28 minutes ago, A-Baum said:

But they never went another route to competitiveness.  If anything, they leaned more toy-grade for the next few years before rolling out the Avante chassis.  We need a Tamiya documentary.

I remember when the Astute came out in ‘89, thinking that it was a little late. The RC10 was so dominant, then JJ won with an Ultima. Maybe that emboldened Tamiya.

[A-Baum 352]

Just now, BelknapCrater said:

I remember when the Astute came out in ‘89, thinking that it was a little late. The RC10 was so dominant, then JJ won with an Ultima. Maybe that emboldened Tamiya.

Possibly. But they're bread and butter has always been and still is more "casual" RC enthusiasts.  They've embraced quirkiness and unique designs.  I mean how many cars out there looked like the Rc-10?  Now the trend is toward cab forward buggies and now there's 50 clones of those.  Nothing out there looks like a Manta Ray, or a Thunder Dragon, or an Avante. 

I don't think competition was the reason they moved away from the Fox chassis. 

[Sir Crashalot 265]

3 hours ago, A-Baum said:

Browsing through Tamiyabase reminded me the Fox was a one-off product.  Seems like almost every other chassis Tamiya built, they released at least two kits (usually more) on that chassis.  It made a lot of sense from the business side where you didn't have to design a chassis for every kit, just repurpose them, add a couple different parts/wheels/tires and a body and you can sell a new kit and we all bought them. So why did they never revisit the Fox chassis?  It's certainly more reliable and robust than the Falcon chassis for example which has been reused for half a dozen kits.  Anyone know the deal?    

Same thing with the Bigwig.

Might have been the enclosed electrics on the Fox, although Tamiya subsequently released the Supershot and Hotshot II with a similarly designed chassis.

[Saito2 7329]

A good question and one which I have pondered over the decades. The Fox was no doubt Tamiya's top 2wd buggy at the time (or at least it was their intention). It had the gold plated wheels often associated with their "best" vehicles around that time (Super Shot, Monster Beetle) though that trend would not last. The Fox's design appears to be somewhat inspired by that of the Hotshot series, which again was a higher end Tamiya model line. Most ad copy in the States touted the Fox's speed (it was indeed a rather quick buggy out of the box for the time). While not a direct aim at the RC10 per se, Tamiya clearly had aspirations of it being a competitive 2wd buggy.

As to why it never saw a family branch out from its basic design? I have some theories. It has been my understanding at some point back then, that 2wd was seen as somewhat less "prestigious" than 4wd (perhaps this is more of a Japanese thing). At any rate, most of Tamiya's "halo" buggies were 4wd. The Hotshot, Super Shot, Bigwig, Avante, Egress, etc. were always Tamiya's best in the buggy lineup. 2nd, the Fox was not particularly cheap. It cost about the same as a 4wd Boomerang BITD. Perhaps this made it's market smaller. I don't know the sales numbers.

For whatever reason, Tamiya dropped the idea of higher level 2wd until the Astute many years later, which I always found curious. The Astute's engineering cost was spread out with the Madcap (later Saint Dragon and Super Astute) and to some degree, the King Cab, all of which were clean sheet designs borrowing nothing from the earlier buggies. My guess is the Fox didn't sell well enough to warrant a copy or did sell enough that one wasn't needed. It would be tough to de-content the Fox to make it cheaper and there was little chance Tamiya would develop it further as it was so far off the standard the RC10 set.

[rwordenjr 1891]

Sure does suck having to take apart the whole car pretty much to get to electronics 

[mtbkym01 4173]

Was my first hobby grade car, still have my original, plus a couple other variants incl a NIB original, and a TT gear, and A mini NIB, eyeing off a 2nd Nova sitting at my LHS now, it looks lonely on the shelf there, think it would be happier on my shelf 😂😂

[Unknown Driver 262]

Boy I never thought about that - but good question. I also never realized the link between "top-tier" Tamiyas and gold plated wheels.

Agree on the Tamiya documentary. There have to be some amazing "behind the scene" stories to be shared. Unfortunately, I think between the way the company conducts itself and how Japanese culture is, this probably won't happen. Which is a shame since the Team Associated documentaries released around the B64/B74 birth were so much fun to watch.

[rwordenjr 1891]

This thread got me interested in using my novafox more so i got new wild one white wheels coming for it to run  also got the crp shock springs and adjusters although that probably wont do much. 

[Hudson 57]

My guess is that Tamiya did tinker with some Fox variations but never landed anything satisfactory. Add in the electrics access nightmare plus more demand for four wheel drive at the time……

Only a guess of course!

Is there any sales data from this period? Two of my best mates had the Fox back in the day, it was surely a good seller.

In any case, the Fox remains my favourite ever buggy and I’m pleased Tamiya never ‘diluted’ its appeal with variations of the same chassis