Let's Fighting!
I bought this some time ago when they were cheap at Tamico, although these seem to be a perennially cheap buggy compared to the DT-02 that I always loved and was always slightly out of impulse purchase price.
My original plan was to paint it in my blue and silver race colours, as I thought the silver would look fantastic around the framework on the front of the body, but when the time came to build I had become somewhat bored of doing the same colour every time. I think part of me also looked at the amount of masking required and thought, well, maybe not...
At the time of purchase this was 'just another NIB' but then I found out about the DT-02 challenge and had to get involved. I'd missed it for the first couple of years by not being able to afford a new buggy at the time of signing up, but with the DT-03 sitting in my NIB pile when the 2017 event was announced I figured the time was right to get to it.
With a lot of advice from Super Gripper I was able to build this to Modified class spec by adding some necessary hop-ups: Tamiya turnbuckles, alloy servo mount, and graphite front and rear shock towers. I think that's the only ever time I've added hop-ups as I built a car.
The car went well enough at the Challenge, although I'm not an expert racer so didn't place in the trophies. After that it went back in the box for the 2018 event, which was cancelled due to lack of entries. As I haven't been able to get to many open bash events since then, it hasn't been used. It stayed in the box until March of this year when I took it to a Tamiya Junkies meet, where I found it to be a sheer delight on the smooth indoor astro track.
These photos were taken when it was freshly built and about to head off to the DT-02 challenge in 2017.
Bonus points if you spot the reference on the wing slogan.