Look Out Willy you've got a Rival from Marui ;)

**PLEASE READ THIS** for anyone looking at this model displayed in my showroom and wondering if I will sell it? PLEASE DON’T ASK!!! I get numerous requests from TC members wanting to buy cars displayed in my Tamiyaclub showroom, and to be honest I get very annoyed when people ask to buy something that is clearly NOT FOR SALE!! This car is part of MY COLLECTION and as such I want to KEEP IT!! So please don’t Email on the off chance that I might sell it to you, if I want to sell any of my cars I will put them up for sale in my TRADE ROOM, so look there to see what cars I am prepared to sell otherwise don’t bother asking cos the only answer you will get is NO!!! thanks for reading this disclaimer. Regards wldnas.

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This is one that’s way overdue for the full on write up treatment :S OK so what do we have here? This car is one of 4 variants on the “Wheelie Jeep” stunt buggy theme that was kicked off by Tamiya’s Wild Willy in the early eighties, Tokyo Marui (a rival Japanese model company) decided to jump on the then exploding RC off-road band wagon and produced their first RC car model as a direct competitor to the Wild Willy, and the car design they chose to use was that of an early SWB Toyota Landcruiser, and so the Super Wheelie was born ;)

Over the rest of the 80’s Marui produced a total of 12 RC models before they quit the scene to concentrate on other more specialist models (Like Replica Firearms but we won’t go there :S ) in that time they made no less that 4 different variations on the Super Wheelie chassis and used 2 separate body shell designs (the other was that of the CJ-7 Golden Eagle Jeep, they did actually come up with a 5th model that based on the JSDF version of the Army Jeep (as built under licence by Mitsubishi in Japan) but for what ever reason this model never actually went into full scale production and is now one of those Lost cars that never made it to the shops like the Tamiya 58238 Schlesser Buggy Megane and the more resent and much lamented 58306 Neo Shot 4WD Belt Driven buggy :( ….sniff…

Anyway what’s to be said about the car I have? Well it’s the second version of the Land Cruiser body type and this model differs from the original Super Wheelie in a number of ways… The main one being that the body is moulded in BLUE plastic instead of WHITE like the original and also it has different decals to suit, there is a slightly more technical between this chassis and the earlier one and that is my car has got a wider main battery tray, the one on the original chassis design was only wide enough to fit a standard 6v (5 cell) battery pack? The tray in my car is wider and can accept standard racing packs as well, being able to run this car on 7.2v as opposed to 6v makes for a much livelier driving experience and increases the performance of the car with little if any major modifications to the car.

The Chassis on this car is very simplistic, it’s a box tub chassis made up of a series of different sized box shaped compartments, the front section of the chassis is where the steering mechanism is housed as well as the simple swing arm front suspension units which are damped by simple coil springs, the front bumper is attached to the front of the chassis via two tapered lugs onto which large coil springs are pressed onto, the front bumper itself is pressed onto the opposite ends of the springs using similar lugs and the whole assembly is virtually identical to that fitted to the front of the Tamiya Wild Willy? Moving back along the chassis we come to the widened battery tray which is set quite low in the car to give a reasonably good low centre of gravity, the battery is held in place by rubber bands stretched over lugs in the corner of the tray and cross over the battery.

Behind this is another box compartment into which the Speed Controller is fitted, the standard Marui manual speedo is directly mounted onto the Servo via strong double sided tape on a metal plate which as well as the main mount for the speedo also doubles as heat sing for the resistors which are mounted in a frame on the back of the speedo assembly, the whole lot is held in place against the back of the chassis box by another bit of servo tape which is a bit of a pain sometimes as through the motion of the servo they often come unstuck? The final box on this chassis is at the rear and is mounted up on a higher step, this box is shallower than the others and is the place where normally you are supposed to mount the radio receiver and RX battery holder? The battery switch is mounted in a bracket the attached to the front of this rear shelf, you can actually put the main drive battery up in this tray? (but only if it’s a 6v battery?) this would alter the balance characteristics of the car allowing for much easier wheeling but when your running on 7.2v this isn’t necessary as the car will quite readily pop up onto its rear wheels when full throttle is applied from a standing start.

The reason that the rear part of the chassis is mounted up higher is cos it is to make room for the motor, gearbox and suspension assembly below it, this unit forms a complete transaxle assembly, the whole lot pivots about two short swing arms that are again damped by simple springs? The gear box is a simple double reduction gear train that utilises 32 dpi gears, however I know from experience that these gears are quite brittle and have a habit of stripping teeth quite readily :S the motor drives a counter gear which in turn is meshed with a geared differential unit that has only two planetary gears, the half shafts are of unequal length with the longer one going to the right had side of the car under the motor and through the rear suspension arm, the shorter shaft runs under the gear housing and through the other arm where they are mounted onto the wheels using some chunky wheel adapters.

The rest of the car is quite detailed by comparison, the body is made from injection moulded plastic and has quite a lot of detail on it, and the wheels emulate that of a weller 8 spoke steel wheel design that was quite popular in the 80’s, the car is a open top Jeep style configuration with an integrated roll cage and it fitted with a well proportioned driver figure unlike the cartoon like Wild Willy on the Tamiya car, the decals on this car are quite pleasing with Orca logos a racing blue stripes, the cars body comes moulded in one piece Blue coloured plastic, certain detail pieces are attached separately and are coloured in either Black or White plastic, but I find that through the addition of detail painting the other features of the body can be made to stand out more and it makes for a nice and realistic over all look :)

My car actually came from TC member Purple Bugsy, he had been offering it up for sale in his TC trade room and I had shown an interest in it? Cos at the time I was searching for a Marui Super Wheelie to add to my growing collection of Marui cars but I was being very picky and only really wanted one of the Land Cruiser versions? Anyway as it was close to one of the Clumber park Tamiyaclub drive events I asked if Paul could take it along to the event so I could look at there? He did and I bought the car from him there :) when I first received this car it did look quite plain as the car had only been assembled in its natural colours and had not been painted? It was just the car on its own? It did not come with a box or instructions book? But it did come with some radio gear installed (but no Transmitter?) another thing missing was the Driver figure but on the whole the price was about right for me (I think I paid something like £60 for it?) I could have got the car running at that event and admittedly I did give it a very brief functions check but I did not run it properly till much later.

The first time I really drove this car in anger was at another Tamiyaclub Drive event the following year at Snetterton, I only went the one day but took along my Marui Landcruiser to use in the Wild Willy race, when compared to the original WW the Marui Super wheelie is a much faster car and has far superior handling characteristics, thanks to the lower centre of gravity and smaller wheels it fair belts along and can nearly take tight corners at full speed? Well I say nearly? Cos when I raced it against the WW’s I did manage to roll it couple of times and broke off the top spot lamps and rear fuel can in the process :S still it was an interesting experience to say the least ;) after that I had to try and patch it up but I did manage to glue the broken parts back on :) then after that I decided to concentrate on restoring the car back to original spec, this required me getting a few spares for it? So as time went on I managed to acquire a new front bumper and eventually a new Driver figure for it, and after I’d done all the detail painting on the car I would say that its now fully restored :)

I’ve been doing quite well with my Marui cars this year, and the near completion of this resto makes me all the more satisfied with my achievement :) there are two small bits that I do still need for my car… on the front wings of the body there should be some small side lamp/indicator mouldings? They are only small trinkets and quite frankly no-will really notice that they are missing ( the will now that I’ve mentioned it ;) ) and I suppose my model won’t be fully complete until I have an original box and manual to go with it? But still the end result of my work on this car is quite pleasing and it’s a valuable addition to my little sub group of Marui cars :)