Doing a rare Playtron double with the Lynx.
**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.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now here is a Turn up for the books : ) I am now the proud owner of both the PLAYTRON cars, the Doberman and now the Lynx, I’ve had the Doberman for quite a while now, and with it being such a rare car I wasn’t holding out much hope of ever restoring it to original condition, but I was going to try and bodge it enough just to get it running, after a while other more pressing projects came to the fore and my Doberman has been somewhat forgotten of late : (
But this story isn’t about that car, Oh no! it’s about its 4WD sister car, the LYNX which I have just acquired, I should really be thanking Tamiyaclub member OLDFORDGUY for finding this car in the first place then after realising it wasn’t quite to his personal taste, he offered it to me at a very reasonable price (for such a rare car) he knew I was into Rare and obscure RC buggies from the 1980’s and had seen the Doberman in my showroom, so he thought it would be great if he was to sell the car to me thus allowing me to own both examples of the Ultra rare Playtron cars.
This car is very similar to the Doberman, which some might say is a clone of the Tamiya Frog, with its open space frame type chassis and trailing arm rear suspension, but whereas the Doberman is a black coloured 2WD, the Lynx is a White coloured 4WD, both cars share the same chassis and basic body design, but that is where they differ, they have different colour and decal schemes and the Lynx has the extra 4WD gear that includes bevel drive and gear case bolted on the side of the rear gearbox next to the motor, the prop shaft leading to the front gearbox which takes up the front block of the car, then it runs through drive cups and dog bones to the front wheels which are essentially smaller versions of the rear wheels except they have one way bearings fitted cos the front axle is not equipped with a diff, like the Doberman it shares the same front bumper type, but unfortunately this one is also missing : (
The rest of the car is the same as the Doberman, it has the same rear suspension arrangement except the original shocks have been substituted with Frog Shocks, the gearbox is the same except for the 4WD modification, and the motor, which is a 540 variant of a type I’ve never seen before, was fitted with a fancy heat shield to which the rear body mounts screws in apparently? The body isn’t in too good, its been trimmed and painted badly, the spoiler and headlamps are missing as are some of the decals and there is no driver figure, there are a few minor cracks but all in all its in similar overall condition to the Doberman body when I got it.
The car also came with a load of spares bags and the original manual, the manual is disappointing though, when these kits came out the car were supplied with a ready built chassis fitted with a Futaba radio, all you had to do to complete the kit was cut, paint and decal the body, the instructions reflect this fact in that all they show is how to fit and adjust the radio, and it has an exploded view of the transmission but that’s it? On the plus side it does come with a full parts list at the back, which may come in handy should the required spares become available, but the spares bags I have got are mostly pressed metal parts which both my Playtron cars have a full quota of anyway : ( there is a heap of bags marked Doberman D18 which is the gearbox shaft set which again is something I have little need for, but maybe they will come in useful for something else ; )
With the cars appraisal over, I think that the Lynx would be a far better prospect to restore to running order than the Doberman, but even so more than a little ingenuity will be required do so, especially in the speed control department, but I don’t see that as much of a problem seeing as I’ve already fashioned a Speedo mount for the Doby,
The body too can be bodged, I’m considering doing the same trick as I did with the Doby body, in that I will strip off the original paint from the inside and totally repaint the correct colour, the Body is curently a strange hue of yellow, but its supposed to be white, I have located an old frog spoiler which I can substitute for the missing original and I’m sure I have a couple of old standard Tamiya headlamps knocking around somewhere?
But Owning this unique pair of cars is what its all about, I doubt there are many people in the world who can boast to owning both a Playtron Doberman and a Lynx,
So the bringing together of this rare duo is all thanks to OLDFORDGUY who did me a huge favour : )
Not exactly in the best of conditions?
The chassis, body and all the spares bags.
OLDFORDGUY restored the chassis before sale.
Both cars? Sights don't get much rarer than this!
They arn't the prettiest of cars.
Comments
wldnas
Odd Ball Buggies Qualification: Like the Doberman this is from a manufacturer that did not make many models so is RARE, also it has the same CLONED Frog style chassis with the added 4WD system that is of an interesting DESIGN.
Want to leave a comment?