Tomcat

The Hirobo Tomcat, released in 1986 is, I guess, Hirobo's answer to another 2WD from the previous year, Tamiya's Wild one. The styling is similar, the part plastic frame, part Lexan body, with the somewhat outsixe (also Lexan) driving figure forming part of the electric dust protection.


Despite these similarities, there are a couple of differences with the two models, even if we discount the fact that the Hirobo came assembled and the obvious colour difference. For a start, the Hirobo uses a belt drive (pulley, 2 ratios) system rather than the motor and pinion of the Wild One. The Wild One has 4 vertical shock absorbers, rather than the two at the rear and two horizontally mounted at the front (hidden under the front body shell) that the Hirobo offers. With both models, the motor hangs out way at the back of the car.


This assembled model and the quality in general really has to be seen to be believed. The correct use of materials and the nice presentation makes for wonderful eye candy in the box and when built and finished. This particular kit has the 'BMI' sticker on, which refers to a Belgian distributor as far as I know (the Belgian equivalent of RIKO in the UK and MRC in the States).


I am very pleased to have this model in my collection, it represents the culmination of a large and complicated deal that has taken about half a year with a good friend of mine who is also a former World Tamiya Champion. Feel free to log in and comment (don't worry, this isn't the start of another massive loaded upload, just a couple this time. Haven't had time recently to keep up.)