RE: Tamiya Toyota Hilux: Time For Tea?

[Jamie Summers]

My RC history went.....
Holiday Buggy
Ford Ranger
Frog
Optima
Supershot
Big Brute (currently sitting in my garage and about to go on eBay - let me know if you want it !)

Seriously considering getting back into it..... My four yearold daughter told me she wants a radio controlled car for Christmas (without any prompting !). I told the wife I will sort that out. Cue wildly age-inappropriate daddy purchase

[ben5575]

This is not a helpful thread at all.

I bought a Hornet in a rash of nostalgia a couple of years back (for my son you understand ). That progressed to a Lunchbox last year (for my son you understand ).

That photo of those two beautiful Hotshots absolutely does not help. The link to the cheap shop is simply unnecessary and why oh why did you put up a link to the tamiya club?!

Talking of the link between Tamiya and general petrolheadedness, I can confirm that that Lunch box (black edition) I bought has absolutely no impact on my choice of motors at all

[Agent Orange]

For anyone contemplating getting a Tamiya R/C car to fulfill that gap you had in your childhood during a moment of mid-life crisis madness let me save you the bother and say don't do it.

I did about 5 years ago and whilst great fun to build the actual use of one was extremely underwhelming. Not helped by the fact it ran out of power after 15 minutes.

I considered getting the car I always wanted, a Sand Scorcher, for an ornament for the office but then I realised two weeks of SOTW wouldn't be able to afford one so I binned that idea too.

Great fun to think about it but honestly you'll just be throwing money away if you actually follow it through!

A real play car like a Caterham is far more fun and rewarding

[Jerry Can]

I had a mitsubishi pajero, but i really wanted the audi quattro that soxboy had - the swine. mine was ace for wheelies. I too remember a 3 day build over christmas, only to find that we had missed out some part or other so the thing would not work. I think we finally got it going about 3 weeks later. sold it on ebay about 3 years ago for £75.

move forward 20 years and I got a tamiya XBG nitro subaru impreza which was great but perhaps rc cars don't hold the same appeal when you are an adult.

[Howrare]

My first Saturday job was in a hobby shop and we had this video along with all the other Tamiya promo vids on constant loop. So good to see it again. Wonder if I can dig out the Rothmans 959 one?

My Xmas Thunder Dragon build resulted in my new car being driven at full chat through a huge pile of dogs*&t!!! It was during it first ever run. This resulted in me donning gloves and a clothes peg to strip the whole thing apart again, and wash it in the bath. The thing got lifted from my school locker a few weeks later.

[red997]

ahh memories..
my first RC car as a kid was a Rough Rider - still remember getting it from Beaties in Sheffield for Christmas...
happy memories..
got me into racing, initially 1/10 off road then 1/12 indoor - went up to national level

probably taught me more about electronics than I realised at the time;
I ended up building my own fast chargers, dischargers, pit gear and eventually speed controllers.

I went the RC car route again last Christmas - bought an associated RC8e
full build - took me several days !
Lipo + brushless means mental performance and really long run times - lots of family members love playing with it !

Re-living childhood

[anonymous-user]

Agent Orange said:

For anyone contemplating getting a Tamiya R/C car to fulfill that gap you had in your childhood during a moment of mid-life crisis madness let me save you the bother and say don't do it.

I did about 5 years ago and whilst great fun to build the actual use of one was extremely underwhelming. Not helped by the fact it ran out of power after 15 minutes.

I considered getting the car I always wanted, a Sand Scorcher, for an ornament for the office but then I realised two weeks of SOTW wouldn't be able to afford one so I binned that idea too.

Great fun to think about it but honestly you'll just be throwing money away if you actually follow it through!

A real play car like a Caterham is far more fun and rewarding

So true. Myself and two others thought we'd make amends for what we missed out on as kids, and it wasn't great. Cash was spent on hop-up parts and fast chargers but there was no monetary figure that could stop you looking like that dodgy man in the park that your parents warned you about.

Unfortunately the brightly coloured cars flying around acted like a child-magnet to any curious 6 year old which made it even worse.

We decided to call it a day when a backpack containing a mountain of full-charged spare batteries was pissed on by a dog. Or it might have been because dogs thought the cars were some sort of feral rodent that they should be chasing and attacking, much to the dog owners amusement and our horror.

I advertised my kit on Freecycle and gave it to a woman who thought building and maintaining an RC car would be a good way for her son and new husband to bond - which I thought was quite a good idea so she was welcome to it.

Rose-tinted specs and all that. The build and anticipation far outweighs the end result. They do look good though.

[vrsmxtb]

If only they'd make a nice scale 1/10 Defender!

Did anyone else have a Monster Beetle? Still got mine, but it's a bit battered.

[gl20]

Hornet, Fox, Supershot, 959, thundershot for me before I became all grown up and got a Schumacher CAT (LWB XLS) for my 15th birthday. I think my general understanding of suspension /'car set-up comes from this childhood hobby. If you couldn't set it up right for a club race you'd have all sorts of trouble. Still have the CAT, the palmer motors, the Demon 'thermal' pulse charger etc in the loft somewhere.

Back to the video - I remember these well from the mobile Tamiya stand at some of the events we went to. While this Hi-lux one is good, some of the ones for the Frog, etc are amazing. Worth a look on you tube

[vrsmxtb]

Erm.....ok.

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/tamiya-40-foot-maersk-...

[AndyJRB]

Good old Tamiya, many fond memories of belting my Wild One around the playground of an evening and weekend as a kid. Remember the gearbox started to make a clicking/grinding noise, replaced the cogs but still no joy so somehow got hold of an Avante. Now that was fast (as far as I can remember ) As some say, memories should remain just that, memories, rose tinted spectacles and all. . . . very tempted though.

[kambites]

itz_baseline said:

I used to take it pretty seriously as a kid (racing at National Level) when the Schumacher Cat was the car to have.

I've got a Cougar 2 sitting in the loft somewhere. They seem to fetch decent money in good condition these days, but sadly mine is scratched and dented to buggery.

[ess]

My first R/C Tamiya was the Lamborghini Countach LP500S, closely followed by the Sand Scorcher in 1979.
These two have been languishing in the house for a while now.
Must make an effort.

s

Edited by ess on Thursday 30th October 19:38

[g7jhp]

I had a Tamiya Hornet.

[cptsideways]

I love the speed, that for a change is quite realistic

[PhantomPH]

kambites said:

itz_baseline said:

I used to take it pretty seriously as a kid (racing at National Level) when the Schumacher Cat was the car to have.

I've got a Cougar 2 sitting in the loft somewhere. They seem to fetch decent money in good condition these days, but sadly mine is scratched and dented to buggery.

Yeah, my Optima Mid could never quite cut it with the Cat boys. Gits.

[DM525i]

Real good point made about things like this creating a generation of car fans. I'm a primary teacher and it amazes me that none of the children seem to aspire to owning a car of any sort. I have never heard any kid talking about radio controlled cars as play things. When I was in school some cool kid had a Big Foot RC car. This caused a big fuss in the play ground, another had a Tamiya car of some description and we talked for hours about the speed and the skids it could do. I sound like a grump old man but this is just an observation.

[morgrp]

Forget the Hilux, the One to have is the Bruiser. An upgrade of the original Hilux and looks far better with nicer scaled wheels - They have also re-released the bruiser in 2012 too so you can buy a brand new kit and not some million year old fragile shelf queen. You'll also get the unrivalled pleasure of being able to build your bruiser yourself - Tamiyas are undoubtedly the best of all models from a building point of view - all the parts seem to go together so perfectly.

[morgrp]

Agent Orange said:

For anyone contemplating getting a Tamiya R/C car to fulfill that gap you had in your childhood during a moment of mid-life crisis madness let me save you the bother and say don't do it.

I did about 5 years ago and whilst great fun to build the actual use of one was extremely underwhelming. Not helped by the fact it ran out of power after 15 minutes.

I considered getting the car I always wanted, a Sand Scorcher, for an ornament for the office but then I realised two weeks of SOTW wouldn't be able to afford one so I binned that idea too.

Great fun to think about it but honestly you'll just be throwing money away if you actually follow it through!

A real play car like a Caterham is far more fun and rewarding

They are all about the building, and in my day, the modifying and racing - Cheapest motorsport you'll ever do - Thrashing one round a car park is fun for about 5 minutes, but setting one up to race and doing a season at your local club will leave you becoming obsessive about them - Nearly all the considerations of a full size race car need to be considered with the models including (and I kid you not) Weight distriubution and even aerodynamics

[Hrimfaxi]

vrsmxtb said:

Erm.....ok.

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/tamiya-40-foot-maersk-...

I've always had the idea of getting and building a Tamiya Mini Cooper and paint it like my full sized one. Then, keep it in the back of it to take to shows to muck about with - London to Brighton Mini Run would of been a laugh.

But could never be bothered hah, maybe one day though....

Edited by Hrimfaxi on Thursday 30th October 20:09

Edited by Hrimfaxi on Thursday 30th October 20:10