The Tamiya RC car thread

The Tamiya RC car thread

Author
Discussion

generationx

6,645 posts

104 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
Bill said:
The Frog is better spec with trick inboard dampers, isn't it?
The Frog was released in 1983 so is several generations of kit old. Fun, but unsophisticated.

ThisInJapanese

10,910 posts

225 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
Bill said:
I got her to choose. (A Lunchbox, but she wants it green...)

The Frog does looks good and various other cars use the same chassis (Subaru Brat is one.) but are you going to be happy when he crashes your carefully painted car? One thing I've found with son's Rising Fighter is the stock friction dampers are crap on rough surfaces, so oil shocks (which the Frog has) are essential IMO.
I have the Neo Fighter and Monster Bettle (similar to the lunchbox) and it's for a kid, my boys prefer the Monster Bettle as it's more fun and looks cooler. The Neo Fighter is a nice model though, maybe you need one to take with you when you go out?!

gazzarose

1,158 posts

132 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
I bought a Racing Fighter DT03 to build over Xmas and it's a great little car. Not the fastest thing out there but goes well. I've set my 4 yr old up with an old TL01 of mine with a slow motor in it and he's slowly getting the hang of it, so probably won't be long until he progresses to the DT03 then I can either just use my 1/5 Baja clone that I've just dug back out after 10+ years (although it's a bit noisy for anywhere near people) or I'll upgrade myself to a DF03 and stick a brushless setup in it.

Bill

52,483 posts

254 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
generationx said:
The Frog was released in 1983 so is several generations of kit old. Fun, but unsophisticated.
I'm by no means an expert, but I thought it had been updated?

Bill

52,483 posts

254 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
ThisInJapanese said:
I have the Neo Fighter and Monster Bettle (similar to the lunchbox) and it's for a kid, my boys prefer the Monster Bettle as it's more fun and looks cooler. The Neo Fighter is a nice model though, maybe you need one to take with you when you go out?!
hehe My wife is already muttering as it is!

ETA I did wonder about a Safari 911 build plonking a shell on a Frog (or not, now! biggrin ) chassis.

Blakeatron

2,514 posts

172 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
Just pre-ordered the new cosworth and topforce via jadlam!

I have had pretty much one of every chassis of the tamiyas and lots of doubles. I went through a stage of doing the trucks - full option, home made extras, trailers, extra lights. Finish, sell, repeat.

I have maybe 15or so in various stages, nothing works

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

197 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
Did anyone see the Kevin Talbot video the other day - it wasn’t the usual great RC piece but something about a a fallout / misunderstanding. Then video taken down


Very unusual - hope everything is ok?

shedweller

545 posts

110 months

Wednesday 24th February 2021
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
Did anyone see the Kevin Talbot video the other day - it wasn’t the usual great RC piece but something about a a fallout / misunderstanding. Then video taken down


Very unusual - hope everything is ok?
Kevin fell out with RCsparks over the treatment of a mate (who would appear to be a bit spesh)
It got nasty on social media - RCsparks has retired over it blah blah.

In a nut shell - They are behaving like teenage girls but would appear to a be grown up men?

I only know because kev pops up on my feed (never heard of RCsparks before this)

https://youtu.be/Sw4bTJ2CJIQ

And to keep the thread on track..........

I just finished a TT02 lancia delta a couple of days ago..... The decals took longer than the build!
I may try a tamiya rally interior and go fpv with it - it seems pretty robust but are there any weak points on the TT02 I should worry about??? (I have dampers on order)

I would've taken a shiny picture but it's been used now!

Edited by shedweller on Wednesday 24th February 22:03

tim0409

Original Poster:

4,355 posts

158 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
Rumour has it that the Falcon is about to be re-released; in the doom and gloom of lockdown this makes me very happy. It was my first buggy and I plan on buying a couple of kits, one to put away and one to build and use. Any other Falcon owners out there?

kingston12

5,473 posts

156 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
tim0409 said:
Rumour has it that the Falcon is about to be re-released; in the doom and gloom of lockdown this makes me very happy. It was my first buggy and I plan on buying a couple of kits, one to put away and one to build and use. Any other Falcon owners out there?
That was my first RC too, so I'll definitely pick one up. It can sit sealed in it's box next to the Bigwig that I bought when that was re-released and the Porsche 959 that I'll no doubt buy if that comes out to complete the collection!

jay-kay-em

217 posts

203 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
tim0409 said:
Any other Falcon owners out there?


My beat up original sits on a shelf. Bought from “Model Junction” in Bury St Edmunds in about 1988. No box or instructions but I do have the original sales brochure still.

I remember being really proud it wasn’t a Hornet and boasted about my oil filled shocks smile

I know deep in my heart it’s as good as scrap but too much sentimental value to do anything with it!

Hasn’t turned a wheel in 20 years I bet. Just used to eat plastic parts all the time. Wheel bearings, driveshaft yokes, gearbox cogs. It had an appetite for everything!

I remember when these new fangled “wheelie bins” were delivered to our street in 89/90... and I clipped one at full speed and snapped the tub floor pan clean in half! Ran home with it under my arm crying! That tub was on back order from Japan for ages.

A friend in class had the Tamiya 959.... his dad was loaded. This Falcon went wheel-to-wheel with it once after school. Needless to say he slaughtered me! What I’d do for that 959 now!

My Falcon was replaced with the Tamiya JTCC Opel Vectra in about 1995.... which is also on the shelf.

Miss those days.

Edited by jay-kay-em on Thursday 25th February 15:03

miniman

24,827 posts

261 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
jay-kay-em said:


My beat up original sits on a shelf. Bought from “Model Junction” in Bury St Edmunds in about 1988. No box or instructions but I do have the original sales brochure still.

I remember being really proud it wasn’t a Hornet and boasted about my oil filled shocks smile

I know deep in my heart it’s as good as scrap but too much sentimental value to do anything with it!
I remember that catalogue well biggrin

I would say it's recoverable, no reason why not. Worthwhile improvements would be ESC and a 2.4Ghz radio set plus a new battery - you'll be in for £50 or so but it should run well.

Lim

2,274 posts

41 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
ThisInJapanese said:
Bill said:
I got her to choose. (A Lunchbox, but she wants it green...)

The Frog does looks good and various other cars use the same chassis (Subaru Brat is one.) but are you going to be happy when he crashes your carefully painted car? One thing I've found with son's Rising Fighter is the stock friction dampers are crap on rough surfaces, so oil shocks (which the Frog has) are essential IMO.
I have the Neo Fighter and Monster Bettle (similar to the lunchbox) and it's for a kid, my boys prefer the Monster Bettle as it's more fun and looks cooler. The Neo Fighter is a nice model though, maybe you need one to take with you when you go out?!
Good advice all round cheers. Honestly hadn't thought to ask him... but he went for the lunchbox too so that's now on order. Lots of dunes about so probably a good choice.

If it holds his interest, i'll buy myself a racing fighter so we can race in the woods.

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

197 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
tim0409 said:
Rumour has it that the Falcon is about to be re-released; in the doom and gloom of lockdown this makes me very happy. It was my first buggy and I plan on buying a couple of kits, one to put away and one to build and use. Any other Falcon owners out there?
Is this what RacKicks calls “re-res”?

I’ve watched loads of his vids too - he has grown the collection well. Appears to be in for appreciation of the cars and some bashing (garage Queen +1 style). Whereas Kevin Talbot smashed the arse out of anything - properly user testing them for us buyers.

There are some great US tubers on YouTube too that comes up in my suggested.

I am shocked at the price some old worn out kits are going for - it fells like some buyers want the fun of “saving” them

Crafty_

13,248 posts

199 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
yes, re-re just means re-release. Of course we're getting in to re-re-re's now smile

Some re-releases differ from the original model - the lunchbox for example has a different sticker on the back, what used to be a phone number is now a URL to the tamiya site.
Probably the one with the most changes is the monster beetle. The body of the re-release has no back window glass but gains door mirrors and windshield wipers along with some extra holes in the front that are covered by stickers. Some of the brand names in the original stickers are gone too. The body changes seem to be mainly because it allows them to use the same parts for the Blitzer Beetle and Sand Scorcher.
Underneath the original model "hex drive" driveshafts (which to be fair, did cause problems) are replaced with a proper UJ driveshaft in the re-release.

I need ot stop reading this thread or I'll be looking on ebay for another wreck to fix up. rotate


hman

7,487 posts

193 months

Friday 26th February 2021
quotequote all
Had a marui super wheelie,a boomerang and then a cat XLS

All of them were great fun in their own way - my youngest (9) now has an XLH9125 with som emods and is loving his RC car hobby as i did when i was his age!

My mates had hornets, frogs, grass hoppers midnight pumkin, marui big bear, mardave mini, big wigs, kyosho optimas - man there were a lot of us that had these cars back then.

Many choices back then :-

RX battery or battery saver

6v, 7.2 or 8v SCR racing packs

single, double, or triple wet magnets

And then there was the Acoms vs Futaba discussion lol (I had a futaba attack)

Great times

DarthtaterM16

912 posts

101 months

Friday 26th February 2021
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
tim0409 said:
Rumour has it that the Falcon is about to be re-released; in the doom and gloom of lockdown this makes me very happy. It was my first buggy and I plan on buying a couple of kits, one to put away and one to build and use. Any other Falcon owners out there?
Is this what RacKicks calls “re-res”?

I’ve watched loads of his vids too - he has grown the collection well. Appears to be in for appreciation of the cars and some bashing (garage Queen +1 style). Whereas Kevin Talbot smashed the arse out of anything - properly user testing them for us buyers.

There are some great US tubers on YouTube too that comes up in my suggested.

I am shocked at the price some old worn out kits are going for - it fells like some buyers want the fun of “saving” them
I'm somewhere in between the two.. I go out "bashing" with a Traxxas Maxx (almost bulletproof) and a Traxxas Slash. My daughter has a 2wd Slash too and we go to skateparks and BMX tracks with those and launch them up into the air hehe great fun.

But I also have a collection at home that only see light, or in some cases no running at all. I'm currently building a Tamiya TT02 with the Porsche 911 RSR body. That one is destined for the shelf and will likely never be run. A few other older Tamiya bits also sit on the shelves and there are some bits that I'm constantly looking for.. Tamiya madcap which I think somebody from a few pages back actually sent me an email regarding but I can't find it now. If you read this please could you email again? and a 1995/6 Tamiya Volvo 850 BTCC saloon. Both do come up occasionally but I haven't come across the right condition versus price ones yet.

I also have a lovely Traxxas TRX4 which I built last year. Good spec with decent electronics, steel beadlock wheels, brass portal covers, Vitavon aluminium axles and a light kit that has working indicators and headlights all controllable by the transmitter that hasn't even turned a wheel yet getmecoat I'm planning to build a track in the garden for that once the weather improves a bit.

ThisInJapanese

10,910 posts

225 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
I picked up a DT-03 as a cheap used model from eBay and it has a few nice hop-ups, and I've found that it's maybe the most enjoyable car I've got. It doesn't have the stupid power of the brushless ones, and it's all the better for it.

Looking around at the rest of the 2wd buggy range with Tamiya, there doesn't seem to be much else like it. Are the more expensive ones that much better, or is this just a good simple fun platform to use?

DarthtaterM16

912 posts

101 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
ThisInJapanese said:
I picked up a DT-03 as a cheap used model from eBay and it has a few nice hop-ups, and I've found that it's maybe the most enjoyable car I've got. It doesn't have the stupid power of the brushless ones, and it's all the better for it.

Looking around at the rest of the 2wd buggy range with Tamiya, there doesn't seem to be much else like it. Are the more expensive ones that much better, or is this just a good simple fun platform to use?
Every RC is decent if it puts a smile on your face imo. I've got a few very expensive cars but my second hand, beat up 2wd Traxxas Slash is the one I get the most enjoyment (and use) from.

ThisInJapanese

10,910 posts

225 months

Wednesday 3rd March 2021
quotequote all
DarthtaterM16 said:
Every RC is decent if it puts a smile on your face imo. I've got a few very expensive cars but my second hand, beat up 2wd Traxxas Slash is the one I get the most enjoyment (and use) from.
I don't have a 2wd Traxxas Slash... idea