Tamiya and other R/C vehicles (not just for Christmas)

Finished the Terra Scorcher chassis and built up the Christmas Midnight Pumpkin for my boy. Also bought a TL-01 for the radio gear and having never bothered with this style of chassis before am finding it enormous fun! Looks like touring/rally cars are another rabbit hole to go down! Got a cheap Focus body for it as the original was shot.

I noticed a couple of days ago that make it build it had a sale on and a hundred quid off the rival mt8 bringing it to £354. I was mulling it over, went beck to look again last night and it’s no longer available. Booo. But good for my finances!

Probably dodged a bullet on that one, the MT8 is known to be quite fragile. The MT10 though is seriously tough, I was going to get one but while waiting for then to come back in stock a few weeks ago I ended up buying an Arrma Typhon 3S BLX instead.

Which reminds me I need to update this thread with a few new purchases!

Yes I’d seen a few trashed on YouTube, so you are probably right!

Just an FYI for anyone interested in an FTX Tracer, I was told today that they’ll be releasing the brushless one in the UK within the next few weeks for about £110. At that price I’d be surprised if its not the same spec as my HBX Pro so brushless, LiPo and full metal drive train. I paid only a bit more than that for mine but with 3 batteries.

I’ve got the MT10 and it’s brilliant fun. Mad on 3s as well. There’s a version 2 out apparently with a different body shell and other tweaks.

Finished building this up today, been at it for ages now so will be hoping for some decent weather over the weekend to get it out for its first run.

useful info on the tracer. we have 2 trucks between 3 of us, so I was planning on getting a third for myself

@bigginge lovely job there.😎

Thanks. Took it out and made a bit of a mess of it today.

@bigginge that looks tidy!

I built up an XV-01 a few months ago as a MK1 Escort. It’s a heap of fun.

Nice!

just gone over my 8th buggies last week or so, rebuilding diffs and shocks (and stripping the oldest down to use for spares) planning to rejoin the club this year and start driving again now i have a bit more time.

Also did a stock take. I might need to rationalise on cars soon!

And batteries.

Also did a stock take. I might need to rationalise on cars soon!

Bad idea. All you’ll do is check eBay and forums to gauge prices, then see something you never knew you wanted. Next week the parcels start arriving.

I might need to rationalise on cars soon!

I’m willing to take donations to help you out.

Assuming my kind offer above is rejected, anyone car to give their thoughts on this as a starter car (for me)?

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/ftx-tracer-brushless-1-16th-4wd-monster-truck-rtr-yellow-1346901

Assuming my kind offer above is rejected, anyone car to give their thoughts on this as a starter car (for me)?

I bought the brushed version for my little boy for Christmas, he bloody loves it and has used it pretty much used it every day it hasn’t been pissing down since. Quality is great for the price and touch wood seems pretty indestructible even with a 5 year old at the controls. Size and weight are great for chucking a bag and gets taken out with us quite ofter. It’s plenty fast enough so can only assume the brushless version will be pretty lively!

Only things worth mentioning… the battery that came with it is tiny so quickly bought a higher capacity one (may not be an issue with the brushless version) and the shocks aren’t oil filled so it’s quite bouncy – upgrades are available from FTX for about £10 an end I think (again, not sure if the brushless gets better shocks).

Would deffo recommend.

😀 Nah, no more cars.

Two Serpent Project 4X cars, one set up as a super stock for indoors/outdoors and one as a mod car, got either a 3.5 or 6.5 turn in there at the moment, can’t remember…

3 team X-Ray buggies, 2x XB9e and an XB8e-19, going to either strip one of the XB9s for spares, or do a GT conversion. Might get the-21 update kit for the -19 too, changes it to a saddle pack layout, if they’ve made one available of course!

And then my old 10th scale buggies, which aren’t really useable on the current track. DEX410 and a 210, plus a 4210 hybrid, which is pretty rare, think they only made about 50 of the chassis plates.

Oh, not forgetting the kids ones as well, couple of 14 scale race buggies.

@luket I saw that one up on the TC forum, looks nice. I may have also just finished (about an hour ago) building an XV01 rally car up. That paired with the new transmitter which arrived a few days ago should mean me and LittleGinge can get both out for a race now.

@mashr I just got one of those from Banggood (HBX 16889a Pro) and it’s a hoot! Hoping tomorrow is dry enough to take it for a proper spin but I’m well impressed. The speed controller is handy for over enthusiastic kids (big and small) and it took no effort to dial in the tracking. Well recommended!

Funny you should mention the HBC Pro – mine’s somewhere on the boat from China!

Couldn’t really find a bad word said about them, became a no brainer. Looking forward to it getting here . . . whenever that is

If it’s anything like mine it was 14 days from Royal Mail notifying me it was being loaded to delivery.

What is the consensus on a starter pack. I keep thinking about getting a Tamiya TT02 model and inevitably they come as the kit, or the whole package with electrics. For example, TimeTunnel models, the electric kit is a £66 “option”. Which includes;
1800 Mah battery
USB slow charger.
Carson Dragster ESC
Etronix 2,4Ghz steering wheel radio.

I think we are ok for the charger, as we had one with a RTR kit my son has. And maybe even some batteries.

EDIT, I think the question I am asking is, is it better to buy the electronics separately?

The battery is a pretty low capacity one by modern standards – you can get 4000mah NiMH for about £20 if you shop around. Similarly, you’d be better off with a fast charger. Hobbywing 1060 esc for about £20; Flysky TX and RX for about £25-30ish – maybe less? I’d probably go that route personally. Especially as a slow charger will be pretty hopeless…

Does anyone still choose to buy nimh if they’ve got the option of lipo? I got a nimh with a similar starter pack and it went straight on ebay with the rubbish charger. Explisions aside, lipo is just so much better.

And yep flysky radio, they’re inexpensive and they’re very good. Not massively tough but other’n that it’s hard to see past the gt3c.

These starter packs always seem a bit like someone’s found a load of old unsold kit from 10 years ago

We had a guy turn up at our club with a slow charger for LiPo. Got one run per battery. Then something like 6 hours to charge, 2s 2200mAh IIRC

My charger, if I so desire, can do a 4s 6200mAh in ~45 minutes.

One of my daughters just loves technical toys and hobbies. She is an adult, but when we are together she likes nothing more than sitting down with me and building some technical lego vehicles.

So i thought we could build a qualty rc car. Something that has robust metal parts so she can learn about suspension and drive train.

This thread is massive, so im after a recomwndation for something fun to build and fun to drive. We are rural and there are lots of unmetalled tracks and paths with a 2 minute walk, so ground clearance and some exciting go would be priorities too.

We have nice chargers and some 2s batteries from drone flying, but im happy to buy what we need.

Can anyone recommend where to start for some quality kit with spares support?

Thanks

Ian

Basher or crawler? Crawlers are great for their adaptability (2 speed gearboxes, overdriving the front axle, dig modes etc) plus they don’t require a massive area to run them in. Perfect for rural areas as pretty much any path, track, rocky outcrop or bit of woodland is a playground. Don’t break as easily as a basher either.

Well mow im thinking crawler is fun too! It would be mostly for the build, but if we can have some fun that would be great too. I like that MT10 but it comes rtr

Most bashers are RTR, very few kits around. Tamiya is the main one that’s in kit form but they’re more for scale running, not really up to crashing about.

The older Tamiya stuff is great fun to build but it depends if you want a buggy, truck or car?

I personally like the buggies and enjoy building the differentials, oil shocks, etc. Something like a Thunder Dragon or Fire Dragon is a good, cheapish place to start.

Car wise, anything on the TT-02 chassis is going to be fun and not too spendy, where as trucks are well served by the Monster Beetle/ Black Foot. Lunch Box/ Midnight Pumpkin are great fun but pretty simple to construct and the more modern stuff is less complicated so not as good to build imo.

Oh, and for those that are interested and have not heard, the Boomerang is getting a re-release in the summer, along with The Fox and green Hornet.

This makes me happy.

This thread is massive, so im after a recomwndation for something fun to build and fun to drive. We are rural and there are lots of unmetalled tracks and paths with a 2 minute walk, so ground clearance and some exciting go would be priorities too.

The world’s your lobster. We have built and run Tamiya buggies (modern, not vintage), Element crawlers and a Tamiya rally chassis as pictured up there^. They all have their merits.

Our crawlers are great for what they’re great for. Nice to learn linkage suspension and loads of body options, fun to take for a little walk and see what you can/can’t drive it up, and my 9 year old isn’t going to break my ankle with it. No diffs. Expensive when you add up all the extra bits you need but at least we haven’t broken anything. The vast majority are “ready to run” though – kit market is limited. Don’t know why that is.

Our buggies are a blast to crash about at the beach or in an open space but not so much on woodland trails so in practice they don’t see much action now we have other things, but in the first 6 months they did get heavy wear. The build was very straightforward and quick. But ours are simple entry level. For learning by changing them you need lots of parts and/or crazy ideas and you’re only going to take it so far. And if you run them much you might get a lot of breakages.

The rally car is my current favourite. It’s limited on the terrain it can cover but it’s all drifts, squealing tyres, hanging out the back end and losing it when you overcompensate. Adjustments to shocks, diff oil and whatnot have made lots of difference and taken it from almost undriveably bonkers (because I fitted a fast motor) to quite controllable. It remains close to stock so although it was a relatively expensive kit there’s not much on top. And so far breakages not a big issue. But the dog hates it. Also, so many body shell options. It’s very close really to a touring car, same wheelbase, wheels, same shells available. Can often be done on same chassis (TT-02 being an example).

For learning by changing them you need lots of parts and/or crazy ideas and you’re only going to take it so far. And if you run them much you might get a lot of breakages.

Yeah, all the cars i have are full race spec, the adjustability is, errr, extensive. Two of them even have flexible shim stacks in the shocks to change compression and rebound characteristics. Suspension is pretty much fully adjustable double wishbone on all of them.

It wears, a lot. It’s not exactly fragile, but i carry a full set of spare wishbones, driveline parts, shock towers etc etc.

When you see what the front spool and suspension assembly looks like… you get an idea

It’s here, and I’m really glad I didn’t go for anything faster 😀

@squirrelking did you find the back end of yours had a load of sag? I’ve wound on some preload, but definitely looked like it wanted to drag it’s bum along the ground and cock a front wheel in the air

Now you mention it mine does that as well, I’ve noticed it cocking the front right in the air, never thought to adjust the suspension. It had been bounced about a bit at that point though so who knows if it was doing it from the off.

I’ve just whacked a few turns of preload on the rear shocks. Seems to come back to a more even position now, will see if I’ve helped or ruined it later on (sensible money is on the latter).

Was good fun regardless, even if just on the greasy road and bumpy grass outside of the house

Mine is soft enough to jump a 5 flight of stairs and land it 😆

I need some expert help, that might be able to assist . . . with a toy 🤦‍♂️

We’ve got one of these, and it’s surprisingly good fun.

Unfortunately my eejit of an eldest dropped the controller in water. Then “accidentally” did it again 2 mins later. Megalodon is now uncontrollable, there’s no saving the controller.

Clutching at straws, but does anyone think there’s any chance that getting a 2.4GHz (cheap) transmitter has any chance of working?

On the HBX front. That’s still good fun, and can certainly take a hit!

Controller will be bound to the receiver. Is the receiver replaceable? If it is then you could swap out for a new receiver and controller. Not the cheapest option though.