Late 1980s Vintage Tamiya HotShot II and Hornet (10th scale RC cars)

A mate of mine found these in his mum’s attic. Apparently they used to be his brothers. He was planning to fling them as worthless, but knowing that I like to tinker with stuff he wondered if I might like them instead. 😀

Tamiya Hot Shot II (Kit No 5862)

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Tamiya Hornet (Kit No 5845)

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Manuals: Copyright says 1987. Amazing how much work people had to put into making these things compared to today’s toys. There are steps for assembling the gear boxes, filling the suspension dampers, pinning together the linkages, and of course painting and applying the stickers.

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Decidedly dodgy looking electrics. That charger is literally a transformer and a mechanical cooking timer. But amazingly those Ni-Cad batteries still seem to take a charge!

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The big question is: what do I do with them?

I’ve investigated the Hot Shot a bit and it looks mechanically sound. Pretty simple construction really: basically just two servos driven off the receiver. One servo does the steering and the other rotates an arm on a big variable resistor to act as the speed control. A lot of the wires are frayed and exposed though so I wouldn’t dare try to power it up without replacing a lot of them.

The Hornet is pretty much just a shell and frame. No receiver and missing come linkages.

I’m quite tempted to gut them and see if I can get it all working so my daughter’s can play with it (ahem!).

But out of curiosity I had a look on eBay and found a HotShot 1 sold for £170 (and I saw an unbuilt Hot Shot 2 kit go for £500!! 😯 ) So I’m also tempted just to flog them.

Thoughts?

I remember lusting after these as a child, but then a mate got one and the batteries took about 3 days to charge and gave about 3 mins of fun 😉

I’d still be tempted to get them up and running!

Replace the batteries with some decent lipos, upgrade the drivetrain to metal parts (if they are still available – the plastic ones shred very quickly) and have some fun. 🙂

Then you will also find that the plashic bushes on the wheels go quickly too so you might want to upgrade to ball races.

Tamiya Hotshot! I really wanted one of those.

Keep and use for sure!

I’d keep them, if I could flog for 500 then yes I’d sell but for 170 I’d keep them. I always wanted one as a kid

But it could be like comparing an early 90s pine mountain to a 2017 one

You were GIVEN them. 😯

Someone was going to throw them away!!

Ebay the lot, it will go for loads and invest the money in that incredible Land Rover in the other thread.

This is a no brainier surely?

I’d pass them on to a collector and buy the reissue kit. Then you get to build it too 🙂

That sounds like an expensive rabbit hole johndoh. 😆

I think if I try to get them running it’ll just be with what’s already there plus a few replacement wires and connectors.

I don’t want a radio controlled Trigger’s Broom. 😉

Sell them, spend the money on a new one. (-:

I’ve still got a Tamiya Madcap. I’d be tempted to get it going again, but it handled like a Poundland shopping trolley when it was new.

if I could flog for 500 then yes I’d sell but for 170 I’d keep them

I assume it went for 500 because it was unbuilt. Collectors are weird like that.

I suspect 170 is more realistic, though I think that was a reissue, not an original like these.

Someone was going to throw them away!!

Crazy huh? He looked quite shocked when I showed him that eBay sale a few days later 😆
He said if I decide to flog it then we’ll split the proceeds and take our families for a day out somewhere. But it is up to me.

Currently I’m thinking I should get it running then flog it. Surely it’ll be worth more that says? Or will purists complain it doesn’t have the original wires?

Amazing how much work people had to put into making these things compared to today’s toys.

🙄

Get them running and play with them.

Do you have kids that’ll play with them too?

I’ve got a reissued grasshopper and hornet, and an orignal escort RS cosworth (unfotunately not with the right bodyshell, racing my cousins back in the early 90s put paid to that) and a complete and working castrol jaguar, now that is quick for something 25 years old…

That sounds like an expensive rabbit hole johndoh.

Yeah. I have just spent rather a lot on my new hobby (the Land Rover mentioned above).

Surely the original NiCAD battery will be goosed though (I can’t imagine it would take and hold a charge after so long) so a new battery will definitely be required. NiHMs are the easiest/cheapest option, but LiPOs are more powerful and are quicker to charge.

I had a Kyosho Optima at that time and used to race it locally every few weeks when the club met up. Any cash I made back then from odd jobs and pocket money went on the car, I later upgraded to a PB Maxima and then a Schumacher Cat.

I think they might still all be in my parents loft.

New batteries today are great compared to what we had back then but no idea of prices.

Why the roll eyes molgrips? Seriously the assembly manual is 27 pages of this kind of stuff:

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And that doesn’t even get you to a working car!

Pretty hardcore for the Age 7+ market 😀

Surely the original NiCAD battery will be goosed though

Only had a brief play but the 8.4v Gold Power one was still reading a stable 8.96v which was very surprising! (Maybe someone played with it more recently than we know)

The dodgy looking blue one only read about 2v but a couple of over-voltage zaps then 10 mins on the charger and it read 8.5v but dropping fast.

Not actually tried any load on them mind you so that could all be very optimistic.

If it still works I would be amazed! They are notorious for being forever dead if left fully discharged even for a few months and even if it was stored with a full charge it would have discharged ages ago. Will be interesting to see how it fares in test conditions 🙂

Will be interesting to see how it fares in test conditions

When I dug out my Madcap last year, the original batteries still worked but I was getting about 4 minutes of runtime. Sufficient to test that everything else still worked, but not much else.

I was getting about 4 minutes of runtime.

Isn’t that about all we ever got back in the day with those things LOL

They are notorious for being forever dead if left fully discharged even for a few months

Yeah as I understand it* NiCad grows crystals if left too long, hence the brief over-voltage zaps to break the crystals up before a proper recharge.

* (YouTube “knowledge”. Actual battery science may vary! 😀 )

Isn’t that about all we ever got back in the day with those things LOL

Then several hours to charge. I always wanted one but my parents couldn’t afford one so had to play with the spoilt kids.

Isn’t that about all we ever got back in the day with those things LOL

😆 I very nearly added, “so it’s in perfect condition!”

I always wanted one but my parents couldn’t afford one so had to play with the spoilt kids.

Birthdays must’ve been fun in your house. “Happy birthday, Drac! We’ve got you a couple of spoilt kids!”

I very nearly added, “so it’s in perfect condition!”

Then several hours to charge.

Yep – all as I remember them. I never had one back then – I was a bit too old to want them myself when they became popular over here but my younger brother (read ‘spoilt younger brat’) had several which I used to play with.

My new one lasts a good 1hr 30 on a charge from a 5000mah lipo (in crawl mode) – will be significantly less in fast mode.

I had a Hornet. I could probably still strip and rebuild it without the manual. They’re very basic and didn’t handle well, even for their time. The Fox was a lot better.

Sell them, spend the money on a new one. (-:

+1

You know you want to…

Pretty hardcore for the Age 7+ market

….which is why, when I spent a year working part time in the model department of Beatties toyshop, I used to always have a bit of spare cash because I used to charge people £20 a time to build and paint the cars they were buying for their 7 year olds. 🙂

Pretty hardcore for the Age 7+ market

I got the Grasshopper Super G (similar to the Hornet) for my 8th(?) birthday, I had it up and running before the end of the day! Just like Lego really but a lot more fun to play with.

This recently came out my mum’s attic, one day it will live again…
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I had a Tamya XR311 followed by a Rough Rider back in the day.

I spent a year working part time in the model department of Beatties toyshop

Oh yeah? Guess what else came with cars?

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😆

nice 😀

Still got a bag like that, has my Tamiya car in it. Forgotten it’s name but early 80’s vintage.

This is a terrible thread! I’m now looking at getting my old gear out of my parents loft which will no doubt lead to buying stuff to get them up and running again…..

Still got my Striker. Friend of mine who is really into them rebuilt it a few years ago with brushless motors, updated servos etc and it is excellent.

He has built his own race tracks for them, one off road and one tarmac, both inter looping and a rock climbing circuit too. He has about 12 different cars, one of which he made the chassis and body for and built it with working lights for night time use.

Amazing what you can do when your single and your kids have grown up and left home.

Lovin’ the bag GrahamS 😆

OMG at that beatties bag.. brings back memories, spent many a time looking at the RC stuff that I could never hope to own in there..

GrahamS – Member
Why the roll eyes molgrips? Seriously the assembly manual is 27 pages of this kind of stuff:

To be fair, that’s exactly what they are still like, so the comment about …’compared to today’s toys’ isn’t really relevant.

I also have an original Kyosho Optima. I got the parts needed to bring it to life. Just need some time.

Just checked, my is the Rough Rider.