Re-released Vintage Tamiyas
 

I've been contemplating on getting into the vintage Tamiya stuff but I'm scared of it becoming obsolete one day. Anyone here a big fan of their re-releases?

I'm contemplating on getting a Tamiya Fire Dragon, one of my favorite buggies from my child hood days.

Does anyone here have much experience with this buggy? Will a modern brushless system just blow out the drive train of these re-releases? Or will it be able to handle it? I guess I'm asking is if the materials that are used in these re-releases have been improved or are they still using the same plastic from yesteryear?

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EDIT:

Ok, just impulsed shopped and bought me a Tamiya Fire Dragon kit. Still would like to hear from you re-re Tamiya fans. Will my Mamba 4600/5700 motors blow the drive train out? I'm not using LiPos by the way, I'm using el-cheapo NiMH sports packs, which still packs quite a punch...

i was kind of under the impression that these were more for nostalgia/collecting purposes than "throw something from castle creations in this and see if it holds together" type scenarios, but i guess it all comes down to whatever floats that boat of yours.

I honestly wouldn't put more than a novak havock setup in it, maybe a 17.5 or 21.5. As lucas has said, even if the materials have improved, the design hasn't and could be a problem

My guess would be yes, that trans/drivetrain will be gone.

I had a Tamiya Frog back in the early 80's, and I remember it going threw trans gears, and those little hex drive axles all the time. And that was on the stock motor. These probably can't take much more than the 540 can motor they come with, or a 27T brushed motor.

I am guessing the buggy does not come with bearings, and that the differential gears are plastic.

I give it about 4-5 minutes of life on a brushless setup, before the grinding noises start.

I still will get a Frog again 1 day, just the 150$ for the re-release kit is not high on my "needs" list a the moment. :lol:

Thanks for all the input guys. I think I will keep the mabuchi motor that it comes with. I might eventually throw my "return of monster" stock motor in it if the mabuchi starts to die...

Yeah, I think these re-re are collector's items, but I'm personally not buying it for that reason, I'm buying so I can bash around the neighborhood with it, something that I haven't done with my RCs since I was 10 years old...

I bought a full bearing kit and some basher tire/wheel (3Racing DF-03 rims and tires), a little worried about the steering assembly since it looks like it's bushing based.

Hmm, now I'm short on receivers. I have a GTX waiting for a new chassis and since all my other racing machines uses brushless, the GTX might be a good choice on this buggy... I'm not too big of a fan of Tamiya's TEU-101k ESC... Probably will hock it for some booze money...


I appreciate all your inputs guys, btw, y2k, that's quite a collection of cars!

If you want something to just beat around with on brushless, maybe get a Slash and drop in that Castle setup....

Yeah, a few months back I started buying some of the first cars I raced with. Jrx2 is together, JRXT is almost done, RC10 gold pan is still in parts. I need to dye the yellowed nylon arms, and finish sanding\polishing the chassis. Just waiting for it to get warmer as my buffer is out in the garage.

I am not sure how the Fire Dragon compares to the Lunchbox, but I have been running a castle creations sidewinder esc with a traxxas vxl motor in mine for about 9 months, no transmission trouble at all. I did upgrade it with bearings, I am sure that helped a little.

be honest, if u didnt grow up with them as a kid. u'll have an empty feeling bout em. i did even with cars of my age that i longed for as a kid, but no way could come up with 200bux for the kit (heh)....but when i bought them later in life b/c i wanted em and i could now have em. trust me it didnt hit like i thought they would. they sat on shelf for a time before i decided to let them go to someone who really did care for those particular models. now with my blackfoot, heh, now thats another deal. 1st hobby truck, to have that around means far more. still have my original custom painted body. i switch them out from time to time, it or an original body. just perhaps for a change of scenary on the bookshelf.

all matter of interest, the choice is yours. good luck

R

You hit the nail right on the head with that statement! When I was a kid, I used to read the Corocoro comic book (kinda like Shonen Jump but for a much younger audience) and I was into the mini 4wd that Tamiya had. The Corocoro comic had this series called "Dash Yonkuro" that featured Tamiya's mini 4wd (the comic was sponsored by Tamiya so no surprise there that the comic was an ad of their toys with stories just like many cartoons and comics).

I had a Thunder Dragon, Fire Dragon, Hornet, and all the other mini 4wd that Tamiya released, even though it was the same underneath. I always wishsed that I had Tamiya's RCs that these mini 4wd bodies were based off of. I really couldn't go out and afford a full blown Tamiya 1/10th kit.

I would much rather have the Thunder Dragon kit since I loved that car the most above all else, but Tamiya never re-re the kit and the Fire Dragon's chassis is an improvement over the Thundershot chassis, so with the re-re of the Fire Dragon kit, I figured it was a good time to impulse buy it!

I did buy a Fire Dragon body from Japan, going to mount it to the DF-03 that I have since I saw a wonderful Hornet DF-03 that someone did out there in the RC community. I figured I can do the same with the Fire Dragon body.

But after looking at the kit and realizing that many of the DF-03 parts were called out as an "upgrade" to the Fire Dragon, I jumped on the chance to get this wonderful Tamiya classic since it was pretty cheap from a Hobby Shop on Amazon and the shipping was from Indiana rather then from Hong Kong (which would make the shipping to be over $40 instead of $13 I paid for domestic shipping).

Well, my problem now is, I'm out of receivers. I have two of the synthesized receivers, an Xxtra from Novak and the Airtronic one that came with my MX-3S. I think this is a great excuse to buy the Airtronic MX3 FHSS2 radio that I've been eyeing for a long time and use that on my B44 (my staple car) and transfer the Xxtra receiver onto my Fire Dragon to make both my DF-03 and my Fire Dragon my "every other weekend" basher...

Kistner, that's real neat that your lunchbox held up. I saw a lot of youtube video on a brushless lunchbox (which was another favorite of mine) and it was absolutely insane!

Well I gotta admit, I have to be real careful now, there really isn't a Tamiya re-re that I don't like from Tamiya. Justt the wonderful box art of their various kits made me want one as a kid. Take a look at Thunder Dragon's box art, it's some zombie driver in the cockpit that looks like he's up to no good! Tamiya was the only game in town back then until the venerable "import fighter" came onto the scene... I've never looked at another Tamiya stuff after I received an RC10CE as a gift until I bought my DF-03 and after getting the DF-03, it made me interested in Tamiya's history and just what role they played in the RC industry (a huge one).

Well, anyone else here who has a re-re or even just a re vintage Tamiya stuff can post here and share their experience... Would love to read more about it. I think Tamiya's marketing folks timed it right, all the kids that had $1 a day allowance budget now has grown up and can and will buy their re-re! :lol:

Forgot to ask, when I was a kid, I could've sworn that there was two series of comic running in the same issue of Corocoro where the first one featured the mini 4wd and the second one featured their full blown Tamiya RC. Just can't remember for the life of me what the title of the full blow Tamiya RC one was. They were obviously targeting two different age groups, since the mini 4wd were more for the real young kids (like me back then) and the other one was more for the teenage kids who had a little more money to buy the real thing (RC)

fire dragon is same chassis as tshot. tshot, FD, TD, and a couple others all shared that platform. til manta ray came out.

R

Personally I think that the re re's are great. I am a little too old to have had one growing up.....I had a cox gas tether car and that was super cool. But I did get one when I was in college. I am going to buy myself a frog to put together for old time sakes. Just to take some slow laps around the track.

I think that for someone that does not have an early history with the cars will not get the point....they are for old time sakes.

I wish they would do the sand scorcher and the rough rider again. I would buy them in a second.

Tom, my sentiments exactly. For me it was the Wild Willy and Boomerang.

While I got the Wild Willy 2 "for old time's sake," I'm a little hesitant to get a Boomerang, build it and then let it sit on a shelf.

As I quickly learned with the WW2, bashing on the street isn't as fun as it was when we were kids. Having said that, I have the Slash for street mayhem...

You going to OCRC Saturday? We can talk old skool Tamiyas then...

i have a tamiyas baja king and i love it. it sits among my two hpi savage x's, mt losi micro t and my associated rc10b4. i love it because is so different than everything else on the track(practice days). it turn heads everytime i run it because most ppl dont realize what it is. its a little upgraded. sports a 17 turn motor with a novak esc. everything else is pretty stock.

i'd like to get a hotshot! that thing was fast at my local track when i was a kid. mind you this was b4 the 1st rc10 came out...