Tamiya Grasshopper and Lunchbox Reissues
I see that Tower Hobbies has preorders available for the re-releases of both the Tamiya Grasshopper and Tamiya Lunchbox. I suspect many other retailers will start taking preorders soon, too. A little research leads me to believe the Grasshopper will be available mid- to late-July (as Tower Hobbies says), but the Lunchbox won’t be available until mid- to late-August.
As I wrote, the Tamiya Grasshopper was my first car. It holds a lot of great memories for me and I’d really like to have one again. In fact, while on vacation in Wyoming Jim posed the question, “what was your favorite toy as a kid?” and I had to answer Legos and the Grasshopper. I’m not quite sure of what happened to my old Grasshopper—I know I took some pieces for it for other projects, but I’ve searched my parents house a few times and haven’t found any of the original parts from it. Check out the Tamiya USA Grasshopper page.
The guy who first got me interested in R/C cars had a Tamiya Lunchbox. He had a lot of stickers on his truck, including one that said “ass.” As an 11-year-old, I thought it was amazingly cool to have a swear on the body. The Lunchbox was a truck I wanted for a very long time, just because of how fun it looked. Unfortunately, by the time I had some money the kit was discontinued. I haven’t bothered to get one off of eBay because—for me—building the vehicle is most of the fun. Until I saw the reissue information I had been considering a Midnight Pumpkin, which is the same as the Lunchbox, except for the pickup truck body—no need for one of those now! Check out the Tamiya USA Lunchbox page.
These days, I’m really not into R/C cars anymore. There’s a track not too far from us, and there’s a speed bump right outside of our apartment—both would probably be lots of fun, but I’ve just been occupied by other activities, I guess. But I’m very excited about the Grasshopper and Lunchbox! I haven’t ordered either, yet, though.
Comment from jake on July 1, 2005 at 11:53 PM
My first and only (until recently) RC car was the grasshopper. That was about 15 years ago. I'm not sure why, but I rencently bought a Tamiya Hummer RC truck. Aseembling it was such a blast, that I'm already shopping around for my next. My 2 year old loves watching my smash it around the back yard. I've been seriously considering buying one of these ready to run trucks since they seem to offer a lot more for the money.
I'm probably going to hold out for a lunch box. I noticed Tower Hobbies has a mid july date, so I'm waiting.
Comment from Jake on September 26, 2006 at 5:33 PM
thats awesome. my first and only r/c vehicle was the lunchbox! probably around 1989-90.
it got stuck in a culvert and started on fire though :(
it lost the signal while the manual speed controller was at the full throttle postition, built up heat fast, and then *poof*
I couldnt get to it because it was so far in. i should have taken a course on radio frequencys b4 driving it in there lol.