Something I’ve found interesting is seeing how much the hobby has changed over the past few years.

As I mentioned in Part 1, I could have put the Tamiya Grasshopper reissue together without the manual--but I used it anyway. A few short hours after following the steps I had a completed car, ready for some fun. It went together easily and brought back a lot memories for me.

The only thing I haven't done yet is paint the body. I plan to wait until spring-time to do that, when warmer weather will let me paint outside and allow the paint to properly dry and cure. (Refer to most spray or brush-on enamels and you'll see they are to be used in about 50-80 degrees farenheit.)

The Tamiya Grasshopper reissue (a Christmas gift from Sherree) finally arrived the other day--it had been backordered for quite some time. I've written a little about wanting a Grasshopper reissue, and I've also written a review of my original Grasshopper. I got my first Grasshipper in 1987 (when I was 11), so my perspective has changed a little, not to mention all of the other experience I have since gained from other R/Cs.

As soon as the doorbell rang and I knew it was UPS, I knew the time had come. After 20 years of not having the experience of an RC truck in my life, that time in itself had come to an end. To make a long story short, my first RC car was an original Blackfoot, circa 1986. I was 13 at the time and I had waited a long time for that Blackfoot to come my way. I had my best friend's dad help me build it and before you knew it, she was up and running.

Previously, I wrote about painting the body, construction, and an overview of the kit. In this, the last part of the Tamiya Lunch Box review, I wanted to discuss how it performed.

Yesterday I finished the Tamiya Lunch Box body. Previously, I wrote that the next in the series about the Lunch Box would be the actual driving experience, but I'm so happy with how the finished truck looks that I took some photos to share it.

Assembling the Tamiya Lunch Box was a lot of fun! My only complaint was that the experience was too short. Instructions were clear, parts were few, and assembly went smoothly. You might like to read Part 1 of the review.

For quite a while I've been thinking I wanted to have some shelves to display my R/C cars on (and that's especially true now that I have a Lunch Box and will be getting a new Grasshopper). I had been storing them in a closet, away from everything--maybe that's why I haven't used them lately!

So I put two shelves together. I was going to buy some wood and make them, but I stumbled across some pre-made supplies at Lowe's that would do the job cheaply and easily: wall brackets and laminated shelving. The normal 8- or 10-inch shelving wouldn't be wide enough, but they had some 15 × 36-inch stuff that I bought.]]> RC Cars Sun, 21 Aug 2005 11:08:59 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1192 0 http://danandsherree.com/2005/08/21/shelves_for_the_rc_c.php#comments "> Yesterday the UPS man delivered a new toy: a Tamiya Lunch Box R/C truck reissue! I ordered from Tower... http://danandsherree.com/2005/08/19/tamiya_lunch_box_1.php 1681@http://danandsherree.com/

Yesterday the UPS man delivered a new toy: a Tamiya Lunch Box R/C truck reissue! I ordered from Tower Hobbies. It was something of a childhood dream to have a Lunch Box, as I wrote previously (Tamiya Grasshopper and Lunchbox Reissues).

It probably doesn't matter much, but I noticed I've been calling it a "Lunchbox," when in fact it's actually the "Lunch Box." What a funny name.

Dan-

According to our computer, the [Midnight Pumpkin] kit is still in production.

Customer Service Department
Tamiya America, Inc.
us_support@tamiya.com

On the morning of Monday, January 26, I logged in to check my e-mail. I saw that I had two new messages where the subject referenced the M1025 Hummer. As you can see in the screenshot below, one of those e-mails came from Movable Type telling me that a new comment was posted.

For Christmas, Sherree bought me a Tamiya Mammoth Dump Truck. The Mammoth Dump Truck uses the same chassis as the more popular Juggernaut 2, but with a (significant) extra gear reduction to slow it down to more scale speeds. As well, it also have a working dump bed and only two-wheel steering.

The Mammoth Dump Truck can be summed up in two words: "big" and "slow." Having a Bullhead, I expected this to cruise at a not-much-slower speed. Boy was I wrong. Even at the top speed, it just crawls. It's nice for "scale performance," but forces the fun factor down significantly. On the other hand, the 96:1 gear ratio means it can push or pull just about anything that gets in its way.

A while ago, I saw that a company called icMAX Technologies was making snowchains for the Clod, Bullhead, USA-1 and Nitro USA-1. Problem is, they originally wanted $60 for them. The price dropped to $34.95 in November 1998. There was no way I was going to pay that much for something I was sure I could make for much less money.

Just so you know up front, my snowchains cost $16 and 6 hours to make. With these plans, I'd guess you can make the chains in about 2 hours. My chains also have a shortcoming: when making tight turns, the chains rub against the bumpers. (As I understand it, the icMAX chains don't have this problem.)

Using the same ideas I did, you could make snowchains for just about any truck. Bear in mind, they'll look exceptionally stupid on a small car with this big chain. Also, clearance (both suspension and steering components) should be taken into consideration. That said, I think the Traxxas Stampede and Tamiya King Blackfoot would be good candidates for some snowchains.

The Tamiya Bullhead is pretty much the same as the infamous 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering Clod Buster, except for a few cosmetic differences. The most obvious difference is the towering "rig" truck body. A lot of chrome parts are on the body (and a few chromed chassis components), and some other brightly colored items are all that separate the Bullhead and Clod. Based on that, I'm sure you can guess that the only reason I chose the Bullhead over the Clod is because of the body.

History tidbit: The Clod Buster came out in 1986 or early '87 (if memory serves, anyway) and the Bullhead came out in 1990, along with a revised Clod kit. The early Clods suffered from a problem with a few easily-broken chassis components. The new Bullhead and updated Clod still have a tendency to break the chassis when you try to do normal "buggy activities"--you know, take it off big jumps. Also, the very first R/C magazine (Radio Control Model Cars, May '87, I think) my Dad bought for me had a review of the Clod Buster and a photo of it on the cover. (From when we were looking at the Grasshopper.) I must say, "wow" was pretty much my first and only thought. In hindsight, between this and the Lunchbox, monster trucks were for me. I don't know why I ever bothered with cars.

I bought the Saint Dragon in September 1996 for $20 from someone who never used it before--in fact, he never even finished building it. Quite a good deal, if you ask me. Even in '96, this was an aging car. I'm not sure when it's lifespan was, but I'm guessing somewhere between 1990 and 1994.

To get this thing running, I took the radio system from the Thunder King. A Futaba MC210CB electronic speed control handles the throttle. This car was totally stock and ran ok.

This is a replica Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie. It's an on-road, direct-drive car I bought in June of 1996. I bought the "kit" car which came preassembled and included paperwork in a brown cardboard box with no radio gear. Most of the Batmobiles you see on eBay are the ready-to-run version, which was also prebuilt but included a Hitec Challenger 260 radio.

I've never run this car or even put radio gear in it; it just sits on a shelf. It's really not much of a collector's item. New it's price was $150 and I'd be lucky to get that if I sold it on eBay. (Compare that to the ready-to-run version, which can fetch $300!) The kit also came with a "catalog" of parts for it (from 1989) and the price of the body is listed at $90, so if I ruin this one I might as well by a new car! This "catalog" is actually only a single sheet of paper.

Speaking of the body, might I add that the detail of it is great. I wish I bought it when it was originally released in '89--a number of nice accessories were available for it. In particular, there's a light kit that I would've gone for. Working head and taillights would just be too cool.

More Photos

As this has become a fairly popular page, I decided to take some new photos of my Batmobile. Obviously, they're much better than the old ones, above.

I got this as a "ToMe FromMe" Christmas present in 1995. This R/C is an excellent ride. For one, it's a Hummer! (C'mon, who doesn't want one of these?) Another reason is that it's four-wheel drive. I never realized what I was missing by sticking with two-wheel drive cars.

Basically, it has a TA-02W chassis--the same as is used for a number of Tamiya cars between '95 and '97. It is a little different from other TA-02Ws, though--it's a little wider to make it more true to scale. (As we all know, Hummers are quite wide.) The oil shocks, ball differential and bellcrank steering system put it on about the same level as the Thunder King in terms of complexity and adjustability, but we're back to the more manageable 1/10 scale.

For a few years I was out of R/C cars, basically because there was only so much I could do with the cars I had--I just got bored with them. I knew how they would handle on all sorts of terrain, how well they would take a jump--everything. The only thing left to do was practice and become a good driver! (Barf, gag! Who'd wanna do that?) Of course, another factor was that by this time my brothers weren't interested in R/C and I didn't know my friends would be, so I didn't have anyone to run with.

After I started working, I got interested in R/C again. ("Hmm... I've got money, I can get a new car...") I had been thinking maybe I would get into gas cars this time, but after evaluating how much it would cost, I dropped that idea. So one day in October of 1994 I came home with an MRC Thunder King.

This was the beast I always wanted--it was so big! (About 1/8 scale.) This thing was as wide as my other cars were long. The tires were huge (6.5" tall), the shocks and springs about double the size of any others I'd used, and two motors powered one gearbox. It was also considerably more advanced than my other cars, which also added to the excitement--so much more to learn! It has a ball differential, fully independent, double-wishbone suspension, oil shocks, a slipper clutch, and a bellcrank steering system.