Tamiya builds pretty decent brushed motors still. A lot of ppl use them.
Tamiya has some pretty high performance kits but they also build lots of kits for beginners too. All those hop ups are nice but not cheap. Not affordable for some ppl.
There are also the scale builders who don't want their cars to go fast, just look good and drive in the livingroom on Sundays.
A roll over would ruin their fancy scale body so low speed is good speed.
Stick packs and brushed motors (or mild brushless) are what a lot of Tamiya kits need anyways.
A 3s Grasshopper might be fun for a minute or 3 but its GONNA blow up quickly. Not built to handle well at 65mph anyways.
Maybe quality has dropped, I can't say. I should buy a new kit and find out.
I think ppl trying to push Tamiya models too hard might be the bigger story tho.
It would be really cool to see Tamiya put a more modern, brushless ready, race quality type buggy, basher truck, crawler on the market but competing in already oversaturated markets seems unlikely.
Tamiya seems to cross model building and RCing pretty well for me. My cars are all older but none ever disappointed me with poor design.
Even my Frog and Blackfoot rear diffs, shafts... all stayed put, don't strip...
let me just share things from my personal experience then shall i regarding tt02b which is not my first tamiya, nor is using a brushed tamiya motor new to me either. in the past 89-2000 i never once had ny real complaints about tamiya rc kits except quick build time, didnt get much time to enjoy the build process like i did with other brands like AE rc10's, losi, XX, XX4, XXX XXX-S G+, HPI nitro rs4, rs4 ( electric), rs4-mt, proceed, rs4 mini, rs4 mini pro,etc.
the TT02b ( plasma edge II) is my first tamiya since 2000 and bought simply because i was looking for somethign for a friend for christmas and the shop had 2 on the shelf which was perfect one for me and one for my friend.
well i built mine adding ball bearings during assembly and before christmas so i could offer my friend build tips if needed since it would have been a first time build for him ( outside of pieces like motor cover thing that could be omitted and one screw for gear cover not being clear to add if not using the motor ( cooler cover? shroud? obviously it was) screws easily stripping plastic ( moreso than 90;s tamiyas). no real concerns that is until i went to run it and that is completely different. keep in mind this is out of box built except addition of ball bearing kit and what follows is list of the problems i had trying to run it and what tamiya replaced and or suggested to do (THW-1060 ( tamiya hobby wing 1060)) esc, tamiya torque tuned motor, kit included 17t pinion, 17t spur for FDR of 10.71:1, 2s lipo:
1. first pull of throttle triger esc smoked ( tamiya sent replacement esc)
2. after installing replacement esc the torque tuned motor was running hot enough to start warping abs motor mount after a 2 minute run ( and i just found the chassis under motor has a slight bend/buldge whatver you want to call it in chassis under the motor) abs plastic. ( this is when i reached out to tam again and while waiting reply back i started looking online and saw others having had similar issues to what i was going through and what they did to remedy their problems, and i shot another e-mail to tam ( because from open to close PST tamiya usa wont answer phone, you automatically get the "due to high call volume message".basically a copy/paste of the one i was waiting for a response to but added the new information i saw while trying to fix my own tt02b issues.
week later i finally get a reply back where they offered to replace sc again ( not sure why), motor, and full set of pinion gears and a replacement motor mount because mine was slightly warped and it was enough to require prying off gear cover/motor mount hold down.
discussions then proceed an what i read online forums regarding bz motor, a couple old screenshots off tamiyas site showing FDR range of tamiya brushed motors ( which is now missing from tamiya website ( at least tamiya usa anyway). which it showed standard fdr range for torque tuned motor was 6.0-9.0 FDR while BZ motor had a standard fdr range of 9.0 -11.0 FDR ( this chart showed the torque tuned motor geared wrong in tt02b if correct), tamiya refused to respond to the inquiry only saying "bz motor will run hotter than torque tuned" so i tired a few old brushed motors i had lying around including a tamiya "sport tuned" that i had once used in a TL01 in 93?-n 95? ( can't remember exactly) well to make long story short lot of back and forth that really went nowhere, tam usa didnt my questions and sent the replacement parts.
so present day. tamiya TT02b still sitting unused i replaced motor with replacement, ran cooler hot but not to hot, using 16t pinion which cause car to run slower and not be any fun to run got the motor temps lower but on the high end of nominal operating range 17t pinion ( stock kit) puts it slightly over high nominal. i also tried my older 90's motors all trinity one tamiya sport tuned. and none of them i tried overheated including the speed gems 17x1, 15x4 whcih i had between 10-20 degres timing, not even the old "sport tuned" tamiya motor from mid 90's had an issue with overheating or getting really hot.
again tamiya usa dismissed my information, points, and proof i submitted in the form of links to the forum posts i had read,
just started rambling of having to upgrade this part or that part and here is the rundown tam support said to run the bz motor in tt02b ( metal motor mount, metal driveshaft, cvd's, oil filled diffs, this is where i facepalmed myself those are the exact same upgrades you need to run a brushless so why bother with BZ if that were the case but we all know it isnt and reading forum posts will prove that. BUT WAIT THERES MORE.
on the topic of oil filled diffs look up forum posts on tamiya tt02b and gear stripping, turns out there is a huge problem with gear stripping and peopel are replacing tamiya abs and fiber filled ABS diff gears for metal ( some like myself even ordered full metal oil filled diff kits bypassing tamiya plastics all together).
so where am i? on kit built, unusable till i manage to get get the aftermarket hop up parts at bare minimum but I'm opting to replace as much of the tamiya plastic as possible even considering going carbon fiber plate chassis kit ( why not my hot bodies D413 was carbon fiber plate chassis). i can technically run it as long as I'm running one of the following brushed motors, 90's sport tuned ( have to make that clear a vintage 90's sport tuned NOT modern one), trinity midnight "stock", trinity midnight 2 pro "stock" trinity speed gems sapphire ( 17x1) especially with cooler outside weather, speed gems 15x4 with weather temps outside of 60F or less. this is not ideal because cooler weather while good for motor temps is bad for the abs plastic as it would be more brittle and just a sharp jolt could potentially break an abs part.
so my opinion it the TT02b is the kit that should NEVER have been released as it was because it goes against the quality we have come to known from tamiya.
as far as the second kit i bought? still sitting here, still factory shrink wrapped and yes i DID try to return it to hobbyshop within their return window and yes i had receipt however, the hobbyshop declined the return so i got stuck with it. i can't in good concious sell it to someone else knowing what i know, and on top of that it would be hard to get $148.49 ( total i paid including tax) for a kit that tamiya has already discontinued ( most likely due to complaints seeing as teh tt02BSR is still being sold but it to has complaints mainly in the gear stripping area).
again i can't speak for anyone else, only myself but for me personally tamiya dropped the ball on the TT02b kits, and since I'm not running TCS with it i dont have to stick with tamiya brand parts which is better for me as aftermarket parts are cheaper and even those chinesium parts we normally tend to dislike are better than the tamiya branded parts when it comes to TT02B, i have an adjustable motor mount right now which doesn't limiti my pinion choice like tamiya ones does so i can use an aftermarket 'high speed gear set" and use us 48p gears instead of tamiya 06 mod gears, and I'm currently waiting cvd's, driveshaft propshaft cups outdrive cups ( only tamiya part i ordered because there were not any aftermarket options available but thoes will be replaced as soon as aftermarket ones are in stock). and full metal oil filled diffs front and rear.
and since i have to upgrade these parts anyway I'm ditching the brushed and installing a 10.5t 3250kv brushless in it which should work just fine as it is between the 2000kv- 4000kv range reccommended in 4wd buggies.
