Panko75
RCTalk Champion
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Rather than bore this board with a thread on every old Tamiya I've owned, I'll just make a single thread that should cover them.
I began my Tamiya journey with two cars, a TT01, and a Grasshopper. Neither were great in any way, but I came to appreciate the Grasshoppers simplicity and I understood that it was an old design, it also made me brave enough to re-build an entire transmission on an RC.
The TT01...and really anything TT, I grew to see as little more than body holders (look at how many end up as shelf queens).
Tamiyas old solid axle RCs drive like crap compared to most modern RCs (though they drive better than a stock TT02), but they just "work", the steering does it job, they use steel solid axles and giant nylon gears, they can run all day without getting hot, and they take a half an hour to fix anything.
The Frog/ORV stuff is incredibly crude, and yet they have more metal on them than a 2wd Traxxas, and they're fun when they work...which they rarely do, but hey, it's a design from about 1983.
And that leads me into modern Tamiyas, the world of tiny plastic diff gears, suspension balls that pop out over pebbles, plastic in plastic suspension arms, friction shocks (a surprising number of old Tamiyas have oil filled shocks), crap steering, giant plastic dogbones, and hop-ups to "fix" these problems.
How do you make something that's somehow worse (and cheaper to make), but not "modernize" a bit? Could I have some nicer plastic that doesn't crack sitting on the shelf? Bearings? Useful shocks? Oh right, I can but it'll cost more than a brushless RTR.
I give credit to Tamiyas older design for experimenting a bit, and some even make for fun low-maintence runners. Essentially "neat toys that you can fix", good for cheap bums like me that run NiMH and brushed stuff.
Their modern stuff...feels like it's made to sell aluminum hop ups. In fact, I blame their modern offerings for making me a bit jaded towards the hop-up scene. I don't have a problem with upgrades, I just shouldn't "need" them. Dogbones shouldn't pop out every tap, drive cups/shafts shouldn't wear out in 3 battery packs, and I quite prefer steering that...you know...works.
For the record, my 20+ year old Super Hornet has less slop in it than any TeeTee-O thing that I've owned.
I began my Tamiya journey with two cars, a TT01, and a Grasshopper. Neither were great in any way, but I came to appreciate the Grasshoppers simplicity and I understood that it was an old design, it also made me brave enough to re-build an entire transmission on an RC.
The TT01...and really anything TT, I grew to see as little more than body holders (look at how many end up as shelf queens).
Tamiyas old solid axle RCs drive like crap compared to most modern RCs (though they drive better than a stock TT02), but they just "work", the steering does it job, they use steel solid axles and giant nylon gears, they can run all day without getting hot, and they take a half an hour to fix anything.
The Frog/ORV stuff is incredibly crude, and yet they have more metal on them than a 2wd Traxxas, and they're fun when they work...which they rarely do, but hey, it's a design from about 1983.
And that leads me into modern Tamiyas, the world of tiny plastic diff gears, suspension balls that pop out over pebbles, plastic in plastic suspension arms, friction shocks (a surprising number of old Tamiyas have oil filled shocks), crap steering, giant plastic dogbones, and hop-ups to "fix" these problems.
How do you make something that's somehow worse (and cheaper to make), but not "modernize" a bit? Could I have some nicer plastic that doesn't crack sitting on the shelf? Bearings? Useful shocks? Oh right, I can but it'll cost more than a brushless RTR.
I give credit to Tamiyas older design for experimenting a bit, and some even make for fun low-maintence runners. Essentially "neat toys that you can fix", good for cheap bums like me that run NiMH and brushed stuff.
Their modern stuff...feels like it's made to sell aluminum hop ups. In fact, I blame their modern offerings for making me a bit jaded towards the hop-up scene. I don't have a problem with upgrades, I just shouldn't "need" them. Dogbones shouldn't pop out every tap, drive cups/shafts shouldn't wear out in 3 battery packs, and I quite prefer steering that...you know...works.
For the record, my 20+ year old Super Hornet has less slop in it than any TeeTee-O thing that I've owned.
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