My Love for Tamiya

The Slash, my latest Traxxas not the guitarist, is waiting for a new motor to be installed.  My son would love it if you could just put in a new motor and play the guitar like Slash, but I remind him that is not going to happen.   He needs to remember that it takes dedication, and the time will pay off.  So, this is a break from my journal regarding the Traxxas Slash Nitro.

So, I am waiting to mount the motor, break in the Slash, and for the trails to dry up before doing the mountain bike thing.  So this post is coping with cabin fever.   I do get out and snow shoe and fat bike, but unfortunately, my winter is so busy that I don’t have time to get out far or deep into the woods.  However, I do find time to feed my inner child.  This is where I play with my Tamiya cars, and I wanted to post on why I love Tamiya.

This may surprise you, but there are people on the internet who just have to be the wet blankets and complain about everything.  So, if you are a Tamiya hater, please move along.  Yes, we know that you are very smart and all of us are stupid.  Do you feel better?  Still waiting to see if the troll is gone.  (Arbitrary whistling…. arbitrary whistling…. arbitrary whistling…. stalling…. waiting for Daffy’s report)

I fully grant that an entry-level Tamiya kit is not going to beat most ready-to-run (RTR) cars.  The nice thing about a RTR (Ready To Run) is you simply charge the battery, insert batteries into the radio, and you are driving your new vehicle. It will be fast and durable.  The problem is that all these cars need some love.  Now, you have to figure out how to take it apart, grease differentials, or do some repairs, and you are a bit lost.  This is where I love Tamiya.

Why buy these kits?  Well, the entry-level kits will not all run against the RTR.  However, the M05 is an incredible bang for the buck.  You can upgrade through Tamiya, or you can use the Yeah Racing upgrades.  Once you put a few extra bucks into the Tamiya kit, you will be running against the RTRs pretty quickly and easily.  You built this kit, you know how it goes together, and if you forget… well… what was I saying?  Just kidding.  If you forget how to put something back together, you have the instructions to guide you.

I also love how Tamiya models are scaled.  I mean scale with incredible detail injected into the body moulding.  Once you add decals and paint, you can make a car look like. areal car.   In fact, my response to their new car build is, “Well, that settles it!  Now I have to buy the model and the 1:1 scale model!”  If you are good at painting, you can send a pic of the finished model to your friends and say, “Hey, look what I got?”  Then, wait for the reply, “Duuuddd! How did you get a 911?”  Then you send them the pic of you holding it.  The fun never stops!

(The pic on the left is right when my son and we got his lights working on his CC02)

Personally, when Tamiya releases a model, I have a quandary.    Immediately, I feel like Bugs Bunny with a Tamiya marketer who is holding a pitchfork and has horns telling me to buy it on one shoulder.  Then, on my other shoulder, I have my wife reminding me about the upcoming bills and the need to be an adult, with an angelic choir behind her, so I really feel bad!  Okay, I exaggerate a lot!  Nothing like that has ever happened to me, but it would be pretty epic if it did.

The squirrel is gone, and now it is back on topic.  Another thing that I like about Tamiya is that you can race a Tamiya car on their track. Different race classes can get pretty crazy. and overwhelming with all the rules.  However, if you stay in their stock class you can learn how to drive.  Just don’t be shocked when the pimply faced kid laps you with his bone stock car.  It will be like skiing the slopes all over again!  I knew I could have beat that kid down the hill!  He didn’t tell me about that mogul…. he set me up! And…. he’s back.

Unfortunately, I never had a free Saturday to do the 4 hour drive south to their track when I lived in California, but I knew many guys who did.  On a serious note you might think that stock class will all run the same, but you would be wrong. The individuals who race the stock class pay very careful attention to how they build/rebuild their kits, and they know the tricks to be legal, but sort of Rally B Class legal in the 80s.  They have a Lotus-type mindset: if it does not fall apart at the finish line after the race, then the car was built too heavy with unnecessary parts. Let me emphasize: They run legal, but they know a lot of tricks to make sure the car stays light and fast.

I really love building their kit.  It is something that I did with each of my kids.  The picture of the left is from their directions. I love opening the new kit to see what sort of comic strip like warnings they have like the example on the left.

There is a certain joy in coming home and seeing little black circles in your driveway.  Yup, your kid learned how to do donuts with their RC car.  It is also pretty cool to see the autocross in the driveway and the kids taking turns running the cars.

Go, treat yourself to a kit, and take your kids out to play.  I know I can complain about my kids playing video games.  It is really rewarding to build a kit with your kid and then troubleshoot together what is broken or needs rebuilding on the car.

Here is a suggested build for you: (I get no commission on this stuff so this is honest friend advice)

Tamiya TT-02 Touring Car (You can get rally shocks and get a little more clearance) $107.99 (I would recommend the M-05, but they discontinued the CRX and the Mini. However, the M-05 is maybe 20 dollars more, and it is front wheel drive rather than four wheel drive.)

Battery & Charger: $65.99

Radio System: (I like this because if you buy a better radio, you can pair your receiver to the upgraded radio.) $54.99

Lipo Bag: $8.99 (Bad things can happen if you're not careful and the LIPO goes BOOM and then HISSSSSSS and then sirens.)

Total: $237.96 will get you into this hobby.  Keep in mind that this is all brand-new stuff from a store that has top customer service.

Thanks for reading this post!  Until we meet again, may the Lord’s blessing and peace be upon you!

This is the start of the CC02. We washed the body to prep for paint. The inside of the body is painted. It makes for a bit of a pain to mask, but the end result looks amazing!

We used a Tamiya paint can and then airbrushed the black with some black paint I had left over from other models.

This is letting the paint dry in the kitchen. It is starting to look like a real vehicle.

Here is the body getting its decals mounted to the CC02 chassis and trying to measure where to cut the body posts.

Here, we are passing the time while we wait for the paint to dry, and we make sure that his truck is running well. We also wanted to see how it crawled compared to the CR01.

Thanks again for reading!