Anyone into vintage Tamiya vintage rc cars?

My wife was helping her mum clear out her loft yesterday and stumbled across a tamiya rc car that used to belong to my wifes late brother. I've had a few rc cars in the past including Tamiya ones and they decided my son might have some use for it so brought it home. I decided to try and find a bit of info on it and found it to be a Rough Rider which from looking on fleebay auctions and other info sites it seems to be a sought after car.

Just wondered if anyone else had an interest in these cars? I've managed to download a build instruction manual for it as it does need a bit of a clean. Needless to say when my wife saw the prices they were going for on fleebay I don't think my son has a lookin now but I would like to clean it all up for her as I feel she wants to keep it now especially as she wasnt allowed to play with it when her brother was around. I'll post a couple of pics at the bottom.

Dan  

 

Im into them, but not Tamiya though, I run an HPI Baja, look them up on youtube!!!

i had the holiday buggy pretty much what you have there but with a slightly different body shell.

Yeah Baja's are very good fun. Just given my mate his one back but i'll see it again as he's useless when it comes to settings and all that.  he basically rants it abouts, breaks something or it stops running spot on so drops it off to me.

Looks great.

I'm looking to get me boy set up for Christmas, he's nearly 7, any pointers on which direction to head?

Battery? Nitro? Makes? Model?

Choc said

Looks great.

I'm looking to get me boy set up for Christmas, he's nearly 7, any pointers on which direction to head?

Battery? Nitro? Makes? Model?

Personally I would go with battery 1st as they are not as fast as the petrol or nitro and also easy to manage as you only have to plug a charged battery in. Theres lot's of companies about that produce rc cars but it all comes down to cost. The tamiya ones I have bought new need building and the kits can cost anything from about £100 + and then you have to add radio gear which again can be £80 upwards. There are also some ready built ones which can be as little as £20 but obviously not that great. One thing I would say thou is with batteries they take a long time to charge so invest in extra ones (if the car has rechargable packs) I used to have about 5. It all depends thou what you want to spend and what experience your son has. If none then build him up on cheaper models  as repairing the the expensive ones is obviously expensive.

Done the cheaper end of the market. Gets about an hour before it break after 3 sets of batteries.

Had me eyes on battery ones, a 2 or 3 spare batteries to keep him going.

Something like a Tamiya perhaps.

Budget around £200- £250 for job lot required to get him sorted.

Nearest model shop to me the bloke was a bit of a c0ck when I tried to speak to him, put me off going back.

Could ideally do with a pre-built one unless they're easy-ish to put together in time for Santa.  :wink:  

Any suggestions welcome.

There not too bad in all honesty to put together, was a long time ago I built one from scratch but there still basically the same and from memory it took a 2 or 3 evenings.

Dan

The mechanical build is pretty straight forward and can be done in a long evening but the body can be a fair bit of work. It'll probably need cutting from a vacuum mould, painting and lots of decals applied. You'll spend days creating some beautiful body then trash it on your first test drive. My tip is buy some spare body shells so you can have show ones and race ones. Can't go wrong with tamiya when starting out.

Been looking at something like….

http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/tamiya-110-sand-viper/

Thanks folks, sorry to hi-jack the thread.

Carry on as you were!  

I would like a Petrol model…..

been looking at one…

my bro has to baja, he's got a truck version plus he custom build a "shorty" as he call it, loads of carbon fibre seriously tuned engine. the engine alone has cost him £900 + to be build

seriously fun

i have a nitro car, its great fun but does like spining off on corners with just a little touch of the steering, good fun though want a truck now, or a tank

chris

Got quite a few of these.
The early ones are worth more, especially where the front suspension spring is against a screw instead of a stop. Little things like that serious collectors know about.

I have about 10 of these in various states of repair etc.
Plus a load of spares.
They did re release the kits a couple of years ago.
Yours is the Rough Rider, now known as the buggy champ.
These were known as SRB'S special racing buggies.
In the range there was the super champ, sand scorcher, based on a vw beetle and then the ford ranger F150 pick up truck, which proved to be the  least popular.
I bought a re release kit for the sand scorcher.
I did a thread on here…

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=80277&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=tamiya&start=0

Chortle do you have one that is complete for sale and will it be cheap  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

chortle said

Got quite a few of these.
The early ones are worth more, especially where the front suspension spring is against a screw instead of a stop. Little things like that serious collectors know about.

I have about 10 of these in various states of repair etc.
Plus a load of spares.
They did re release the kits a couple of years ago.
Yours is the Rough Rider, now known as the buggy champ.
These were known as SRB'S special racing buggies.
In the range there was the super champ, sand scorcher, based on a vw beetle and then the ford ranger F150 pick up truck, which proved to be the  least popular.
I bought a re release kit for the sand scorcher.
I did a thread on here…

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=80277&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=tamiya&start=0

Looking great!

How easy are they to put together as it looks like I will have to build one for my boy from Santa?

Easy matey,

It's time consuming and you need to be methodical.
Put all the same length screws etc in containers etc.
So no mix ups occur.

Painting the body shell is longest as you need to glue a few bits on etc.

Primer and paint, decals and laquer..

cheers

chortle

I've had a hotshot 2 that I rebuilt, also have a grasshopper but its a release one, I've also got a escort rally car and 2 minis that are all tamiya. Would love to find a cheep sand scorcher or rough rider!

Just get a tatty one off e bay and just get bits as you go along.

That's how I done mine apart from the new kits I got.
Just buy a basic chassis and add to it as you go along.
If you've acsess to machinery etc there's loads of stuff you make for them yourself.

I'm quite fortunate i think. This one looks is resonable condition apart from about 20 years of dust. The only things missing at the moment are the original handset (radio gear is in car) and the battery for the car. My wife's pretty sure these are still in the loft somewhere including some extra wheels and bits. Not too fussed if handset not found as I have a couple of spare ones anyway and can just change the crystals. Only thing i'm wondering is the battery as it seems to be a hump back type which I had not seen previously.

Dan