Tamiya for [-]my son[-] me
Discussion
So,
After spending the last 2 weeks flogging all my old RC models on ebay (thanks to the phers who helped me identify them) i almost have enough cash to buy a kit and new radio gear to build with my 4.5 year old. I have fond memories of getting my original monster beetle for my 5th or 6th birthday and promptly smashing the rear body mount off by wedging it under a neighbors car.
I have a plan for a pistol style transmitter that i can tie-wrap something behind to limit the speed to start with, rather than fitting a 380 motor and different gears. Mainly so i can have a blast with it at full speed.
From reading various threads on here and rc forums i have kinda narrowed it down to either a Madbull or a TT02B based buggy. Id love a Lunchbox or Monster Beetle again but i think they will tip over a lot. At least the madbull has a lower CoG.
Our garden is roughly 10m * 8m of grass so not really big enough to play in. So it will be local parks and farm tracks. As he gets better and if he enjoys it there are a couple of local clubs with proper tracks we can use.
So, i have come up with some pros and cons for each.
Madbull:
Pros: ground clearance, front tyres forward of chassis
Cons: mad handling, poor steering (possibly improved with servo linkage mod)
TT02B Buggy:
Pros: 4wd improves handling, steering, grip etc
Cons: low ground clearance.. gets stuck, no jumps etc.
Costs are roughly the same for each, around 100€ for the kits with bearing upgrade. Ill then need to spend between 50 and 70€ on transmitter, servo and a battery. I still have my old chargers.
Can anyone push me in a particular direction? Are my Pro Con lists wrong?
After spending the last 2 weeks flogging all my old RC models on ebay (thanks to the phers who helped me identify them) i almost have enough cash to buy a kit and new radio gear to build with my 4.5 year old. I have fond memories of getting my original monster beetle for my 5th or 6th birthday and promptly smashing the rear body mount off by wedging it under a neighbors car.
I have a plan for a pistol style transmitter that i can tie-wrap something behind to limit the speed to start with, rather than fitting a 380 motor and different gears. Mainly so i can have a blast with it at full speed.
From reading various threads on here and rc forums i have kinda narrowed it down to either a Madbull or a TT02B based buggy. Id love a Lunchbox or Monster Beetle again but i think they will tip over a lot. At least the madbull has a lower CoG.
Our garden is roughly 10m * 8m of grass so not really big enough to play in. So it will be local parks and farm tracks. As he gets better and if he enjoys it there are a couple of local clubs with proper tracks we can use.
So, i have come up with some pros and cons for each.
Madbull:
Pros: ground clearance, front tyres forward of chassis
Cons: mad handling, poor steering (possibly improved with servo linkage mod)
TT02B Buggy:
Pros: 4wd improves handling, steering, grip etc
Cons: low ground clearance.. gets stuck, no jumps etc.
Costs are roughly the same for each, around 100€ for the kits with bearing upgrade. Ill then need to spend between 50 and 70€ on transmitter, servo and a battery. I still have my old chargers.
Can anyone push me in a particular direction? Are my Pro Con lists wrong?
Madbull. At the end of the day a first RC car isn't going to be a racer, it will be a toy/basher. And the bigger tyres of the Madbull will make it much better for this.
The TT02 platform is fairly limited, if you want to get something better then you'll want more than one of these for off road used (IMO).
I would say Tamiya models are a bit restricted in performance terms, even the newer ones. The appeal is really in the building tbh, but a 4/5 year old won't be building one, it'll be you.
The RTR vehicles do represent great value for money often, but are sometimes a bit fragile and not always as easy to fix if you aren't used to working on them. So it all depends what you are after.
I'd say the biggest downside of the RTR packages is performance. They are often too good, and a new/young driver will go way too quick and crash into things breaking stuff. The Tamiya models are pretty sedate (unless modded) by comparison, so are less likely to crash due to being slow and slower crashes mean less broken parts.
If RTR's appeal, maybe look at the rock crawler ones. They aren't very quick and offer a new dynamic to RC cars. Could even use them in your garden.
The TT02 platform is fairly limited, if you want to get something better then you'll want more than one of these for off road used (IMO).
I would say Tamiya models are a bit restricted in performance terms, even the newer ones. The appeal is really in the building tbh, but a 4/5 year old won't be building one, it'll be you.
The RTR vehicles do represent great value for money often, but are sometimes a bit fragile and not always as easy to fix if you aren't used to working on them. So it all depends what you are after.
I'd say the biggest downside of the RTR packages is performance. They are often too good, and a new/young driver will go way too quick and crash into things breaking stuff. The Tamiya models are pretty sedate (unless modded) by comparison, so are less likely to crash due to being slow and slower crashes mean less broken parts.
If RTR's appeal, maybe look at the rock crawler ones. They aren't very quick and offer a new dynamic to RC cars. Could even use them in your garden.
Do FTX make kits or are they all RTR? I really want to avoid RTR as i want to build it together. im pretty confident he will like the build process given his proficiency for Lego and Technics. i may have to help out with the trickier elements of the diffs and gearboxes but that should be ok.
Over here Carson is also widely popular but again, i think they are all RTR kits.
Over here Carson is also widely popular but again, i think they are all RTR kits.
first thing to note is he will crash it, a lot, and will unlikely have any sort of mechanical sympathy for it, it will get driven over everything and anything.
With that in mind I would suggest of the 2 the madbull is a better choice.
With its big wheels and styling I suspect it will also be more exciting for him and be better for showing off to his mates, get stuck on/under less stuff and generally be more usable.
Also if you go kit rather than RTR you have the advantage of being more readily customisable in the way it looks and the build. I think he probably could help you build it (passing bits, doing up the odd screw etc) plus he can help with the design, choosing colours, putting on stickers etc (as long as you are not too precious about the way it looks!!)
(whether 1 is better to drive or not I cannot comment as I asked a very similar question a few days ago)
With that in mind I would suggest of the 2 the madbull is a better choice.
With its big wheels and styling I suspect it will also be more exciting for him and be better for showing off to his mates, get stuck on/under less stuff and generally be more usable.
Also if you go kit rather than RTR you have the advantage of being more readily customisable in the way it looks and the build. I think he probably could help you build it (passing bits, doing up the odd screw etc) plus he can help with the design, choosing colours, putting on stickers etc (as long as you are not too precious about the way it looks!!)
(whether 1 is better to drive or not I cannot comment as I asked a very similar question a few days ago)
Lord 
said:
said: Do FTX make kits or are they all RTR? I really want to avoid RTR as i want to build it together. im pretty confident he will like the build process given his proficiency for Lego and Technics. i may have to help out with the trickier elements of the diffs and gearboxes but that should be ok.
Over here Carson is also widely popular but again, i think they are all RTR kits.
No FTX aren't kits, although you can strip and rebuild them.Over here Carson is also widely popular but again, i think they are all RTR kits.
TBH if you are wanting a kit for a 5 year old to build (optimistic?). Maybe look at a simpler kit. I have a Tamiya Grasshopper. Quite a nice build and goes pretty well with a 380 motor in it, ideal for a first time kit. Goes better on tarmac or dirt than grass though (this is true for all 2wd buggies).
The Tamiya Rising Fighter is largely the same thing, but seems to be cheaper:
https://www.modelsport.co.uk/tamiya-rising-fighter...
Or there is the Kyosho NeXXT/Sandmaster. They are sold indiviudally or as a combo kit. The NeXXT looks more futuristic and the Sandmaster a more traditional buggy.
https://www.modelsport.co.uk/kyosho-nexxt-sandmast...
If they really get into it, look at something faster/more capable down the line.
As said by those more knowledgeable than i there are many offerings other than Tamiya but personally i would be going for the TT02B.
Easy to build, and very easy to get parts for cheaply when you break it, which you will.
I note that you are concerned about ground clearance. on the basic kit i can see that as an issue, on the other had £20 worth of Amazon shocks and an hour of work solves that.
As for jumps - i take mine down the local skate park and so far the only thing that i have really broken (other than the rear wing which got eaten by a terrier, but that's another story) is a front hub which has now been replaced with an ally part.
Easy to build, and very easy to get parts for cheaply when you break it, which you will.
I note that you are concerned about ground clearance. on the basic kit i can see that as an issue, on the other had £20 worth of Amazon shocks and an hour of work solves that.
As for jumps - i take mine down the local skate park and so far the only thing that i have really broken (other than the rear wing which got eaten by a terrier, but that's another story) is a front hub which has now been replaced with an ally part.
Evening all. I thought I'd reply and say that I ignored half of everyone's advice at least... But that is the pistonheads way.
So I got a cheap 2.4 ghz transmitter kit and a metal gear servo and the Mad Bull kit with bearings.
It took us about 4h for the main build and then several evenings of me messing about painting the body.
I know purple is a deviation from the normal but I can't argue when his favorite colour is purple. We have had 6 inches of snow this week so not had much of a test run yet.
I also bought myself a used Plasma edge... Because I thought it was a plasma edge 2 with the tt02b. Its not. Its also slow as hell the mad bull smokes it in a straight line.
So I got a cheap 2.4 ghz transmitter kit and a metal gear servo and the Mad Bull kit with bearings.
It took us about 4h for the main build and then several evenings of me messing about painting the body.
I know purple is a deviation from the normal but I can't argue when his favorite colour is purple. We have had 6 inches of snow this week so not had much of a test run yet.
I also bought myself a used Plasma edge... Because I thought it was a plasma edge 2 with the tt02b. Its not. Its also slow as hell the mad bull smokes it in a straight line.
Have a soft spot for the Tamiya kits - quite pricey but not many companies do "everyday" kits rather than high end racing stuff.
If you want to be able to restrict the speed look for something called EPA / End Point Adjustment / ATL or similar on the controller, its designed to limit the travel of the throttle / brake servo IC engine models but can do similar same for electric - just set it up like this..
Set EPA to max / 100%
Press the setup button on speed control and do the full throttle, neutral, reverse thing - varies from ESC to ESC
Reduce EPA on controller to say 50%
Now at when the trigger is fully pressed it will only send 50% "servo travel" to the RX and in turn the ESC will only see a maximum of 50% throttle input, depending on controller it may also have the side effect of making the throttle less sensitive as the 50% throttle is now spaced over 100% of the trigger travel. If you wanted to have a play at full speed then just raise the EPA back up to max and lower when done.
If you want to be able to restrict the speed look for something called EPA / End Point Adjustment / ATL or similar on the controller, its designed to limit the travel of the throttle / brake servo IC engine models but can do similar same for electric - just set it up like this..
Set EPA to max / 100%
Press the setup button on speed control and do the full throttle, neutral, reverse thing - varies from ESC to ESC
Reduce EPA on controller to say 50%
Now at when the trigger is fully pressed it will only send 50% "servo travel" to the RX and in turn the ESC will only see a maximum of 50% throttle input, depending on controller it may also have the side effect of making the throttle less sensitive as the 50% throttle is now spaced over 100% of the trigger travel. If you wanted to have a play at full speed then just raise the EPA back up to max and lower when done.
Edited by Gluggy on Wednesday 6th February 19:20
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