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Old 09-10-2018, 01:26 AM
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phmaximus
 
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Originally Posted by cwb124
Hey folks,

New to the forum but like many of you, I was huge into RC cars back in the late 80s during the heyday of Tamiya. I started out with a Blackfoot, then over the next 8 years or so owned the Fire Dragon, Monster Beetle, Astute, Fox, Hotshot, and inherited my brother's Hornet and Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid. Sold everything I had back around 1996 to my dismay. Now that my son is 9 he has an interest in the RC cars he sees in the toy aisle at wal-mart/target. So I bought him a Tamiya Racing Fighter for his birthday. We just finished building it. I built most of it but he helped where he could. Now I'm itching to get back into things. Just wondering what the "state of the union" looks like out there. From a purely experience/nostalgic aspect I lean heavily toward Tamiya. I have been in two hobby shops that say they don't stock Tamiya because there just isn't much demand. So where does Tamiya sit in the pecking order of off-road RC car/truck kits? Have they fallen from the top of the mountain? Who's the big dog out there? Looking at other brands, they are really damn expensive ($350 plus for any Kyosho kit) while most of the Tamiya kits I see are priced exactly the same as they were back when I was into the hobby, low to mid $100s. Very affordable. But is Tamiya on the way down or are they still a solid operation for a pure hobbyist/basher who has no interest in competitive racing? Thanks folks, looking forward to contributing here. -CB
Unfortunately no.....While some of there designs were top notch mack in the 90's Now days they are way off the benchmark in terms of lipo compatibility, quality of electronics, performance and more importantly Durability. but..... they are cheap

I love Tamiya but i have to be realistic, they only seem to sell toys, re releases its like there RC department gave up.

Im going to get alot of hate on this forum for saying this..... But. the new Tamiya is Traxxas....
They are filling the void Tamiya left behind with there totally unique designs and specialty vehicles. It seems they are using a similar business model where they use chassis that share *some parts but completely different styles. as well as massive advertising, sponsors ,excellent manuals and customer support.

Like em or hate em, Traxxas has done so much to promote this hobby and there sales are through the roof.... the Traxxas TORC Series is one fair effort for a RC car manufacturer...

I also think there is just too many manufacturers nowadays that offer decent entry level rc cars, that we will never see a true market leader like Tamiya was.... people complain about the cheap brands but compared to cars of 20 years ago. they are worlds better.... hehe no kidding who here has fried a few of those mechanical speed controllers lol

If you are interested in the old tamiya style RWD buggies, Id recommend checking out a Losi 22 kit. from memory they are not too expensive and offer considerably more durability and tuning options and the quality is impressive
oh and there is a truggy version that just screams 90's but has a modern chassis

Last edited by phmaximus; 09-10-2018 at 01:36 AM.