I recently purchased a NERF style ball blaster gun that has a strobe flash attached to it (has a marketing name of "lightning strike"). Got it for $10 bucks after $5 discount since one or two foam balls were missing from the package. Stripped the gun down to check out the flash unit and it looks perfect for the muzzle flash application... compact / base circuit w/ two wires to the batteries (for capacitor charging) and two wires to "trigger"off the flash. Runs on 3V only and charging is instantaneous, can't ask for more! That's one alternative that could be retrofitted into system. If you can't find an appropriate "toy", evilbay has some kits that you can assemble yourself for a decent $$$ (you have to build/solder up the kit though)

I don't know what the cost of a replacement TAM flash unit is (or the component layout) as all my tanks are non-tamiya (can't afford it [&o]). However, I'm guessing you will only need to replace the strobe flash unit which will have 3 wires attached to it running to a connector that hooks into the DMD. If this is correct, I guessing that it may be possible to salvage a strobe flash unit from a toy as I've described or perhaps from a disposable camera, etc. and wire up your own flash unit. You may need to check the rating of the strobe + verify for correct polarity and trigger wire according to the TAM connector. Flash strobes are seemingly cheap, and very much cheaper when "salvaged" from other stuff like the disposable camera (I just bought some for $2 each). You may want to read up on the workings of strobes before considering this route through.

A word of caution on this which I learned the hard way - the capacitors hold a charge even WITH the power disconnected! I read that the capacitors get charged up to 600V or more and the "trigger" generates stuff in the kV range in order to kick off the flash strobe... very scary!!! I got shocked just the other day poking around the capacitor and that's how I know all this [>:]