Tamiya Grasshopper RC Model Kit # 58346 (Re-Release)

Having owned a grasshopper as a child that my father had built (minus decals and figure) years prior seeing this kit on sale made me want to buy and build one myself with all the decals and figure installed. With the help of my girlfriend we put the chassis together in an evening and decals on the shell. The kit does include the TBLE-02 Brushed/Brushless ESC but requires a servo for steering and radio. I chose to use a trusty Futaba S3003 servo and a cheap 2.4ghz radio. Overall we enjoyed putting this kit together and very satisified with the end result. Not to mention there is something about building a model from a kit that you just don't get with a ready to run RC.

Perfect kit from tamiya. The name and quality go together. But stick a 540 motor in and it will really move.

Fantastic kit! Brought back many great memories from my childhood that I can now share with my son!

It goes when I tell it too, it stops when I tell it too. it reverses when I tell it to, can't ask for much more from an R.C. car !

I bought this for my son's 12 birthday and he loves it. It was a reasonable challange for him to make and I was there assistance, but the only real difficulty is putting on the tyres: what a mission! The base kit has plastic bearings but, like lots of things with the car, these can be upgraded later. It did come with the electronic speed controller. Even this version is fast and fun though. Suspension is good and can be tuned as well. He did bump the front wheels, breaking the steering connection to the servo, and it was difficult to find a spare, which I was surprised by. Otherwise I think it's a good kit for the price (89uk). And I always wished for one when I was his age; thankfully it does not disappoint.

I would have liked it to have had the battery and rc included but there was the ppl who bought this also bought this feature which allowed me to complete the build.

Quicker than expected delivery, good product, thank you.

Ok

If you are looking for an entry level RC that you can take down to your local RC track, this is not the RC you want. It is a re-issued, vintage, entry level RC kit. It uses entry level 1980's technology, save for a couple upgrades. It is not going to compete or handle like the current RC models. This is essentially a durable hobby grade toy. Nothing should be "missing" from the kit. "Missing" implies that it was supposed to be present with the kit. Tamiya's QA/QC and overall model quality are pretty superb. It is a hobby grade RC kit; meaning it does not include certain items, which is common for most hobby RC kits. The items not included in Grasshopper kit are the transmitter/receiver, battery/charger, servo, standard RC/model tools (hobby knife, small screw drivers, pliers, and file) and paint. It does come with a small hex wrench to fit the various nuts for the kit, but there was at least one nut that was in a position that was difficult to reach/tighten with the included wrench. So you may want to consider grabbing an RC tool kit that has small hex sockets. The kit contents include a small box with all the bags of bolts, washers, nuts, screws and specialty parts (like the transmission gears and grease), a sturdy black resin chassis, a sturdy white resin body/cover, the tires, various injection moulding sprues (the kit pieces that are attached to frames), the decals, and the instructions. The instructions can also be downloaded online at the Tamiya website. Nothing is painted; everything is pretty much either black or white plastic (or metal). You will need to use a hobby knife or plier snips to cut out the kit pieces from the injection moulding sprues. You can either file down the leftover spurs or shave them off with the hobby knife. The kit is easy and fun to assemble. You have some upgrade options, which include a better motor (the Tamiya RS540 seems to be the most popular, but you will also need an 18T pinion gear if you buy the RS540 motor) and sealed bearings. The sealed bearings used for the kit includes one (1) 5x8x2.5 bearing and nine (9) 5x11x4 bearings. It doesn't have to be Tamiya brand bearings (I used Traxxas aftermarket bearings for the 5x8x2.5) and you might have luck with these at your local hobby shop. The bearings are an ideal upgrade since the included "bearings" are pretty much just plastic or metal spacers. The one thing that you will really need to pay attention to when assembling the kit are the wheels. They come in three peices per wheel plus the tire. Once they are put together, they are very hard to take apart without gouging the plastic rims. So make sure the back tire treads are oriented properly and if you decide to paint, you are best off painting each piece separate before you assemble them. Another detail: if you decide to leave the center piece unpainted/white/different color like I did for contrast, be sure to either file the back side of the other two pieces clean or paint both the front and back of the other two pieces, as the back side of the other two pieces are slightly visible when assembled. Finally, you will need to paint the outer edges of the rims; they also show slightly when assembled. If you want the same exact color scheme as the picture on the box, the instructions tell you which Tamiya paint colors to use. TS-26 (Pure White Spray Lacquer) for the main body color. X-18 (semi-gloss black) for the roll cage bars. X-11 (gloss chrome silver) for the body detail. TS-26 (Pure White Spray Lacquer), XF-1 (flat black), XF-2 (flat white), XF-15 (flat flesh), and X-18 (semi-gloss black) for the driver. Alternatively, you can paint the kit whatever colors you want and used some, all, or none of the provided decals. That is the beauty of building the kit yourself :) I found that the local hobby shop was cheaper to buy the paint I wanted than to get Tamiya brand paint online. I went with a mica blue, white, and fluorescent orange color scheme using mainly testors paint. If you plan on doing a bit of detail painting, grab some high quality brushes, otherwise you will be spending a bit of time picking out loose brush hairs from your paint job. You can use pretty much any standard servo, I used the futaba brand. Roughly the same applies to the transmitter and receiver (both of which come together), again I used futaba's brand, the base model 2ch transmitter, which also came with servos. Not many transmitters include servos, just fyi. For the battery, I used the Tenergy 3800mAh combo with the smart charger. After all is said and done, you will be spending about two hundred fifty-ish on this kit. Pros: Fun to build, great quality (vintage) RC kit, pretty simple (less parts to break), durable and easy to use. Cons: A bit pricey, vintage 1980's technology (good and bad), limited upgrades, not a big aftermarket for replacement parts - once Tamiya discontinues it, parts will likely be a bit difficult to obtain. Update: 11/11/14 - It is a fun car to drive around. With the Futaba 2DR AM R162JE and Transmitter, the range is very long, like barely can see the car kind of long. I am really impressed with the battery life. Somewhere in the range of 30-45 minutes with the Tenergy 7.2V 3800mAh battery that I bought. The kids have a lot of fun with it too and while it has taken some damage to the chassis, it is running fine. Both of the headlights have been snapped off and a chunk has been taken out of the tail, but most of the damage is from indoor hazards. I am not a big fan of the battery cover design; it falls off a lot. I think a screw or maybe just some duck tape will work, but I haven't bothered trying yet. The wheels get poor traction on tile and hardwood floors, but do a little better on pavement. Works best on carpet. Steering is good, but due to the rear suspension being fixed instead of independent, it bounces around a lot and flips pretty easy. All in all, I am very happy with the car! I couldn't add a customer photo, so I put the finished car pic on my profile photo.

comme l'original, seul le variateur mécanique est manquant il est remplacer par un variateur compatible moteur a charbon et moteur bruhsless ''sensored'' le moteur 380 d'origine mérite d’être replacer rapidement

Der robuste klassiger von Tamiya für kleine Anfänger ;) . Es ist das erste RC Fahrzeug das die Kinder zusammen gebaut haben. Sie hatten großen Spaß daran. In der Aufbauanleitung gibt es keine schwierigen Stellen. Es ist ein sehr schönes Modell zum fahren lernen weil sehr robust ist.

40年前に持っていたグラスホッパー まったくと言っていいほど変わっていない笑 作りも値段までも。 丈夫でいいです。 お薦めは最初からベアーリングを入れてください。 作る前に塗装するだけで、ググっとかっこよくなります。 ボディだけでなく、フレームも足回りもギアボックスも ホイールも塗装しただけでかっこよくなります。

Muy rápida la gestión de envío, calidad del producto.