TOPIC:

I'm in Essonnes. Nice la tour du pin. Large spaces to have fun. I ran a lot at Briançon with my usa1 nc and my wrangler.

understand you too well

Are you far from the hautes alpes lem?

Welcome! I still have huge curiosity about Kyosho from my Tower Hobbies catalog browsing days. My brother had an Assault briefly and we built the monster truck vette' (poorly) at a buddy's as maybe 14 year olds, but never saw all any other classic models. I see something like a turbo optima kit in my future...

Well... I also have something special with Kyosho. I probably would not writing here if while searching parts for the MiniZ rebuilt I didn't spot Kyosho re-release of my kid's dreams... I had a cousin with a Scorpion, my neighbour was having a Beetle. I dreamt about Turbo Scorpion, Javelin and Optimas, and could not afford or find them (Beetle was the only model available usually at my hobby store, and I was not really in Beetle mood). Long story short, back in December 2020, spot some Kyoshos, and started to plan to get back in R/C

Beginning of Jan, found that DT03 were cheaper in Germany (probably because in Germany, there is still a Tamiya fighter cup) by a lot. Bought one, and bult it. My son (13) became crazy looking at my built and decided he wanted one... And i'm here.

That being said, there is few things I don't like about Tamiya (and it was the same with the Marui Hunter) : putting auto tapping screws in the plastic is not a way to build durably... It's still ok, but soon you have to find a way to repair things. At the moment I built my DT03, I even thought about putting M3 inserts and use M3 screws (which is probably something I'll do one I have a stripped thread, which will certainly arrive at some point).

And looking at kits I was dreaming about when young, a lot of them have been re-released (yes, I was also dreaming about some Tamiya kits :-D). But looking at the re-released stuff, I must recognize that Kyosho did a much better job by reviewing their models to make them much more adapted to modern technnologies... I can't deny my inclination to Kyosho. I still like the realism of some of the Tamiya models, and one of the reasons I took a racing fighter was that it reminded me my Marui Hunter by its look, but I'm missing a pilot figure in it....

And i'm looking at classified and ebay as well on a daily basis, just in case I can find an old kit to restore... But prices became crazy: I'm not sure how I can justify to my bank lady (i.e. wife) the fact of spending more on a broken uncomplete r/c than the same re-released and brand new?  It's a mistery to me, and I'm admirative of the restoration work I can see here and there...

But clearly, I can see some Kyosho in my near future : Turbo Scorpion, Javelin (or maybe it will be a Turbo Javelin :-D), Turbo Optima... Among the things that make them different from a lot of others: truely vintage look, materials, and pilot figure :-D...

silvertriple wrote:

...That being said, there is few things I don't like about Tamiya ...
 

I think that's true for all of us - sometimes I think we have such loyalty in spite of Tamiya, not because of them

I can't say i'm loyal to Tamiya 
That being said, I made much more Tamiya non R/C builds than any other brands in my life (from 8 to 14, I was probably building one every two weeks). But only a few were R/C...

By the way, a picture of my ride (blue one), and my son's one (black and green)

Nice ones marc

That definitely escalated quickly. My son (13 years) has his Racing Fighter since 2 weeks, now. His sister (11 years and a half) started to bug us to drive as well, and then she soon wanted one...

After discussion with my wife, the plan was :

• anticipate my next kit
• find a Neo Fighter Body + decals + rims to make my Racing Fighter look like a Neo Fighter and let my daughter use it when I'm not

That was a nice plan. I had just to decide a few things and search for parts...
First, decision process was about which Kyosho kit I'll get for me. Turbo Scorpion, Tomahawk, Turbo Optima, Javelin, Turbo Scorpion, Turbo Optima, Turbo Scorpion, Turbo Scorpion... It will be a Turbo Scorpion... Then call my local dealer, to see if he can get one easily (he is reselling Kyosho). I called him at the end of his business week, we had a long talk about re-release, and he told me he will check on next day with the Kyosho importer about when... He also told me that if I can find one online, it might be easier as he is not sure when teh importer will reassort that... Very nice from him to highlight this, but I was then my duty to wait for his feedback as I definitely knew where to find one online. I decided to search for parts for the other part of the plan with the DT-03. Coming to my mind that it might be every well ending with an order in a german shop, I checked for parts availability and cost on the same shop... Adding all parts together makes about 75% of the cost of a new NeoFighter kit (not avaialble yet, but at that time it was already indicated as incoming soon in inventory): there is something wrong in my plan, now...

Next day, had a discussion with my dealer again. No Turbo Scorpion available in France until at best July or August apparently. We had a discussion again, and he told me which re-release models he can provide at this stage, but i'm all for the Turbo Scorpion, although a Ultima would be nice, but not to my taste as I really love the vintage look of the Scorpions... He knows we have plans for my son's birthday as last time we went there, my son asked a lot of things on a specific model he wants for his birthday: he knows that he will definitely not loose a customer, he told me to order online, and I'll see him later as I'll need an ESC, a motor and some paints. Ok cool. Let's discuss with my wife again

Explained the case of the Neo Fighter : there is no point of ordering parts when you get a full kit for like 20 bucks more... My wife agreed. Within the evenning, I made something I could not even imagine a week or two earlier : Ordered two kits and a few additional parts I needed for my next project (and bearings for my daughter DT-03). Parcel is ongoing, hopefully will arrive within the course of the week.

In the meantime, still scratching my head about the Motor and ESC of the Turbo Scorpion.

I'm also scratching my head for the paint : colours and schema. I like most of the Kyosho box art decoration (and the Turbo Scorpion is in the same park), but I'd like something different (I might end by building a second body for the box are scheme). I may need a plotter for that, as I have some bad ideas to put in practice, and the fact of seeinng builds and nice tips in some of the forums I registered recently tends to level up my decoration intentions :-D. And even my son start to level up his decorations intentions...

In the meantime, need to find two cans of Tamiya paint for my daughter's DT-03 (PS-1, PS-11)...

That escalated quickly. Not sure I'll post a build thread for those, but I may put a few pictures here once thos projects are over... This forums and some others should be censored for the health of my wallet  !!!