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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61203

What an odd story. Some time in the late 1980's or early 1990's, Tamiya's German distributor Tamico decided to take a Grasshopper II, paint it red, and put Blackfoot tires on it. The resulting Frankenstein's monster was terrible, but not as terrible as the Grasshopper II itself because the wider stance gave it more stability and the bouncy tires gave it more cushion. Somehow the resulting video got back to Tamiya and they thought it was such a great idea that they made it into the 58205 Mad Bull in 1997. They kept the Grasshopper II body and Blackfoot tires but replaced the chassis with the newer (but equally terrible) DT-01 chassis. This still uses the Grasshopper rear axle but has a 540 motor and something very slightly closer to real shocks in front. Voila, something both hideous and awful to drive at the same time, a combination which only Tamiya could make into fun. They re-released the Mad Bull in 2011 with exactly the same number and, so far as I can tell, no changes. This makes it somewhat difficult to tell which version you have, but the fact that mine came with a TBLE-02s speed controller confirms my copy as a re-re. You might expect that the original from 1997 used a mechanical speed controller, but it never did. An Adspec system was recommended for the original buggy.

This is a very simple 2WD model with only a handful of parts and no complex building steps. This shows in the handling which is far less than refined. The rear end uses a solid axle with a gear differential and the front end uses independent swing arms. The shocks are friction dampers with no relevant damping. It is pretty quick though, and very sturdy so just right for a newbie. The body shell is hard plastic and comes molded in white so it does needs to be painted.

The model is oddly fun to drive despite its numerous flaws. You might say that they give it charm. I did replace the plastic bushings with ball bearings and I'll probably come back in the future and try to fit some oil shocks. CVA oil shocks are an inexpensive option but don't come in red. The famous Hi-Cap aluminum dampers were an option back in the day, but to get them now you can expect to spend more than the entire kit.

The Mad Bull comes in a large box which is mostly filled with tires. The cover features a photograph rather than the traditional Tamiya hand drawn art.
It doesn't take long to look at this photo and see that there is not much to this kit. There are only a handful of parts, a giant chassis tub, and the tires. The body is still in the box while I build the chassis.
In case the model wasn't already simple enough for you, the "shocks" come assembled and so does the steering linkage. These are not oil shocks so they would have been dirt simple to assemble, but here they are. The steering and hub assembly slips through a slot in the chassis tub and then the crank slides over a post and is secured with a flanged screw. We're only one step in and it already looks like a chassis.
The front suspension uses swing arms which insert from the bottom. You can see that the rotation axis tips the arms slightly forward. The attachment of the front bumper retains the arms.
The following user(s) Liked this: larbut

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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61204

There are no upper arms, instead the C-hub is built directly into the lower arm. The insertion of a screw pin attaches the steering knuckles. Once the shocks are installed, this very simple front suspension is complete.
The transmission is integral to the solid rear axle and consists of only a single stepped gear in addition to the differential. These are some really large gear teeth so gear failures should be rare.
The metal differential gears sit inside a nylon spur gear housing as shown. Once this assembly is inserted into the rear axle housing, the two halves can be joined to complete the rear axle.
The kit comes with a silver can motor and a 17 tooth pinion. There are two sets of motor mounting holes which suggest an optional larger pinion, but there is no indication of what size this might be. 19T is a reasonable guess, but I'm not sure this model would benefit from more speed.

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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61205

The center pivot you see at the front of the axle allows the whole thing to swivel side to side without bouncing up and down like it does on the Grasshopper or Lunch Box. Note the extremely shallow angle of the rear shocks.
That's it. Now the wheels and tires can be installed along with the electronics. There is quite a bit of space available. It is interesting that there is clearly space for a second servo to drive a mechanical speed controller even though this model was never available with one, nor was any DT-01.
The Grasshopper II body is a single part. It just needs to be painted uniform black so the stickers can be applied. There is also a driver torso and head to paint.
The following user(s) Liked this: Jonny Retro, stingray-63

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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61206

This is one goofy looking vehicle. It would be hard to describe it as appealing based on any aspect of appearance other than its oddity itself. It drives terrible as well, but at least it is better than a normal DT-01. Taken together, I guess all those attributes make it "classic Tamiya". Note: these photos were taken before I painted and installed the driver.
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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61208

That's a rookie rabbit with gh2 body and lunchbox wheeles.
I did a gh2 with lunchy wheeles with my first gh2 some years before tamiya released it. With a magnum motor, olive green paint and my dad hand made axle and chovel on the side.

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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61209

Excellent write up as always :y:

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Blakbird's 58205 Mad Bull Build 3 years 8 months ago #61213

That's a rookie rabbit with gh2 body and lunchbox wheeles.

I did some research into the Rookie Rabbit. Since it came out so much earlier I figured it was probably the one to use an MSC, but according to the pictures here on TB it didn't

Excellent write up as always :y:

Thanks!

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