TOPIC:

If you try to research the difference between Trophy Trucks, Short Course Trucks, and Stadium Trucks, you'll find a confusing cacophony of conflicting data.  I gave up and just concluded that these are all purpose built racing trucks based on the general appearance of real consumer trucks, but usually actually made from a tube frame chassis and using a fiberglass body shell.  This makes them a great subject for an RC model.  The body of the 58106 Stadium Blitzer, originally released in 1992, certainly looks like it is based on one of these genres, but the chassis makes me question that theory.  Real racing trucks aren't likely to have monster truck tires and a super wide track.  So what is this thing supposed to be exactly?  Let's take a look at the history of the Tamiya models that use this type of body and see if we can figure it out.

• It all seems to have started with the 58081 Nissan King Cab and 58086 Toyota Hilux on the Monster Racer chassis in 1989-1990.  These had the distinctive Trophy Truck bodies but a 2WD Monster Truck chassis.
• The most realistic Trophy Trucks were the 58136 Toyota Prerunner (re-using the Hilux body), 58146 Chevy S-10, and 58161 Ford F-150 released in 1994-1995.  These all used the 4WD TA-02 touring chassis and scale sized tires.
• The series I'll call the Blitzers are the 58106 Stadium Blitzer, 58122 Blitzer Beetle, and 58181 Stadium Thunder, released in 1992-1996.  These used a derivative of the 2WD Falcon buggy chassis but with huge tires.
• Honorable mention go to the 58511 Nissan Titan (DT-02), 58537 Desert Fielder (TA-02T re-using the Toyota Hilux body), 58552 Asterion (XV-01T re-using the Chevy S-10 body), and 58579 Land Freeder (CC-01).  These all use different chassis that have nothing to do with a real trophy truck but the bodies kind of look like one.

Did that clear things up?  Not at all.  The 58056 Falcon came out in 1986.  It was a 2WD buggy with a bathtub chassis, front wishbone suspension, and rear trailing arms.  It sold very well as a beginner's kit, yet the chassis wasn't used for anything else until the 58093 Bear Hawk 5 years later which changed almost everything.  Both front and rear suspension were new (trailing arms were gone), and the oil shocks were replaced by the dreaded "friction dampers".  That didn't revive the platform, so why not change even more?  From 1992-1996 Tamiya released the 58106 Stadium Blitzer, the 58122 Blitzer Beetle, and the 58181 Stadium Thunder.  All three used the newest version of what was left of the Falcon chassis with long suspension arms and big wheels.  Two of these stadium truck style vehicles used pickup truck style bodies, but the Blitzer Beetle brought back the hard body from the Sand Scorcher.  I'm partial to the Beetle body myself, but the stadium truck bodies are probably more realistic to a real vehicle, but not by much.

All three of the stadium truck Falcons were re-released between 2010 and 2012 in the same order as the originals.  I have the 58482 version of the Stadium Blitzer from 2010.  From what I can tell, it is virtually unchanged from the original.  Because of the wide stance and long travel suspension, this is a very stable vehicle.  It can handle pavement, gravel, and grass with equal grace.  It is quite quick for its size and even jumps pretty well.  I really have no complaints.  For the price, it performs very well.  With those big tires, you don't even notice the lack of 4WD under most conditions.

The chassis of the Stadium Blitzer is identical to that of the Blitzer Beetle which I've already documented in detail.  Please see  that page  for more information.  I'll only discuss the relevant differences here.

The Stadium Blitzer comes in a sizeable box with some lovely classic box art.  The contents inside are not as well presented as many other kits.  The body and wheels are on one side of the divider while the plastic parts sprues are on the other.     

Here are the parts laid out on my build table, and then we jump straight to the completed chassis.  As far as I can tell, there are zero differences between this chassis and the Blitzer Beetle chassis apart from the body post locations.  This is not a complex build and goes together pretty quickly.  Note that this model came with an older ESC without an integrated voltage regulator so I added an external BEC which I was able to hide nicely under the unused mechanical speed controller plate.

This is a simple plain white paint job, right?  Wrong.  It was actually quite a bit of work.  I started by masking the windows, then the areas to be painted white, then the areas to be painted black.  Silver is limited to the roll cage so I left that open as shown on the right.  This was quite a complex masking job.     

On the left you can see the black under the windshield, the black grille, and some black under the roll cage.  The right hand image show more detail of the silver roll cage and rear deck prior to painting the black.     

Now I've removed all the masking and completed the paint.  I did all the white with the window masks still on, then backed the whole thing in black.  Finally, I removed the window masks and smoked the windows.  I wanted them to be tinted since there is no driver or anything you want to see inside.     

The addition of the stickers always totally changes the look of the vehicle, and this is no exception.  For some reason I thought this was going to be a somewhat bland livery since there is no color, but it actually looks really good.

The completed model is now ready for its inaugural drive.  Due to the width, this is a very stable model so hopefully I won't roll it over much and screw up the body.
The completed model is surprisingly good looking (at least surprising to me).  I ended up liking this model a lot more than I expected.  I guess that means I should build the Stadium Thunder next...

It's a very good chassis.

It is a very good chassis and I enjoyed mine a lot. Easy to fix and parts were everywhere at the time.

I didn't found the shocks mount for the blitzer beetle. Now it is in stand by 😂

Flo,  I have a partial tree of Blitzer beetle parts including a shock tower. I can send you a pic if you need them. There yours for shipping costs if you like.

Oh yes jim. Thank you

These are them Flo! 
   

I appreciate box art builds, I'm not able to do them.
Blitzer is a good truck, of course Monster Racers are to another level to drive but I own a Blitzer and I enjoy very much in driving it.