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Comment by louthy

8 days ago

In the 80s I had the Tamiya Grasshopper [1], which was the greatest remote control car ever (opinion).

I remember attaching three battery packs (instead of the standard one)—to make it drive at roughly 8 billion miles per hour, in the process ripping the tyres to shreds and pretty much ruining the car—because it couldn’t turn without flipping several thousand times.

Still, for those initial few seconds, it was glorious.

RIP Grasshopper and RIP Shunsaku Tamiya

[1] https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/8b/e7/0c/d6/a0/IMG_6201.j...

11 comments

louthy

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jumpingMullet  8 days ago

The Grasshopper was good. An underpowered version of the hornet with a 380 instead of 540 motor. The longer run time on the old 7.2 battery was a benefit. Watching YouTube of the current cars, they are actually overpowered and in a way unusable. Many videos degenerate into how high can I jump this thing before it breaks.

  • lmpdev  7 days ago

    I sell modern Chinese ones

    I have to often explain to customers after a certain price point (for me ~$200+ AUD) you have to turn the speed trim pot down for it to be enjoyable at all

    Similar to what Gran Turismo 7 players have realised with EV “Vision” Cars - car enjoyment greatly diminishes with speed after a certain point - instead of plateauing

    No-name Chinese build quality is actually a lot higher than I’d’ve anticipated though - brushed thick aluminium and even steel chassis are pretty common now

sumtechguy  7 days ago

I had that same thing. It was a nice entry level. Still have the 'hot shot' on my wish list on amazon :) After my third set of tires and second set of struts I kinda stopped messing with it as I didnt have the money for that. I had already saved like crazy just to have the thing.

Tamiya was the top end stuff. I would go to Hobby Town at eastpark (the downtown original store had more stuff though) and drool over them. So I would get the other ones there were in my price range and go 'some day' well now I have other hobbies. Still have my eye on that f14.