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The Holy Grail of trucks, the Bruiser....
Another fine truck, the Hilux.....
Close to the Bruiser, but just not as pretty.......ha ha
Enough of the Toyota's, how's about some Fords?
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This body style would later be used on the Blackfoot....
Ramblin' Ron.......Come Back!.......Many a fine example of this truck available on ebay....Expect to pay top dollar
for a decal sheet, however....
I guess the story is that these old Fords were called "Pumpkins"....My favorite paint scheme, however the yellow rims
just don't seem to match the scheme...Leftovers from the Lunchbox.......
Misc. trucks:
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The Mud Blaster.....Simply a Subaru Brat body on a Blackfoot chassis......The Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, and Mud Blaster
were basically the same truck, with different bodies, and body mounts.......
.....Not a bad looker, gold rims and all.......Many Monster Beetle bodies were sacrificed later on as replacements for
the rare Sand Scorcher body......Many excellent examples of this truck are still around.......Atta boy Albert!
This is one you either love or hate....The Bullhead....A rig body on a Clodbuster chassis......One of the stranger Tamiya
ideas.......
70's Dodge Panel van......same chassis as the Midnight Pumpkin......Tamiya calls both of them 1/12 scale......Not made
for serious off-roading, but cheap and fun to customize and hop-up, nonetheless.......
The one, the only, The Clodbuster! 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, a huge truck for it's day......The weak point of
these was the chassis, which is often replaced with aluminum aftermarket parts to make rock crawlers......The early models
with an actual Chevy Bow-Tie on the grill are most prized, seems after awhile Tamiya didn't feel like paying GM for licensing
anymore...which is a common theme among the later Ford, GM, and Chrysler based models they produced.......
Tamiya's 50th model introduced, it marked the near end of the "Metal Days" for Tamiya, as the models afterwards
were almost entirely comprised of plastic......One of my FAVS......Which brings us, coincidentally, to the FAV:
And the Military based off roaders:
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One of the few Military based RC's Tamiya made, this is getting more difficult (read:expensive) to find in complete condition
as time goes on.......
Wild Willy's M38.....a short wheelbase and battery located in rear made this a wheelie popping "Dynamic stunt" machine......Willy
fans are a diehard lot, as they should be......
Back by popular demand, the Wild Willy 2 was released almost 20 years after the 1st Willy......also released in a Special
Chrome Edition, which some Willy fans say is sacrilege.....Willy's supposed to be OD Green!!!!!.....Either way, Willy's a
must-have for any Tamiya truck collector........
The M1025 HMMWV, or Hummer. Full time shaft driven 4 wheel drive.Not exactly a speed demon, but the real ones aren't,
either. (Trust me on that) Still a fun driver, even with it's shortcomings.....
Thought I was done with Fords?.....Nope:
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Ford F350 High lift. Some consider this to be the next generation Bruiser, as the frame make up and 3 speed tranny are
similar. A very detailed RC, I'd be afraid to run it much after all that work! Tamiya actually paid for the licensing
on this one, rather than make a generic Ford look-alike......
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| Juggernaut 2 |
The Ford F350 Juggernaut 2. What happened to the Juggernaut 1 you say? Well, it had major design defects in the gearbox
(worse than the Blackfoot, if you can imagine) and was quickly pulled. Apart from color change (Juggy 1 was black), updated
gearbox, and some other small things, they are the same truck.
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| Juggernaut 1 |
Etc. trucks:
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The TXT-1 (Tamiya Xtreme Truck) Dual motor 4wd, ladder frame, 4 link suspension w/ horizontal mount shocks. Not made
to be a racer, this truck is very popular as a rock crawler.
Of course, this is NOT every truck Tamiya ever made. Just the most popular and collectible,
plus the ones I personally like and own. Most of the later model trucks are missing the scale realism and detail that made
the early ones great. And some are just down right UGLY in box art form (Bush Devil, Super Blackfoot, Wild Dagger, to name
a few). As collectors and enthusiasts, we can only hope Tamiya builds upon their recent success with the F-350 Hi-Lift,
and they introduce more scale oriented trucks. Or maybe a Bruiser re-release is in order?..........One can only
wish.............
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