TOPIC:

Another Family Guy fan? Fantastic! American Dad's getting better now too

Yeah, we got Comedy Central with the basic TV channels here...
Always was a fan of South Park but Family Guy grew on me too. Futurama not so much btw.

Yep, love South Park too, even paid lots of money to go see the film at the cinema!
No, Simpsons, Futurama, King of the hill etc don't do anything for me. Beavis & Butthead could be quite entertaining back in the day though, & I still giggle at the film

Couldn't agree more on the choices! The Cleveland Show is a good one too btw.
And this Hornet's still not really my thing...

Not really into that either, I'll watch it if there's nothing else & I happen to be in front of the box, but I don't make a special effort.
I'm sure it's the pink tyres that are doing that - vomit's fine until you smell it (Or have to clear it up whilst it's still warm). I don't think the shell's too bad if you visualise it with more appropriately coloured accessories. Cow would be better than dalmation though

Cruella rover

HI!... Well at least that car will get more women into the sport! LOL! Or some guys with floppy wrists......

I can honestly say I don't really hate this Jun Watanabe Hornet. Actually I think it looks like fun.

Of course it would have been ridiculous if it was the first edition of the car.
I like my models realistic. But as a crazy tribute, after almost 30 years since the model was released, and after selling millions and millions worldwide - why not?

IMHO, the Hornet is the #1 Tamiya of all time. I think that if we knew the secret worldwide sales figures, it would come up as the #1 selling Tamiya of all time.

In many ways, it is the quintessential Tamiya. Realistic, dependable, fast. It had the perfect balance of features. It was everything the Grasshopper was, but more - 540 motor and polycarbonate shell gave it an advantage over its earlier brother. Plus a bulletproof gearbox under 540 motor load even gave it something of an advantage over the Frog, especially for novices. All at a very reasonable price. No wonder it sold like crazy.

Ask any casual follower of Tamiya who is old enough to remember the 1980s, and see which Tamiyas they remember. "Hornet" will almost always be mentioned.

Many other buggies by other companies have been copies of the Hornet.

And the Hornet's own sequel, the Super Hornet, went on to have the longest sales run of any Tamiya in history (am I correct? 1994 --> 2006? Up until 2006 or so, Tamiya was still specifically making the Super Hornet kit for Australia, even after discontinuing it worldwide, the demand was so good...perhaps it even exceeded the sales of it's predecessor?).

Inevitably it was one of the first to be re-released.

The Hornet is also included in every single tribute and gimmick based around these cars - Mini 4WDs, Q-Steers, San-S, Coffee Cups, Shirts, Hats, etc etc.

I think that if there is one car that says "Tamiya" more than any other, it is The Hornet. It's no surprise that it has even caused a fashion designer to have fun with this iconic toy

To be honest, I have seen FAR worse paint schemes invented by modelers over the years, who have given less consideration to the types of colours that might suit the car, or to colour-coordination. Here, the crazy pink is symmetrical and balanced. It clashes with the black dots, but not in a terrible way. I think it's more whimsical than ugly.

Or to put it another way, wouldn't it be worse to see another boring flame-stickers design? Pick up ANY modern R/C magazine, and flip through the pages. What do you see? Endless mindless and useless designs based around:

- pathetic neon colours
- pathetic flame patterns and "graffiti" patterns

Of course the fact that modern buggy designs are so generic and have almost zero "character", affects this too. But I will definitely take crazy fashion designer + classic tamiya structure, over most of the other drivel that passes for "originality" these days

H.

Hibernaculum - an emotional argument precludes a "logical" refutation ... but I think you're wrong about the Hornet. However, it's rather like a maths exam, where showing your working gets credit, even if the answer is wrong - obviously I can't prove how may Hornets (or any other Tamiya car) were sold, so I can't "prove" I'm right either


I don't think anyone I knew had a car earlier than a Scorcher, a couple had Holiday buggies, one had a Super Champ, there were a few Frogs about, but the first time I remember there being a "must have" car, and a lot of people having one was the Hotshot - so for me that's the "most iconic Tamiya".

I suspect that label will be different for everyone, but if we had enough respondents, I think two factors would be key - when you got into RC, and where you were.

The first, because I know if I'd got into RC earlier or later I'd have a different "most iconic Tamiya", the second because I know there were cars I'd never seen/heard of, as either the importer or my LHS just didn't bother with them.

I'm not completely poo-pooing what you've said about the Hornet, but for me, despite it being my first/second car (a Grasshopper that gradually got upgraded), I think the very flawed front suspension geometry & the weight of the rolling rear axle & the way it locks under power more than outweigh the positives.

I also don't think it is Tamiya's #1 seller - my top 5 would be:

1 - Sand Scorcher - from the number on TC
2 - Monster Beetle - from the number sold on eBay (UK)
3 - Hotshot - reasons as above
4 - Lunchbox - every man & his whippet seems to have one
5 - Holiday Buggy - reasons as above




ps - I still think Jun Watanabe's only talent is to sucker people in to believing he's a "designer" by chewing over a very limited range of old ideas (polka dots, plaits, pink & purple), then regurgitating them over standard fare

The question is how long Tamiya's list of most popular is. Assuming "popular" refers to sales numbers.

Tamiya.com wrote:

The Hornet stands as one of Tamiya's most popular R/C cars ever released

Of course this design can't compete with a box art Hornet.
From a general RC point of view I'd say the Hornet is probably the most iconic.
But the Hotshot when it comes to tech and that's the one you (read I) really wanted...
Biased from a contemporary point of view naturally.