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When I first found out that Tamiya had re-released the Hotshot I thought I remembered seeing one as a kid. I'm pretty sure my uncle had one. Then I walked into a hobby store and saw it up there on the shelf and I thought I had to get one for myself one day. So finally I got one and built it over the Christmas holidays. I haven't built a kit in over 10 years because it seems most kits from HPI or Traxxas come ready to run. I really enjoyed building it so I just wanted to share some pics I took during the build.

Nice dude, really always wanted one of those, even a re-release. Nice job on the driver.

Very nice build and some great pics! Man, it's shiny!
Gotta love the Hotshot. Epic car.

They were even more awesome when they first came out cos there was nothing else like it at the time. I inherited mine from the local model shop owner - it was one of the pre-release ones that Tamiya used to send to a select few to try out before putting on general release. V rare, wish I'd kept it....

Nice one :L

I found the Hotshot an involving (& therefore, fun) build ... but have only used it twice in over two years

It really was fun to build and it took a bit longer than I thought it would take to finish it. I think its a really nice looking buggy and shiny too lol. It looks too shiny and new that I don't even want to drive it. I even bought a Duratrax Element 3900kv brushless motor to put in it because the stock motor seems a bit slow. I'm sure back when this first came out everyone must have thought it was really fast. I still think even after all these years that this is still one of the nicest looking buggies around. It has a unique look to it that no other buggy has. I think all the modern buggies out now all kinda look the same. I just saw somewhere that Tamiya is going to re-release their Super Hotshot so if that's true I might have to get that too!

When they first came out, yeah they were slower than the 2wd buggies, but it didn't matter cos they more than made up for it in the grip/handling department, which was winning the races for them. The only thing that stopped me buying a new one (Back in the day) was the lack of space for a MSC, & in those days ESCs were hugely expensive. I'm not 100% sure if it was the first kit to have one, but it was the first car I ever saw with the special "BEC" Rx switch (Guess this was cos there's no room for the Rx batteries that were commonplace at the time)

eddrick wrote:

The only thing that stopped me buying a new one (Back in the day) was the lack of space for a MSC, & in those days ESCs were hugely expensive. I'm not 100% sure if it was the first kit to have one, but it was the first car I ever saw with the special "BEC" Rx switch (Guess this was cos there's no room for the Rx batteries that were commonplace at the time)

I'm not sure I'm following you here, Eddrick.... It did come with a MSC, so there's obviously enough space for it. But maybe you are talking about special "racing" MSC's?

Tom

I'm racking my brain trying to remember now... As I said earlier, mine was one of the pre-release ones that I inherited from the model shop owner, & it never had an MSC & I'm sure he said it was because there was no space for a servo to operate it, (Or an Rx battery pack) which was why he fitted it with an ESC from the start.... I never had a manual with it, so I never questioned what he was telling me, but yes, if you say they're supposed to have one, I'll go with that!

Not an MSC like I know it but a switch plate.