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For those searching for parts for Big Bear or Super Wheelie chassis, I put them on Cults3D (with what I expect to be a fair price with the amount of work there was on this project). The bodyshell will come at some point within the next few weeks (I have a few really minor things that bother me a bit and I want to fix them before I publish the part files)...

Awesome to see the Marui Wheelie family together 

And yes the file price is very fair!
Hope you will sell a few of them to support you hobby time 

A toy caught my attention recently on one website where it was indicated as "Marui"... This was very special, and I never saw any before. I've heard/read in the past there was some clone or copies of the Super Wheelies that was done, but I never saw any in flesh, or even in picture... I contaacted the seller, and for the first time ever I bought a toy grade rc car

It arrived yesterday. Protech Willy's Super Warrior, 1/10 scale Radio Controlled Jeep.


It was apparently in shops in Europe around 2000...


I've put it next to the CJ-7, and I believe the CJ-7 was used as a basis to do this clone (dimensions are the same, with some removed details...







The chassis has been modified slightly (in particular the battery room). The tires are clear copies of Tamiya oval blocs, with removed markings (and replaced by a protech logo and a "4x4" mention)...


The gearbox is also different as the left arms is merged with it...


The electronics is clearly in a toy fashion...

The radio looks a bit more serious and although it looks like, crystal can't be changed...


I'll have to diff into the internals of the gearbox, but I would not be surprised at all if it is a plain copy of the Super Wheelie original geabrox content.

Clone examination - the gearbox...

I unmounted the rigid axle. The right arm is slightly different  and add some additional freedom... I may have to try that car, finally


I found some suprising difference inside the gearbox...


More teeth on the main gear than there is usually on a super wheelie... Idle gear is also different with less teeth on the smaller end than the original one, and it is likely stronger than the original zamac alloy...

The diff iteslf is different, probably to make it more robust (bevel gears are metal).


Overall, more different than what I expected...
 

Protech sales several rc models. And they maybe used the same way than academy with their hummer wich uses a grasshopper clone chassis. Very similar but with bigger rear wheeles axles . And lightly different moulds but adaptable plastic parts .

this is a brand which I never heard about, so if you can route me to some example, that may be interesting...

The road runner and the hummer are a gh1 clone chassis. They did the m24 a 1/24 chassis like the tamtech but largely better with ways and wheelebase adjustable. 1/12 skate board chassis and a clone of the vintage kyosho mini cooper /beetle chassis

I spent a part of the afternoon to review the files in details for the Mitsubishi bodyshell : during the build, I noted a few things to adjust in my todo list...

There was very few holes I needed to review to correspond to the manual, with the idea that anyone using my roll cage parts replace missing parts for a Super Wheelie.

Another thing I changed was the rear profile of the bodyshell, in order to ease stickers applications (and I still need to see with my friend how he want to proceed with the stickers).


 I'll have to prepare the few pics going with the files and I should be able to publish them on Cults3D within the week-end...
The kind of pictures I need to do is elements explaining the optional led mounts and the way they work...


On the other side, Not sure exactly what I'll do with the Protech Willy's Super Warrior : my interest was to know better about it, as a curiosity and to check what is different. Now that I know, the interest has disappeared ...
Anycase, I have some time to think, and now I need to get back to the 44B chassis to finish them...

I just published the parts on Cults3D for the bodyshell, for a price I hope to be fair as there was a lot of work involved on this little Jeep...

It doesn't include the driver... I would need to learn Blender first to be able to work this out... And this is a learning curve by itself...
 

This Marui Mistubishi Jeep is quite interesting, somehow...

It appeared in Marui RC catalog from 1986, on the same page as the Marui Samurai (MT60-RC10), just behind the kit 7 (CJ-7 Golden Eagle) and 8 (Toyota Land Cruiser), which were both 7,2V re-edition of the 6V version from 1983...


But the story don't stop there. I already mentionned that there was parts for the Mitsubishi Jeep on the original Roll cage parts cluster as the roll bar front part width was not the same between the Toyota (short), CJ-7 (long), and medium (design for the Mitsubishi)... I had in my Marui document folders some pictures I gathered when I was searching information on the Hunter, and I found some interesting things on those... The Hunter on those pics were still a prototype, without its definitive bodyshell (presumably a Tamiya Rough Rider bodyshell with some modification at that stage), with some other indication it was still a prototype (there is a motor cover with a air vent, and the final rear monoshock is not in place, but some springs setup (which I found indications there was some provisions in the cluster with an number present and unused on the Hunter cluster). I had this picture only for the Hunter research... It's likely dated from late 1983 or early 1984. And when looking back at this picture I can see some indications the CJ-7 presented on the picture was not final yet : the bumper is different from the one which was released at the end. The Datsun Pick up which is presnt in the picture is also not the Big Bear : the wheelbase is still there, but the wheels are not the final ones : it is still with the Super Wheelie wheels... Big Bear Wheels came later.


Another picture I found later on is taken from a Japanase magazine, and is closer to the release of both Big Bear and Hunter as the Hunter is in its final mk1 form, while the Big Bear is now closer to the final version (bodyshell in its final form, monster truck tires but not the final ones, the final ones were even larger). And the Datsun Pick-up is still there, as well as the Mitsubishi Jeep...


Ultimately, this is also indicating this car was planned by Marui as soon as they started the Super Wheelie project. It was never released, maybe for licensing reason or because the bodyshell was too close in its form from the Wild WIlly from Tamiya (based on Willys Jeep, most likely)...