Marui Hunter - My first buggy... Found one to restore :-) - and a Galaxy RS too :)

[silvertriple]

I remember back in the day, after I built a Hunter for my cousin and the Galaxy for my bro...and wanted a car to best them all, I hoped for a Frog. I got The Frog for my birthday. I remember us bashing around those cars, and it seemed that Galaxy always ran and handled better than the supposedly superior Frog, no matter what I tried to upgrade it. It wasn't long after when I said "To hell with this!" and got an Optima. Never looked back.

The Marui models were less expensive than the Tamiyas in the same price points, but drove arguably better.

While doing some research (kind of aRCheology ), I did open a lot of old french RC car magazine from end 1984 to begin of 1986. I remember that at that time, I was dreaming of a Scorpion or a Tomahawk, but where I lived they were not possible to find.

At that time, price points without radio were as follows:

• GrassHopper / Holiday Buggy - around 750 francs

• Marui Hunter/Galaxy - 950 to 1100 francs

• Scorpion/Tomahawk (Kyosho/Graupner) - 1200 to 1300 francs

• Tamiya Frog - 1500 to 1600 francs

• Tamiya Rough Rider - 1800 to 1900 francs

And my Hunter (I got it in March 1985) was the king in the neighborhood for quite a while, until one of my neighbor got the chance to get a Kyosho Baja Beetle (that his father bought during work travel to Paris, in December 1985, to replace his Frog)... Until that Beetele came in the neighborhood, I had THE tool in the area. The Galaxy arrived in December 1985 in France, and we started to see some in the neighborhood in March 1986. But yes, they were cheaper, and much better handling and faster that the Tamiyas... But at least, racers would finish the race with the Tamiya, while it was less probable with a Marui.

[Coelacanth]

I worked in a hobby store back then and that pretty much matches what I remember.

I turned my Frog into an absolute beauty of a car, painting the body black with nice lime green and electric blue stripes, aftermarket wheels, You-G blue anodized aluminum nerf bars, Thorp diff, a better motor--I believe it was a TechniTuned--but nothing made the car drive well. I remember being totally frustrated with it, even though it was my first RC car. I ended up selling it to some kid who fell in love with it on sight...but even to this day, I felt no sentimental attachment or regret parting with it.

We built a Monster Beetle for the hobby store as a demo, black-painted body with nice red and orange airbrushed flames on it...but whenever I see any Frog-derivative chassis, it rekindles my bad memories of my own Frog.

[silvertriple]

I worked in a hobby store back then and that pretty much matches what I remember.

I turned my Frog into an absolute beauty of a car, painting the body black with nice lime green and electric blue stripes, aftermarket wheels, You-G blue anodized aluminum nerf bars, Thorp diff, a better motor--I believe it was a TechniTuned--but nothing made the car drive well. I remember being totally frustrated with it, even though it was my first RC car. I ended up selling it to some kid who fell in love with it on sight...but even to this day, I felt no sentimental attachment or regret parting with it.

We built a Monster Beetle for the hobby store as a demo, black-painted body with nice red and orange airbrushed flames on it...but whenever I see any Frog-derivative chassis, it rekindles my bad memories of my own Frog.

Memories are always good... Going back in those magazine totally reminded me my visits in the local hobby stores, what was available back then, what was unfindable and so on... And it only adds up on my Hunter. back then I had no luck with the paint. I wanted white and black, I made the masking and the paint, and the black and white reacted and it was a nightmare. At the end it was painted silver from outside, with a single color scheme. Then there was the stickers... And it ran a lot. We had 2 chargers with my brother, and 6 packs. On the night I was waking up to charge all of them, and there was always all the pack charged when we started a day of runs over the week-end... But that did not last long back then... Less than an hour later, all packs were depleted, and the first far from being charged

At least that was allowing the 540 silver can to cool down

[silvertriple]

Don't ask me why, but I woke up way too early this morning for a Sunday... Time to work on the Galaxies

First I put an ESC in the red one. It's fixed with 3M velcro, and there is a velcro band at the same place on the blue. I checked the motor everything is ok on both cars (I do not plan to run both at the same time, I will just have to unplug the ESC and put it in the other car (I have not enough ESC at home to get everything in order, I may put one definitively later on). I then closed the structure.


Time to prepare the shocks. The red were working fine, I decided not to strip them, as I did not have enough toric joints. On the blue ones, I change the toric joints, and start to evaluate the amount of oil needed in them for a smooth work: the proper amount seems to be almost none


Next was to put the shocks on the cars, first on the red...



Then on the blue...



That is where I noticed that the red rear tower extensions were not mounted properly, so I went back on the red rear shocks to mount them properly.


At that stage, the remaining step were to put the wheels and fix the roll cage, which did not take much time...



After that, it remains the driver figure, and the wings. For both, I have a supply issue. For the driver I know now that I can 3D scan one to reproduce it, so it should be fairly simple. I just need some time to get to a place where I can do the 3D scan (I may wait that I have dismantle the Nichimo to do that, as for sure, I'll need to scan some parts). And for the wing, I'll order them on TBG at some point...

I could not resist to make some family pictures at this stage (which will be redone once there is progress on driver figures and wings side.










That's all for today

[Dadio]

Looking very good as a group ! And all in running condition with the modifications you made .

[silvertriple]

Looking very good as a group ! And all in running condition with the modifications you made .

Yeah, I even tested the Galaxy in the living room, and there is nice drift trace now on the ground... I need to clean that, otherwise my wife won't be happy when she'll be back from the poney club
I believe the tires are too old to be able to run properly: they would deplete even faster than when we were young : the battery today last about ten packs time in the eighties. Those tires would not last more than 2 or 3 packs
I will run them with other tires, it will be much better for that aspect

[Dadio]

When I restored my PB Mini Mustang my friend lent me some vintage Hot Shot Oval block tires and wheels to test it out with , one 4500 Lipo later running on road and the those tires were almost done , my memory of Oval Block tires was they lasted forever but not so much when the rubber is 30+ years old

[silvertriple]

When I restored my PB Mini Mustang my friend lent me some vintage Hot Shot Oval block tires and wheels to test it out with , one 4500 Lipo later running on road and the those tires were almost done , my memory of Oval Block tires was they lasted forever but not so much when the rubber is 30+ years old

Well, I believe there is few things to consider here:

• battery capacity is often 5 to 8 times more than what we used back in the eighties

• esc are life changer compared to MSC in terms of running time (remember that part of the msc design there was resistor to dissipate power and allow the lower speed)

• last, tires are also heating more when the running time is longer, and I believe this is also increasing the wear rate (back in the eighties, a battery run was about 5 to 7 minutes (when the car was highly optimised)

And in addition, the old tires have also lost part of their components. In automotive industry they consider tires not usable after a certain number of years. And our RC tires are based on the same principles...

[Dadio]

Yup even if they are not fitted and flat spotted the rubber is still very hard and has no wear resistance at all

[silvertriple]

As said, almost none oil seems to fit the best the Galaxy shocks.
I had a set of additional Galaxy RS rear shocks, so I made a further try: I did add a hole in the piston. It actually doesn't change much to the situation.
The conclusion is quite clear : they don't work properly. Once on the car, they almost work like friction shocks.

Taking into consideration the look, I may have an easy option to replace those in terms of size, and I'm almost sure they would work better (even though their design seems quite comparable) : Kyosho Scorpion 2014 front shocks seems to have the proper length and are close in terms of diameter. I'll keep this in mind to check further once I have a chance to build a Tomahawk, Scorpion or Beetle re-release, as I think it may be a very good fit, which would definitely improve the Galaxys.

[silvertriple]

I long searched for data on the Galaxy vs the Galaxy RS. I would like to be able to see the component list in its integrality, and to see if there was other differences than those I identified already:

• Chrome wheels

• Red roll cage, shock stays and roll cage stays

• Marui 360RS motor

• Number plate to glue on the roll cage (as per my understanding this was only available with the Galaxy)

• Assumption : there was a diode to remove the radio battery pack

I spend a bit of time reviewing all articles found on rc-paper and retromodelisme to see if there was elements I could find to confirm the last point. I do not have the manual of the Galaxy, and I believe it was different from the RS, as the motor is displayed on the front page on Marui's manual, it had to be different!

Here is the press reviews I found:
- Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy (Essai voiture) Denis Sallé TT 1/10 Thermique Marui (Auto RCM n°52 Jan/1986) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/1498/galaxy-marui.html : bingo it confirms the diode point
- Rétro Modélisme • essai Galaxy Marui (Essai voiture) Georges Bohdanowicz TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto 8 n°6 Nov/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/4134/essai-galaxy-marui-marui.html
- RC Paper - Adepte 119 - Octobre 1985 - https://rc-paper.com/details_page.php?id=rev_adepte-0119&pg=47

While at it, and I'm also listing the Hunter reviews
- Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Essai voiture) Marc Maurus TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°40 Jan/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/6716/hunter-marui.html
- Rétro Modélisme • Essai Hunter Marui (Essai voiture) Georges Bohdanowicz TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto 8 n°2 Jun/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/4021/essai-hunter-marui-marui.html
- Rétro Modélisme • Hunter modifs et préparation (Technique) François Moret TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°49 Oct/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/6930/hunter-modifs-et-preparation-marui.html
- RC Paper - Addepte 113 - Fevrier 1985 - https://rc-paper.com/details_page.php?id=rev_adepte-0113&pg=24

And some commercials in France for the 3 models
- Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°40 Jan/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/6745/hunter-marui.html
- Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°39 Dec/1984) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/6511/hunter-marui.html
- RC Paper - Adepte 119 - Octobre 1985 - https://rc-paper.com/details_page.php?id=rev_adepte-0119&pg=21
- Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°49 Oct/1985) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/6912/galaxy-marui.html
- Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy RS (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°76 Jan/1988) https://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/7339/galaxy-rs-marui.html

There is something notable on the commercial for the Galaxy (red): the drawing is the same as the one on the Marui Galaxy boxart. The silver wheels are not present on the boxart, neither are the indications of the number plates... I believe they make just one drawing of the car with red and blue, and that's 
So if you have a Galaxy (red) at home with silver wheels and would like absolutely to comply with the box art, you should find white wheels and consider sending me you silver wheels ​​​​​​

Last element : if you have with you some article from the press of your countries on those models, please do not hesitate to share

[silvertriple]

Beside the retromodelisme and rc-paper, I found a site with a lot of scan of press articles in english this time (there is lot more than those two ones for the likes from Tamiya, Kyosho and others).
Marui Hunter : http://www.overrc.com/vintage/documentation/archives-de-mike/Marui%20Hunter.pdf (overrc.com)
Marui Galaxy : http://www.overrc.com/vintage/documentation/archives-de-mike/Marui%20Galaxy.pdf (overrc.com)

What I like of those site is that you can really identify things (sometimes hop ups) or explanation for some modifications made on vintage cars back in the time... If I find more press articles, i'll complete with further posts...

[silvertriple]

@Coelacanth I just found this that may be of interest. It is priori to the Galaxy introduction, but it really gives a view of what was the state of the art ep off road racers in 1985...



NB : extract of Model Cars Monthly , June 1985

[Dadio]

That's a fantastic piece of historic reference , maybe worth posting in another thread for more people to see

[silvertriple]

@Dadio ,
Well, I found 17 issues of Model Cars Monthly recently on ebay, and it was acceptable price and I was a bit curious (specially because I knew I would find at least the Hunter review from that magazine in one of the issues, as well as the Tomahawk and the Hotshot, which are part of my favorites).
I have the intention to donate those to one of the site putting those scans online at the end. In the meantime, that some reading and interesting materials (i may scan some or all and deliver thru my threads, unless there is one specific thread you can indicate me where to put those contents) ...



(and if there is things of interest for urgent scan, just let me know, I'll send you the pics )