RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Wasn't sure if this was the place to post this but I've got a question concerning the history of these two buggies. I've heard and read that back in the day, the Scorpion's dominated the Tamiya SRBs when it came out, but when the Frog came out the next year, it was considered the better car. Now I have a re-re Scorpion, I can't imagine how the Frog was better. My Frog hops and bounces all over the place even with better/softer rear shocks and dampers up front. Other than its adjustable caster angle and ability to turn sharply, I can't find many advantages the Frog has over the Scorp. I know the re-re Scorpion is much nicer than the original but it seems much closer to the RC10 than the Frog ever was. Can someone clue me in to how these cars really performed back in the day? They were just before my time.

I wasn't racing either in these times as well but I'm interested...

I've never understood how the Frog could ever be competitive at all... the suspension cinematics are so f'ed up

at least the scorpion had a lower cg and some racing-inspired mechanics...

It could have been shear weight of numbers that favoured the Frog or maybe it's was lighter , I remember them harping on about the light weight space frame chassis of the frog as a major performance attribute but I never saw one really perform very well .
Having said all that ,the Frog did win the German nationals in 1984 I think but how modified it was I don't know, that was as high as it got to my knowledge but I'm often wrong .

I´d say the main reason for the Frog being a threat, would be the Scorpion´s lack off differential.

.

Thanks Dan it's nice to hear a detailed account , to be fair at the time frogs were popular my school club had no scorpions and I was driving a hotshot , the hex drives really were junk though as you said.

Cool explanation and history there Dan
I used to have a Frog, back in the day, kind of makes me want to get one again to mess around with

.

First off, I want to say I believe you Tamiyadan. Your knowledge of Tamiyas at the track back in the day is second to none. What do you suggest in particular for a Frog because honestly I must be missing something about its allure? The front seems to be just a short travel mess. The rear has some high CG with the motor up top. In some ways though (as bad as it might be) the Frog gearbox is less troublesome than the early RC10's. People forget just how bad the first 6-gears really were.

In my experience, the Frog sits at the bottom. The Wild One is above the Frog. Heavier, but very planted and controllable. The Scorpion next. Now, I admit, I have a re-release which has a gear diff and a far better gearbox plus stronger alloy parts so my point there may be moot. I like the Fox above all. Its fast and chuckable in my hands. I can see the Frog being tougher than the Fox with its stronger suspension attachments.

I'm only going to assume the Scorp was better than the Super Champ. I maintain, the Super Champ was a last ditch effort to get some more life out of the SRB chassis as the new ORV line (Frog, Brat, Lancia) came out the next year to supplant it. I love my Super Champ more than my Scorpion but it doesn't stand a chance in stock form.

Honsetly, my Frog even with softer rear shocks seems only one step above my Hornet so I know I've got to be missing something here. Thanks for all your insight.

Well, maybe it's an East Coast / West Coast thing - but................
In So Cal the pioneers of off-road started with SRB's, moved on to Scorpion's and then graduated to RC10's.
The only plastic cars were driven by kids in between heats, this is not a diss just what I used to see.
Regarding the 6 Gear, if you took your time building it and broke it in you were "golden" as long as you cleaned and re-lubed the spur gear diff frequently.
If you were racing 2wd in 1985 you had to have an RC10 if you wanted to win.
That's what I remember from 1985.

The location very well may have had something to do with it. I'm on the east coast and in the hobby shops, Tamiya was king. I remember the Frog being quite popular although its racing days were over by the time I got into the hobby. Every hobby shop always had an RC10 in stock as well though. I really didn't see many Ultimas or JRX2s in my neck of the woods or Yokomos or Schumachers for that matter. It RC10 for 2wd and Hot Shots and later Optimas for 4wd. But thats just my little microcosm.

.

Interesting, i never considered that the frog was a race car. We all know that the rc10 won the worlds in 85, but did the frog or scorpion win any major races around that time?

It won a major nationally televised race once

To be fair, Chris Allec was driving

"the frog came out in 1983
the super champ in 1982
and the scorp in 1985"

The Scorpion was released in 1982 - Right?