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wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 10:36 am
by wtcc
Here now the story of my Tamiya Boomerang or how Tamiya influenced my childhood:

Cars were always my favourite toy. When my father bought his first RC car 1989 (Tamiya Thunder Shot for 370 DM ~ 200Us$ at that time), it was apparent, that I need one, too :lol: So not long after my parents had to give in and bought one.
My first RC car became a japanese Taiyo Jet Fighter.

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At that time I always thought, that it was a cheap model, more toy than RC car, but after all that time, I had to say, that Taiyo made a good job. The car was robust, fast, good looking and trouble free regarding battery and charging. The only downside was, that you could not use standard electronics. So it was a very good RC car toy. After some years of intensive use, I broke one rear damper mount and there were no parts available...
I then saved money for a Stadium Truck from Kyosho which was a biiiiig disappointment. Nearly everytime something broke and the car was not performing at all...it was followed by a RC10L copy, a Tamiya TA02 and the RC10T2 I introduced in the other thread.

Then, 2009, after more than 15 years without the hobby I revived the RC10T2, then got into touring cars and now want to relive my childhood memories with Tamiyas rerelease of the Boomerang.

Why the Boomerang you might ask. First of all, I couldn’t find a decent Jet Fighter. Second: The Jet Fighter was a copy of the Boomerang, at least on the outside. With the Boomerang using standard electronics, I also have the freedom of using actual electronics.


The box:

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Some pictures of the build:

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Tamiya includes the TBLE-02S as esc and standard can motor. The latter stayed in the box and got replaced by a Tamiya UGT 24t brushed motor. I use a low profile Tamiya TSU-06 servo. In combination with a sub c style lipo it should be more than enough power within the parts limit of this chassis.

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Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 11:05 am
by wtcc
If you recall the picture of the Taiyo Jet Fighter, you can see that it looks different from the Boomerang. Not only the colour, but also other changes give its appearance a more dynamic and faster look.

Three things are standing out.
1. The location of the rear wing: The jet fighter has the wing moved behind the the rear axle. The Boomerang wing starts directly behing the body.
2. The air scoop behind the driver: The space between body and wing is filled with an air scoop. The cool thing: Taiyo made it functional! Like on the original Boomerang, the esc heat stone (or whatever it is called), here a heat sink was located in front of the wing. The air scoop directed the air flow down to the heat sink.
3. The headlights: In front of the cockpit, at the bottom of the a-pillars the JetFighter has headlights. Somehow this design is very fitting. The Boomerang looks kind of „naked“ in this area.

Tamiya purists will maybe be unhappy with what comes now...
I want my Boomerang to be as close as possible in look to my old Jet Fighter. Positioning the wing more rearward was done fast. I searched Tamiya parts to get an air scoop and headlights. The HotShot has headlights, but it was impossible to get the needed Z-parts. Tamiya would not be Tamiya if they wouldn’t reuse their old molds for other models. And they did :mrgreen: The same Z-parts were used for the Kumamon Buggy. These were easy to find. The air scoop was a direct hit. I remembered the BigWig buggy had a scoop and the parts were available also.
The headlights were also easy to install. The air scoop not so much. I had to remove the tubes on the sides and add a lexan „u“ to glue it on the body and to have side panels.
Together with the more fitting yellow colour it now looks like a Jet Fighter:

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Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 11:18 am
by wtcc
Tomorrow I want to drive the Boomerang for the first time.

The rerelease has an upper dustcover. Unfortunately if you want to use it, you cannot use the driver figure :?
Luckily I had another one of the Kumamon buggy Z-parts left. I painted and glued it to the dust cover:


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The driver looks a little bored :lol:


As it is near impossible to get another set of tires, I ordered rims and Schumacher full spike tires, to have a set to run and one for the shelf:

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I want to have fun, but don’t want scratches on chassis and arms. With vinyl I wrapped the sensitive lower parts twice. This should be enough to resist sand and small stones (and also looks good):

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Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 12:47 pm
by THEYTOOKMYTHUMB
Sweet color combo. 8)

Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:56 am
by Dadio
nice , i like it !

Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 5:41 am
by Lonestar
refreshing take on one of Tamiya's great classics... you must be the only RC'er in the world who tries to make his hobby-grade car look like a toy-grade one rather than the other way around :mrgreen:

on another note - are you the wtcc who does these amazing builds on rctech? :)

Re: wtcc‘s Tamiya Boomerang

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:27 am
by mtbkym01
Brilliant interpretation of the boomer, love the air scoop and spotties, great job