Tamiya Frog - Build Tips and Tricks
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- This video showcases the build process of the Tamiya Frog re-release. This was such a fun kit to build and had a lot of meaning for me as a kid. The Frog sits on the ORV chassis and was the kit that really introduced me to the world of RC. Be sure to watch Part 1, the unboxing of the Frog, for more details.
As mentioned, below is a link to where you can find the Tamiya Tool kit I speak of in the video.
Tamiya Tool Kit: bit.ly/3gHQujQ
a lot of people don't like the box art, but it's one of Tamiya's best styling jobs. I'm going to build a frog soon, I'm going to probably do a reverse scheme, pink body with white stripe along the bottom. I put my receiver in a Tamiya balloon bag and put it where your's is. I put my ESC where your driver sits. This is on a Tamiya BRAT. If you can live without the driver, that would be an option.
It's true about the box art....but I've been a fan right from the get go. I love the artistic licence they take with the look. Always find the box art makes me want to buy more lol Definitely post some shots or make a video...would love to see the finished product! For me I had to go with the driver...just gives the whole thing more of a real feel. Should look great in the action video I'm going to be putting together.
the one and only RC car that I had in high school was The Frog. I built it in my basement while a friend of mine built another model (I can't remember what he had). Loved this car and had so many hours of fun with it. In fact, I still have it, though it is in pretty rough shape. I have been thinking about tossing it and buying a new Frog kit, but for the life of me I just can't seem to work up the courage to put it in the trash. My wife things I am crazy and keeps hounding me to get rid of it, and I do think at some point she is going to take things into her own hands. Anyway, thanks for the awesome build video. It really brings back some fun memories! I ended up painting mine green in the spirit of a frog rather than pink/white!
Hi dougchi! Thanks for checking out the video..really appreciate you stopping by. If I were you, I would suggest not tossing it in the trash. Sacrilege! lol - I still wish I had my original Blackfoot from back in the day...even just for the nostalgia of having not only an original Blackfoot but owning a piece of history. Especially with those hex drive shafts that are no more!! I might still suggest buying a re-re so you can have a chance to build it again and have something you can use but to still have your original frog...even if you just cleaned it up a bit it's a great piece of history!
Great build, looks fantastic I have always like the look of the frog and hope one day to get a kit. Like you I would make it to look like the design on the box
Thanks Shaun! This chassis has a special meaning for me so I just had to build it box art. It's a fun kit to build!
The "gas guys" used to put their receiver in a balloon to keep them dry. They would zip-tie the opening and sometimes add shoe goo to insure the receive did not get wet.
One solution regarding the hardware location issue, is to source and install an original release metal MSC mounting plate and affix the ESC inverted, to the underside of that.
Then mount the receiver (in a Tamiya balloon) to the side of the steering servo (with double sided tape, or cable ties).
Then attach a square of lexan or similar with servo tape, to the underside of the chassis where the big void is, just behind the skid plate, to help reduce the ingress of crud to that potentially vulnerable area 🙂👍🏻
That’s a great idea! That mounting plate would have been a great addition to the kit to give you more options. I’ll be curious to see how hard it is to find one. Thanks for the ideas. It’s definitely a weird idea to put the ESC so close to the ground as per instructions. Not sure what Tamiya was thinking 🤔
Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more.
I think it’s a case of room being at such a premium in the ORV chassis without a larger body to help house items, that they ended up putting fragile items in really stupid places. .
Plus a lot of stuff is exposed due to the spaceframe nature anyway.
The fact Tamiya managed to fit everything in the original car is a miracle of packaging.
Were it not for the implementation of BEC setups and the poor driver being an amputee, the car couldn’t have functioned, short of it wearing a jaunty roof rack with four AA batteries as a payload 😆
The deletion of the MSC plate from the rere kits was incredibly thoughtless on Tamiya’s part.
The two plastic bars that replace it serve no purpose other than to join the chassis halves.
I don’t know what they were thinking 🤦🏻♂️
They do turn up with relative frequency on eBay.
I’ve managed to buy two new old stock examples very affordably in the past six months or so.
So I’ll be fitting one to my runner Frog and one to my runner Brat.
I’ll probably carry on looking for more for my remaining cars as I think the chassis looks totally wrong without it.
A mint one shouldn’t set you back more than about ten dollars or so😎👍🏻
After much cursing trying to fit the wheels into the tyres on my Hornet and grasshopper, I found by far the easiest method is to stretch the tyre out with two hands whilst my partner dropped the wheel into place. Literally only takes a couple of minutes and saves your hands a lot of grief.
Amaya used to carry black rubber balloons to put over the servos and receivers
Interesting...used to carry? Do you know if they still do or if other companies have come out with something?
I always loved building those. I have 2 of them one is an original one from the 80s that I been restoring. Had one as a kid I don't remember what happened to it though
I really wish I had my original Blackfoot! I just think it would be great to still have one of the originals that started it all. If only you knew then what you know now. I think I would have made a point of trying to keep it rather than sell it off to buy something else. I'm so glad I bought this one. Brought back a lot of memories of going through RCCA magazines and dreaming about getting one of these.
Love the Frog! Used to have one myself but i sold it. Anyway great video and great build of the Frog👍subbed aswell ! Greetings from Sweden
Thank you Rc Swede!! It's a great looking car and was so much fun to build. And thank you for subscribing to my channel!
Lol speaking on those rear tires ive been slowly building a grasshopper and it has the same 3 piece rear wheels and I accidently mounted one tire backwards. 😂😂😂 it took every thing I had to get that stupid thing back out and flipped around. 😂😂😂
oh no!! - well I won't say anything because what you're going through sounds like punishment enough lol
Hi,
I used to be so envious as a kid in the 80’s of my friends owning the original Frog, Grasshopper, Hornet and alike, can you tell me now I am 50, and desperately want to grab something that is now definitely affordable for myself, can you tell me if this is a good starter for a first time build despite using them on the odd occasion way back then I have no experience in building RC cars, I watched some use cable ties on one of the videos for around the rubber bars (I don’t know what they are called axels I think) and obviously my friends didn’t do that so have things moved on and is that why some do it, (add the cable ties and so on) my budget as I have looked at the actual Frog you show and I can get it without RC gear for under £100 so I’m basically looking for as much advice as possible, sorry for the essay lol, thank you.
Well for a first time build I might suggest the Grasshopper. It's an easier build and definitely more affordable than the frog. I'm also in the middle of doing a complete build video series on the grasshopper specifically designed for beginners which might be helpful for you. In Canada, the grasshopper is $149 for the kit and the frog is $239 for the kit. So I would imagine you can get the grasshopper in the UK much cheaper than the frog. If you haven't built anything before the Grasshopper is a perfect starter build.
Can you recommend a steering servo and battery for this?
Definitely! So I’m a Futaba fan myself and for any of my ORV chassis’s I use the Futaba 3010 high torque ball bearing servo. I just find with the servo setup on this chassis a stronger servo is preferred. As to batteries, I have a number of 7.2v batteries but the company I used to buy them from went under. I’ll see what I can find for you.
Where are you based? That will determine where I send you for batteries.