DID YOU KNOW? The history of the Tamiya Boomerang and Tamiya Super Sabre!

In this video we will take a closer look at the Tamiya Boomerang and the Tamiya Super Sabre. Did you know that these two cars were a stepping stone to one of the most popular chassis used on many of Tamiya's 4WD vehicles of the 80's? Join me as we go down a bit of a rabbit hole on the history of Tamiya's 4WD cars!

[@warrenstemphly5756]

I can’t tell you how exciting it was as a kid going into the hobby store and seeing all those Tamiya boxes. The Hornet, The Frog, The Falcon, Hot Shot, etc… it was amazing,.

[@FastFreddyRC]

Agreed! And if I'm honest nothing's changed for me...I still love going into a hobby store and staring at the wall of Tamiya kits. :)

[@kanenstuff]

I remember when I was 13 my neighbour in Australia his Dad had a Boomerang. I was amazed and into RC ever since. In April I will go to Japan for work I will visit the Tamiya shop and get one and a Suoer Sabre ❤

[@FastFreddyRC]

That's a very cool story. And super cool that you can go to a Tamiya Shop in Japan...sweet. Knowing the story behind it I think it would be very cool to come away from that shop with both kits. Awesome...thanks for sharing!

[@FrancoiseJacquemin]

Wonderful, I had the original Super Sabre in 1987, I was 12 years old and my uncle had the Boomerang. So cool...

[@FastFreddyRC]

I love the Super Sabre. It's such a great looking car. Pretty cool that your uncle had one as well so you always had someone to run them with...very cool! My first Tamiya was the Blackfoot.

[@RCBirds]

Great information video. Have fun with thebuild of the Sabre. Somehow I see a business tactic behind all these mentioned cars🤔. Meaning I'll never get my ReRe Striker

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks Dirk! Really looking forward to the build on this one. So you're hoping that Tamiya will do a rere of the Striker then? Was it a favourite back in the day?

[@rcinhand9671]

I'm still hoping for a rere Striker. Sadly, it may never happen.

[@yodadarksideGreenHawksRC]

Cool man, I remember it all unfolding as if it were yesterday!! As a ten year old, drooling over the Tamiya guide books, then seeing all those gorgeous boxes at the model shop! With each progression the 'one' you wanted would change..... but times were hard in the eighties, and you had to save all your pocket money, Christmas money, and Birthday money to potentially get one kit that you would cherish and run for many years! I actually ended up with the Midnight Pumpkin as my first hobby grade, but, all the hotshot family of cars were always about as many friends we used to race with would have them. The Terra scorcher was probably my favourite of the lot back then, it was definitely the most refined of that family. I have driven most of them, but strangely enough have never built or owned any of them..... which is actually quite bizarre as I have around 25 Tamiyas! I must do something about that this year..... but I'll be dammed if I could choose just one of them! Great little nostalgic video mate. 😊 👍 👍 👍

[@FastFreddyRC]

It was definitely a great time in history. So many cool things were happening! And you are so right...as the new boxes started to show up in stores you kept changing your mind as to which kit you wanted to get as your first. I first got introduced to the Lunch Box when it was reviewed in an RCCA magazine. I drooled over that for so long until I could get enough money to buy it. But somewhere in there I got introduced to the Blackfoot and the Blackfoot became my first ever Tamiya! I never looked back. I ran that one into the ground. Went through two sets of hex drive shafts and the rear wheels were tilted sideways so bad only half the tire was being used. I couldn't afford ball bearings back then so the plastic bushings were wearing out the hardware. Wish I still had it but back then if you wanted to get another one you had to sell what you had to go towards the next one. Pretty cool memories that's for sure :)

[@yodadarksideGreenHawksRC]

@@FastFreddyRC Very similar memories matey! 😉 My mate had the blackfoot, and our other mate had the mud blaster. They handled so much better than my pumpkin..... but theirs were always broken! The hex drive shafts like you say were a nightmare! Wore down so quick, and always used to pop out through the rubber gators when the trailing arms were fully compressed.... combine that with the fundamentally flawed 'warping' diff plates/jumping and shredding bevel gears.... nightmare! Obviously issues Tamiya never addressed to this day.... I have a re re blackfoot, two re re Monster Beetles, an original Monster Beetle, and a mud blaster..... all suffer the same issues! But I love those cars despite their issues, and invested heavily in my runner beetle to make it better (MIP ball diff, alloy dampers, limiter on the trailing arms to stop drive shaft ejaculation, metal chassis stiffener/body post bar, superstock bz motor, 2s lipo, bearings etc) It's now bombproof, reliable, and great fun! Yep, those first cars hold so much sentiment..... gutted you let yours go! 😞 Like you said, we all ran them into the ground, and had great fun doing so..... no shelf queen's in those days! Luckily, I still have my original pumpkin..... and restored it a few years back, a couple of videos on this are up on our channel. Happy days no less, and the nostalgia is strong! 👍 👍 👍

[@All_RC_Fun]

What an amazing history and wonderful summary. It’ll be fun to see the build series.

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks Trey! It really is a pretty cool history of these kits. Really excited for this one...it was definitely on my list back in the day so it's cool to have it finally return!

[@Blastfromthepastrc1346]

Thank you for sharing the timeline of the HotShot family buggys Freddy!👍🙂The Boomerang is a great runner but I actually prefer the HotShot since I think its the most iconic of the bunch.😁

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks Peter! And you're right about the HotShot. It is the most iconic and it was such a fascinating design especially with only having two shocks. The rear set up is definitely quite complex.

[@alastairmulholland2581]

You forgot about the bigwig belonging to the hotshot family which came out in 1986.

[@FastFreddyRC]

Ah...thank you for bringing this up...I suppose I could have mentioned it, and maybe I should have just to be completely fair. However, the BigWig to me just isn't a HotShot. If you look at the original HotShot, the Boomerang, and the ThunderShot variants, they are all basically revised versions of the original chassis. If you took the bodies off it might take a minute to determine which chassis you were looking at. The BigWig went to a completely different bathtub design where the battery sits inside the chassis and doesn't look anything like the original HotShot Chassis. Some say the BigWig was supposed to be the next SuperShot but the SuperShot or Super Hot Shot as it's named today, still has a greater following. I'm not even sure why they bothered calling the BigWig a variant of the original HotShot chassis. It's completely different. It's like calling Blackfoot III part of the Blackfoot family. They should have called this truck something else entirely because it literally was a completely different chassis from start to finish and they just slapped a Blackfoot body on it and called it a Blackfoot - but I digress :)

[@alastairmulholland2581]

@@FastFreddyRC Go to tamiya legends channel where he talks about the super sabre release and has all five buggies in front of him except the hotshot 2 which is six.

[@bespincustompropsbombarta8300]

If you understand what a chassis is, then no, the Bigwig is not. The Bigwig Chassis is completely unique and only shared the rear gearbox and. Even the shocks are completely unique. It was meant to be another option for a 4wd buggy. At best it's a distant cousin.

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thank you for that. I like your description...distant cousin at best. @@bespincustompropsbombarta8300

[@JF-RC]

Hi Freddy, some great background knowledge of the Boomerang chassis and derivatives. After my first Tamiya, the Hornet, I got the BigWig. Its had a re-release already, but I missed out on that. Maybe one day Tamiya may release it again 😊😊best wishes 😊

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks John! Very cool! The BigWig is another interesting car because the chassis it uses was only ever used on the BigWig. Odd for Tamiya that's for sure. They usually like to recycle chassis for awhile.

[@islandrc-duke1972]

Great video and information

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thank you!! Hope you are feeling better.

[@AddamsPlayground]

Great rundown of the history of them and everyone of them mentioned is a great buggy! Maybe the BHM HS2 is at the very back of the bus for me but that is personal opinion! LOL!

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks Addam! I agree with you 100% - The BHM HotShot II grew on me though and I have to give that credit to RCCA. They did an awesome article on the car treating it as a one off rather than a rerelease of the HotShot II. Let's just say RCCA ended up costing me some $$$$ lol - That being said so glad the original HotShot II is finally making a comeback!

[@westernsharpie]

Nice informative vid. You've definitely become the Tamiya buggy guru 😇

[@FastFreddyRC]

Thanks Thomas! It’s kinda cool to go through the history and see how some of these kits came about.

[@sgranty02]

A second hand Boomerang with a twin front shock conversion got me racing in 1990 wish i had not sold it

[@FastFreddyRC]

Very cool! And I hear ya…wish I’d never sold my original Blackfoot. I ran that thing into the ground but it would be great to still have it all these years later.