Tamiya Blazing Star

Photo gallery samples

Visit the full Tamiya Blazing Star gallery for more photos.

JANG's Impressions

The Tamiya Blazing Star isn't a historically significant car, but it's a fun and interesting experiment nonetheless with somewhat comic styling in the vein of the Mini 4WD series. The big stickers across the sides say "4WD Trial Racer," an attempt to classify the vehicle with its odd accoutrements. The chassis itself is a pure off-road buggy, but they put on touring car wheels, with scale all-terrain tires from the cross country "XC" and TA01/02 stadium truck kits. The idea is that the car is meant not to specialize on one type of terrain or another, but rather to handle both on- and off-road situations equally well. In reality, it ends up being only a fair performer anywhere.

The kit suspension setup is actually surprisingly good. The dampers, though they are toy-like in appearance, have ample oil volume and fairly well-matched springs, though the rear coils are just a tad bit on the stiff side. The tires are what really hold the Blazing Star back. The tread pattern is usable, but the rubber compound is impossibly hard and slick -- almost like a very soft plastic. With virtually no sidewall deformation, the small bumps that tires normally absorb instead transfer their way right into the chassis, making the ride rougher than it ought to be. These tires also don't get a lot of mechanical traction on their own, and of course bouncing into the air constantly doesn't help in that regard.

Swap out the tires for some modern soft 1.9-inch "scaler" treads, though, or replace the wheels as well to fit some good buggy rolling stock, and the Blazing Star, like its chassis-mates, becomes a capable, fairly durable basher. The rearward weight balance gives the buggy decent forward traction and gives it a tendency to understeer at speed, which is much better for casual drivers than a rig that easily oversteers.

The Build

See the overview of the build process in the Tamiya Blazing Star build thread on the forums.

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