By Zakspeed 11/07/2008 21:57:16

Another car I had the pleasure to own when first released. The Christmas I opened the kit up and saw that massive blister pack and the crisp new bodyshell - ah great memories :-) The box art on this model is just a work of art in itself and looks like it's jumping out of the box.

I'd built a Brat up previous to the Frog so the construction went together very well. Early editions had the narrow front bumper but other than that there are little differances during it's production run (other than the later reissue).
The frog body and the wheels and tyres suit this chassis to a tee and Tamiya did a great job designing this. You had the advantage of 3 differant spur gears - I had to run mine with the 18tooth pinion as the batteries back then coudn't give me the run time.
The suspension was similar to the earlier Brat with the additions of oil filled dampers at the rear (be them very stiff) and differant softer and longer front springs with no rubber bushings (as per the Brat) which gave longer travel but lacked decent dampers. The steering was by direct servo which gave odd turning angles.
The chassis was topped off with a lexan body painted pink and white (i painted mine orange and yellow) and the spolier with 'no guts no glory' in bright red writing.
The tyres where the same as the earlier Super Champ and lasted all of 2 minutes if used on tarmac !! the spolier snapped off at the first sign of an impact although the twin steel aerials offered some protection on a 'roll over' The diff used to wear the plastic bearing carriers and then the gearbox sides would flex and eventually you would get the all too familiar 'clicking' noise from the rear end. And once it started that was it the bevel gears where history, you could try shimming it but it was more likely you had to put your hand in your pocket for new gears !!!

But dont let that put you off - in standard form this was and still is a fast buggy, you dont need silly motors in this - the suspension can't handle it anyway. With the reissue parts are a plenty, the dampers have been improved on the resissue but the diff is still supplied couresy of the english cheese board ! but eh who cares get one bought and get it running :-) another true Tamiya classic.

By Stevo309 25/04/2008 08:51:36

The best bet for all vintage kits and parts is normally Ebay. From time to time most items come up, they're not on there all the time but if you're prepared to wait a few months most things do come up. Frog kits are still reasonably easy to get and possibly more affordable due to the re-release kit.

By spanner 25/04/2008 08:40:05

Where can i buy a frog in box
TAMIYA 1983 ORIGINAL FROG KIT 58041

By Brat Attacks 26/04/2007 20:51:07

The car that defines the 80's decade in the automotive world of R/C. We all had Frogs or all wanted a Frog and it didn't take long for us to realise that the wing sticker "No Guts No Glory!" was just a marketing ploy and pushed us on take it the fringes of destruction.

As a replacement for the SRB's, the ORV's (Brat, Lancia, Frog) were leaps and bounds ahead of them in development. The light weight construction meant they were faster and with R/C racing becoming an international sport, there was soon a host of upgrades from other makers for the car.

The only backward step Tamiya took was in the front suspension set up. Always a tricky thing to get right and the re-release has done away with the rubber bush in the front radius arm. With it in place the front damping was done mainly by the tires and little else.

The gearbox is a well known problem area for the Frog and its sister cars and apart from locking up the diff with chemical metal, it was a case of shim it or "shut up and put up" It's interesting to note that only the FAV and Wild One had problems with these gears. The other cars in the range to use the die-cast bevel gears (Boomerang, Hot Shot, Super Sabre etc) never had this kind of problem.

Out of the box the Frog was a real hoot to drive around. It took so much abuse that you were never left feeling disappointed and you knew that in 16 hours time when your batteries had charged it would be ready for some more action. Total annihilation was something the Frog didn't know about. If you were ever so unlucky you would get the odd broken rear trailing arm and...erm...still thinking...had something...nope...no that was it. Oh yes, a broken body just around the rear mount holes. Even this didn't detract from its looks and it was never a major cause for keeping the Frog in the sick bay.

It's not hard to see why the Frog holds such iconic status when compared with the other cars from Tamiya at the time. The Hornet did have the advantage of being faster but it didn't handle as effectively as the Frog and had weak points. The Wild One had weak components and was too tail happy. Only the new range of 4wd buggies were a real threat to its podium holding position which in itself isn't much to be afraid of. Newer buggies that came out after the Frog where never much of a match to its supremacy. l would go as far to say that only the Falcon was a real match to it in the 2wd stakes until the launch of the Astute but that itself is an entirely different car.

The only real vice with the Frog was, did you have the balls to paint it pink??

By Stevo309 23/08/2006 10:44:47

The Frog was always popular in the same way the Hornet was and features an almost indestructible space frame chassis which remains to this day one of the strongest ever designed by Tamiya. This chassis design of course was used on many others such as the Brat, Monster Beetle, Blackfoot, Mud Blaster and more. The only real weak point was probably the gearbox as the diffs tend to slip as the aluminium sides of the gearbox can flex outward. A great buggy which became a classic. Watch out for the recent re-release.