My Kyosho Optima collection

[keithrc]

Hi guys, I'm new here and thought I better start a thread about my collection of old school Optima's

I'll start off with the first one I bought around 3 years ago, a 1st gen chain drive Optima. This one has been driven a few times so it's in need of a bit of a clean up.

A quick bit of personal history, I bought one of these back in '85 when they came out and it was eventually converted to a Turbo Optima after my brother bought one. I later bought an Optima Mid and the Optima pretty much went into retirement. From '85 to around '91 or so I had the Optima, Optima Mid and Lazer ZX. I raced all three but wasn't really into racing all that competitively. I later sold all my RC cars to a friend that I raced with back then who still has them.

Here's some pics of the old girl. Enjoy.



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It's had a bit of a knock at the front that slightly bent the under guard and front brace, very common with these cars.



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I took some pics of my shelfer Javelin as well which I'll post up next. There's also two more 1st gen Optima runners and a Javelin runner that I'll get pics of later on.


Keith

[DennisM]

Uh, I like the Optimas - Looking forward to further pictures of Your collection.
Thanks for sharing.

[keithrc]

Thanks Dennis. I meant to mention that I got the wheels/tyres from ebay, it had standard wheels with worn OT-30's till a few months ago.


Keith

[keithrc]

This is the first of my two Javelins, it was bought from ebay Singapore. It doesn't look to have been run a whole lot, there's only light scratching underneath and the bumper is really good. I haven't run it since buying and I don't think I will.

The two alloy plates on the body need cleaning up and the cage will be restickered (oneday) with the Marwan decals I have for it. I've got some NIP wheels and tyres (original Kyosho OT-30's) for it too. It came with no motor so I'd like to get a stock one just to fill the empty space.

It also came with a set of green shocks with yellow spring clamps, bottom spring retainers and ball ends, not sure what they were from as I haven't seen them before. I took them off and put a set of original red shocks on, no broken shock collars here.

Anyway, enough rambling, here's some pics.



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Nice clean bumper.



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Unlike the optima, this one's not bent at the front.



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Keith

[O.C. Monkey]

Nice collection. I was lucky enough to pick up a Javelin and at least 3 Optimas this last summer. I say at least 3 because most everything was in pieces!
I might have a fourth if I find another radio plate. I really need to get moving on this.

[wydraz]

Nice one Keith!

[keithrc]

Next up is the purple Optima. In these pics it has the green shocks that came on the Javelin in the post above. I bought this one from Myles ("Vintage Kyosho" on ebay) in the UK. It came with a light metallic purple body which was pretty well beaten up but it had a belt drive and the thicker lower front guard.

I gave it a clean up, bought a Kamtech body and painted it a darker Tamiya purple and used left over stickers that came with another Optima purchase. Makes a good little runner.

I used a Tamiya black can Sports motor but it expired, I replaced it with a 240ST motor.

Anyway, pics.



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I won a set of Mid wheels with Super Gripper tyres and tried em on to see how they look.



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"OPTIMA SUPER BUGGY" Seemed like an appropriate combination of stickers.



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It's changed a bit since those pics were taken, it now has Turbo Optima wheels with the Tamiya 53059 tyres and a set of Kyosho Equaliser shocks.


Keith

[Coelacanth]

Nice collection, and I love the green shocks on the blue Optima. Those are Kyosho Golds that were re-anodized, right? For some reason, I like that idea...they're arguably among the best shocks ever made, but when the gold wears off--polish 'em up and get 'em anodized whatever color you like.

And you're right about the bent chin skidplate and U-shaped bumper brace; finding a parts car with those two items in unmolested condition is *not* easy to do!

[DennisM]

I think those shocks are F&P - They had some very colorfull shocks.

[keithrc]

I don't know what shocks they are but I doubt very much that they're golds, the quality of them wasn't anywhere near as good as the golds hence putting on the Equaliser shocks that work much better.

More to come soon.


Keith

[keithrc]

Moving right along, this one is the 2nd Optima that I bought. I found it from a Google search, it was on a site called "Attic Trunk". It had an onroad sedan type body and home made body mounts made from what looked like galavanised plate for it to fit on.

It came with heaps of spares, stickers, a tool box, a few trophies, an old nicad charger and a couple small metal boxes with leads that I was told were dischargers. The seller had the original kit box too but it was going to cost too much for shipping to send it.

I took all the metal plate crap off and and got it looking like what an Optima sould look like. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics when it first arrived.

The body, decals and tyres are Marwan repro's shocks are Kyosho Equalisers.

Pics.



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More later.


Keith

[Coelacanth]

I don't know what shocks they are but I doubt very much that they're golds, the quality of them wasn't anywhere near as good as the golds hence putting on the Equaliser shocks that work much better.

They could be re-anodized Duratrax shocks, possibly. They have the same round shock-caps as Golds, and other than internally, look exactly like Kyosho Golds except the gold is a more orange color. They have fewer O-rings on the inside and hence the nick-name Duraleaks was earned.

[DennisM]

I don't know what shocks they are but I doubt very much that they're golds, the quality of them wasn't anywhere near as good as the golds hence putting on the Equaliser shocks that work much better.

More to come soon.


Keith

As mentioned before - Shocks are Flying Point
http://www.google.dk/imgres?hl=da&client=firefox-a&hs=Ukd&sa=X&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:da:official&biw=1024&bih=456&tbm=isch&tbnid=cteHsMniUSVsoM:&imgrefurl=http://leparrain2009.skyrock.com/13.html&docid=-h6DBDqKCPdKZM&imgurl=http://a6.img.v4.skyrock.net/3270/61583270/pics/3069329305_1_3_ZEZgNVsH.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=jk7sUNnqGMz34QSxhYCwDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=387&vpy=12&dur=1512&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=144&ty=69&sig=111788541843149354593&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=173&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:92

[keithrc]

Thanks for the link Dennis, can't say I've heard of a Pizazz BG1 before.


Keith

[Coelacanth]

can't say I've heard of a Pizazz BG1 before.

Yep, me neither. You learn something new every day, but something that obscure--only every few years.