Mugen Manx

[Phin]

From my recollection, the Panda danny stocker/stadium had proper 4-wheel independend suspension... and were IC with a pull-start.

[img]

Was it really related to the graupner pinto/stadium? (which does look like a GH clone indeed)

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There was both electric and gas versions of the Panda Stocker and Stadium Racer. The gas version being a Kyosho Rampage clone.

[GoMachV]

The Nitro version is so goofy too. I have one. The rear gearbox is a modified front Hotshot gearbox. It's about 3 foot wide too. Looks crazy.

[Phin]

Any other clones of the hornet grasshopper that come to mind? Maybe the traxxas cat or marui coors? ( I left those out originally as I'm even hazier on them)

Coors was the stock car version of Marui's Ninja so not a GH clone.

Traxxas Cat is close to a clone but had a Wild One trailing arm front suspension. Radio Shack Red/Golden Arrows would were like that too. Monogram Lightning/Thunder (Yonezawa Wave Hunter) were an even worse versions of that set-up.

Tyco Turbo Hopper would be another GH clone.


The Fox and Hot Shot also had some clones out there. Who can forget the Royal Ripper. Kyosho can't throw too many stones either since they made Shadow/Aerostreak.

[Mr. ED]

Which came first: Kyosho icarus or tamiya falcon?

[Coelacanth]

Any other clones of the hornet grasshopper that come to mind? Maybe the traxxas cat or marui coors? ( I left those out originally as I'm even hazier on them)

Who can forget the Royal Ripper.

I'll never forget that one, that goes back to the days when I worked in a hobby store. We called it the "Royal Ripoff" as I'm sure many others did.

[Phin]

Which came first: Kyosho icarus or tamiya falcon?

I always thought it was the Falcon but according to RCScrapyard.net, and a couple of other sites, it was the Icarus that came first.

[Lonestar]

There was both electric and gas versions of the Panda Stocker and Stadium Racer. The gas version being a Kyosho Rampage clone.

Didn't know that - the electric versions never made it to our shores

(probably better like that )

Thanks!

[trkneller]

Another Grasshopper clone was the World Engines Rockbuster. A friend had that one and I remember it being advertised in RCCA from Indy RC, or something, all the time.

[hibernaculum]

Coors was the stock car version of Marui's Ninja so not a GH clone.
Traxxas Cat is close to a clone but had a Wild One trailing arm front suspension. Radio Shack Red/Golden Arrows would were like that too. Monogram Lightning/Thunder (Yonezawa Wave Hunter) were an even worse versions of that set-up.

Just a small correction. There is no such car as the "Yonezawa Wave Hunter".
What you are referring to is the Yonezawa Land Dash, or it's sister car, the Missiler.

Tyco Turbo Hopper would be another GH clone. The Fox and Hot Shot also had some clones out there. Who can forget the Royal Ripper. Kyosho can't throw too many stones either since they made Shadow/Aerostreak.

And I think the term "clone" is used too loosely here... A clone is more like a part-for-part reproduction of a car, by a different company.
The Tyco Turbo Hopper is not a "clone" of the Tamiya Grasshopper, but it was definitely inspired by the Grasshopper. Ditto many of the others mentioned - ideas were stolen, cars were released that mimicked other cars. The Royal Ripper is a good example of this.

But a "clone" is an actual reproduction. ie. When a sheep is cloned, it has the same DNA.

And when it comes to clones, there were actual Chinese clones of Tamiya kits like the Fox and the Supershot, in which basically every part was made to replicate the original, but by a different company. Entire kits were reverse-engineered, which is quite amazing. The Supershot clone even had the original Tamiya box art on the box, but no Tamiya logo. Inside, there was no Technipower motor. But all parts were an attempt to reproduce the original, with lesser materials.

[hibernaculum]

Icarus was first,, well it was part of a series:
Icarus, Pegasus, cosmo
which came over as the COX bandito
this was all in 1984
the falcon was out in 1986

Actually, the Icarus and Pegasus were 1985. The Cosmo I think was a year later, or so, as it does not even appear in the 1985 Kyosho catalogue.

Tandy(radio shack) also sucked in a bunch of radio control cars that were either clones or rebrands. a notable was a short lived tamiya bruiser clone which was all plastic and not metal.... now back in 1986 it was a god sent for parts since tamiya enjoyed giving the customers the middle finger for parts support(they still do) MRC stopped that one ASAP,

Again, the term "clones" is being used somewhat loosely (incorrectly), imho. Those cars from Tandy / Radio Shack were not clones of anything. All were authorised rebrandings of cars made by other companies - such as Nikko. Nikko would present Radio Shack with a model they had in their domestic Japanese market, and Radio Shack executives would place an order with Nikko for a "Radio Shack" branded edition of that car, for release in any markets with Tandy/Radio Shack stores.

The Radio Shack truck that you say is a "bruiser clone" had zero parts in common with the Bruiser... (I mean, if anything could be transplanted, then great, but it certainly wasn't designed to!). It was clearly inspired by the Bruiser, and was made by Nikko, and was designed to offer something looking like a Bruiser, that was ready to run. It's called the Malibu 4x4 Off Roader.



Much like the earlier Nikko release - the Nikko Toyota Hilux 4WD, was designed to offer an RTR option of something like a Tamiya Toyota 4x4 Pickup.
https://rctoymemories.com/2014/06/28/nikko-toyota-hilux-4wd-1982/



This car even features remote gear shift (2 speed), which was remarkable for a ready to run R/C vehicle in 1982.

[GoMachV]

As far as the Wave Hunter, I have a transmitter in a monogram bag that says Wave Hunter, I always thought it was a mystery boat radio but was this just what they called their radios then?

[hibernaculum]

nope not the truck i'm talking about. Not everything is on a google search. tandy scrubbed that one fast back in the 1980s.
I have the a few parts from one somewhere.

Well I'd be interested to see it then. And as for '"not everything is on a google search" - my reply wasn't based on google searches. I have every Radio Shack catalogue between 1975 and 1995, as well as practically every off-road car they released in the 1980s, NIB. And I'm not familiar with the truck you're referring to. It's also possible that some Radio Shack franchisees stocked the occasional product that was limited to their stores only. I certainly saw this happen in Australia on occasion, in the 80s.

[hibernaculum]

As far as the Wave Hunter, I have a transmitter in a monogram bag that says Wave Hunter, I always thought it was a mystery boat radio but was this just what they called their radios then?

Yes, pretty much every R/C car made by Yonezawa had "Wave Hunter" on the transmitter - this was just a kind of sub-branding of their R/C cars, and it has led to some confusion (e.g. this Wikipedia article is false as far as the name goes, and a few other things - maybe I should try to edit it). Other brands also did similar things, e.g. the Japanese company Shinsei also used the wording "Radio Elecon" on their transmitters and boxes, but really the company name was Shinsei.

Yonezawa made quite a few R/C cars in the 1980s, but the Land Dash and Missiler (both released in 1984) were the two 540-motor powered models, that aimed for a slice of the Tamiya market by offering fast performance in an RTR package.

Original Yonezawa Land Dash (aka Monogram Lightning) as sold in the "home market"...

[GoMachV]

Very cool. I actually have one of the Monogram Thunder kits which you don't see come up too often

[hibernaculum]

Very cool also - there are not many examples of the Monogram Thunder release still around, that are NIB.