Holiday Buggy: Tamiya vs Extratoy Comparison

[morrisey0]

Via a direct link from a member of this forum (Thanks Dadio!), I ended up in possession of an Extratoy Holiday Buggy. This is known to be a clone of the Tamiya Holiday Buggy, and sure, that is probably true, but at the same time, I wasn't there, so maybe Tamiya cloned Extratoy!?! Who knows, either way, both Tamiya and Extratoy created a version of the California Holiday Buggy. In 1980, Tamiya introduced the HB as a kit, and the tub was created around using standard RC hobby grade electronics. The Extratoy came as a complete unit, with the tub based on proprietary electro-mechanical devices that created six-directional movement via a RC controller.

This is my Extratoy as it arrived. The tub and body are as they should be, but the electronics have been highly modified. The batteries are true sized C cell NiCads bought from a retail store back in the day, and taped together. The electronics have been modified to now use a large heat sink mounted to the rear body mount. So yea, this would be a "toy" RC, but at some point, someone truly modified this. Luckily for me, whomever did these mods, did them nicely and only used stock screw holes (as far as I can see). The car was quickly broken down and all electo-mechanical gizmos tossed in the bin.

So, not too long after this made it's way into my world, I ended up with a Tamiya HB, an actual original Tamiya HB. This thing was golden for the most part, but the tub had lots of work to it, and yea, wasn't awesome. But either way, it was a good chance to kinda rebuild both around the same time, and do a side by side comparison of the parts, and see how different they actually were. When I first got the Extratoy, and was breaking it down, I was comparing it to Tamiya HB parts I was seeing online, and was certain these were made in the same factory for the most part, and just separated at the end. But after having both side by side, there are little differences in 90%+ of the parts. Very subtle, but they are there.

So, let's compare parts side by side. From here on out, Tamiya parts will be on right, and Extratoy on the left.

Random start, tires. Very similar except the Extratoy stamps a tag of ES-802 between the OFF ROADER stamps. Everything else seems identical.

Now just a series of the "grey" parts used throughout. It is hard to tell in the pics, but the Extratoy parts are a little lighter grey than the Tamiya parts.

The wheels are identical mechanically, but the Tamiya ones are a silver'ish, and the Extratoy ones are the same grey as all the other parts.

Rear bumpers.

Transmission. This one is a little interesting. Note the Extratoy driveshafts are plated (chromed?) and have the extra safety lengths on the ends, and the Tamiyas do not. The Extratoy also came with a trans gear cover, which the Tamiya did not. The Tam I got did not have a motor, and I thought that would be easy to get, but 360/380 motors with nylon endbells aren't out there like I thought they would be. The Extratoy came with a white nylon endbell motor, and the Tamiya should have a black nylon endbell.

The body. 80% identical exceopt a) not same color, b) roof top mounting holes slightly different, and c) two piece rear louvers on the Extratoy. Material "feels" identical.

Out of attachment space.

[morrisey0]

Cont. from above.

Body accessories. The Extratoy did not come with a driver or roof/front lights, but the Tamiya ones mount directly on. The jerry can bottom round/square holes are slightly off, but not a big deal.

I realized I forgot the front susp / steering above. They are both very similar. The springs and screws are different color wise, and the steering link hardware is a little different.

My Extratoy did not come with a front or rear bumper, but Tamiya ones screw right on. I would guess them to again be 90% identical to Tamiya.

Then there is the tub. This is the main part that is different .................. yet really, the same. The front and rear suspensions are the same mounts, but the mid-tub is very different. One is meant to mount standard RC components to, the other whatever electo-mech gizmos they had. The Extratoy tub is much deeper. Both of mine are in poor shape at the moment, and both holding up progress. The Extratoy simply needs plates installed so that HG RC components can be installed, and the Tamiya needs a bit more work on removing whatever TF some PO painted/globed all over it. The Tamiya tub will never be very good, but will be good enough for me to finish the current build on it. Hopefully, I will find a great tub in the future, and move everything over to it.

[XLR8]

Interesting! Just enough difference to confirm the parts didn't come for the same tooling.
Depending upon your definition of "clone", I probably would call them a close copy.
On the other hand, I see the HG P407 as a true clone - a virtual part-for-part carbon copy of the Bruiser whose parts probably came from the same tooling.
Anyway, it's interesting to see a side by side comparison and ponder what could have motivated them to make this RC buggy. If one is investing big $'s in new tooling, why make something that already exists? Was the HB really that successful bitd?

[Dadio]

I think the appeal to the copy would be very similar to the appear of the Tamiya Holiday Buggy , what the kid really wanted was a Rough Rider but that's mucho expensive so the parent gets the Holiday buggy , if the kid accepts the Rough Rider is off the table then they might ask for the Holiday Buggy instead as it's cheaper , then the parent see's this ready to run copy that's even cheaper and guess what Johny gets for Christmas ....
That's pretty much my story but I ended up with a Sand Rover as the HB was out of stock , I still had to have it as a joint Birthday and Christmas present .