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In 1983 Tamiya would strike lightning twice with its popular 1/10 2wd electric off-road racing buggy, the Frog. Sharing the ORV (Off Road Vehicle) chassis with the well-known Subaru Brat and lesser-known Lancia Rally car meant the Frog's guts were supported by the ORV's molded plastic space frame style chassis. Holding its head up was the same spindly front suspension with metal uprights attached to small oval shaped front arms that asked the undampened horizontally opposed coil springs hidden inside the front crossmember to put the snap in the Frogs step via a plunger and molded in arm standoffs. Hairpin style sway bars tried their best to provide pre-flight stability while z-bend adjustable tie rods, ballcups, and direct mount servo saver did their best to dodge pesky obstacles. Out back the Frogs large independent trailing arm shaped hindquarters were fitted with forward extending oil-filled aluminum bodied coilover shocks for plenty of long-legged jumping ability. A bottom loaded transverse battery mount and mechanical speed controller were nestled in the heart of the Frog, but its muscle came from the 540 powered pinion and spur mated directly to the bevel gear differential inside a metal side plated plastic transmission housing. Rubber boot covered metal dog bones led to dirt kicking Super Gripper 16.5-15 spiked rear tires and 4.50-15 Smoothee fronts snatched from the Super Champ on white three-piece plastic wheels. The Frog was then wrapped in a skintight lexan buggy body and included a lexan wing, driver figure, front bumper, bushings, mechanical speed controller & Mabushi RS540 motor in the unassembled kit:

My number 2 Favorite car in my collection! It is truly one of the most fun cars I’ve ever owned in either ReRe or original releases.

It is the car my friends had that introduced me to hobby grade rc cars. My favorite is my Grasshopper 2 which after a while my parents finally realized that it was cheaper to buy and build a kit and not waste money on toy rc cars from caldors and sears.

Number 3 , 4 and 5 are the Clod, Rc10 and Wild Dagger

Awww yeah, Caldors and Bradlees were the top department stores around here back in the day. Although I don't recall ever getting an R/C from them. It was either Toy Works or Toys"R"Us.


If you ever want to take a trip down memory lane of department stores, check out this blog: https://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/

Lowgear wrote: ↑Fri May 02, 2025 3:18 pm Awww yeah, Caldors and Bradlees were the top department stores around here back in the day. Although I don't recall ever getting an R/C from them. It was either Toy Works or Toys"R"Us.


If you ever want to take a trip down memory lane of department stores, check out this blog: https://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/

I remember seeing Toy r Us selling a Blackfoot for around 400 rtr back in the day. Always wondered if they built them in the store.

The Frog was the first “hobby grade” R/C car I encountered back in the day…. I had a few Radio Shack cars and a Turbo Hopper.. but the kid up the street had a Frog.. it was fast and awesome!