e 129: Tamiya Lunchbox - The Buyers Guide Series 

Built one of these on Christmas day in 1988. Still got it, so much fun!

Lunchbox is simply a legend

Great vid. I would also highly recommend this truck. I made mine brushless a few years back and it's just so much fun. The big tyres mean you can run it almost anywhere including on road, off road, the beach etc. etc. The hard body can get damaged if you are doing jumps on a hard surface like a skate park so a lexan shell might be a good idea. Anyway basically I'm saying to anyone interested in RC who hasn't got a Lunchbox to just go and buy one !!

The lunchbox is my all time favourite rc car

I've probably watched this video at least a hundred times. Lunch Box is the best RC ever change my mind 😤

The nostalgia is strong with the Lunchbox!

I've been collecting model cars and VERY expensive model cars. I just bought my first ever Lunch Box and first RC in 20 yrs. My friend owns two of these and loved driving them so much I decided to buy one. Black Edition is in the mail. Great video!

The LunchBox is the first hobby grade r/c I ever saw too. I will never ever forget that beautiful box cover art too. You have an awesome channel! Love the variety.

I've had my eyes on this since ~1990 and every time i went for something else, usually a 4x4 buggy/truggy. Last year i got myself the X-Maxx and now, 2020, i had no more excuses and pulled the trigger on it. Can't wait to build it!

Nostalgia galore! Thanks for the video!

I love the old Tamiya cars, I still have the super Blackfoot, grasshopper, 96 mustang gt and a hummer, I like your channel, brings back memories

I just found a box of my RC cars from the 80s with a lunchbox, RC10, Hornet and FX10, lots of broken parts on the others but the lunchbox appears to have all the parts. Loved the video, got me inspired to go buy a battery and take it apart for a cleaning/rebuild and run it. It has the janky shocks like you describe with the chrome and the post that shoots up, the white body painted a silver and just great to look at and bringing back all the memories.

Another GREAT classic thanks for the showcase XD

I sold both back in 2009 and yes they were a ton of fun in every sense of the word. Wish I still had them.

Love, love, love the Lunchbox! Yesterday was my son's 8th birthday. He got the metallic Midnight Pumpkin, and I got a Parma Lunchbox clear lexan body and aluminum body mounts.

I bought one and built it last year - first new RC in 20 years - still have not driven it as I'd want to modify it some. This is the video I needed to watch. And_ I can't wait to start the mayhem! Thanks very much. Your company will be a go to.

I built the black version a few years ago and I love it. I painted it with Tamiya black metallic and I have many upgrades in it-some of them were installed during the build. I installed full ball bearings, black motor heat sink, alloy body mounts, alloy servo mounts, alloy wheels (all alloy parts were bought from the same eBay seller in Hong Kong whom sells alloy parts for many Tamiya vehicles), front shock tower brace, foams in the tires, Tamiya BK105 ESC and fan, Traxxas 2070 servo, Traxxas 3 channel Bluetooth radio system (shared with several other vehicles), lights, a switch that allows me to switch the lights on and off from the remote, alloy wheelie bar with a rubber tire, black Tamiya CVA oil shocks including the fifth shock mod to eliminate the slapping (if it was a recent build-I would’ve used your center brace instead but that didn’t exist back when I built mine). Recent upgrades are your double wishbone front suspension and rear shock mount, o rings installed on the shock mount sleeves to eliminate the space that allowed the shock to constantly slide back and forth causing the annoying clicking noise when starting from a stop or coming to a stop. I don’t bash it at all since I don’t want to damage the gorgeous body. I love watching your buyers guide videos for the classic Tamiya models, keep the upgrades for them coming. I’m in the middle of building a Fighting Buggy and I’m pondering on buying a limited edition blue metallic Neo Scorcher-not many places have it at the moment.

sweet video, just built my first lunchie earlier in the week, got the black one and done some upgrades out of spare stuff kicking around, reinforced the wheelie bar and the front of the chassis, put foams in the tyres and added a 5th shock, oh also got the bearing kit with it :) got a hyper vse recently but for all out maddness im loving the lunchie in the rough garden on the stock motor :D my dad likes it so much he ordered a pumpkin for the garden as well lol

A 13 double on 7 cell is a bit fun and transmission is fine with it. That was years ago. Never broke a thing. Tires needed glued.

Awesome :D 🎉, I see that the Lunch Box is an amazing Monster van

i used to have the re release Lunch box. I absolutely loved it. I built it myself too. I did do a few upgrades - ball race bearings , upgraded the motor for an hpi motor and speed controller and servo for steering. I even had brushless motor in it which was good as it made it fast but dont try to pull wheelies from stand still with the brushless motor in it as it lifted 3 wheels off the ground and ended up on its side. However , do a slow rolling start and then floor it ! front wheels off the ground over a good 20(ish) foot or longer. I ended up selling it a few years ago. Im definetly planning on adding another one to my collection at some point in the future.

I got a lunchbox recently. When I was younger I had a Falcon - loved it to bits but always wanted a Midnight Pumpkin/Lunchbox. Bought and built my Lunchbox recently and It's every bit as good as I thought it would be. I send it up and down the rough ground behind the house all the time and it's always making me giggle.

This was my first hobby grade RC that I bought in 1989. Still use it and love it..

Awesome video! We were too poor to get real RC as kids lol. But a kid at church was into them heavy. One of his was the Lunch Box and I luvvvvvd the 5 minutes with it when he was nice enough to share. It’s Jan 2019 & I just bought my 1st vehicle and it’s a Lunch Box. Wow I’m about to start assembly. I took your advice and got sealed bearings. My wheels are yellow and the body is white. The box art is yellow. I need to buy paint. I bought a pack of the pins like you said too. Keeping the 540 for now. I’ll be checking out you available frame mods when I get settled with it. I bought an aftermarket brushless speed control because everybody was crying that Tamiya didn’t include a speed control. Of course it did lol. So I just have an extra in case the next car I buy does not. I already see this is just the start of a new hobby lol

Really enjoyed,mine just shipped 👊🏻👍🏻

Best Rc ever. Period.

Keep it up man, love your videos!!!

I have one of the blue ones, I love it! You made me feel old though, I doubt anyone that's started the hobby in the last 10 years even knows what a 13 turn double is..

This was my first serious r/c when it came out! It was awesome lol

My adult childhood is almost complete. I now have a Grasshopper, Hornet, Lunchbox, Frog, Blackfoot, Super Avante, and a BBX. Only thing missing (for me) is a Super Champ/Fighting Buggy.

😊👍Give me give me all the lunch boxes they are BEAUTIES for sure everybody should own one...You know you called that # on the sticker... everybody did but Venessa never answered!

I like how you have fun with such a simple RC car I have a RadioShack Golden arrow all stock except for a 15 turn motor surprised it hasn’t burned out the electronics but this is back when RadioShack made good cars

Mine is coming this Thursday 5th August 2021 can't wait 👌👍

Really enjoy your channel, at 38 yrs old this channel and all these re-releases from Tamiya, Kyosho and others has me tripping down memory lane. Will you do videos talking about and modifying Tamiya 4wd buggies( HotShot, Avante, Egress etc.) Pretty it would be a huge hit.

The wheels fit on the hornet,swap front control arms for more steering also at the bottom of pivot for rear diff I added some screws so it would not pivot anymore.good times!

Ampro Engineering: "It's probably one of the worst RC cars ever made" Me: "I still want one!"

the lunch box is amazing car and durability y liked Nice video.

Lunch box and Mp are really fun...:)

Metal ball bearings, oil filled shocks, aluminum body mounts are the minimum upgrades. After that, consider the little part the eliminates the gearbox slap and then a support for the front shock towers. I also recommend a better motor, larger pinion gear and going to lipo. I run mine on 2s and so far so good.

Just watched this,a bit late , I will get one it looks fun and I have a perfect beach too test on 👍🏻

Love the look of that thing . Was my first RC car in 7th grade around 88-89 mine came with the white body and yellow rims I painted it like a 70,s metallic red looked good I thought anyway.

Great video my friend

Had one, modded it to death, sold it, and I am NOT going to repurchase one because these things are hugely addictive... it's like, when you quit smoking, don't ever try even once more any more EVER ! Brilliant vid :)

Not to add to the versions but my 1st RC vehicle (1989? ) was a Lunchbox that my Snap-On dealer had for sale with a Snap-On truck body instead of the Dodge van body. (Wish I still had that body!) I ditched the aircraft style controller for pistol grip, added full bearings and a 14T motor and it was a blast! I stopped after a while and then guys at my shop started getting into Nitro truck and buggies; enjoyed the CEN nitro buggy. Retired now but the latest foreman at the shop just before I retired has a nice collection of RC vehicles and thinking about it. Nitro seems hard to find ATM but I'd like at least one in my collection.

Me and my daughter were out Sunday, She ran the lunch box, I had the monster beetle. Talk about a load of fun!!!! We were launching both of these things up and down the curbs (but the lunch box doesn't have oil shocks in the front) But I did put them in the rear... And it definitely bottomed out a few times on jumps. But I'm going to get that gear latch, I went and bored aftermarket gold oil shocks. I've already bought an updated motor a. 22t, ironically my grasshopper (which was all cracked up) still had a working futaba speed controller (So I put that in the lunch box) That one is better than what they send with the vehicles now. Me and my daughter are having a ball updating these vehicles. Now as for my monster beetle (I have to do something about the gearing)! I have way too much torque and I keep knocking the bones out (axles) 😳😳😳.... My local hobby shop doesn't seem to have a lot of upgrade parts for Tamiya rc. So Amazon is my friend right now. I am going to put a homemade brace in the front to avoid flexing.

Definitely one of the most iconic! I have to be fair, when I got one I was actually surprised by its stability with the stock motor. Not because it was good by any means but people always said how awful It was which gave me super low expectations. I found it to be more stable than my Grasshopper and easier to drive over rough terrain. I love the Hopper but it remains the worst handling "hobby grade" I've ever had. Great fun with the 380 motor but even a simple 27t 540 upgrade is more than it can comfortably handle. I guess between the Grasshopper and trying to keep various converted Nikkos and Taiyos the right way up I had a different opinion of what constitutes a bad handling car lol Like I say, not great by any means but I was half expecting it to be unusable which it certainly isn't.

Just ordered mine.Wanted one when they came out but my local hobby shop didn't have one so my Parents got me a Kyosho hirider Corvette for Christmas instead.I still have it.

My first Hobby grade rc was a used hornet with a bunch of mods and a lot of wear and tear. My 2nd was a brand new Midnight pumpkin. I broke the body mounts every time I took it out broke wheels and control arms. I modified and upgraded it with parts I made and some I bought. I took the radio gear out of it for another project years ago but I think i need to put it back and bash it again.

I have one of these. Reminds of my childhood. I always tried to get my grandparents to get me one, But they never did. I want to kinda theme it out like the A-Team van.

When I was a teen in the late 80s early 90s I started with the Pajero. which was cool had a cool body but the battery in the back making it wheely way to easy, got old. So It got converted to a lunch box. Which had radio shack leds all around. Then later modified to hold an RC 10 transmission. rtr is great but having to build and modify your models back in the day was half the fun.

Great RC, I’ve had so many different cars but I sold them all…. Only the Lunch Box is left and still the one I like the most, mainly because it’s numerous flaws work together to keep a grin on my face…

NICE LunchBox ‼︎👍

That was the first rc car i built. I remember skipping school in 4th grade to build it, with a butter knife and Philips screwdriver...

This was gonna be my first build but did the clod but this will be my second Tamiya I love this rig! 👍👍👊👊📹📹

I’ve had an original one on my shelf in pieces for about 6 years

Is wirklich sehr cool nit den kidz auch zusammen echt Respekt 💪🥳

I am going to get one now .

I had a Tamiya RZ motor in mine, it had a ball bearing kit, so I thought why not! Impressed with that motor, especially on 2s lipo. Fitted a steel pinion gear, because the standard Tamiya alloy (kit) pinion gears don’t last long with faster motors. I tried a 3650 6000kv motor combo, on 2s. Let’s just say, you need a large open space & say goodbye to the body😂🤣

10000% accurate review!

The biggest advantage that the Lunchbox or any of Tamiya's kits have over anything from Traxxas and companies like them is that the Tamiya is a kit and has to be built thereby giving a kid (regardless of age) useful skills and knowledge. When the Lunchbox gets damaged the child will know how to repair it because he/she built it. It's amazing and at the same time sad that so many young people these days have NO mechanical skills whatsoever. Thanks for your video. It makes me want to go out and buy another Hotshot, one of my favorite Tamiya buggies in the '80s. Unfortunately the price has gone up and I make less money now than I did in the '80s.

wow. i had that ESC in my super blackfoot. long time ago.

Fun!!

The lunchbox is truly an amazing platform. Everything that it stands for is just awesome. I love my lunchbox, shout-out to all of the lunchbox owners, where you guys at?? Great video.👍

The lunch box is my favorite Cars the Cars run good and respond exelent y like this Cars.👍

Have you ever done a Tamiya video that goes over your favorite horribly great Tamiya's? I'd love to see that if you have not. I've been in the hobby for a few years but I was getting all the crazy Arrma stuff. Now I have a wild willy 2 and a midnight pumpkin and I "think" I'm addicted. haha

No, its the shortcomings that make it what it is. The pogo stick shocks, balloon sand paddle tires, hard very forgiving scale body, and lights.

Got one it’s fun and bought another rc to go with it ha

Great introduction. I still don’t have one. Strange. Some day :-) So, the rear gear box is special for the Lunch Box where as the Midnight got the Hornet’s?

your great

Great info. Thanks

A friend had one I used to play with as a kid in the mid 80s another friend had a midnight pumpkin that was a 1/10 it had a polycarbonated body but I can’t not seem to find any them now all I can find is the 1/12 scale

love the video had one of these in 88 as a kid and just purchased a vintage "built in 1987" model am i going to have issues with upgrades being that its 1/10 scale apposed to the newer 1/12 scale model?? i will be purchasing your upgrades but want to make sure everything is compatible with mine. also if you can recommend where to purchase the oil shocks you have on here it would be much appretiated i have serched for 2 days and cant seem to find them without knowing the exact specs or size... thanks in advance

Never thought I would ever want one of these as the look never really appealed to me. Then I saw one popping wheelies. I still don't like the yucky yellow colouring, that will have to go. I'm thinking a nice blue with metallic blue wheel hubs. So today I bought the kit and have already ordered the metal bearings. Will get the alu body mounts and some proper shocks as well sometime soon. Looking forward to building this beast.

Mine has just arrived through the post - cant wait to start building it with my daughter (she thinks lego is awesome....wait until she has done this)

I ordered a yellow plastic body and received one in white. Need to order one online

Awesome... I just upload my new wr02 video

I have a question years ago in a rc car action magazine was a ad for a clodzilla like chassis for the midnight pumpkin did you ever see it?

Would you be able to explain how you did the swing arm upgrade to eliminate the clambering effect when the suspension goes up

I love the vanessa was my first rc is funny i only want the super lobo sears used to sale😬

I didn't see it mentioned, all this needs to speed it up is taking off the 10tooth and adapter and using an 18 tooth and direct attachment of the motor. Exactly like the Hornet is. That's the way we did it back in '89.

I just got mine , built it but it's all stock is the stock motor really that slow or did I built it wrong. Thank you for the videos.

I crashed my midnight pumpkin 🎃 and broke the two small springs that hold the rear axle down. If I get the transmission brace you sell do instill need to get two new side springs or does the brace get rid of the need for those? Not wanting to buy more of those thin little springs as they have already proven to be fragile.

G’day, I have done the AMPRO front steering mod, which is great but the steering is terrible. If I turn right the right turns plenty but thr left wheel not much at all, the same white the left turn. Do have a fix or even a reason for this happening or is it the design of the car? Thanks for your help, love your business!

太棒了，我有两个午餐盒呢。love the cw01 chassis

are you familiar with the Tamiya QD (Quick Drive) series? I have their Midnight Pumpkin as well as the Clod Buster and they both have the rigid rolling axle similar to the lunchbox (and hornet). Would you be able to make something that'll fit those?

I have the original white Tamiya LunchBox body and truck. I'm missing the original speed controller. It cracked all up. I never finished putting it together till this day. Go figure.

Wow I just got a flashback from 30 years ago.

Must must must glue the rear tires, for all day wheelies.

I just built my first RC with this kit and love it, but the servo saver isn't great. I tried all three inserts, one was too small, the other too big, and the one that actually fit stripped almost immediately. I'm assuming I screwed up somehow but was wondering if you could suggest a replacement part as well.

Just ordered one , plus bearings , aluminum body mounts , ampro chassis brace , wishbone suspension, and rear shock mount. Was wondering if you could recommend replacement shocks.

Wheelies 🏆⚡️

It's "terribleness" was my experience. My first thought opening the box was, this chassis was like a cheap plastic bowl, less robust than moms Tupperware. Mine had a broken wheel within 60 seconds of it's first time out. I didn't even hit anything, technically. The poor shocks and silly, hoppy, bouncy shocks made it jump all over the place and land in awkward positions...hence broken wheels, broken chassis, etc....

So with all the upgrades that you offer do you recommend a shock upgrade as well...if so which one?

Will these tires fit on a super black foot please comment back thank you very much the tires and wheels

A M P R O , in you r opinion best method for removing factory paint from a rc body ? Thx

lol im going backwards. started with pumpkin, then got the QD, then the chrome, then the junior, Now I got a lunchbox, so gotta collect them all right??

Thanks for sharing. Do you use a primer or did you just clean and paint the hard body yellow?

I had the oppertunity to buy one of these for £20, although it apparently didn't work. However because I didn't know how nice it was and how easy it would be to get it working, I procrastinated for too long and somebody else got it.

i just bought a lunch box. it will be my first built. i'm not even sure i will drive that truck.. i got it just for the look and my collection

Wich body's from team Blue groove would fit on this chassis?