e353: Tamiya King Cab - The Buyers Guide Series 

When I used to race back in the early 90's, one of the guys had a King Cab that he raced in the Gearbox class which was open to any rc car that wasn't direct drive and he smoked everyone every week and all he did was change the shocks, gearbox, and tires. Dude went undefeated for like 3 months until he retired it for the new RC10T when it came out.

I bought mine with my paper route money in 89 and painted it exactly like the box art. When that RC Action article came out with the Jimmy Hendrix reference “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” I remember wanting those aluminum wheels so bad!!!

I must have watched this video 100+ times! I just love looking at this truck. I collect tyco cars and the tyco bandit is my favorite truck and this reminds me of a bigger scale bandit. I can't wait for the day I get one of these!

Learned so much today. Thanks a lot for the history of this chassis ! Hope Tamiya re-release it some day, even if I know they certainly would not work on the various problems you're referring to. Nevertheless it would allow us to fool around. These are beautiful but to me you got to play with it, it must not sit on a shelf...

Loved seeing this. Had one in 1992. Only had it a few months and the diff went all to hell. Local shop tried for months but could not get the parts. A year later it went into the trash. Wish now I had kept it. One like that in mint condition even without the ball diff would be worth a lot of money.

I had that book as a kid, bought it on a scholastic bookfair brochure! Love that era!

I bought mine in 1991 without a body and with the old differential. It was used. My goal was to keep up with my brother who had recently purchased the parts to convert his RC10 gold chassis to an RC10T. When I found my King Cab it was only $100 and I thought I could quickly replace the differential and sourced a Tamiya ball differential kit for the Astute and King Cab. I also added some HPI wheels with Lunchbox tires and a Proline Ford Truck body. After the rebuild the differential survived only two battery packs. The weakness of the differential involved the pot metal clamshells that held the balls against each other. There was no way to create even pressure for the pressure plates that rode against the balls in the differential and as a result the balls with pressure heated up and melted the differential gear. Back at that time option B was to buy a differential kit from Thorpe for around $200 to replace he differential (this was before the Stealth gearbox option was available). Unfortunately I was fearful of the same failure with the Thorpe differential and elected not to invest more money in it. After that my King Cab lived in the closet for a number of years. When the pandemic hit I finally pulled out some of my old RC vehicles (Lunchbox, Double Dare, Monster Hornet (custom creation with Monster Beetle wheels, a hornet chassis, Lunchbox suspension, and a 34 Ford body) and last but not least my old King Cab). With a little bit of research I discovered that there was a kit to replace the King Cab/Astute gearbox with the RC10 Stealth transmission, but that unfortunately I missed the window and it was no longer available. With a little more research I discovered that Tamiya replaced the Ball Differential in the Astute with a planetary differential. This meant that I could get my King Cab rolling and that I only needed to replace the differential and outdrive cups and not the entire differential. I ordered the differential directly from Tamiya and happily drove the truck until the front of the chassis weakened after it bumped into something. The other desirable vintage aftermarket part for this truck is the kit by Sassy Chassis which made an aluminum replacement chassis for the King Cab. Back when it sold new it was around $175. One sold recently on e-bay for $425. I have a rolling back yard and really love driving this truck. The suspension makes it even more fun. I echo your comments about this truck being special. With the introduction of 3D printers I keep hoping that there is a way to save mine. Thank you for your response on the Shapeways forum earlier. I'll let you know if I find a way to re-create this chassis and spare it from life as a shelf queen..

This video is a prime example of why I like your buyer's guide clips. I only got into RC trucks about 2yrs ago so these older RC models are prior to my intrest. I learn something new in every video. Keep it coming!!

I had one of these when I was a kid! Great video.

That thing jumps very nicely in the air and I love how that suspension really works too. I wish I was that old to know those kind of rc cars.

I never thought about taking my cars to a skate park.... I think my daughter would love it! We have been having a ball with the lunch box (and my wife's name is Vanessa. Go figure) and the monster beetle 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🐞 I have to finish my neo fighter (I'm going to make that a rocket) also finishing the mods for the lunch box. Now my daughter wants her own instead of driving mine lol

I fell in love with that same picture of the same truck but couldn't afford a king cab.so i turned my tyco bandit into one.

Haha you weren't joking when you mentioned the cost-prohibitiveness of the Stealth upgrade these days. I scored a killer deal on an all-original RC10T Team truck (with the original Associated universals holy crap!) and it was missing the transmission. It took me a while to find a white-case Stealth and when I did it set me back another $200 holy crap...

I still have my monster racer from 1991 when I was 10 years old. Back then when power was lower, it performed perfectly - I used to jump it 6ft in the air off ramps I made in the street. Now it's got a 10.5T brushless system, RCC adapter plate and stealth transmission, and monster beetle tyres. Goes obscenely fast, popping wheelies all the time (gotta watch you don't rip the original body shell off). Even though it's a bit delicate, I still play with it often, and it still jumps fantastically well

Great video. I'm a Nissan freak. That was Sherman Balch or his son Chad in the Nissan Race Truck you showed. At the age of 50 this year you would think I had one of these back in the day. Nope, but I did acquire one 2 years ago from New Jersey. Your right very hard to find parts and decent one's in good shape. We won't talk about the shelf queens out there because I am one to run my old RC's as well. The Super Astute shares the same diff but not gear box entirety. CCR just did a new batch of the Stealth tranny conversion but are all sold out. The Stealth tranny is running $100+ these days. Would love to have one. Factory works just did a run on the old A&L Leathal Weapon tranny but also is sold out. I do have their steering upgrade kit. Just ordered the entire kit from shapeways for my Super Hornet and the next order will be for my King Cab. In your video for the Baja Bandit you talk about not knowing why the chrome scoop was on the roll bar. In the pic you showed in this video you can see it. The radiators are relocated to the back and the scoop - sccops air for the radiator. Really big on Roger Mears Nissan race trucks. If you want to see more Nissan King Cab race trucks look up Spencer Low, Roger Mears, Mario Elesi, Team Duron and Jim Conner was probably the biggest name. Team Blue Groove has also done a body of the old 720 P/U of Jim Conner's. If you want to know more come check out my FB group. facebook.com/groups/353563235380876/?ref=share_group_link

An alternative solution is to use the Axial SCX10 V1 transmission. That came out 14 years ago along with the AX10. Parts can still be found, third part companies even make comple gearboxes with slipper clutch. Both plastic version like the first stock one, or in full alloy. Plenty on ebay ranging from 15 to 50 bucks ish. With that you only need to make the adapter plate and the top mount to the chassis. If the diff outputs is 5mm like the orginal, use drive cups from the 1:14 Tamiya trucks. Also used on TLT crawler. That's my plan to convert my Lunchbox to IRS as I don't own a King Cab.

I still have my Blackfoot. The body is gone. But I have an original Brat body in its place. The transmission on my truck held up all these years with routine maintenance. But the drive shafts were crap. The octagonal ends stripped in no time. I replaced them with the ball and pin drive shafts that seem to be standard these days. My brother-in-law had done the same mod to his Brat.

My first car was the superhornet I loved that thing I was a neighborhood legend all the other kids had tyco and radio shake

Sweet driving Ace! You should put a skidplate along the bottom to do coping grinds.

I have a just as old Taiyo 4x4 Racing Pick Up (Same shell as the Bandit) and going to give it a King Cab paint job! And that will probably then be a shelf queen!

I had that exact same RC booklet in 5th grade and that exact pic made me want a King Cab sooo bad; those scale looks and the vintage Sees aluminum wheels!!! Alas, I received a Tamiya Bullhead that Xmas… I desperately hope Tamiya rereleases this truck!!!

I used to love that look of that truck! Always wanted one! My monster beetle was still better :)

It does look good ripping around in that park. Jumps and glides real nice.

I want the side track into the Stadium Blitzer and maybe it’s rare upgraded clone, the Furaba FXT. They were definitely better than the King or Hilux on the track. I’m admittedly biased, it was my only new RC Car growing up.

I still have the king cab rolling chassis from many years ago, I fitted the special astute gearbox that came out too, I loved this truck 😎🙌🏼

Looks amazing at the skate park!

AMPRO Engineering hits the skatepark and going fast as F...? OK, now i have seen everything! This was a nice run and it was visible that you had fun. i'm looking forward to buy my first Tamiya rc car, at the age of almost 40😅 but i have to find something for under 100$/€

It's always tempting to get any Tamiya.

Thank you so much for sharing. I know that the King Cab is a special one to you and thankfully, one of your earlier videos about the king cab led me down the path of getting the Stealth Trans adapter from RCC. I got mine out a few times with a brushless set up but yanked that out after a few runs. Since then, I've been going with a brushed motor and ran it on a buddies backyard track. I might have to try it out of the skatepark now...

Looks right at home bashing around the skatepark

Great video man! I’ve got both variants and have used your parts to make them more reliable, even found the stealth upgrade because of you!

I’d love to have one of these. A piece of my childhood RC car action memories

I think a lot of the old kits are cool.i have the rerelease black foot and it’s a blast to drive.i put lunch box tires on it and mip diff as well as your stainless part to brace the rear arm.

Really interesting history and truck. I was gifted an original Astute when they first came out and I've always hated the gearbox in it, but I've never had problems with it other than the aluminium pinion supplied with it, only ever ran 540s though.

Amazing video! Just trying to get my King Cab back to working order. Not giving up!

I really like the Buyer's Guide and the My Car series, there's so much interesting and useful information in your video. I wonder if TAMIYA would one day rerelease the kingcab or hilux, since they already rereleased a bunch of old cars in recent years.

Awesome! Really love that running at the skate park 👌🏻

The King Cab was my first vehicle and I wish Tamiya would re release it! Never understood we they don’t!

Come on tamiya !! Re re this thing already !!

I still have a 100% original one, I purchased with my first ever pay cheque

Great running video! Thanks for the review and info also. I just finished rebuilding my runner with some modest upgrades to make the gearbox more robust. I think back in the day as you stated, parts were more readily available to upgrade or swap out the tranny. Not so anymore. Two of the main upgrades you can do with the existing tranny is to drop in a modified gear diff from the Avante (still in production) and an aluminum A1 gear carrier to help maintain the mesh of the spur gear to counter gear. It can be a fun truck to drive as you’ve shown. Have you you ever tried it on a dirt/bmx track?

Love the buyers guide videos👍

I think Kyosho had the Sandmaster with stadium truck body on it, then they did an Ultima version I think? The Sandmaster had a lot of Ultima parts on it.

I drive mine regularly, BUT i reshim the average ball diff every couple of runs..! Fun though...

Looks cool

I love tamiya

Ive been eyeing that jurassic park diorama with the jeep… tell me you’re going to make that rc

My king Cab body crushed so easy over a few jumps in the back yard

this truck is so beautiful , they need a 2.0 version .........with thicker body

Im glad youtube recommended me this video but im still not over the fact that you payed shapeway over $300 for a fake speaker for your Ford Pinto

Lol omg that's the last place I'd take my box art king cab too. 🤷‍♂️😂

I really appreciate your video mate. I was lucky enough to just purchase a Toyota Hilux monster truck. I'd love to know the motor and esc you used for it. Thanks in advance!

I hope tamiya could rereleast this!

Is there a Astute video coming? Buyers guide pref.. 🐱

Thanks for educating me ob this RC. I got a Kyosho Ultima Outlaw Truck so this would have been a competioner back in the days. Do you know if these ultima trucks got raced and how they hold uo against rc10 t ? Keep doing what you're doing 👍

can you make a front bulkhead for yokomo mr4bc please

👍 Nice

Interesting. Any chance of doing a video on the TA/DF chassis?

I would break dog-bones all the time in mine. love this thing.

When is Tamiya going to get around to re-reing this????

I want one of those bodies.

What’s up with their gearboxes always

nice video! where can we get the the reproduction body? tim?

Somebody got pissed at the park, Geez

I don't like the look of those teenagers, best we go back inside.

15:15 forse è troppo traffico? However, the King Cab is not a racing truck, its natural place is the open pit mining quarry with big climbs, big descents, big jumps. The King Cab is a stunt truck, not a racing truck. I abused mine for a long time in a mining quarry with 5 meters high jumps and hard climbs, it never broke for months, and it was already a vintage truck at the era. I never like skateparks because the concrete surface is too hard and you break the model easily but on dirt the King Cab was terribly fast, reliable and fun with supernatural climbing skills and monstrous jumping skills. I've crashed it hard with so much violence and speed so many times it's impossible to count. It just never broke. I used a Beetle lexan body on it because the round shape of the bodywork helped the car roll back onto its wheels more easily. After several months of this life I broke the bathtub chassis between the front suspension mount and the steering. The King Cab was almost divided into two parts. I made a plastic brace, bolted it to the frame and the King Cab started again as before. I also used Monster Beetle tires which are larger and with more gyro effect. What fun, I was able to drive the King Cab through the air during the jumps simply by braking, accelerating and steering. I have used the KingCab for so long and intensely that I was able to completely wear out the tires of the Monster Beetle twice until it made holes, tore them apart and broke the sides. And if you know those tires you can understand what I'm talking about. After several months of this extreme use, the differential was gone, but I was really amazed at how long it lasted and what kind of abuse it loaded before breaking. Now the car is still a racer and partially restored, I replaced the chassis years ago and installed a belt drive with slippery clutch and serious ball differential but is currently retired. I always dream of a reissue of this model. This is, without a doubt, the best model I have ever driven in my entire life. The following Tamiya model that replaced the King Cab was the Wild Dagger, in my opinion, but it wasn't on par with the King Cab. Wild Dagger was heavier, more complex, over engineered, with no climbing skills (and it is a double motor 4WD!!!) , worse steering system, horrible shock absorbers and suspensions, vary bad weight balance, no ground clearance, poor jumping ability. Sorry, no way. I worked a lot on my Wild Dagger and improved it a lot, now it's fast, with long suspension, hi ground clearance, better weight balance, lighter, faster with a decent steering system and a carbon plate chassis but it stays very far from the outstanding performance of the King Cab.

Ya but that's a skatepark don't be holding up skateboarders cause of an rc at va skatepark