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I’ve decided to treat myself with a fresh kit build, and while I’m down to build any kit from any brand (and I wish every brand offered more kits), the peak kit-building experience for me is a bench session with a Tamiya car. I love the line-art manuals, I love the parts quality, and I love Tamiya’s frequently funky design and engineering choices.
But man, which kit do I choose? Even with the limiting factor of a $200-ish budget, there are a ton of options to choose from. And what you see here isn’t even half of what Tamiya offers for wrenching fans. Let’s take a look at what I’ve got on my list, and maybe you can help me make the call.
I’m liking the BBX because, as one of the few Tamiya platforms I’ve never assembled before, it’ll be an entirely new building experience for me. Making it even more novel, the design is unlike virtually every other buggy out there. Rear trailing arms? A ball differential? Scale styling with a driver figure and window nets? Count me in.
I do wish the driver figure were a new molding more in scale with the car, and I prefer the roll cage were a clipped-on decorative element rather than screwed to the chassis, if only for ease of cleaning and maintenance. But neither of these are deal breakers, and the BBX is definitely a front-runner.
No brand does scale quite like Tamiya, and these spins on Toyota’s classic 4X4 and Ford’s 21st-century update of its own off-road legend are very well-rendered here (above the axles, at least – I don’t fault Tamiya or any brand for not going full-replica for the mechanicals). The CC-02 platform’s wheelbase allows Tamiya to deliver authentic 2-door proportions, and there’s no skimping on the details.
Compared to the 1/10 scale trail truck offerings from Traxxas, Axial, and Element (among others), the slightly smaller, less performance-focused CC-02s will be at a real disadvantage for rugged trail work … which I am not concerned with in the least. I’m just in it for the build, and low-effort walking-path cruising is about as much of a challenge as I’d be giving these guys.
Get the CC-02 Bronco and Toyota Landcruiser here and here
I’ve never owned a FAV, which is kind of nuts since I’ve wanted one ever since it first joined the Tamiya lineup way back in 1984. It just looks like a ton of fun to build and detail the driver/gunner and his spring-mounted M50 machine gun, and I dig the old-school trailing arm suspension setup – for looks, anyway. Don’t expect much from those nail-inside-a-spring “shocks.”
I don’t love that this one would be more shelf queen than runner (at least for off-road action), but then again, I could bolt on the oil shocks from the Wild One. And now I can’t stop thinking about it. Hmmm.
Get the Fast Attack Vehicle here
I’m all about the hard body here, painting and detailing the HCT just looks like a real treat. And those turbine wheels, so good. Plus, I’ve always been a Honda City fan, ever since the real thing caught kid-me’s attention with the stowaway Motocompo minibike that tucks into the trunk – see it here in static-model form, another Tamiya kit I’d love to build.
The HCT is another model that would see a lot more shelf time than play time, if only because I wouldn’t want to scar up the beautiful injection-molded body. But having it on the shelf in my office would look pretty rad.
The Super Astute would be a nostalgia score for me, I just thought it looked the business back in the day. And while it would hardly be an A-Main contender in 2025, it would be plenty of fun to wheel on an off-road track (especially with modern rubber). It’s vintage through and through, but from the era when trackable RC buggies were no longer fun-first cars that drivers had to adapt for racing, but were instead engineered from the start with track-bred features.
Make no mistake, I love me some Super Astute, but it probably scratches my “that’s neat!” itch the least of all the cars that made the list. Also, the aggressively early-nineties graphics aren’t really doing it for me in 2025. Still want one, but maybe it’s not the one for this particular treating-myself mission.
Aaaand straight after the Super Astute we arrive at another early-90s buggy blast. I have a huge soft spot for the Top-Force because it’s basically the ultimate Manta Ray, the buggy that birthed the TA-01 and TA-02. I’ve always loved these platforms with their neat front and rear escape-hatch gearboxes and wire propshaft 4WD system. Just plain fun to build, you get the trick FRP chassis, and the styling is peak Japanese anime spaceship. I dig it.
The only real downside for the Top-Force is all on me, not the car: I don’t have a good spot to really enjoy it the way it’s meant to be driven. But the building experience and fun of just having it in my collection would still go a long way.
The Tyrrell P34 stunned the racing world with its bizarro six-wheel setup, and to me represents the peak of F1 innovation before the era of wind tunnels, computer-aided design, and all that. Just imagination, drafting pencils, and slide rules here, baby. Tamiya’s model of the classic racer looks amazing on its steamroller foam tires, and this one’s another hard-body offering that I could really get into detailing.
I do wish the P34 had more going on underneath that beautiful body. It’s basically a pan car with an extra pair of front wheels, so the chassis build would brief. Fun, but brief.
The VQS (Vanquish, originally) hits a few big, red, flashing buttons for me. First and foremost, I had the original and loved it. Second, it was a lot of fun to build and drive with its, hmmm, let’s say enthusiastically engineered 4WD drivetrain and suspension. And if you’re thinking “looks kinda like an economy Avanti,” well, you’re pretty much right. And the third button? I’m just a sucker for an enclosed cockpit.
I’m having trouble remembering what I don’t like about the VQS, TBH. Oh, now I remember: the $350-plus pricetag. So much for my $200-ish cap. The VQS packs in plenty of parts and features (including a full set of ball bearings) to make the price perfectly reasonable, but more money is more money. Maybe I could mow a few lawns …
I owned a Wild Willy 2000. I loved my WW2K. I would like to love another WW2K. It’s a fun little wheelie machine, but this time I really want to go hard on the painting and detailing. The cartoonified Jeep body is fantastic (never mind the horizontal grille slots), and Willy himself is a full-body figure that I can see myself pouring time into.
Tamiya does a lot of the building for you with this one, going so far as to put the gearbox together before heat-shrinking the box. That’s less kit-building for me, I wanted to do that myself! But I’d probably pull the gearbox apart to replace the bushings with bearings, so I guess I’d get my wrenching time back.
Which Would YOU Choose?
Honestly, I could have added ten more models to this list, easy – just take a look at all of Tamiya’s offerings on the TT-02 chassis, for starters. Choosing one from this list is not easy, so I’ll be keeping my eyes out for your suggestions in the comments of the social posts for this article. No matter what the final call is, you’ll see it go together from start to finish here at RCDriver.com. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to tighten the chin-strap on my thinking cap and get to work.
