The latest release from Tamiya is kit number 58366, the Double Blaze. The Double Blaze is a big offroad truck that has twin motors for lots of power and torque.

Using a similar chassis to the Wild Dagger the truck has a motor mounted in the front and one in the rear. Connected to a gear-train mechanism the power from the two motors is driven to the wheels in a 4 wheel drive motion.

A sturdy ABS monocoque chassis allows the kit to be extremely durable, and oversize chromed wheels and tyres give the car it's offroad agility and clearance.

Topped off with a Monster Truck style pickup bodyshell adorned with Tamiya and Double Blaze logos.

Unfortunately for the racers out there this latest kit is more of the same rather than a huge leap forward from Tamiya. But it will undoubtably be great fun whilst doing it!

Tamiya have just released a brand new offroad racing buggy called the Sand Viper, based on the DT-02 chassis seen on previous models. Kit number 58374 features independent suspension arms and comes complete in the kit with oil filled dampers (a welcome addition to the Tamiya buggies).

The suspension also featrues double ended shafts allowing complete camber adjustment for optimum handling and performance. Metal drive shafts and axles ensure durability offroad, and a longitudinally mounted battery gives optimum weight distribution.

The car is a 4WD shaft driven model, and uses spike tyres on the rear and old style ribbed tyres on the front. The model is finished on the boxart in yellow with a whole raft of decals applied.

In terms of styling the car looks very much like many other Tamiya buggies such as the Top Force and Baja King/Champ cars, although promises to be much more for those racers out there.

Tamiya seem to be finally trying to get their act together to return to their modelling roots, and the latest in the F1 style cars proves that very well.

Kit number 58376 will be based on the F103GT chassis and will feature a gorgeous looking Courage LC70 Mugen Le-mans car. The car is based on the 2006 car built by Courage in France for the Le-Mans race and will feature a extremely highly detailed bodyset.

The F103GT chassis is based on the old F103 chassis and features an FRP double deck chassis, with top mounted friction damper, lightweight independant suspension and link style arms. The chassis is a rear wheel drive car and weighs in at an incredible 700g, so it is very fast with high stability and performance.

The bodyset for this kit is very much in the Le-Mans style and features a very low and very aerodynamic shape, a huge rear spoiler and also a driver sitting in the cockpit. Finished in the normal Advan colours of red and black it will look very cool when out there racing on the track.

Expected price in the UK will be approx £120.

For those of you who want to know more information on the car it is based on...
The car features a V8 engine from Mugen themselves (Mugen MF458 S V8), with a mid-longditudinally mounted placement. It is 4.488 litres, 4 volves, DOHC and fuel injected. The car is rear wheel drive (just like the Tamiya kit!), with paddle operated 6 speed gearbox. It weighs 925kg.

Unfortunately for the LC70 it came 38th in the Le-Mans competition this year and had to retire due to gearbox problems, after only 171 laps.

Tamiya have just released the third car in their brand new TamTech Gear series of cars (in Japan on 22nd July). The latest vintage off roader to be giving the 1/15th treatment is the Fox.

The TamTech gear cars from Tamiya are miniture versions of 1/10th originals that are marketed at younger audiences, and is to meet the current trend of miniture RC'ing. Tamiya did originally dabble is miniture RC models back in the 1980's with the original series of TamTech cars that were 1/24th and 1/18th in scale. The 1/24th models were very nice sports cars and included the Porsche 959, the Ferrari Testarossa, Lambo Countach and a few others. The 1/18th models included mainly F1 focused cars and did not sell anywhere near as well. That series never actually did that well as some people now believe that the cars were a little ahead of their time and people weren't interested in small cars, especially as the technology then meant a small car was a simpler car.

Back to the present and Tamiya are giving it another go with these TemTech Gear cars. Technology has now moved on sufficiently to allows scaled down representation of the originals with semi-pneumatic tyres, dampered suspension, and big motors. The cars also have lots of hop-ups available for them to give the driver lots of options for beating their mates on the track.

The Fox TamTech is actually going to more authentic to the original with yellow damper cylinders and will feature gold wheels (which were a hop-up on the original Fox). The last car to be released was the Hornet TamTech which was less impressive as it was identical to the Frog apart from the shell itself.

The bodyshells are also being released by Tamiya and so drivers can switch between Frog and Fox if they so desire.

We actually have got a Frog in stock here at Lightwater Models that we are keeping for our own collection. After having a look at the car itself we have decided that Tamiya have excelled themselves with these ones! The build quality of the cars is VERY high, and the detail on them too is amazing. They come packaged in quite a small box and include full size controllers, batteries and a charger (although ours is a Japanese style charger..)

The truck that everyone in the Tamiya communicty is talking about was showcased at the Shizouka hobby show in Japan in the last few days. Some brand new pictures have been released that give a bit more detail on how the truck may look when it finally goes into production at the Tamiya factories.

The truck has had a few changes to the bodyset with the lights on the rollbar now being yellow, and with a little bit more chrome appearing on the bumper section. Apart from that it looks to be very much in the style of the preview we saw a few weeks back.

Also shown at the show was a spare bodyset, although it is unclear whether the spare bodyset is indicating that Tamiya will release the body as spare part, or will bundle two bodies with the truck kit. But what is certain is that the new orange bodyset looks VERY cool with flames licking the bonnet and dragon style pictures along the side.

The other exciting thing from the show is the new picture below that shows the chassis of the new truck, and here at Lightwater Models we reckon it looks like quite an interesting unit. We would not be surprised to see the kit include a pre-assembled gearbox looking at the picture.

This is looking like it will be the best kit to come from Tamiya for quite a number of years!!

The Ford F350 will appear as kit 58372 later in the year.

Tamiya are set to release one of the most eagerly awaited and highly interesting model trucks that they have done for nearly 15 years!

At the Shizouka Hobby Show in Japan on the 18th-21st May they will unveil the new Ford F350 High-Lift truck.

Kit number 58372 will officially be called the Ford F350 High-Lift. The new kit will feature a ladder frame chassis with leaf spring suspension along with long metal dampers for optimum off-road handling. It will also include a 3 speed transmission with a slipper clutch for a durable drive train when running offroad. It is also understood that the car will be 4x4x4, so will feature full time 4 wheel drive, and also 4 wheel steering!

The bodyshell for the truck will be the same as featured on the Juggernaul II a few years back, with a few minor changes. Notably the front grill section is now chromed and the rear bed of the car will be a lifting section (where the High-Lift part of the name comes from).

The pictures we have here are of the prototype of the car and some details may change between now and the production run. The kit will feature many parts similar to the original Bruiser and Mountaineer but will be slightly lighter on metal. (The original 3 speed kits actually had so much metal on them that they took quite a lot of effort from the motor to drive the car.) The new kit will have more metal parts than the average Tamiya kit but has replaced some parts with lighter and more durable plastic differences.

Apparently the truck started as an idea by an employee of Tamiya USA. He built a truck from spares for other kits with a Juggernault 2 body, and Mr Tamiya in Japan liked it so much he thought it was a good idea for a new truck!

This represents quite a big milestone in Tamiyas current release lineup. Over the last 5 years the perception by customers of Tamiya RC kits has slipped a little due to them focusing on easy releases, such as the Subaru Imprezas which Tamiya have released 11 Imprezas over the last 10 years. They have also come in for a lot of complaint with the recent set of reissued Hornet, Grasshopper, Top Force, Lunch Boxe, Thunder Shot and Manta Ray kits, as they have HEAVILY devalued the originals.

This new kit therefore should help change the perception for people of Tamiya. They are making a next generation 3 speed kit without devaluing the old ones. It also has a very cool bodyset on it, as the Ford F350 is a super cool offroad truck, and the amount of engineering and detail gone into the design looks currently to be very high.

The kit will also have a multi function unit appearing later in 2006 for it. Currently it is not understood what it will do, but it is assumed that it will add headlights and roll bar lights perhaps, with sounds for the engine, some people also think it may add vibration to the truck to mimic the effect of a running engine!

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After a number of years where Tamiya have not released any new kits with Audi bodysets we now have two come along. This kit features the bodyset of the Audi A4 that competes in the German DTM 2005 race series. The Siemens/Vodafone livery of the car gives it a very modern and menacing look that is based on the current Audi A4 road car.

The kit will feature a standard TT01 chassis and will include silver spoked wheels for that high level of realism. The body will come pre-painted in the kit. It will also feature plastic molded parts for the large rear spoiler and also the wing mirrors which is a welcome return to form for Tamiya (after trying to cheapen the models by removing the mirrors).

The kit is released in Japan now and is kit no 58363.

A brand new super cool looking high performance buggy will go on sale in Japan on April 1st. Dark Impact from Tamiya will be kit number 58370 and has an estimated price of £135.

The kit is based on a brand new chassis from the DF lineup. The new DF-03 chassis is based on the DF-02 but improved for more performance.



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Tamiya are set to revive the old Tamtech brand for some new cars due in 2006. The new series of cars branded Tamtech-Gear are at first going to feature small version of the vintage buggies.

The first car to go on sale will be kit no 56701 which will be the Frog. The new Tamtech-Gear Frog will 266mm (it's bigger brother is 410mm) which my our reckoning means the car is going to be a 1/15th scale version.

The Tamtech Frog looks to be a good replica of the larger version with the same style wheels and tyres and also the bodyset with rear wing. The damper positions are extremely different and look much more like the Top Force style dampers so expect a Manta Ray/Top Force Tamtech in the future as well.

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Tamiya are set to release their first new M-Chassis car for almost 2 years! The brand new kit (number 58368) is of the Suziki Swift Super 1600 and is actually modelled on the European racing car.

The racing car is yellow with sponsor decals from Shell and Sanyo among others. It will be mated with the brand new M03M chassis, the first vehicle to use the M variant. (Previous M03 cars have been the Rover Mini and BMW Mini using the normal M03 and M03L respectively).

The new M03M chassis is a 225mm wheelbase and is thought to be based on the normal M03 with the insertion piece from the FF02 in it (part no. 50799). The kit will come with 8 ball bearings as standard and with lightweight uprights front and rear for increased performance.

The M03M will be the same setup as the original with front wheel drive, front wheel steering along a square chassis frame. 4 dampers, one on each arm will keep the car stable (although it is not know if they will equip the car with oil dampers or coil spring ones at the moment).

Here at Lightwater Models we think this is likely to be a cracking little car!! We are expecting the retail of the car to be approximately £80.