There were two models released on the King Cab chassis by Tamiya: The 58081 Nissan King Cab in 1989 and the 58086
Toyota Hilux Monster Racer in 1990. I've wanted both for a long
time, but both are unicorns; you aren't going to find them outside of a
mystical woodland. The Toyota body was used again for the 58136
Toyota Prerunner in 1994. It no longer exists either. Then
along came MST, a Chinese company, with a
Monster Truck using what appears to be the same body with nearly the
same livery (apart from not actually saying Toyota). And it's
actually possible that this is a genuine Tamiya body because some of
MST's trail kits are offered with Tamiya bodies. The old King Cab
was a 2WD chassis derived from the Astute and is therefore essentially a
buggy chassis with bug wheels on it. MST's MTX-1, on the other
hand, is a real scale monster truck with a full cage chassis, 4-link
suspension, and solid axles. I have several other MST models and
have found them to be excellent, so this purchase was a no-brainer for
me. I was able finally get something that looks like the Monster
Racer but on an even better chassis.There was a problem though. This model is offered as both a kit and an RTR, but I could only find the RTR available in the USA. That wouldn't necessarily be a huge problem except that they are not actually the same vehicle. The RTR is a 2WD model with four shocks and the kit is a 4WD model with eight shocks. Clearly I wanted the more deluxe version. I was able to order the RTR locally and then buy a 4WD conversion kit directly from MST and I came up with another solution for adding more shocks. While doing modifications, I also took the opportunity to add some more upgrades and I completely swapped out the poor RTR electronics with a high powered brushless system. The results were excellent.
In keeping with my new process for making RTR models acceptable to me, I immediately disassembled the entire truck and rebuilt it from scratch. Because it is also offered as a kit, I was able to just download the instruction manual and use that directly. It worked perfectly.
This turned out to be a great truck. Unlike most RC's which are branded as Monster Trucks, this actually has a chassis, suspension, and proportions that work like the real thing. With the brushless system, it pulls effortless wheelies even on 2s. And to top it all off (literally), is that excellent Toyota body. I'd highly recommend this model.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
