What
an odd story. Some time in the late 1980's or early 1990's,
Tamiya's German distributor Tamico decided to take a Grasshopper II,
paint it red, and put Blackfoot tires on it. The resulting
Frankenstein's monster was terrible, but not as terrible as the
Grasshopper II itself because the wider stance gave it more stability
and the bouncy tires gave it more cushion. Somehow the resulting
video got back to Tamiya and they thought it was such a great idea that
they made it into the 58205
Mad Bull in 1997. They kept the Grasshopper II body and Blackfoot
tires but replaced the chassis with the newer (but equally terrible)
DT-01 chassis. This still uses the Grasshopper rear axle but has a
540 motor and something very slightly closer to real shocks in
front. Voila, something both hideous and awful to drive at the
same time, a combination which only Tamiya could make into fun.
They re-released the Mad Bull in 2011 with exactly the same number and,
so far as I can tell, no changes. This makes it somewhat difficult
to tell which version you have, but the fact that mine came with a
TBLE-02s speed controller confirms my copy as a re-re. You might
expect that the original from 1997 used a mechanical speed controller,
but it never did. An Adspec system was recommended for the
original buggy.This is a very simple 2WD model with only a handful of parts and no complex building steps. This shows in the handling which is far less than refined. The rear end uses a solid axle with a gear differential and the front end uses independent swing arms. The shocks are friction dampers with no relevant damping. It is pretty quick though, and very sturdy so just right for a newbie. The body shell is hard plastic and comes molded in white so it does needs to be painted.
The model is oddly fun to drive despite its numerous flaws. You might say that they give it charm. I did replace the plastic bushings with ball bearings and I'll probably come back in the future and try to fit some oil shocks. CVA oil shocks are an inexpensive option but don't come in red. The famous Hi-Cap aluminum dampers were an option back in the day, but to get them now you can expect to spend more than the entire kit.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
 Page 1: Assembly |
 Page 2: Final Photos |