The original 58067
Thunder Shot came out in 1987 as the 4th generation Tamiya 4WD buggy
chassis after the original Hot Shot, Boomerang, and Bigwig (which were all based on the Hot Shot). It had
only been 2 years since the 58047
Hot Shot had brought 4WD to the masses. This new chassis would be
used for several other buggies for the next 2 years before being
relegated to history until the Thunder Shot was re-released in 2005 with
minimal changes. It was 2018 before I found myself looking for
the model that was merely 13 years old rather than the original which
would be 31 years old. Even so, it proved impossible to find and I
was forced to resort to heroic measures to reproduce this beauty.This model has four wheel double wishbone suspension, but the front is not quite independent since the left and right sides share a single shock absorber. The main chassis is a bathtub type with front and rear modular gearboxes which assemble to it. The suspension arms are made from a softer blue plastic to absorb impacts. The shocks are early plastic CVA oil filled type. There is a front sway bar supplied as stock, but no ball bearings. Like most early buggies, there is a driver included.
I found the model to be quite quick and responsive for it's age with excellent traction. However, it only took me two days to break my first part. I really shouldn't be jumping vintage chassis cars, but I tried anyway and broke the front inboard suspension arm support. An easy part to replace, but it requires buying the whole A-part tree. I'll be more careful with this one in the future. I did eventually locate a sheet metal reinforcement for the fragile A5 part and added it to all my Thundershot based models.
Having not known this model as a kid and now looking at the pictures as an adult, I never found this to be a particularly appealing model. But now that I've built one I've changed my mind. I really like the color scheme and the body shape. I also like the contrast provided by the blue suspension arms and yellow shocks.
Update: This model was re-released again in 2022 as 58706 so if I'd been willing to wait I could have acquired it much more easily. From what I can tell, they didn't change much from the 2005 release except updated CVA dampers and an aluminum motor mount. Despite another 17 years of innovation, they still couldn't be bothered to fix the weak A5 part though.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
 Page 1: Assembly |
 Page 2: Final Photos |