Kyosho Tomahawk Project

The 2WD Kyosho Scorpion came out in 1982 and the Tomahawk which was derived from it in 1983. It took 31 years for Kyosho to update and re-release the Scorpion in 2014 and, just like the first time, the Tomahawk followed a year later in 2015.  I first built the Scorpion in 2020 but I resisted the Tomahawk because I viewed it as just a Scorpion with a different body.  While that is partially true, I'm happy to have succumbed to temptation and finally built the Tomahawk to fully explore the differences.

I'm not a Kyosho historian (unfortunately) so I don't know what all the differences were in the '80s, but I can comment on the differences in the modern incarnations.  The chassis is the same as the Scorpion which uses front 4-bar trailing arms like a VW Beetle (and like the earlier Tamiya SRB chassis) and rear semi-trailing arm suspension.  The same twin rail aluminum chassis as the Scorpion is also used, but the plastic body tub is replaced with a pair of FRP decks.  The wheels are the same size but have cross holes and the tires are medium compound instead of hard.  There are also cosmetic changes such as a smaller front bumper, rear simulated heat sink, and red shock bodies instead of silver.  The body is obviously different and now includes scale details like rooftop lights, side mirrors, and exhaust tips.  The wing from the Scorpion has been lost, but it was unlikely to have ever been functional in the first place so probably doesn't make any difference.  In fact, I suspect none of the changes between the Tomahawk and the Scorpion would be detectable to a driver like me.  I did build mine to use a lithium battery though, and even I can notice that.