Tamiya Blackfoot 2016 Review





The Tamiya Blackfoot, originally released in 1986, is an iconic RC truck that has provided many positive memories for many of us. As I stated in one of my previous articles, “Reliving the excitement of your first RC”, the Blackfoot was my first real hobby grade RC vehicle. Building it in my basement, at the age of ten, is one of, if not the, fondest childhood memory.

I know there are many of you who have had wonderful memories, and maybe even gotten your start into RC, with the Tamiya Blackfoot. This rerelease will excite many RC enthusiasts.

Through the years I have searched for an original Blackfoot, which I finally did find. A completely original 1986 model Blackfoot. I was very excited to purchase that truck, but there was still something missing that I was really wanting to do. I wanted to build a Blackfoot again. Unfortunatley, original unopened Blackfoots were outrageous in price, so that dream didn’t happen, until now.

The Tamiya Blackfoot rerelease has allowed me to build my childhood RC truck all over again. I know many of you reading this review are also excited to be able to build the original version of the Blackfoot. Well, lets get right into it shall we? Let’s open up that beautiful box. Tamiya artwork is amazing isn’t it?

WHAT’S INSIDE?

The inside of the box is as well thought out as the outside. All the parts are well packaged and organized for easy reference.

Does anyone recognize any of these parts? I do! You’ll also notice a few different parts, we’ll get to those later in the review.

THE BUILD

Building the Blackfoot 2016 was every bit enjoyable as I thought it would be. Tamiya instructions are graphic heavy and easy to follow. All the parts trees are labelled by letter and the individual parts on those trees are labelled by number. The included hardware is divided into several labelled bags and it’s a breeze telling what screw you actually need, thanks to their scale hardware guide listed on the instruction manual at each step of the build.

The build went very well with all plastic parts fitting as they should. The quality of Tamiya plastics is superb and the finish is exactly what you would expect from a scale model company.

The main tool needed to assemble the Blackfoot 2016 is a phillips head screw driver. A 4-way hex wrench, which fits all the nuts, is included with the kit. I’ve documented each step of the build visually, so you can follow along. You can also check out the many videos below. I’ll make some comments below where needed as most of the build went perfectly.

The manual tells you to mount the ESC on the side of the steering servo. I’m using a Futaba servo I had in my drawer for a few months. Mounting the ESC this way keeps everything neat and under the dust cover. After completing this step however, the very next page in the manual says to mount the ESC next to the receiver on the top of the chassis. After pondering for a moment, I decided to stick with the first option. It’s neater and the chassis design still allows plenty of air to pass over the ESC cooling fins.



A combination of ball bearings and oillite brass bushings is used in the gear box. Ceramic grease is included with the kit and should be used on the gears. A small container of “Anti Wear” grease is also included with the kit, but it’s far too sticky to be used in the gear box. The instructions call for the ceramic grease to be used in the gearbox and the Anti Wear grease to be used on the axle joints.

You can see in the picture the black plastic skid plate, which the instruction call to be installed on the bottom of the gear box. Although this wasn’t included in the 1986 Blackfoot kit, it should do a great job protecting the bottom of the gearbox from scuffs.

The instructions called for some o-rings to be inserted into the diff outdrive cups before inserting the dog bones. Once the rear suspension was assembled, I noticed some serious binding in the suspension. While compressing the rear suspension, it would bind terribly at the mid point, and with added pressure click past the binding point to complete its travel. The added thickness of the rubber o-rings didn’t allow the dog bone axles to seat all the way inside the outdrive cups causing binding in the suspension, as if the axles were too long while in mid travel. The main issue I see with this, other than a less than smooth suspension, is unwanted stress to the trailing arms and trailing arm capture plates (seen under the rear of the lay-down shocks). These black plastic capture plates hold in the rear trailing arms at the pivot point and have been a weak point in the rear suspension from the release of the original Blackfoot in 1986. I certainly don’t want to add another stressor to these components, so I removed the extra o-rings, which completely solved the binding issues. I’m not sure, however, if the o-rings are necessary for adding “squeezing” pressure on the differential. I know in the past, the original Blackfoot differential had some issues with stripping, however this was mainly due to flex in the two metal plates that make up the gear box while using upgraded more powerful motors. This flex allowed the differential sides to separate enough to strip the planetary gears. I don’t remember having any differential issues in the 80s while running the stock motor and I upgraded to a thorp ball differential when I upgraded my motor for racing. I’m going to leave the rubber o-rings out for testing. I guess we’ll see what happens. I’m more concerned with the added strain from the o-rings leading to broken trailing arm brackets than I am a stripped diff.





Well, I’ve got the wheels installed using the included plastic bushings, two on each wheel. The front bushings fit into the front rims and the rear bushings fit into the rear trailing arms. Total build time for the chassis was 5 1/2 hours. This of course included me stopping to take pictures, communicating with my camera man, and changing out memory cards.

Now that the chassis is complete, it’s time to finish the body. I decided not to paint the body with black paint. The black plastic was shiny enough and the truck bed was already a flat black. I wanted to mimic the truck when I first built it in 1986, so I just added some silver paint around the front window trim, and door handles, and accented the chrome grill and light bezels with flat black paint. I also added a bit of white to the headlights, and amber to the turn signals.

Rambling Ron was looking a bit dull, so I painted him up to sort of match the box art. I painted his shirt white with blue undertones. I decided to give him a mustache for that classic 80’s look. I may need to fix his mouth a bit, he almost looks like Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau from the Pink Panther. Bonjour, now I will capture that jewel thief. I shall run over Le pink paw with Le Blackfoot! Or maybe he’s just lonely…kissy kissy. Yes. I already know I’m a dork.

Now it’s time for the most fun part of the entire build, placing decals. Tamiya has included a beautiful set of very high quality decals. The decals are thick and glossy. The only thing needed to do before applying them, is to cut them out. I used a pair of sharp straight scissors for most of the trimming, and a pair of curved body scissors to cut around the wheel wells and other curved areas.

When placing the large red decals on the sides of the body, the front one goes on easily. The rear fender, however, has many curves and different angles. Separating the yellow pin stripe from the large red decal makes it easier to apply without creasing. First apply the red decal on the rear fender, then apply the yellow pinstripe keeping equal height from the red. Doing it this way helps to avoid creases in the yellow pinstripe.

SHOWROOM

COMPARISON

It’s time to place the two trucks side by side and compare the original 1986 Blackfoot with the new Blackfoot 2016. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, there are some obvious cosmetic differences, as well as some performance upgrades. Let’s take a closer look at these two beautiful trucks.

Right off the bat, we see that the grill has changed. It looks as though they went with a billet aluminum after market grill, instead of the original 1980 Ford Ranger grill. The same billet style grill is found on the Blackfoot 3 truck as well as the full size Bigfoot 3 monster truck.

Also very noticeable, Tamiya didn’t ,or couldn’t, renew the expensive liscencing on this kit as they originally did on the 1986 version. The hard plastic body no longer has FORD molded into the hood or tailgate, and the BFGoodrich and KC Daylighter decals have also been replaced with Vice Crawler tires and Brite light logos. There are also some instances in the decals where the Ford logo was replaced with Tamiya inside a blue oval. While this may be a big deal to some, I think it just gives more value to the vintage Blackfoots out there and allows us all to enjoy both the old and the new. I’m sure some of you are also talented enough to create your own Ford emblems and glue them to the body.

It’s difficult to see in the picture, but the new light buckets on the Blackfoot 2016 are a bit smaller than the original ones. Don’t worry, if you like the look of the bigger light buckets, Tamiya has included them as well.

Tamiya has also updated the manual speed controller with an electronic ESC that will support both brushed and brushless motors. There’s even a sensor port for use with brushless sensored motors. The new speed controller mounts to the side of the steering servo, which allows it to be under the dust cover. The mechanical speed controller used to sit on a metal plate, which has been replaced by two internally threaded posts that span across the chassis as seen in the pictures. These posts do a good job of firming up the top of the chassis.

The Blackfoot 2016 comes with both oil filled and the original friction shock body components. This allows you to chooses between better handling oil filled shocks and the classic bouncy friction dampened shocks. Since I’ve already got a bouncy Blackfoot, I went with the oil filled shocks. Here’s a picture of the parts tree that includes the original friction dampened shocks.

The rear of the Blackfoot 2016 has a new addition. A plastic skid plate protects the bottom of the gear box. I believe this is also used on the monster beetle. It was on the same parts tree as some other Monster Beetle parts. That’s not surprising since the Monster Beetle was also recently rereleased.

The Blackfoot 2016 includes a Mabuchi 540 closed end bell brushed motor, similar to the one in the original kit.



The original hexagonal drive axles and diff cups have been upgraded to universal joints and dog bones on the Blackfoot 2016. These new axles should last longer than the older style. Rubber boots are still used to protect them and to help keep the grease in the axle joints, where it belongs.

As you can see in the images, even though there are some differences, it’s definitely a close version of the original Blackfoot RC truck. I do believe the new Blackfoot 2016 sits slightly taller than the original. This may be a result of the new bodies, or just sag in the vintage suspension.

PERFORMANCE

I must say, I had an incredible time building the Blackfoot and driving it was nothing short of fun. Even my son commented on how much fun the Blackfoot is to drive around the yard. It just doesn’t seem to get tiring.

As we all know, the Blackfoot comes with a brushed motor and is definitely not the fastest truck on the hobby shelf, but it offers much more than just speed. It allows us to tap into our childhood memories for a little while, whether we’d owned a Blackfoot or just drooled over it in the adds of the RC car magazines.

I’ve got to say, even with the oil filled shocks, the Blackfoot 2016 handles a lot like the 1986 model. Top heavy and bouncy. Ok, maybe a little less bouncy than the original, but it’s still not a luxury ride, but that’s a positive thing. That’s what makes vintage Tamiya so much fun.

While on throttle, weight is transferred to the rear of the truck causing spongy steering and when you let off the throttle, steering response returns with authority. Unfortunately, while trying to perform some quick “stop spins”, you know what I’m talking about, I rolled the truck over on the concrete. There weren’t any noticeable scratches on the cab, but a light bucket got dinged up pretty good. Oh well, the cost of fun.

The speed of the Blackfoot 2016, with ESC, is a tiny bit faster than the older model with mechanical speed controller. It was barely noticeable, but my older son, driving the vintage, mentioned his brother kept gaining on him.

While it was enjoyable driving the Blackfoot through the grass, navigating small obstacles is where the real fun is at. I think I had just as much fun, if not more, running over shoes inside the house. A couple books or magazines are a blast to watch the Blackfoot hop over, although the front tires have a tendency to get caught up when navigating obstacles in reverse.

The open gear differential allows the Blackfoot to corner sharply, but may make technical obstacles a bit more challenging. On some occasions the Blackfoot would get stuck allowing only one tire to spin. Rocking the truck back and forth usually freed it up, but on occasion, assistance from the giant man holding the controller is needed.

VIDEOS

Blackfoot UNBOXING

Blackfoot BUILD PT 1

Blackfoot BUILD PT 2

Blackfoot BUILD PT 3

Blackfoot ACTION

SUMMARY

The Blackfoot 2016 is an awesome experience and I’m thankful Tamiya released it, once again, for us Blackfoot monster truck enthusiasts to enjoy. Although I would have liked to see the new Blackfoot as a spitting image of the vintage one, I can appreciate the differences. The Blackfoot enthusiast in us gets to build this iconic kit again, or for the first time, while those who spent days, months, or years looking for a vintage Blackfoot, don’t need to worry about their prized possession losing value.

The Blackfoot 2016 is an absolute blast to both build and drive. My sons commented, especially my oldest boy, how much fun driving the Blackfoot really is. It was almost as if he was surprised. He’s right! Not only is it fun, it looks amazing. The proportions and stance of the Blackfoot have always impressed me, and the color scheme is outstanding! The Blackfoot has always been and always will be my favorite RC of all time. Thanks for reading this review, and I would love to read about your Blackfoot experiences in the comments below.

CREDITS

Tamiya America, Inc.

36 Discovery #200, Irvine, CA 92618

• Phone: (800) TAMIYA-A or (800) 826-4922

• Fax: (949) 362-2250

http://www.tamiyausa.com

