2:32 some of the old stuff is GREAT to see

Awesome video bro. I totally remember seeing all the order forms in the magazines back then. It was a cool time to grow up. Army vet here too. 11B 4th infantry Division Baumholder Germany 91/92, 7th. Infantry Ft Ord CA 92/94,

Full watch liked and hyped

I just built a rereleased Clod.
The body is molded in red, but every extra hole you talked about (extra servo, msc, resistor) is still there. Even the one for the Eco switch. Even the parts tree has the extra pieces to mount the servo for the msc lol Pretty sure its like 99.9% exactly like it was in '87.

Are you getting the re release?

Great video!  I can relate to what you said because I also bought a brand new Clod Buster when they were first released by Tamiya in 1987.  I still have that truck today, though it looks absolutely nothing like it did because everything has been modified on it.

At 2:05 you mentioned "That Clod Guy."  That's not just any old guy.  That's Klem Klubfoot, the cowboy that loves to punch rocks ("bust clods") and drives the all mighty 4x4x4 Clod Buster!  😂  I also thought that he looked a little silly, so I also never used that decal on my truck when it still had the stock body on it.

Oh, you bought your Clod Buster from Sheldon's Hobbies.  That is my local hobby shop!  I've been going there since the mid 1980s and they are still in business today, though under a different owner.  They have moved a few times over the years and most recently they moved to the Willow Glen area.  I remember that their prices always ended in 96 cents for some unknown reason, unlike most other stores whose prices usually end in 99 cents.

At 5:49 you mentioned Marui.  They were famous for making the very first R/C monster truck called the Big Bear.  I considered buying one from Sheldon's Hobbies but I passed on it to get a then brand new Tamiya Blackfoot instead.  I kind of am kicking myself for that decision because a Marui Big Bear is worth big bucks today - way more than a Blackfoot.  Oh well...who knew that back in 1986?

Marui is still in business today but they no longer make R/C cars and trucks.  They have been big into airsoft guns since leaving R/C.

At 6:44 you mentioned the Wild One and you weren't sure if it had been rereleased.  Tamiya rereleased it twice, in 2012 and 2021.  You also mentioned the Falcon.  Tamiya just announced that the Falcon will be rereleased for the first time soon in 2026.

Since you put the Technigold motors in it, I hope that you also replaced the stock pinion gears with aftermarket steel ones.  The stock ones are made from very soft aluminum that is more like butter and they wear down quickly.  I wore mine down to nothing even when my truck was still using the stock 540 motors.

You mentioned MRC a few times.  They were a company that made transformers for model trains, hence the "R" in their name stands for "Rectifier" as you mentioned.  They still make them today.  I have a few older MRC transformers on my model train layout and they have always worked flawlessly.

MRC was the importer for Tamiya R/C kits in the US back then.  Later on, Tamiya established Tamiya America to handle distribution in the US so MRC's relationship with Tamiya ended.  That is why the name MRC and its logo disappeared from all Tamiya magazine ads in the US suddenly sometime I guess in the 1990s.

At 13:39 you mentioned not knowing that some of the Clod Buster parts would be worth so much later on.  You're not the only one!  Have you seen the sky high prices that people are paying online for new Chevy bow tie grilles and Chevrolet tailgates now?  It's absolutely insane!  I could have really cashed in if I only knew because I remember seeing those exact parts for sale at Sheldon's Hobbies on the rack, brand new, for just a few bucks back in the day!  I always passed on them because I never needed them.  Oh well!

Its funny that you mentioned the square hole in the plastic chassis tub.  So many people now are only familiar with just the various Super Clod Buster kits that never had the power/economy slide switch so they have no idea about it.  I have had to explain the function of that switch and how it changed the two motors' wiring from series (economy) to parallel (power) very recently to fellow Clod Buster fans online in various videos' comments sections.  That was what we did back in the day but I honestly don't ever remember using my Clod Buster in the economy setting.  I always had mine in the power setting.

Incidentally, I still use those old power/economy slide switches on two of my modified Bull Head trucks (named "Chernabog" and "Raging Bull") that have the Sassy Chassis aluminum tub chassis.  Those chassis also have the square hole cut into them and the stock switch mounts there perfectly, just like on the stock plastic chassis.  I thus use the switch to turn on and off the ESC cooling fan that I have in both of my Bull Head trucks.  It works great for that.

The way to fix the stock steering system is by mounting a steering servo on each axle.  That eliminates the stock servo savers (bell cranks) and the long front and rear steering links that go to the center of the chassis.  Getting rid of all of those parts will eliminate all of the play/slop in the steering system.

At 20:02 you mentioned that those tabs on the chassis were for winding the excess antenna wire around.  Actually those tabs were for holding a rubber band.  The four AA battery holder and the receiver were held down to the chassis with a rubber band in the stock chassis configuration.  That rubber band was held in place by those tabs that you pointed to.  The whole system did not work very well because the battery holder and the receiver bounced around a lot in the chassis or at least they did on my truck.

Oh, and to answer your question, yes all of the Clod Buster and Super Clod Buster rerelease kits have all of those mounting provisions on the chassis that the original 1987 era Clod Buster had.  Even though the rereleased kits no longer have any of the equipment that use those mounting provisions, they are all still there on the chassis - just no longer used for anything.  As a result, as you mentioned, many of today's Clod Buster fans have no idea what all of those things are used for.  Tamiya just left everything on there.

I absolutely love the Clod Buster and Bull Head and I have ever since I sold my Blackfoot to fund my purchase of the then brand new Clod Buster in 1987.  I don't know if I'll be buying a new 2026 rerelease Clod Buster but I am thinking about it.

What are you planning to do with your old Clod Buster?  If you are going to fire it up again, be aware that the ABS plastic that Tamiya used for the chassis and axle assemblies gets very brittle as it ages.  It can break very easily as time goes by, as you found out.  So, if you do take your old Clod Buster for a spin now, go easy on it otherwise you'll be replacing a lot of the plastic parts.

Thanks for the great video and for the stroll down memory lane!

Tamiya was not very well known back then, so MRC was the importer for Tamiya into the USA. Kyosho was the same way They were not well known so Cox imported  Kyosho stuff. This truck has been re-released so you could get all of the parts to fix it. The body would be different and would not have the Chevy stuff on it. Thoughts?