Tamiya Buggy Champ and the Gold Edition

   Tamiya released the Buggy Champ in 2009 to much surprise and astonishment in the vintage RC community.  The Buggy Champ was actually the original Japanese name for the Tamiya "Rough Rider" released in the US in 1979.  The reasons for why the names were different in Japan and the US are not clear, although they could be simply because MRC, who was the US importer for Tamiya at the time, thought that the name "Buggy Champ" did not sound aggressive enough for the US market.  I have no facts to back that up, so it is just one possibility.   

   The original Rough Rider was the first of the Special Racing Buggy (SRB) models from Tamiya, which include the Sand Scorcher, Ford F-150 Ranger XLT and (some SRB purists would disagree with me on this) the Super Champ.  The SRB series was an effort by Tamiya to build radio controlled vehicles that were race-ready while still retaining many realistic features from the 1:1 scale vehicles they were based on.

   For the 2009 re-release, Tamiya kept the Buggy Champ name for the US market.  The reasons behind this choice are not clear either, but may have to do with trademarks on the Rough Rider moniker or because TamiyaUSA, now the sole importer of Tamiya products for the US, did not care how non-aggressive the Buggy Champ name was and decided that it was cheaper to use the same box art in all countries.  Again, I have no facts to back any of this up, so it is just an idea.  

   While not exactly the same as the original 58016 Rough Rider kit, the 58441 Buggy Champ is considered a "re-release" because it contains mostly the same parts and design elements that made the Rough Rider and the SRB platform such a vintage classic.  Tamiya even recreated the blister packaging that was so popular in the early eighties, which is really impressive to look at in person.  Many enthusiasts, me included, believed that Tamiya would never release such a kit again due to the sheer amount of metal parts and expense in manufacturing that goes with it.  As it turns out, Tamiya did not even have the original molds used for the major metal components for the chassis and had to create new ones based on an original example vehicle that Tamiya had in its possession.  The Tamiya engineer in charge of this effort claimed that it took only a couple of weeks of work to get the measurements required to make new molds.  I think that is impressive, and shows how much effort Tamiya is willing to expend in order to re-release kits.

   The Buggy Champ Gold Edition was a special edition of the Buggy Champ created by Great Planes Distributing and TamiyaUSA.  Great Planes is one of the largest radio control distributors in the US and is the place where almost all hobby shops and online stores get their Tamiya kits and parts.  Their marketing department wanted to create an exclusive edition of the Buggy Champ, so the Gold Edition was born.  The following pictures were taken by me shortly after receiving the Gold Edition of the Buggy Champ from Tower Hobbies.  I was one of the first to receive and post pictures of it on TamiyaClub using my Photobucket account.  Members of TamiyaClub were anxious to see what it was all about.  As it turned out, the only differences between the regular Buggy Champ and the Gold Edition were the painted body and stickers on the box.  The body was painted in Tamiya TS-84 Metallic Gold, but the roof section was not painted, probably because it was still attached to the parts tree and would have been difficult to paint quickly without getting paint on other parts that did not need to be gold in color.  Pricing on the Gold Edition was actually cheaper than the regular version, which was one of the reasons why I bought mine.  The gold can be sprayed over or left as is, so it does not detract from the regular kit at all in the grand scheme of things.

  

Special Gold Edition sticker distinguishes from the regular box

The blister packaging on the left and right sides display the major parts in a neat way

Same body as the regular kit, just painted in TS-83 metallic gold

The Tamiya TEU-104BK ESC was included

Since there was no official kit number for the gold edition, 58441 had to be covered by a sticker

The Buggy Champ Gold Edition is now discontinued by Tower Hobbies, and Tower no longer sells the regular edition either, however TamiyaUSA still has the regular kit in stock (at a premium distributor price so as to not compete with local hobby shops), so you could still have good luck finding a Buggy Champ at a local hobby shop.