Search: “tamiya”

Aramex Shop & Ship have now set up Chinese mailboxes for all their customers which sounds great but what exactly can we get from China and where do we order it from?

The first thing that comes into my mind is buying stuff from Hong Kong sellers on eBay. A lot of times when I am looking for Tamiya parts and cars on eBay, the sellers with the good stuff are based in Hong Kong. Another thing I can think of but still hobby related is websites like HobbyKing.com who have most of their stock based in Hong Kong as well. You can now order stuff from there HongKong warehouse and have them ship the items by EMS to your Chinese mailbox.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Did you know there is a Chinese Amazon?

Note: If the Chinese mailbox hasn’t shown up in your shopandship.com page be patient, they’re currently in the process of generating accounts for all their clients in all 26 Shop & Ship countries.

The progress on my XRAY 808E RC buggy build has been pretty slow since I’m taking my time with it. My brother has also started his first build ever (pictured above), he’s putting together the Tamiya 501x he won from the My Toy competition on Facebook.

An advantage I have over him though is the fact I’ve already started buying the electronics for my car while he hasn’t which means my car will probably finish before him. I ended up ordering the Tekin T8 1900kv motor with the RX8 electronic speed controller (both pictured above) as well as two 4s 4500mAh hard case batteries. I ended up ordering the motor/esc combo online since I couldn’t find it locally and I ordered the batteries online because they’re a lot cheaper than here. I still need to get a servo (the small motor that steers the car) and tires which I will most probably get from Pro-Hobbies since that’s where I got the XRAY from.

Now the aim of posts like this is to try and introduce people to new activities or hobbies to my readers. Building cars is a great way to kill time and it’s an activity that is heavily supported by the local RC shops and a hobby that I really love. I am by no means an RC expert, I’m learning as I am going along and the people who work and run the RC shops are extremely helpful. So don’t be scared to build a car if you haven’t before, it’s as easy as LEGO. I didn’t know the difference between LiPo batteries were a few days ago or even the difference between a 1900kv motor and a 2650kv motor for example. I’m still learning! But if anyone has any questions about RC cars post them below and I’ll answer them.

After building the amazing Tamiya 502x last week I got back into the RC cars mood again. So, over the weekend I decided to get another car to build and passed by Pro Hobbies and purchased the Xray 808e. I’ve had my eye on the Xray 808 since 2009 but back then they only came in nitro versions until last year when Xray released the electric version of the same car and called it the 808e. Xray is a high-end radio controlled car company and they’re sometimes called the Rolls Royce of RC cars. As soon as I opened the box I understood why, everything looked just incredible and felt top notch. From the thick plastic bags the parts are placed in to the glossy fully colored manual and the “authenticity certificate” it comes with. Makes the whole package feel more expensive than what I paid for it.

[YouTube]

One of the main reasons I wanted the Xray 808e is because it’s a 1/8 scale car which means I will finally be able to take it to the Radio Control Car Club of Kuwait (RCCCK) off-road track near 360 Mall. It’s one of the largest tracks in the world and it would be a real shame not to take advantage of it. You can watch the video above of the track which I shot last year.

Usually when I start building these cars I zone out and ignore everything around me (including the blog) but this time I am going to take my time by dedicated only 2 or 3 hours a day to work on the car. Hopefully it will be ready sometime next month before it gets too hot. Still need to think of a color scheme, the wheels are white and the spoiler is white so not sure what color I am going to paint the body yet.

I finished building the Tamiya 502x earlier today and managed to finished cutting up the body, masking it and then painting it in fluorescent pink. The color came out cooler than I was expecting, I painted the rear wing black and the wheels as well which helped give the car an aggressive look. Going to take it out tomorrow and have my brother snap some pictures while I send it flying off some jumps. Should be fun.

Note: The Tamiya dealer is called My Toy and they’re located in Tilal Complex on top of In Living Color. Here is a link to their website [Link]

As I mentioned last week I picked up a Tamiya 502x race buggy to review for the blog. It’s been nearly a week now and I’ve been working on the car every night for a few hours trying to get it built. Currently I would say I am more than 90% done with the build. I have mostly electric stuff I need to work out and then cutting up and painting the body.

The build was fairly easy although there were some difficult moments. The car frame and a large chunk of the parts are in carbon fiber with a lot of metal parts as well which is expected since this buggy is race ready. But, for the price and purpose of this car I would have expected even more metal parts at least for example when it came to the steering parts which are currently mostly plastic. Tonight I’m gonna try and get the electrics done so I could then prep the body for painting and if everything goes smoothly I might have the car up and running by Saturday.

By the way for those of you who’ve never built a radio controlled car before you need to try it since it’s really a lot of fun. I always compare it to Lego and IKEA, if you like building and putting stuff together then you’ll really enjoy building these cars specially since you get to drive them afterwards. They’re a lot more challenging than building a Lego police station or an IKEA cabinet as well as more rewarding.

Recently I noticed that when I sleep for over 9 hours I wake up with neck cramps and a sore ear. It turned out my pillow had become too hard and with the way I sleep was causing me neck pains. Nat suggested I get Tempur pillows so I did a quick google to find a local dealer and landed on Some Contrast’s blog. He had found and gotten Tempur pillows from a place called The Bed Boutique in Tilal Complex. Since I was planning to pass by the Tamiya dealer there anyway, I decided to drop by and see what they had.

The shop has pillows, quilts and mattresses. They had a few brands the most popular being Tempur and Temprakon. Now one reason I felt like coming to this store was because Some Contrast posted they had a small private room (pictured above) in which you could try the pillows which is what I ended up doing. I got around 4 different types of pillows and tried them while lying down which is much better than just trying to feel the stuff in your hands. In the end I ended up getting the Temprakon Ergomagic which is a very comfy pillow (picture and details on their website). It’s a down pillow with a three layered core, one layer is a comfort foam which provides support for the head and neck, the other two layers are foam inserts which are used to control the height of the pillow. If the three layers combined are too high for you, you remove one of the inserts. If it’s still too high you remove another insert. Very practical.

Nat on the other hand got the same pillow as Yousef from Some Contrast which is the Tempur Symphony (pictured above). I tried it and also it was very comfy I didn’t think it was high enough for me since I like high pillows. The Tempur material feels very organic since it takes your shape and molds around it. I tried the Tempur mattress and it felt like the bed was alive since however you moved it slowly takes your form.

Anyway if you’re interested, The Bed Boutique is located at Tilal Complex. Their phone number is 22256171.

Update: Was just reading about the brand Temprakon on their website and it’s even better than I had thought. Their pillows and quilts are made with NASA’s OUTLAST material which is used in the NASA space suits. They’re the only manufacturer in the world allowed to use the OUTLAST material to make pillows and quilts.

One of my favorite hobby shops in Kuwait which is the Tamiya dealer was featured on TV. You can check it out above. [YouTube]

Took my Tamiya FJ out rock crawling with some friends today in Bnaider. The weather was good and the location was perfect for our cars. I shot some video which I am going to edit and upload later but here are a few pictures for now.

Update: Here is the video.

Tamiya FJ CR-01 in Kuwait

The YouTube version is [Here]

Tonight I passed by a shop called Pro-Hobbies in Dajeej. I needed some paint for my Tamiya crawler and the Tamiya dealer had run out so they recommended I pass by Pro-Hobbies instead. It was my first time there and the place turned out to be really cool. While Tamiya specializes in on and off road electric cars and buggies, Pro-Hobbies specializes in helicopters and nitro powered race buggies.

While there I also got to check out the KHR-1 Robot. I had seen this robot before on YouTube playing football so it was very exciting to see the robot live. They aren’t selling them yet, they just got one to try it out and see if there is a market for it. The robot costs around KD400 which isn’t cheap but the way it moves is just incredible. It’s fully programmable and is driven by 19 servos (motors) which explains the hefty price tag considering a single servo usually costs around KD12. I took a video of the robot which you can see below. It was running out of batteries and the floor was slippery but you can still see how cool it is.

[YouTube]

If you want to pass by the store they’re located in the mall behind Showtime in Dajeej. Here is a link to the [Map]. They have a website but it’s still under construction. [Link]

It’s finally over, everything goes back to normal now. In case you missed it below are the 14 days of giveaways that just ended:

Giveaway Day 1: Two tickets to Under the Sea 3D IMAX
Giveaway Day 2: Yummy package from Choowy Goowy
Giveaway Day 3: Saso Lounge Gift Certificate
Giveaway Day 4: Free City from Pink Moon
Giveaway Day 5: Full car detailing from Al Falah
Giveaway Day 6: Dinner for two at Slider Station
Giveaway Day 7: Invite for 4 to The Chocolate Bar
Giveaway Day 8: Wireless DJ Music System from Logitech
Giveaway Day 9: e-GO2GO from Zain
Giveaway Day 10: Two gifts from X-cite
Giveaway Day 11: Tamiya Nissan GT-R TT-01E from My Toy
Giveaway Day 12: Car tint from Hüper Optik
Giveaway Day 13: Mobie phone from X-cite
Giveaway Day 14: PS3 from Choowy Goowy

I had a choice between going to Dubai and getting a Tamiya CR01 crawler, wasn’t that difficult a choice. Going to spend Eid at home putting it together and hopefully spend the winter down south crawling with the other FJ Cruisers pictured below. So what are you doing this Eid?

I was at the Tamiya dealer in Tilal Complex and on my way out I decided to take a different route than usual. So I am driving when suddenly on my right I see all these scooters parked outside a store. So I park the Jeep, go down and realize I was standing outside the Vespa dealer.

Turns out they’ve only been open for 3 months and they’re also the new dealers for Aprilia, Piaggio and Moto Guzzi. If you’re interested, they’re located in the block across from Tilal Complex. If Explorers Base is on your right keep going straight past the intersection and they should be on your right.

Last time I took out my radio controlled cars out was back in February when the weather was good and my brother took the picture above. Since then my cars have been hibernating due to the bad weather. But, I just took my Tamiya Lancia out with the upgraded Super Stock RZ motor and was having a good time until the stock electronic control unit (ECU) overheated. And thats when I remembered what I liked about these cars. I like upgrading the different parts and I like the fact that when something breaks I can fix it.

This season I think I want to get the Tamiya Unimog although I am still dreaming of the Mammoth truck but its just too expensive. The Tamiya dealer My Toy has also opened a larger store in Tilal Complex which I still need to pass by and check out. They’ve also set up a large race track in the basement for people to race their cars on. This RC season should turn out to be a lot of fun.

Today I went off-roading with some friends. First in our real cars and then in our radio controlled ones. We had three Tamiya FJ Cruisers, my Tamiya Lunchbox and my Tamiya Frog. It was extremely fun, I bashed the hell out of my Lunchbox and it now needs a major paint job but I don’t care. I took a ton of pictures and so did my brother but I couldn’t put all of them here. There are a few more pictures below though if you hit continue.

Update: My brother just uploaded some photos to his flickr account [Here]

I took my Tamiya Lunchbox out for the first time today. After all the hard work with the paint job I ironically managed to scratch it while it was still in the trunk of my Wrangler. If that wasn’t bad enough, 10 minutes into my run the Lunchbox lost died on me. It was performing really well, taking some great jumps while my dog was busy trying to catch it when suddenly it just stopped moving. When I got closer I realized the motor was working but the wheels weren’t spinning which meant something was wrong with the gears.

I got home, took apart the car again and turned out it was a problem with one of the gears, the pinion gear which is the one thats connected to the motor was loose. I tightened it back again and used some blue thread locker and its now working perfectly again. I think I am going to spend most of my time breaking my cars and then try and fix them… I love that.

If anyone is wondering where the place is in the pictures above its the huge park off the first ring road.