Tamiya Grasshopper and Lunchbox Reissues

I see that Tower Hobbies has preorders available for the re-releases of both the Tamiya Grasshopper and Tamiya Lunchbox. I suspect many other retailers will start taking preorders soon, too. A little research leads me to believe the Grasshopper will be available mid- to late-July (as Tower Hobbies says), but the Lunchbox won't be available until mid- to late-August.

As I wrote, the Tamiya Grasshopper was my first car. It holds a lot of great memories for me and I'd really like to have one again. In fact, while on vacation in Wyoming Jim posed the question, "what was your favorite toy as a kid?" and I had to answer Legos and the Grasshopper. I'm not quite sure of what happened to my old Grasshopper--I know I took some pieces for it for other projects, but I've searched my parents house a few times and haven't found any of the original parts from it. Check out the Tamiya USA Grasshopper page.

The guy who first got me interested in R/C cars had a Tamiya Lunchbox. He had a lot of stickers on his truck, including one that said "ass." As an 11-year-old, I thought it was amazingly cool to have a swear on the body. The Lunchbox was a truck I wanted for a very long time, just because of how fun it looked. Unfortunately, by the time I had some money the kit was discontinued. I haven't bothered to get one off of eBay because--for me--building the vehicle is most of the fun. Until I saw the reissue information I had been considering a Midnight Pumpkin, which is the same as the Lunchbox, except for the pickup truck body--no need for one of those now! Check out the Tamiya USA Lunchbox page.

These days, I'm really not into R/C cars anymore. There's a track not too far from us, and there's a speed bump right outside of our apartment--both would probably be lots of fun, but I've just been occupied by other activities, I guess. But I'm very excited about the Grasshopper and Lunchbox! I haven't ordered either, yet, though.