Tamiya RC Radio Control Car 1/10 Electric Wild Willy 2 Jeep Kit

Product Information

the hole in the front of the tub for the steering ("Servo Saver Shaft") is larger on the LWB tub, with a simple metal sleeve acting as a bearing;

A Wild Willy II was up for dicussion among Tamiya and the distributors already in 1996 during the European Finals of the Tamiya Cup in Switzerland, but it took until 1999 before it was realized. No doubt it was worth waiting! What a great model! Then starts the body work - like Theo said, I never use primer for Olive drap color (see his explaination why) - I rather sand the body a bit to get better "grip" for the later to come paint

The rims will not work offcourse, but perhaps the tyres on either the WW2 rims or on other rims that will fit the WW2. I read somewhere that WW2 rims are 2.0" and from the Traxxas are 2.2". The chassis is after all a direct 4WD conversion of the Wild Willy 2 chassis (WR.02), and from what I understand the kits comes with Wild Willy body mounts included. The Wild Willy 2 kit and The side rails are an issue though. The chassis has three of the mounting points but not the rearmost. You either have to shorten the chassis rails or trim the body post mount on the chassis. The rails can be made to fit with a little work. It’s been 36 years since The 10 year old me drooled over the Tamiya catalogue dreaming about owning a Wild Willy, the most fun RC car ever. Over the past few years I have indulged myself in our beautiful hobby trying to recreate images I saw as a kid in those oh so wonderful catalogues. Building mostly aircraft but some cars and tanks, sometimes even a robotic suit thing has given me great pleasure and sharing on BM has re kindled a long lost hobby.

The Wild Willy II is great fun to build, but for those of us who can't let be (why should we?) replacing the bushings with ball bearings the preassembled gearbox is slightly irritating. Apart from ball bearings the Wild Willy 2 doesn't really need any hop-ups, but many of the TL01 hop-ups fit the model, and it's a lot of fun hopping it up as so much is visible even with the body in place.

LWB tub has slots for the antenna wire, resistor & battery leads (these correspond to slots in the Mechanism Box Lid); BTW, the rubber plug for the SWB resistor wiring is a 3-speed gearbox bung, now easily available with the Bruiser and Mountaineer re-releases.

The second / front part of the chassis gets constructed next allowing the steering servo to get added and the rods pushed into place with ma big pliers. I like projects like this normally but was never 100% happy with my set-up. Looking at B.M.T's job though I am tempted to have another go.The alignment issue is minimal and easily solved. By reversing the front body post, you can fit the WW body straight out of the box. By adding 4 simple spacers, you can fine adjust the lateral alignment of the body. I'll design a set of these spacers now, it's a very very simple part to make,IBIFTKH pretty much sumed it up already, but now I know first hand from actually having built the chassis... Front suspension strut tops & pipe clamps: the SWB has 2mm clearance holes + M2 screws fitted from underneath into the plastic tops. On the LWB the screws are fitted through the tops in M2 pressings in the clamps. The new Wild Willy has an all new chassis and larger tires allowing it to tread over rough terrain. Of course, the Wild Willys trade mark is the animated wheelie capability thanks to an all new wheelie bar. The Wild Willy II performs much better than the Wild Willy and it sure it's much more durable. Because of the better handling, it feels slower than the original, but the high center of gravity and short wheelbase doesn't make it suited for a hotter motor, if you care about the rather fragile body.

I managed to get hold of a spare driver from RiKo and used him on a Tamiya moped kit mated to some bits from other 1/12 bike kits to make a caricature Police motorcyclist as a presentation piece for a Police motorcyclist who was an excellent modeller and good friend of the Bristol shop. RIP, Howard. Might have some 35mm photos somewhere (remember those?). The long rear arms - for the LWB version an ornamental hole is deleted, and the stabiliser bar mount points move forward.Also needing a mention here is part J5 (on the inboard end of the servo saver shaft) has a raised pip, I would guess to try to reduce friction. In reality all it did was wear a pronounced ridge in the inside of the chassis tub. It's been a while since I penned part one (detailing the differences between the Wild Willy M38 and Wild Willy 2 body and fittings), this time I'll be covering the differences in chassis parts on the earlier "Short" wheelbase (SWB) and the later "Long" wheelbase (LWB) versions. Conclusion: Like the original Wild Willy a very "unserious" model, but with the masses of fun that made the original a legend. A must for any collector. Finally, body clips: on the SWB these should be the type with the "waggly" bit on the inside (compared to the large loop)- the LWB and most other cars have the "normal" arrangement with it on the outside.