The Panda aka Pandamonium by Thunder Tiger

I picked this up as a cheap restoration project roller a few years back. I meant to restore it completely as a shelfer - I even located a NOS body and set of decals, among other less hard-to-find parts. BUT given my time limitations and wanting to refresh my skills a bit working on less precious subjects than the likes of my idling Astute, Avante, Bigwig and other projects I decided to just get this thing running one way or another as a runner/basher.


The internal configuration on the chassis of this thing was puzzling at the least. I couldn't figure out how the steering servo was meant to fit anywhere - and if there was meant to be some special servo mount/platform I was missing it. So I ended up removing several plastic posts molded into the body probably meant to mount an MSC (just snipped them clean off) and screwed in a couple servo mounting blocks not at all meant for this chassis, which only managed to help center a steering servo. Then I shoe-gooed the servo right onto the chassis - an old, gnarly servo, but still working fine.


I neglected to realize I had new correct steering rods for this thing in a NIP screw bag in my set of NOS Panda parts (D'Oh!) so I set about experimenting with different steering rods I dug up from my various tubs full of mixed parts and hardware. None of the Hornet-style thin rods would fit well enough, and the combination of the openings for the steering rods and the front suspension geometry was causing problems - especially when I ended up using custom-cut 3mm threaded rod on both sides. I ended up just dremelling open the chassis sidewalls around the opening and snipping open the covered tops to open up things enough to prevent the steering rods from making contact with the chassis. This was a huge PITA but the ends result is working well. If I had been smart enough to check my parts though it would have saved me quite a bit of aggravation!


I pieced together the electronics from spares I had laying about including a TEU-101BK ESC (actually, this is my favorite of the entry-level Tamiya ESC's since it's 100% Fwd/Rev unlike all the others except the TEU-302BK), an old Expec radio set from a TT-Gear RTR (one of my display ones), and left in the existing motor for now, which seems to be running OK. Once I have a chance to actually run it outside I'll be able to better assess the state of the motor.


Anyway - I find this model fascinating. It's got obvious Grasshopper/Hornet DNA with some unusual features - most prominently a ball-joint pivot connecting the gearbox to the main chassis tub, as opposed to the floating horizontal shaft of the Grasshopper / Hornet / Lunchbox and others. I'm very curious to see how this behaves in action!


Hibernaculum posted some great details about the model in the forum at this link: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44250&p=370243 ... definitely a cool oddball buggy. I might use my body shell to make a shelfer as well if I can locate a NOS chassis, wheels, etc.