In this episode of Builds By JANG, we'll be looking at the Tamiya Blazing Star. This 1997 mashup traces its roots back to the Manta Ray, the buggy from which the modern touring car was invented. The Blazing Star picks up some later TA01/02 parts, including front knuckles, 26mm wheels, and tires from the scale stadium (we now call them "short course") trucks.

This one looks like it should be a pretty straightforward and fast build.

And off we go!

1. I started this build kinda backwards, beginning with the body because, well, why not? I can work on assembly between coats of paint. I almost forgot the days when overspray film was not normally provided.
2. Typical Tamiya 3-spider diffs, make 2...
3. ...followed by this ecclectic array of solo gear acts. There's actually one missing from this picture, a duplicate of the bevel gear assembly at the upper right.
4. Rear diff inserted into the beefy & complex main gearbox piece.
5. Now with some of the aforementioned gears inserted. Kudos on the use of aluminum for extra durability on the smaller gears, eh? A one-piece cover goes over all this, sealing everything away from the elements. The motor mount, buried under there somewhere, allows pinion gears from 16T to 21T.

1. Here's the front diff housing, upside-down.
2. Now from the top, with the input gears added. This too will get covered.
3. Here's the rear again, now with the alien shock tower, soft nylon camber links, and standard dogbone diff outputs.
4. Two-piece arms all around, also made from very soft nylon. They're mostly hollow inside.
5. The rear end now mostly complete, just missing shocks.
6. Back to the front again, with the shock tower & camber links...
7. ...two-piece arms again and TA02 knuckles...
8. ...to form this assembly.

Up next: Shocks. Bright, yellow, shocks.

Jang, Its number: 204. I think they dub them the DF-01 chassis, I have the Dirt Thrasher.number: 160
The Top Force number 100 the R/R is no: 362 & the Top Force Evo No:107 is the top of the range, of the chassis range. With all the Good's. Good work.

I should of added, The Manta Ray is Number: 87. With a plastic chassis like the Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star. Now they have the Porsche 4x4. Cheers

By the pics, as usual:

1. I got the body done mid-build thanks to starting it early and doing the decals on an off-day. I may have to go out-of-order this way more often, as it worked out well.
2. Here's the layout for the shock parts (minus the deep bladder, not pictured). This is actually a pretty decent shock design with a proper compressed twin o-ring cap on the bottom. The one-piece shaft & piston seems a bit hokey, though. Once it's all put together, however, it's quite a smooth-feeling unit, and the assembly itself was very easy. The bright-colored body allows a lot of light through which makes it easier to see the bubbles coming up through the oil. The bladder is tall and has a rounded ridge, which helps it to stay in place during final assembly. The top cap is knurled and very wide and easy to put on.
3. Here are all four shocks installed. They're identical save for some downtravel limiters in the front. They feel surprisingly good.
4. Servo and upper deck installed in the chassis tub.
5. Bellcrank steering with quite a significant amount of Ackermann.
6. Attaching the front & rear clips with a handful of screws, plus a few small detail pieces, gives you this.
7. Not long later, the picture is like so.

All done! I simply cannot get over how good the suspension feels. It's supple and very, very smooth. I've actually added a bit more preload than stock to the rear, as it felt like there would be a little too much on-power sag mostly due to the shock angle. Though this is a 13-year-old (and based on something older still), sport-level Tamiya buggy, it is a very nice one. The main limiting factor to its performance will be the tires. The tread design is okay, but the contact patch is small, and the rubber compound is disappointingly hard.

Great looking buggy. I love the red knuckles....

You just convinced me to power up my TA01 Escort...

Tadaaa... all done with the writeup & photos:

• Tamiya Blazing Star

such a useful thread! my DF01 is making some crunching noises when accelerate and even when i do it really slowly, checked all the gears greased them and it was ok for about 4mins then started again I just want to use my new 540 sport tuned motor already lol

im guessing im better off just replacing both front and rear gear sets?

The gears come as a whole set. It's called the 4WD rally car gear set.

Have you set the gear mesh? Is the pinion worn?

You should really use your own threads for this type of thing