Age is truly just a number, because while our responsibilities keep piling up, we’re still the same little kid inside. I mean, let’s be honest – how many of you still scour e-commerce shopping sites in search of RC cars? I know I do. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across this new Tamiya Wild One that’s an actual, driveable, life-sized car.
Yes, you read that right – an actual Tamiya ‘RC’ model that you can physically drive! If you’re like me, you’ve probably dreamt about this every night when you were a kid.
Called the Wild One Max, the Tamiya buggy is developed in partnership with The Little Car Company – the company behind miniaturised models such as the Aston Martin DB5 Junior. But instead of miniaturising existing models, this one here is obviously enlarged by quite a bit when compared to the original Wild One RC toy.
Measuring in at 3.5 metres long, 1.8 metres wide, the Wild One Max actually comes in at an 8:10th scale of the original model – big enough for “kids” with heights ranging from 160 cm to 195 cm.
The single-seater buggy is built on a spaceframe chassis, and when fully built, weighs around 250 kg. And yes, that’s not a typo. Just like the actual Tamiya toys, the Wild One Max can also be built at home by yourselves.
Everything here is sized-up proportionally almost one-to-one, including the massive coil-over springs and wheels on all four corners, the latter now 15-inch off-road tyres on lightweight wheels. And just like the RC toy, the fronts are slimmer tyres with a relatively smooth surface, while the rears are chunky, proper off-road tyres with stud-like treads.
Remember those sticker sheets that you’ll have to painstakingly apply by yourselves? Same thing here – except that they’re now as tall as you!
Just like the Tamiya toy cars, this here is also powered by electric. As standard, the single electric motor on the rear axle is pared to a single “PowerPack” battery, making a maximum power output of 4 kW (5.5 hp). Top speed is rated at 48 km/h, and you’ll be able to drive up to 40 km on a single charge, depending on terrain and driving style of course.
However, a range of “Hop-Ups” are available for the Wild One Max for you to upgrade your ride, just like how you can swap out parts on the mini 4WD Tamiya cars. These include modular PowerPacks that can be added to increase performance and range, four-point racing harness, and even high-performance suspensions and brakes – which as standard, are already Brembo items.
On top of the individual Hop-Ups, the Wild One Max will also be offered with complete ‘Packs’, including a Tarmac Pack which comes with road-biased tyres and mud-guards, and even three individual Road Legal Packs with items such as brake lights and turn indicators, that – as the name suggests – make the electric buggy fully road legal!
The Tamiya Wild One Max starts at GBP6,000 (~RM34k) for the bare-basic set-up; no prices were announced just yet for the various Hop-Ups and packs. Now, the hard part is to convince our “parents” to buy us a new toy.
