As most of the RC-enthusiasts among you know, the Bigwig’s body was designed by Takuya Yura of Mooncraft Design and the model was a celebration of Tamiya’s 10 years into RC-cars, and was released in 1986. With its body-design, Technigold motor, 8.4V battery option and rack-and-pinion steering, it was intended to be the flagship of the Hotshot series. As covered in my review of the designs of the different Hotshot series models here on the blog, the Bigwig failed more or less completely. I won’t repeat my comments here, suffice to say that handling was mediocre, steering response slow and several of the Bigwig-specific parts were pretty fragile, making the Bigwig the least desirable in the Hotshot series in my opinion. Add a bodydesign that many enthusiasts
Well, look how time changes perspectives! Meanwhile is the Bigwig among the most desirable of the vintage Tamiya RC cars, both because of its unique technical solutions and maybe most of all because of its looks.
Some years ago, I got the idea of painting a Baja King in the colours of the Bigwig because of some similarities in the design. However, I never got around doing it, so some time after the Keen Hawk was released, it struck me that it has even more similarities with the body of the Bigwig. So I began to think about how Tamiya could have made the Keen Hawk if they instead had decided to call it the Bigwig 2. Or when considering that the Falcon was released at about the same time as the Bigwig and the Neo Falcon at about the same time as the Keen Hawk, maybe more appropriate, Neo Bigwig.
The chassis is a pretty much stock DF-03, with the wheels changed to TNS-B dish wheels for a closer Mooncraft look and clear blue DF-03 parts to reflect the blue parts of the Bigwig. At first I also tried with yellow CVA dampers with white TRF511 springs, but they looked outdated, so instead I opted for black CVA II dampers, combined with yellow DF-02 springs to at least slightly mimic the yellow dampers of the original Bigwig.
Since Tamiya’s “2″, “King”, “Xtreme” and “Neo” versions of old models never have had exactly the same paintschemes as the originals, I let the shape of the Keen Hawk body dictate the paintscheme, rather than just painting it as much as a Bigwig as possible.
The Dick Cepek logo on the wing was masked and painted, both to avoid cutting up an original sticker sheet and because the original sticker turned out to be too small for the wing. At first, I intended to use Pennzoil stickers too like the original, but then realised that a DF-03 based Neo Bigwig would not have original Pennzoil stickers, but rather the generic “Forward” stickers that replaced the Pennzoil stickers for instance on the re-re Frog. I felt that I could use Dick Cepek logos though as they have been used by Tamiya on other modern models too, and because the Dick Cepek logo is such an important part of the Bigwig’s visual impact. I added side plates on the wing, cut to resemble the sides of the wings on the original Bigwig. The only original Bigwig decal used is the Mooncraft sticker in front of the windscreen, which I didn’t use when I built the first showroom Bigwig for my employer in 1986. It pays off to save old unused stickers! 
The model is pictured together with a Bigwig Watch, released as a promotional item at the same time as the Bigwig model. I got it back then and have never carried it. The battery has been dead for more than 20 years!
Working on this model, I discovered that the Keen Hawk body is an unusually well suited canvas for alternative paintschemes and have completed two more in retro paintschemes, which will be presented on this blog the coming few weeks.
2 Responses to “ Tamiyablog’s Neo Bigwig & the Tamiya Bigwig Watch ”
I could drop to your impertinent level in my reply, and you would have deserved it, but I will instead stick to the facts. Tamiyablog is the private property of a few friends of mine and me, and you are a visitor. As such, we are free to write whatever we like. If I would enjoy writing a "book" about the 1.5mm allen key included in most Tamiya kits and post it here, and if none of the other contributors would object to it, I would be free to do it. If you don't like what we are writing about, you're not obliged to visit our site. And there are enough Tamiya "enthusiast" sites out there run by selfacclaimed "experts", where focus on hype, lies, random guesswork and assumptions sold as absolute truths and not the least hostile behaviour is cultivated on the borderline of "art". You may feel more at home there.
If you had cared to read my text instead of just concluding that it's too long, you might have been able to recognise a few things that make some of your comments completely redundant.
When writing that the Bigwig is among the most desirable, I didn't talk about monetary value. Yes, I know that a lot of collectors measure "enthusiasm" and the joy of having a collection in the amount of money they could (theoretically) get for it if selling. That's not a philosophy we share at Tamiyablog. It's however a fact that the Bigwig is among the favourite models of many collectors of vintage Tamiya models. With my comment; "Look how time changes perspectives!", the reason for the the comparison between "back then" and now should be pretty obvious.
Arguing that a NIB Bigwig can now be had at a lower price than back in 1986 is pointless as just a very few Tamiya RC-models have had a significant market value increase if considering inflation.
"I'm amazed when people write at length to describe the flaws in toys that are nearly 25 years old."
The original article I wrote about the Hotshot series was published here at a time the Hotshot re-release had been announced, but very few details were known. By considering all the flaws of the original and the other models in the series, I expressed my wishes and expectations for improvements of the re-release. Not surprisingly, it turned out that Tamiya had actually addressed many of the flaws. If you know the series very well yourself and raced these models back in the eighties, I appreciate that the article may not contain anything new to you. The entire article was however translated to Japanese and published elsewhere, so we have a "slight" reason to believe that a visitor or two actually appreciated the article.
"Yes, the Bigwig sucked for racing. But the very fact you've taken the time to post about it here, shows it was a charming toy that people loved despite it's flaws…"
Again, if you had read my text (and understood it), you would have realised that this is exactly what I pointed at. When it was released it was generally considered to be an attempt of making a competitive "top of the line" racing buggy, and as such, it disappointed. It was also heavily criticised for its bulky and awkward design. In other words, not much liked by even diehard Tamiya enthusiasts at that time, because both visual and technical design were pretty disappointing. As pointed out in my original text, it's now loved for its unique design and features.
"Perhaps we can focus a little more on that magic, and a little less on what the car didn't achieve? After all, if you're going to say "it's very desirable!" in the next breath, it seems like people's fondness for it has surpassed any concerns that it didn't set the racing world on fire."
Isn't that exactly what my text is about?
"3) Thanks Ken, for pointing out the unnecessary few milligrams of weight added by the bodywork detail…*rolls eyes*"
Ken is perfectly right. Yes, the exhaust pipes, engine dummy, metal roof and instrument panel didn't annoy people so much back then because of the tiny added mass, but because these details neither looked particularly realistic, nor really added to the "seriousness" of the Bigwig as a racer. Maybe not in all, but in many markets, the Bigwig simply didn't target the "spirit" of that time and the body details only added to the negative image the model quickly got.
"Ain't life great now that every buggy manufactured since about 1990 (including the Keen Hawk) is an utterly featureless sliver of lexan?"
Although I would be inclined to partially agree from my own totally personal viewpoint, this statement is purely subjective. As in most fields of toy- and model-collecting, preferences are generally defined by childhood memories. Your "golden era" will be different from the "golden era" of a person 10 years older or younger than you. If you visit a toy-/model-swapmeet, a look at the purchases the visitors are carrying are with few exceptions a very clear indication of their age. Just like you think that no buggy manufactured since "about 1990" is undesirable, there are already Tamiya enthusiasts who have fond childhood memories of the Fighter Buggy RX and thus "a collector's enthusiasm" for it. Similarly, there are enthusiasts who think that any Tamiya buggy with a lexan body and chassises with mostly plastic parts are completely undesirable. Refusing to acknowledge that preferences are a matter of highly individual personal opinions is extremely ignorant. And for "collectors" who join the "stampede" and let market value and the preferences of a "majority" (that makes more or less conscious choices) dictate their own preferences, I feel nothing but pity.