Here’s my latest craigslist find. Tamiya Monster Beetle from 1986. She’s a runner. Been chasing the dog with it daily and tearing up the flower beds.
The original owner boxed it up after 8 battery packs were run through it because of a diff clicking issue. He thought something had broke. It’s a really common issue with this platform (Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, and Frog) where the spider gears jump a tooth or two under load . MIP and Thorpe had a heavy duty diff replacement that was an upgrade. I’ve also heard it can be fixed with some shims using the stock diff.
It came with the Airtronics XL2P radio, manuals, lightning bolt charger with the timer dial, etc..