The Failed FICS

Good old Tamiya. Wonderful, wonderful Tamiya. They make RC cars and models. One of their cars happens to be mine, one that has given me no end of trouble.

From the beginning: The pull starter broke three or four times. Then a shock piston bent. and the rear wing ripped. Then the gas tank broke. Then, the day after I fixed that, the "state of the art" FICS (Frontal Impact Control System) failed to "control the frontal impact." It work's like this. the left and right sides of the front shock towers are on hinges, so when it hits something head-on, they will spread apart, protecting the shocks and absorbing the impact. But naturally, things can't ever be as good as they seem. Normally, a head on crash will simply dislocate a driveshaft- a 1-minute repair. However, today's impact (with the wheel of a parked car) resulted in a different injury. the whole shock tower cracked. Keep in mind that this isn't thin plastic. it's over half an inch thick in parts. Thick polycarbonate plastic that can probably withstand more force than your skull or most of your bones.

But still it broke. So again, thank you Tamiya for instilling false hope in me once again, tricking me into thinking that my investment could stand up to the abuse you claim. I've always told myself that next time something breaks I'll retire the car, but I can never seem to follow through with that threat, Tamiya. I suppose you're lucky, or perhaps you don't care. As long as the poor consumers who buy your products and then, when they inevitably break, keep buying replacement parts until there is nothing left of the original kit and the poor consumer throws their car down on the ground in frustration.

Next time, I buy HPI