To promote the new Toyota Hilux, Toyota UK have recently released a series of short videos featuring one of Tamiya’s famous R/C hiluxes – the Toyota 4×4 Pickup Bruiser.
Shown racing around in mud, water, and even towing the full-sized vehicle, the Bruiser may be small, but it’s the most fun part of these new videos. Though the “towing” trick actually harks back to the 1980s…
Tamiya’s Toyota 4×4 Pickup Bruiser was first released back in 1985, and the huge and heavy original kit from the 1980s remains a holy grail for many R/C collectors.
In 2012, Tamiya produced a remake of the Bruiser which differed from the original, but nonetheless brought the retro style of the model back into model stores once more.
Since the Bruiser was originally modelled after an early 1980s Toyota Hilux 4WD utility, Toyota UK have now taken the opportunity to promote their newest Hilux with some help from Tamiya, releasing 5 videos. Check them all out below. I think it’s pretty safe to say that all of the Bruisers featured in these fun Toyota clips are the remake edition, as they are getting driven pretty hard while trying to keep up with their modern, full-sized counterparts…
Yes, that image confirms it 🙂 A whole stack of the remake kits (nobody was game enough to use the vintage original model).
Here are the videos…
The Toyota promotion itself seems to have captured some mainstream coverage from the media as well, being picked up over the past couple of weeks by Autoweek, Motor Trend, The Mirror, and no doubt every other car website.
Most of them have focused on the novelty of seeing 15 of the Tamiya Bruisers tow a full-sized new-model Hilux. But keen-eyed Tamiya fans will know this trick has actually been done before…
Back in the early 1980s, the official promotional videos from Tamiya themselves of their wondrous range of early R/C vehicles featured a short segment showing the earlier Tamiya Hilux model – namely the Toyota 4×4 Pick Up – towing a real Toyota Hilux of the day. Back then, the Tamiya model looked exactly like the real vehicle being towed. And what’s more, only 14 of them were needed for the trick…
Nice write-up!
Awesome 🙂 Thanks for sharing Nidan!