Anyone playing with the MN82 79 Series

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

gilamonster

gilamonster

Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Threads
33
Messages
677
Location
Grand Junction, CO
Just got one as a bday gift. I haven't had an rc car since I was a kid. So, I'm having a lot of fun playing with this. And, it's a dream truck of mine!

So many upgrades out there, trying to just play and not go crazy now. And I have to buy one for my wife to. She's been having fun borrowing it!

20241215_133000.jpg
 
gilamonster said:
Just got one as a bday gift. I haven't had an rc car since I was a kid. So, I'm having a lot of fun playing with this. And, it's a dream truck of mine!

So many upgrades out there, trying to just play and not go crazy now. And I have to buy one for my wife to. She's been having fun borrowing it!

View attachment 3793738
Click to expand...
Got a photo of the underside? I've considered buying one of these if I can modify it to crawl fairly well for something that looks more realistic and isn't so much of a buggy.
 
The only experience I have with RC is building the snot out of a cheap WPL C24 - I think WPL and MN are both owned by the same parent company, so it's similar to this. I'm just wondering if any of the WPL upgrade parts would fit this. Mainly I'm thinking about whether or not the metal knuckle housing and metal suspension & steering links would drop into this truck. Early on those are the things that got wiped out first on my WPL. Plenty of room for extended shock towers, so that's good. Driveshafts appear to be the same, also good. Looks like either the WPL or some DIY shackles could be added to the rear leaf springs for better flex and height. Some of the longer Tamiya leaf springs might fit with a shackle. Same 5mm wheel hubs, so a ton of aftermarket options there (Injora makes some heavy ones for better COG) along with larger and/or grippier tires.

I think I might pick one of these up and see what I can do. I see they also make an Aussie "overlanding" style model too ... but it's hard to beat the classic pickup look.
Screenshot 2025-01-10 093648.jpg
 
I just received the red version of the 79 last week. My first impressions:

- 12 scale, it just doesn’t blend with my two LC80’s that are 18 scale. And my 10 scale LC80 is huge in comparison to the 79 as well.
- I also have an 18 scale FJ Cruiser that looks like a dwarf next to it.
- I have the Hilux that I believe is made by MN and its scale is skewed as well.
- the 79 crawling ability is not very good at all. The Hilux is the same. In my opinion, the 79 and Hilux are good for the kids (not my kids, but kids of friends I camp with) to bash around the campfire and since I got the 79 for $63, they can bash it with no concerns on my part.
- I do, however, want to thank MN for making these Toyota vehicles. Love filming my collection in whole as we camp; LC80’s, FJ. Cruiser, Hilux and FJ79. Fun times.

But as I mentioned before, they are not crawlers. I will be attending an indoor crawl event here in town tonight and they, the MN trucks won’t be going.
 
@Mighty Mouse The cheap Chinese crawlers definitely don’t do very good out of the box, and while the upgrade path is a bit obscured it’s definitely there. On scale appropriate terrain my little WPL does really well and I’m all in for about $400 including buying a decent transmitter and extra batteries. Definitely a more difficult path than buying from one of the major companies (Traxxis, Axial, RC4WD, etc). It does seem like most indoor courses are set up for 1/10 scale minimum - I’ve never taken my WPL to try because every time I’ve seen a spot like that locally the terrain is just at a different scale.

9BC70D66-DBF6-46C0-89F3-D53EECDBA73A.jpeg


The MN 70 Series might become my test bed for some other things I want to try, like a fully leaf sprung crawler and a 540 motor in a tiny truck. I think I’ve pushed the WPL as far as I can take it and doing either one of those things would require me to draw up custom frame rails in CAD and have them made … at that point why not let the WPL be what it is and start with a new base.
 
@Mighty Mouse Also you’re right about the scale of these being kind of an oddball size. I actually like that because they pack better on camping trips, but can approach more fun obstacles than the really small 1:18 or 1:24 stuff.
 
CruiserTrash said:
@Mighty Mouse The cheap Chinese crawlers definitely don’t do very good out of the box, and while the upgrade path is a bit obscured it’s definitely there. On scale appropriate terrain my little WPL does really well and I’m all in for about $400 including buying a decent transmitter and extra batteries. Definitely a more difficult path than buying from one of the major companies (Traxxis, Axial, RC4WD, etc). It does seem like most indoor courses are set up for 1/10 scale minimum - I’ve never taken my WPL to try because every time I’ve seen a spot like that locally the terrain is just at a different scale.

View attachment 3812607

The MN 70 Series might become my test bed for some other things I want to try, like a fully leaf sprung crawler and a 540 motor in a tiny truck. I think I’ve pushed the WPL as far as I can take it and doing either one of those things would require me to draw up custom frame rails in CAD and have them made … at that point why not let the WPL be what it is and start with a new base.
Click to expand...
@CruiserTrash I am not skilled enough, or knowledgeable about building out my scale crawlers beyond swapping out wheels/tires, trimming the body to make them fit, and on on vehicle I changed out the 4 link rods.

I have an outdoor course for mini crawlers made of mostly Wyoming rocks, and it’s been fun to make them better. However, you are on a total different level than me.
 
Mighty Mouse said:
@CruiserTrash I am not skilled enough, or knowledgeable about building out my scale crawlers beyond swapping out wheels/tires, trimming the body to make them fit, and on on vehicle I changed out the 4 link rods.

I have an outdoor course for mini crawlers made of mostly Wyoming rocks, and it’s been fun to make them better. However, you are on a total different level than me.
Click to expand...
To be honest I have no idea what I’m doing! I bought a cheap Chinese crawler in and oddball size and chipped away at it for a couple years. I really figured it out as I went along! Sometimes guys in the local Toyota Offroad club will bring their crawlers to meetings or events and I don’t even understand the lingo!

Anyway, I really have been thinking about adding another tiny truck to the fleet and I’ll take a hard look at this MN. There’s also the WPL FJ40 and the FMS FJ45 out there too. Choices are good! But this one being an MN brand mean my limited WPL knowledge is applicable … gives me a bit of a head start!
 
Seems alot of guys are swapping wpl parts over-wheels/axles and such. Personally, I'm not looking for a full crawler. This is a fun toy t play with for me. And as things break, I'll upgrade them. But, can definitely tell this is closer to a toy then a "real" rc car like the traxxis stuff. Which I'd love one of their big 1/10 defenders! But for now, this is tickling my fancy for an rc toy.
 
gilamonster said:
Seems alot of guys are swapping wpl parts over-wheels/axles and such. Personally, I'm not looking for a full crawler. This is a fun toy t play with for me. And as things break, I'll upgrade them. But, can definitely tell this is closer to a toy then a "real" rc car like the traxxis stuff. Which I'd love one of their big 1/10 defenders! But for now, this is tickling my fancy for an rc toy.
Click to expand...

Totally agree that there’s a lot of fun to be had running these off the shelf. I ran my WPL like that for a long time. The Fun/$ ratio is extremely high.
 
Finally brought some new wheels and tires. These have made a huge difference in useability. The soft rubber makes climbing up stuff easier and better ground clearance. The stock 59mm tires were nice for dirt. The new ones are 68mm. Now, I guess I'll need to splurge on some oil shocks. To calm the bouncy ness down a bit.

20250405_112219.jpg

20250405_113906.jpg
 
gilamonster said:
Finally brought some new wheels and tires. These have made a huge difference in useability. The soft rubber makes climbing up stuff easier and better ground clearance. The stock 59mm tires were nice for dirt. The new ones are 68mm. Now, I guess I'll need to splurge on some oil shocks. To calm the bouncy ness down a bit.

View attachment 3877760
View attachment 3877763
Click to expand...
Looks so good!

FWIW, on my WPL I went to Injora wheels and tires. I think they’d fit on this with some hex adapters for the axle ends - Injora had those too. That widens your choices quite a bit.
 
gilamonster said:
I was just looking at portal axles also. I have a few coworkers who have smaller crawlers, and they spend a lot of time on the injora site. So many mods......
Click to expand...
At least with these MN/WPL trucks it’s relatively cheap haha!
 
20250425_122838.jpg
20250425_123220.jpg


The new tires have made it so much more fun to use. Got to go out yesterday and made it using it so much more enjoyable. Wasn't getting hung up on every other rock. Even made some really loose hill climbs. That it never could before too.
 
Picked one up, but haven't really done anything to it yet.
IMG_6829edit.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom