Building a Tamiya Frog for the 2026 Poor Boy's Speed Run Challenge

Building a Tamiya Frog to run open class in the 2026 Poor Boy’s Speed Run Challenge.

The build

More build notes, parts list, and progress photos to come as the build moves along.

Goal

Get it running reliably in open class and see what it can do on the day.

2026 Poor Boys RC Speed Run Challenge

This year’s challenge, run by Poor Boys RC on YouTube, kicked off with a chassis reveal in June and the main event starting in July. Here’s the official reveal, a tips video, and one fan take on it:

Poor Boys RC also posts weekly progress on the leaderboard as “Scoreboard Sunday” (couldn’t pin down the exact season on these two, so grain of salt if they turn out to be from a prior year):

A brief history of the Tamiya Frog

The Frog isn’t a random pick for this challenge — it’s one of the most important vehicles in RC history. Tamiya released it on December 16, 1983 as the 41st model in their RC lineup, built around their new “ORV” (Off-Road Vehicle) chassis: a lightweight plastic space-frame with double-wishbone front suspension and trailing-arm independent rear suspension, plus a gear differential, which was unusual for a buggy of that era.

The look is unmistakable — bug-eyed headlights, a wide, squat bonnet, and rear dampers that splay out like frog legs, all wrapped in a pink-and-white color scheme said to be inspired by the Mazda K360 (a 1950s-60s Japanese delivery truck nicknamed the “Frog Express”). It wasn’t just a pretty face either: the Frog won the 1984 German Nationals, with six of the eight finalists driving one.

Tamiya brought it back as a modern re-release in 2005 (kit #58354), followed by a 1/16-scale Tamtech Gear version in 2006 and a Comical Frog in 2019 — which is a good sign for how many of these are still floating around for events exactly like this one.