I like Tamiya a lot.
They have the best build manuals out there.
My first "serious" RC kit was the Hotshot...that was 5 years ago! I still have it. Built up. First time I experienced the lacklustre drain time of a 1200 mAH NIcd!
This was the car I dreamt of getting...I remember looking in those Littlewoods catalogues. It was the most expensive kit they had. So I thought it must be the best. Not far off. Certainly one of the most durable cars of its time.
I have a few more Tamiya cars now. Some I need to build up again!
The Thunderdragon is a nice one! I had a Thundershot that I refurbished shortly after I bought the Hotshot. Had some stress impact to the wishbones but was in good nick after I worked on it. Though made a dog's meal out of a repro shell and I lost my patience. So I let it go on Ebay! Went to some fella who wanted his son to experience the old times! I wish I had more patience for it. It would have been a nice runner.
Anyhow, I'm sure we all know projects come and projects go!