Tamiya Land Cruiser CR01

 Built on a completely new CR-01 chassis, it was Tamiya's first "rock crawling" rig, a late entry into a market that had been dramatically growing in popularity for several years. By the time this truck was unveiled, though, Tamiya had already ruled the crawler world, not once, but twice! The earliest popular crawlers were converted Clod Busters with custom chassis and 4-linked suspension, and the TXT-1 was used by some as well. Then Tamiya introduced the TLT-1. While this small-scale truck wasn't a very capable vehicle in stock form, hobbyists began using its axles as the basis for 1/10th scale rock crawler rigs, and the 2.2" crawler craze of the late 2000's was born.
The CR-01 is intended to be a hybrid offroader/crawler. It has a center-mounted transmission and shaft drives powering solid axles. The tires are delightfully soft & pliable and paired with real beadlock 2.2" wheels. The truck's most distinguishing feature is its peculiar use of coil springs that not only compress & extend, but bend & twist as the stout 4-linked suspension travels through its range of motion. Oil-filled shocks are mounted at steep angles, upside-down on the sides of the chassis, activated by cantilevers & pushrods. The chassis itself is dominated by distinctive bent steel c-frames up top, joined with several horizontal decks and laticed vertical plates on the side. There's plenty of room to mount even the largest ESC & receiver on the upper decks, and a 6-cell battery tray rounds out the main features, accepting either shotgun or side-by-side packs. The body is Lexan with a few ABS accessories, including a grille assembly with two decal options to choose from depending on whether you want to install a set of LED lights (not included). Rear LED light buckets are included as well.
Nice feature of the CR-01 is the locking diff setup. For general off-roading, you can run the diffs open for a decent turning radius and low drivetrain stress. For a little more fun, you can lock just the rear, and for crawling, you can lock both. The nicest thing is that locking & unlocking is accomplished by removing an easily-accessible, large set screw on the diff housing, then either inserting or removing a hex-head screw pin that goes through the axle.
When driving, the Land Cruiser tends to rock its tall dome from side to side. The turning radius is actually fairly poor, even with both diffs unlocked. Straightline speed with the stock Johnson motor is like that of a toy, but this is because the truck is geared for crawling torque, not racing. On the rocks, the tires get quite impressive grip for stockers. Softer springs and/or swaybars would surely enhance its prowess, as would a more aggressive tire tread pattern.