Vintage RC Blog: Aristo-Craft/Hi-tec

I do not own any of the models shown, please refer to image sources for further viewing.

All four Aristo-Craft/Hi-tec vehicles were based on the same chassis, which came in 2WD or chain drive 4WD depending on the model. One notable feature is that they appear to have been sold RTR with Hi-tec radio gear and an electronic speed controller fitted as standard, which was unusual at the time, especially considering they were decidedly entry-level, almost toy-like cars (regardless of what the ad says!).

It has been commented that the chassis design common to all of them is very similar to the Marui Samurai, so much so that Wldnas over at Tamiyaclub ponders this: "When Marui made its cars, they had a habit of re-using existing chassis designs at least once, but the Samurai was unique in this respect in that it was only used the once, given the Aristocraft chassis has obvious family links with the Samurai, one can only ponder at the reason behind the Samurai's solo appearance, perhaps Hi-tec bought the licence for the design and made certain changes and simplifications to keep production costs down, and as a result Marui abandoned the Samurai and decided instead to produce more conventional 4WD buggies after that in the Ninja, Shogun and Coors Melling Thunderbird, who can tell."

The basic chassis (c.1987) Kangaroo