Hibernaculum

A few points I'd like to make.

• I've received a "Tamiyaclub Warning" too. To be honest, I found it rude and impersonal as well, under the circumstances. And also pretty funny. Imagine walking into a retail shop that you've been visiting and supporting for nearly a decade, and suddenly being handed a typed warning note on a bit of paper that says something like "You failed to wipe your shoes today. You have been warned.". Because that's exactly what this is.

• My warning was for breaking the "No Replies" rule too (Rule #17 in the 19 Rule List). I had started a thread under Trades and posted some links to ebay auctions. The next day or a few days later, I posted again in the same thread to say I had listed some more things to eBay. I realize there are going to need to be limits to this kind of behaviour, and some people might take it much too far - hogging a particular forum with constant updates. But that's what moderators are for. To moderate. In moderation. I didn't kill a unicorn.

• Having read this thread, I've now learned that it's OK to start a whole new thread for additional items. This means, in order to avoid breaking the "No Replies" rule (which exists to prevent thread-bumping), there's a moderator-approved alternative approach that results in both thread-bumping AND multiple-threads for no reason. Which is quite ridiculous.

• To all the people who chant "Rules are rules!" whenever someone questions a rule: Where do you think humanity would be if every rule ever devised by an authority, was followed without question?

• Recently I've been promoting a lot of eBay auctions in the trades area of the main TC site. When items sold, I was adding the word "SOLD" to their titles, rather than immediately checking the "Sold" checkbox because doing this removes them from visibility. Reason? Many of my items were selling within hours, and I just wanted people to see the kinds of things I was selling quickly, as I have many more similar ones to sell - thus allowing people to see the sold ones for a while after they had sold and perhaps get in contact with me looking for more or similar items. I could have left these items unedited entirely like most people do - thus users would read them thinking they were still available, only to click through to an ended item on eBay. Instead, I was actively keeping my content up to date in relation to eBay, that's all. I fully intended to click the "Sold" checkboxes on all of them, soon - within days.

This morning, all the items in which I had written "SOLD" were deleted by a moderator, because apparently doing anything other than clicking the "Sold" checkbox on sold items, is another breach of rules. So my question is this: I assume you did this in order to relieve "clutter" in the trades area and ensure that all the items available there are fresh and currently available items, instead of sold items. So why are there still trade items listed in the trades area from up to 7 years ago? Apparently it was urgent to remove all my "sold" trades today, which were listed a few days or hours ago. But it's not urgent to clean up the woefully redundant Trades Area at large, consisting of 133 pages worth of trades (over 2,500 trades) - about 50% of which are completely forgotten and invalid.

I've been here almost 8 years. I thought I had (at times!) made reasonable contributions to the atmosphere of the forums. My love for Tamiya and my enthusiasm is known to a few people. I've certainly met many good people and made some very good friends! Many of whom no longer participate here themselves.

But rules are rules, right? We all must obey. I should just accept the occasional slap in the back of the head for doing little things that, to most human beings (and on most other forums) would seem reasonable and no big deal, especially given than I'm a known, paid member. I'm no flamer or spammer or scammer, nor am I trying to take advantage of "the system". I'm just a Tamiya enthusiast.

So if you like rules and believe they should be followed simply because they exist, then I'll leave you with this final quote from David Thorne of 27bslash6...


"I once read about five monkeys that were placed in a room with a banana at the top of a set of stairs. As one monkey attempted to climb the stairs, all of the monkeys were sprayed with jets of cold water. A second monkey made an attempt and again the monkeys were sprayed. No more monkeys attempted to climb the stairs. One of the monkeys was then removed from the room and replaced with a new monkey. New monkey saw the banana and started to climb the stairs but to its surprise, it was attacked by the other monkeys. Another of the original monkeys was replaced and the newcomer was also attacked when he attempted to climb the stairs. The previous newcomer took part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Replacing a third original monkey with a new one, it headed for the stairs and was attacked as well. Half of the monkeys that attacked him had no idea why. After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, none had ever been sprayed with cold water but all stayed the **** away from the stairs.
Being here longer than me doesn't automatically make your adherence to a rule, or the rule itself, right. It makes you the fifth replacement monkey. The one with the weird red ******* and the first to point and screech when anyone approaches the stairs. I would be the sixth monkey, at home in bed trying to come up with a viable excuse not to spend another fruitless day locked in a room with five neurotic monkeys."


As for me, I'm tired. All I wanted to do was discuss, buy, and sell. An online community like this is supposed to be fun.

I know not everyone will agree with my perspective. And that's fine But I didn't take this post lightly, and I normally steer clear of these issues.

Before anyone says "well if you don't like it here, you can go somewhere else!", I have. Did you know there are other Tamiya forums out there where it's totally ok to (gasp!) reply to yourself!? And discuss the price of a live auction!? It's true. And they remain perfectly nice forums. I even went so far as to "go and create my own site", so nobody can hurl that one at me either.

Once my subscription runs out here, if anyone from TC wants to chat to me, my blog or other forums will be the best places to find me in future.

Keep it fun fellas, and enjoy your vintage collecting.

cheers,
H.

orig body, never cut, painted, all accessories including drivers

I had assumed this meant never cut AND never painted. Was I mistaken?

I'm in the process of restoring one of these buggies actually.

Fun fact: LaTrax Hustlers were all originally white (I have the original box for mine). But for some reason, the flexible white polycarbonate-ish (but probably not polycarbonate) body shells have turned light brown with age. Mine looks just like the one pictured above. It gives them a rustic, aged charm...like desert dust.

Also, this model evolved a little while in production. I actually have two, and one came with an earlier fully-metal radio with a steering wheel on the front (like an old school Futaba), while the other has a more conventional 1980s plastic radio. The car itself also changed a little. The included 2-piece saddle battery was always fixed in place by plastic ties, but it's a different battery across my two models. Also the heatsinks seem to have changed too.

My buggies are basket cases, so I'm just restoring one out of the two at this point.

cheers,
H.

Agree with Alex.
New in box Super Hornets actually aren't common (surprisingly), and I've seen their prices creeping up a little. But runners certainly are common.

OP, nice to hear you're looking to run an old model, rather than just buying a re-release. I am always amazed at how cheap many vintage models are, and I always "vote 1" for running old school cars. .

In terms of whether old plastics are "brittle" or not, well that's got to be assessed on a case by case basis. I mean, my old basher Hornet from 1984 seems just as nimble and flexible as the day it was born. Tamiya plastic is good stuff.

H.

For a new built chassis + near new tyres + box + motor + uncut/unpainted body + rothmans? A NIB body set alone sells for more than that, and in fact, one just did.

It sounds almost new-built, except the body is untouched. My estimate: ~$500-$600
By comparison, NIB kits are usually around the $1000 mark. It sounds like it deserves to be >50% NIB value.

H.