markbt73

So now that we've decided to move, I need to figure out how to pack up a room full of RC (and static model) stuff that has been in the same room for 12 years, and safely ship it across the country. Yes, the smart move would be to sell a bunch of things before moving, but I just don't want to. The unfinished/project stuff actually isn't hard; most of it is in plastic tote bins already, and I figure I can just tape those shut and call it good. And the couple of NIB RC models and all the NIB static kits can just get boxed up. No worries there. It's the shelves and shelves of completed cars that worry me; they take up a ton of space, and if I try to cram several of them in a box, I'll end up with flattened tires and broken shock towers. Not ideal. So here's what I'm thinking: Why not get more tote bins, and just sort of "re-kit" them? Disassemble as much as is necessary to make them fit the bins, put all the wheels and tires together by themselves so they don't get squashed, all the bodies in another to prevent damage to them, and pack up the chassis in small boxes in pieces, or at least components? It would be kind of like having a whole bunch of new cars to assemble after the move, at my leisure. Crazy? Or genius?

Not much anymore, really; I have been fortunate enough to lay my hands on just about everything I wanted as a kid. I regret selling a few things, but that's another story altogether. There is one $150 that I regret not spending, though. Way back in the early 2000s, Hub Hobby had a clearance rack for kits that had been sitting on the shelf for too long. I managed to score some great deals off that rack: a Kyosho Nostalgic Series MGB for $160, and a Kawada Wolf (missing decals and instructions) for $90. But for the longest time, there were two Associated RC10 Dual Sport Team kits sitting there, one electric and one nitro, and they kept dropping in price: $120, then $100, then finally $75 each. I hemmed, I hawed, I waited a week too long... and the guy behind the counter bought them for himself. They also had a stack of the TA03RS Lancia 037 kits marked down to around $130 for a while, which I regretted, but now I have the TA02S version, so I'm good.

To be honest, I find the whole premise of that thread to be a little silly anyway. "Here's photos of cool stuff I've done but don't you dare comment on it!" makes very little sense to me. Probably why I clicked on it the first day it was up, and haven't bothered to go back. But hey, you guys do you. Doesn't bother me any. As for this thread, there's another forum I frequent that's ostensibly a car forum, but drifts off into other topics as well: https://opposite-lock.com/. There is one and only one rule for posting there: "Be Excellent To Each Other." Good advice in general, especially so on the internet, where there's no body language or vocal tone to help convey your meaning. This argument doesn't strike me as being particularly excellent. But that's all I'll say. Carry on..

For carefree running, the Squash Van is the way to go. I don't have one, or any of the 4WD variations on that basic theme, but I have the 6WD King Yellow and I've had several 2WD versions over the years. All absolutely bulletproof mechanically, more stable than you'd imagine, and a delight to run. The all-gear drive in the King Yellow is silky-smooth and free-running (with full bearings) so I would expect no less from the SV. That said, I'm also no stranger to the ORV monsters, having owned quite a few of those over the years. I greatly prefer it to the Frog/Brat form of the ORV, because the front end is actually less sloppy. As far as the diff and axles go, yes, it is an issue, but there are solutions available. Personally, I like the through-bolt method for fixing the diff, but it does require some mechanical know-how and parts modification to pull it off. Braces or stiffer side plates for the gearbox are a simpler option, and more cost-effective than the MIP diff. One other thing to consider is your driving style. Either one of these is going to tend to roll over if you turn hard. The Squash Van's lexan body is far better able to shrug off such abuse; the Monster Beetle's hard plastic body can get cracked or scratched or parts broken off easily. The sound of a freshly-painted Tamiya hard body grinding against a paved surface after it rolls over is a terrible sound to hear. TL;DR - You can't go wrong with either one, but the Squash Van is the better choice for more worry-free fun.

I'm really sorry to hear that, he always seemed like a good guy. That's a pretty good send-off...

It's funny this thread should come up now, because my wife and I are in the early planning stages of a cross-country move, and I'm beginning to look around my workshop (and the house in general) and think seriously about how much stuff I want to pack up and move, and how much I want to get rid of beforehand. When it comes to RC cars, currently I have 40 complete cars that could be driven within, say, half an hour's notice. Some are missing a speed control, or need motor wires soldered on, or something like that. I have another 14 that are disassembled or halfway-finished or not started yet, mostly already packed away in plastic tote boxes. And I have a box of scale crawler components - axles, gearboxes, etc - that could yield another 2 or possibly 3 scaler chassis. I've also got a stack of probably 20 body shells that were either old shells that came with a car, or botched paint jobs, or just old and beat-up. And several drawers full of parts, wheels and tires, hardware, and the like, not to mention a big box of scratch-building materials like styrene and aluminum sheet that I have gathered over the years. Oh, and there's the small matter of the 100 or so unbuilt static model kits, some of which are 1/8 scale and have boxes bigger than NIB RC models, the couple dozen built models I want to keep, and 40 or 50 Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars (which don't take up much room, at least). It's a lot of stuff, and obviously with this impending move, I'm in a complete buying freeze until afterwards. And honestly, there isn't much more I really want, at least for now. I can't stomach the thought of dropping $400 on any new or re-release kits, as interesting as they may be. I've had Mids and Avantes in various online shopping carts over the past couple years, and never pulled the trigger. I guess I just don't want them that bad, which is probably for the best. But the tough part is going to be figuring out what, if anything, I'm going to sell. I hate selling RC stuff, it's always a hassle, and I'm never satisfied with the money I get for things, and half the time when I sell something I just want it back in three months. So I have a feeling most if not all of the complete cars (finished or unfinished) are coming with. The stack of old body shells I'll get rid of, along with a big chunk of the scratch-building material. I've already thrown out several sets of old worn-out tires, tons of broken parts, and other useless stuff. The one wild card in all of this is that many of the houses we're looking at have great places to run off-road RC cars, but basically no place to run on-road. I only have a few cars that are strictly on-road, so maybe those should find new homes. You can always drive an off-road car on-road, but not vice versa. So maybe that's one place I can thin the herd a little. I do worry slightly, though, that in a new and almost certainly bigger house, my RC collection's ranks could swell to truly preposterous numbers. Let's hope this "not really wanting anything new" feeling lasts a good long while.

Yes, one of those. A little plastic one, I think it was actually a Traxxas shock end.

The springs help a little to keep the axle from slapping when you accelerate, but there's a much better way. I use an old tie-rod end, drill a hole in that "tongue" sticking out of the front of the gearbox, then another hole in the back of the chassis battery compartment, and screw it in place. If you locate the hole so that the rear axle's mounting pin is halfway up the slots, the axle will still have articulation side to side, but it can't slap up and down in the slots.Works great, and I've done it on a few Hornets over the years. The photos don't show it well, but maybe a lousy drawing will?

That's a good analogy. Another is the two cars currently parked in my garage. One is a Chrysler 300 sedan with a 5.7 liter Hemi V8. It has 363 horsepower, and can run a 1/4 mile in 14 seconds with the air conditioning on. It's extremely quick, comfortable, and full of gadgets, half of which I don't even use. And yet, to some, it's considered "slow" and "cheap." The other is a 1971 MGB GT. It has all of 95 horsepower to its name, and can just about hit 60 MPH by the time I get to the end of a highway on-ramp. It has no power features whatsoever, is incredibly loud and hot inside, and has a tendency to break down at inconvenient times. I've spent massive amounts of time and money just keeping it on the road. Which one is the "better" car? Depends where I want to go. The MG is terrifying on the highway; it's just so small and tinny that I feel like I'm going to get squashed like a bug at any moment. It can't keep up with the traffic very well, and gets lost among all the big trucks. The Chrysler is built for the highway, has the power to pass almost anything I want to with just a flex of my right calf muscle, and will happliy cruise along at 80 MPH or better for hours on end. On a two-lane country road, the roles reverse. The Chrysler feels too big, its automatic transmission is always in the wrong gear, and its numb steering and soft suspension make it a chore to go fast around curves. The MG, on the other hand, comes alive on these roads. You can feel every little bump and imperfection of the road, feel the tires squirming on the asphalt when you take a corner fast, and flicking the long gear lever back and forth between second and third gear, while heel-toeing and cranking that big thin-rimed steering wheel around becomes a sort of dance. Likewise, take a stock Tamiya TT02 out to a big empty parking lot, or take a DT03 to a skate park, and it will get boring very quickly. There's just too much ground to cover for that little 540 motor, so you upgrade the power. And now it's fast, but the handling is still lousy. So you throw more money at it, and it gets better, but now it breaks every time you hit something. You realize you could have bought an RTR model for less than you've spent, gotten better performance, more durability, and enjoyed your parking-lot sessions more. Does that make the Tamiya models a bad choice for everyone? Not at all, because that RTR is only ever going to be exactly what it was when you cut the zip-ties holding it in the package. There's nothing to improve; all you can really do is replace the body with something different, maybe change the wheels, and then go burn through more battery packs blasting around. Even if you up the power, it does exactly the same thing, only a little faster. For something meant to jump over houses and survive, it's surprisingly one-dimensional. The trouble with things that only are meant to go fast is, how fast is fast enough? When does simply mashing the throttle reach a point of diminishing returns? If you're drag racing or something, I can see chasing that next tenth of a second, but if you're just messing around, are you really going to notice a meaningful difference between the toy car that does 50 MPH and the toy car that does 60? But take that same stock Tamiya model, and put it on a small, tight race track, where you can't hit more than 30% throttle. No need to actually go to a track, just set up some markers in that same parking lot. Watch that super-scale-looking body shell zooming around the track, and try very hard not to hit a board and mess it up. Find a line that works, and spend an entire battery pack learning how to put the car within a few millimeters of the same place, lap after lap. Then take it back home, see all the cracks and scuffs on the body, and decide to replace it with a new body, only detail this one even better. Experiment with springs and shocks to see if you can shave a little time off your laps, upgrade the steering to be just a little more precise. Leave the 540 motor alone; it's plenty for this, and battery packs last ages. I guess the point of all this ramble is that if you only want to see a model car go flying past as fast as possible, then no, a Tamiya model is probably a terrible choice. But if you want to explore the depths of what's possible, if you really want to get into a hobby that can last a good long time, there is no substitute for putting in the work.

If you're asking the question, then no, Tamiya products probably aren't right for you. They are, however, very very right for some of us. That's what makes the world interesting: if you don't like something, you don't need to waste time/money/energy on it; you can look for something else you do like.

I'd be really surprised. The Rocky wasn't quite a one-off - it shares about half its parts with the Raider series - but has very little in common with anything else in their lineup. Also, if the rumors are true about supply problems with drive chains for the Optima and Javelin, I would imagine the last thing Kyosho's corporate overlords want to deal with is another chain-driven re-re.

For many reasons I won't get into here, my wife and I have been thinking a lot about how we want to spend our "golden years." We're not there yet, but we may have the opportunity to at least ease off the throttle of the rat-race a little bit and have some time to do things we enjoy. And obviously for me, that means more time to devote to RC models. My wife has never really been all that supportive of my RC habit. She tolerates it, but that's about the extent of it. I tried early on to get her involved, even helped her build her own Midnight Pumpkin, but she never caught the bug, and now the Pumpkin sits on a shelf with my other monster trucks. I won't touch it, because it isn't "mine," but I doubt she'll ever want to do anything with it again. Which is fine; she has plenty of hobbies I have no interest in either. I think it's probably healthy to have different interests, especially later in life, so we're not in each other's hair all the time. I'm a 1:1 car guy too, with an MGB project to prove it, and someday I'd still like to get something old and Italian, a Fiat or something. And my wife has flat-out said that she's a lot more supportive of my real car hobby than the "toys" (her word). So another project car won't be a problem, at least in that regard. However... the last time I had to crawl under a vehicle to fix something - a dead starter in my Chevy truck - it took me half a day to recover from the aches and pains. Even getting in and out of my beloved MG isn't as easy as it was even a couple years ago. And I'm beginning to understand why so many hot rods at cruise nights are automatics. Being a gearhead gets a lot harder as you get older. And while I would love to have a huge shop/barn someday to work on cars, building something like that probably isn't feasible, and is certainly not possible on our current property. My 1:1 car activities will have to remain on a small scale, which is probably for the best anyway. If only there were a way to take all the fun and mechanical fascination and creative thinking of working on cars, and shrink it all down to a manageable size. Oh wait; there is! RC cars definitely scratch the mechanical itch. They take up some room (boy, don't I know that), but nowhere near as much as even a couple of real cars would. No need for a big barn; any basement or attic space with a door I can close to keep the cats out will do fine. Need to work on something under the car? Pick it up and turn it over! Need a place to store "parts cars"? Any dresser drawer or plastic tub will work. And even the bluest of blue chip RC cars only cost about as much as a tuneup on a Lamborghini. In other words, this hobby that has given me so much over the years, ever since I was thirteen years old, is the perfect activity for me as I get older. I already have a ton of stuff to work on, and I can add to it piece by piece as I want. I'm less interested in new kits, even re-res, as time goes by, but restorations and customizations can keep be busy for the rest of my life. As long as I can still find batteries to power them, I'll never go wanting for things to work on. And, more importantly, drive. Because not only does this hobby keep my mind sharp by working on stuff, it gets me up and moving and going outside. All I need is a little piece of land to turn into a track, and I can stay busy and active. A lot of people seem to worry about the future of the hobby. I say, why bother? All this stuff is still here for us to enjoy, and who cares if the kid are into it or not? In fact, I kind of hope the interest wanes, and prices fall, so I can mess around with more and different stuff in twenty years. He who dies with the most toys... still dies, but has a lot more fun getting there.

I honestly don't remember the brand.Whatever the cheap ones were at my local hobby shop. Integy, maybe? They're 2.2s, but I had to enlarge the inner hole, because the locking ring wouldn't fit in them otherwise. I think these wheels are actually around 2.4-2.5 inches.

$40 for a 14-piece bearing set. The not-so-good-old-days...

If I remember right (and it's been 20+ years, mind) it's like the TL01, which had two L-shaped plastic brackets that attached to one half of the chassis, probably the right, since I don't see holes for them on the left. The servo sits on two standard servo blocks, also attached to the right side of the chassis. Take a look at the TL01 manual, or maybe FF02 (same chassis with an extension) and see if they show it.

I never quit, so I never restarted, but I bought the first WW2 my local shop got in stock, and I've had a couple more over the years. Wonderful little things.

OK, more experimentation, and some decisions have ben made. I'm going for something like this, from the George Klass site: Mocked upon the Parma chassis. Engine needs to sit lower so I can drop everything else down: But I'm really happy with the overall look and feel of this. I guess it would be a C/Altered in the old NHRA rules, so I'll label it as such. And every good dragster needs a name; I think I'll call this one "Willy Makeit."

The only point I was trying to make is that "track time" doesn't have to mean "competition." Lots of folks take 1:1 cars to race tracks on open days just to "see what she can do." There's no reason to treat RC tracks any differently. Run what ya brung, as they say, and don't worry about what other people are running, or how they're running them. If some jerk with tire warmers and $300 batteries who thinks he's the second coming of Cliff Lett complains that you're "getting in the way," tell him to lighten up. Or better yet, offer to let him take a couple laps with your car. Might turn that frown upside-down; you never know. (Might turn your car upside-down once or twice, too, though; most of those types are terrible drivers.) If you do feel like competing, ask if there's an open/novice class. A lot of times you can run whatever car you want in those clases, you're only limited to certain motors and batteries. And if Mr. TIre Warmers shows up in those races, kindly ask the track manager that he be moved up to Stock class.

If it were me, I'd get one (or two) of the Comical buggies, go there during an open practice session, and just have a ball with something that looks cool and isn't fast enough to break anything. If others see how much fun you're having, they might get their own and join in. Maybe even start a racing class for them. You can follow what everyone else does, or you can pretend you don't see what they're doing and just do your own thing. I know which one I prefer.

Messing around with parts, and I think I have a plan for the Hemi engine. It's very much a race engine, no street-driven car would ever use something like that. And looking at the chassis, it reminded me of an early '50s-60s dragster (or "digger," they were sometimes called). And who better to pilot such a dangerous vehicle than our favorite daredevil? I don't know exactly what I'll do for a body; most of these didn't have much. But there are some really excellent looking '60s ones. Tons of photos for reference here... http://georgeklass.net/dragsters.html This won't be quite scale either; I'm imagining a bit of "Weird-Ohs" style thrown in too. A little cartoonish. Which makes Willy an even better choice for a driver.

It may sound like sacrilege, but the least expensive option for a mid-engine transaxle setup may be an automatic, specifically the GM TH425 from the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado from the late 60s-early 70s. Super strong, good parts support, and some sports car pedigree: it was used in the Vector W8 in the 80s. Combine it with an Olds 455 or Cadillac 500, and you have a big powerful drivetrain for reasonably little. You just don't get a clutch pedal.

No, but I've always wanted to. My dad and I looked into the VW-based kits back in the 80s, we wanted to do either a 356 replica or a dune buggy. Never came to be. If I had the means, nowadays, I'd like to tackle a Caterham 7.

I've used both Rustoleum For Plastic and Krylon Fusion on polycarbonate before without issue, directly onto the body. Should be just fine for a backing coat.

So a year or two ago, I found this Parma Good Times car at an antique mall, and picked it up for (IIRC) $85. It came in a Hemi Coupe box, but it obviously isn't one; I vaguely remember this "Hemi sedan" kit, but I can't find much info about Parma kits at all anymore. I know they're rare, and I know people sometimes ask stupid prices for them on eBay, but I don't know how often they actually sell for that. It's definitely "of an era," and that era is that horrible billet-and-monochrome trend of the '80s/90s. I've never liked that era, as much as I love hot rods. So I figured I could do one of three things with this model: 1. Try to sell it for a profit, and buy... what? There actually isn't much out there right now that I want, and I'm not actually short on funds right now anyway. Plus, I'd have to deal with the hassle of selling things, which I hate doing. 2. Put it back in the box and back up on the shelf. Again, then what? Just let it rot? Not my style. 3. Take it apart, and re-make it into something I actually think is cool. This is the route I've chosen. But what about those possibly high sale prices? I don't care. This one cost me $85, so that's what it is worth to me. Besides, people like me need to "slaughter a sacred cow" now and again, just to keep the pearl-clutching collectors honest. So let's dig in. This thing has obviously been run, and run quite a lot. The steering is sloppy, the tires are worn, and the diff is crunchy. Someone had some fun with it, and good for them! After removing the engine (held in by a single wood screw from underneath) and that beat-up one-piece tray with the fenders attached, we're left with just about the simplest possible running RC chassis ever made. Now, full disclosure: I have a second Parma Hemi Coupe 2 kit that I bought new back in the day. I completely trashed the body ages ago, and kind of messed up the engine trying to experiment with it. So techinically I can get two hot rods out of all this, if I 3D print some engine parts, and make a second body. I have some ideas for that which I'll get to later. Here's what I'm thinking for the sedan body, mocked up very roughly on the second Parma chassis. This whole thing started when I took some scrap white vinyl and stuck it on some Hummer tires, to see if I could create wide whitewalls. I liked them so much I want to base a build around them - and what better build than a traditional hot rod? I'll need to more carefully re-do the whitewalls, but these are proof of concept. Those front wheels are from a Kyosho Icarus. I'm not sure if they're staying yet. This chassis has no rear axle; I stole it for another pan car ages ago. But I do have all those Grasshopper/Hornet gearboxes sitting around now, and one of those will probably find its way under here. More updates as I get further along...

If you're referring to the labels on some of my boxes, they're hopelessly out of date, if not purely fictional. I really need to go through everything and re-sort it. And no, I don't keep the boxes that anything comes in. Once it leaves the packaging, the packaging goes in the trash/recycling.