S-PCS

Started out firmly determined to stay re-re all the way, to not be drawn into the whole originality thing. Lasted two and a half years roughly, then gave in and bought my first NIB, of course it was one I really had to have... Would have settled for the re-re even then, had there been one, but there was none. And there are other kits I'd really like to have NIB, kits that have not been re-released, at least as of yet... Like the 959, Celica, Wild Willy... So I'm watching ebay and a number of other sites, waiting for the right NIB occasion to pop up - definitely something I didn't do two years ago. And once I have the NIB, why stop there, why not get a nice new-built original runner to match? Or even a NIB to build?

I have no idea about their current "collector's value", but I think they sold for well over $200 each when new?

See? My going to the Porsche museum to look at the 1:1 959 didn't go unnoticed. I single handedly pressured Tamiya into re-releasing the 1:12 959. I'm pretty proud of that, to say the least, and will humbly accept all the great thank-you gifts that all you 959 enthusiasts undoubtedly will heap upon me... And then I woke up.

Ok, some quick calculations later, no, it wouldn't. Not near 50%, which would have been acceptable. Let me take a closer look at those repro Terra Conqueror bodies...

I just keep thinking that this might not be the most cost effective way to solve this issue... Seeing how the Manta Ray needs new tires (and hence, new wheels, 'cause they're super-superglued), plus the cost of a body, paint, decals... wouldn't that put this idea dangerously close to the cost of a new Top Force?

Found out that only ONE 959 in rally configuration ever came up for sale since 1985 - one of seven built, out of which six survive, four of them at the Porsche museum. The car that was sold in late October 2018 is one of three that unsuccessfully ran Paris-Dakar in 1985, the year before Porsche actually won. Jeez, it sold for $5.95 million. I'm going to have to wait for the re-re. Just imagine what the 1986 winner's car would go for.

Took my Manta Ray apart and gave it a thorough cleanup after running it on really dusty... well, dust. I think I found the dustiest spot on earth and poor Manta Ray got well and truly dusted. It's clean now, but it's still a Manta Ray, and that frustrates me to no end. Such a mean looking chassis, and then you put that strange Star Wars submarine shell on it. I think I should get a Top Force runner.

Yeah, exactly my thoughts. This calls for an otherwise unrelated late-eighties punk rock quote containing a late 1700s natural science quote: "there's no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end, when we all disintegrate it will all happen again." As for the Charger... I don't think "Bullit" had that much of an impact. Steve McQueen yes, so the Mustang to a certain degree too, but the Charger was quickly forgotten, like that other car from that other, much better chase movie from around the same era... If you think "Eleanor" was the name of a silver '67 fastback, then you, too, don't remember.

Then again, how did the second generation Dodge Charger rise to become one of most expensive American classic cars ever, desite being next to meaningless in actual 60s historical context? Massive 80s Dukes-of-Hazzard TV exposure is how, I'd say. Same TV that was killing kids' imagination and creativity, according to many 80s parents. Seems what it really did was create desire for the real thing. Trust the kids, or at least trust human adaptability and evolution, I'd say, whatever comes out of whatever it is they're doing nowadays will certainly be different, but not necessarily worse.

Oh, lucky you, that's the one I really wanted to see! The museum's on display-to-in storage ratio is something like 1:10 I think, they have far, far more cars than they actually put on display. Basically you get to see something new every time. There was a dedicated Paris-Dakar exhibition on some time ago where they showed (I believe) both 959s and the back-up 959 - plus their Mercedes G-based, Porsche V-8 powered service vehicle... would have loved to see that.

Exactly While I took this pic, a bunch of kids walked past commenting on how "very wrong" the car looks. Goes to prove that kids still need to learn a lot. This 959 is currently on display at the Porsche museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany, and there's also a "street" 959 three cars down. I'm pretty sure the Paris-Dakar 959 is not on permanent display, seems like they rotate out their exhibits all the time. I first saw this car at the old Porsche museum when it was still covered in Sahara dust back in the eighties, but never again after that - until yesterday.

Owner of the LHS told me the other day that model trains are making a comeback, mostly due to grandfathers getting their grandchildren into... train modeling? Model training? Whatever they call it. I know nothing about model trains, but I see a clear analogy. Old guys getting kids into the stuff they enjoyed when they were kids themselves. You don't have to look further than this forum to realize that a lot of you RC granddads are doing the same thing, too. Goes further than that I guess, lots of you have kids, kids that grow up with RC enthusiast fathers. I think it's safe to say that hardly anyone from back in the Tamiya boom era had parents who were into RC. Supportive maybe, into it themselves before their kids were, probably not. That, at the very least, has changed, and I'm pretty sure it will be a factor in the future development of RC as a whole.

Went to see a genuine 959 in order to build up some pressure on Tamiya. I figure it'll speed up the 959 re-re decision if they fear they're going to lose customers to the 1:1 if they don't do the 1:12 soon. Yeah... Just oh so very slightly unlikely, but do you have a better idea?

A 9:17 video of a 917. Attention to detail, that is.

Ran my SCB, almost broke nothing, but got everything really dusty.

compnine.com will most likely be able to provide an answer to the trim level question. And make that rubber floor, vinyl seats, radio delete for me! But I'll take power windows over manual any day.

Yes, exactly what I meant, not vintage though. Maybe I'm getting this mixed up, but wasn't there a re-release of this box due to happen sometime right about now?

Wasn't there a Tamiya universal "restauration" screw kit supposed to be released at some point? I seem to recall seeing something to the effect of a 300 piece boxed screw/nut/washer assortment on Tamiya USA.

That's exactly the point. In a way, one of those, you could call it the first, Porsche bubbles did already burst a while ago. Average cars for way above average prices simply aren't selling anymore, not like they did 5 years ago. Yet that doesn't seem to affect the true top end of the market, see SVD. Yes, it's not exactly a 1:1 re-re, true, but I didn't take a better pic of the green car . No seriously, basic idea is the same: Relive your childhood dreams. And that is pretty much a new idea, still unexplored to a huge extent. Lastly, there is no difference between a $1.8 Singer Porsche and a $5000 NIB Tamiya Porsche. Both are way beyond the financing abilities of the majority of your average enthusiast. I'd say it's always the same, cars, toys, bitcoins, tulips... whatever people think is fashionable at their particular point in time or life... sort of a human logarithm. Yes, tulips. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania Something, somewhere, sets off a random hype (like a $1.8 m Porsche), people become interested, start buying whatever comes close and is within their financial reach, prices go up across the board making items of random desire seem even more desirable, even more people want in, junk starts selling, people get wise, prices for average stuff start dropping... bubble bursts, people move on to the next thing. Afterwards, the real collectables are still real collectables, and usually their prices have gone UP, as every hype will inevitably bring at least a few serious new buyers into the market. Just like re-re brought ME into THIS, and trust me, I'm just waiting for a certain NIB opportunity, $$$ in hand. Prices, temporarily, might be going up or down, but overall, the tendency is up. Until this particular generation reaches 70 and starts getting out of the market. Right now, generation post-Frog is turning forty, first mainstream RC generation in history. It's not a hardcore-pioneering-electronics-enthusiast-from-way-back thing anymore. It's former mainstream kids reliving mainstream dreams now. Who knows if they'll ever spend $5000 on a NIB kit, but there is a LOT of them. This is going to stay interesting for some time to come.

No way. First time I ever liked anything on the 6x6 platform. Can't wait to see the finished body.

This might be off topic, but only slightly. Look at this, it's sort of a 1:1 re-re Porsche, and a $1.8 MILLION re-re Porsche at that. This company only builds 964s, and those were originally produced from 1989-1994. If THAT doesn't tell you something about a certain generation's financial ability and willingness to relive their childhood dreams, then I don't know what could. Re-re might take a bite out of originality's market share, or it might incite increased interest in originals in the long run, but in any case, the whole nostalgia thing is here to stay, for a long while at least. Actually, I believe it will be taken to levels that few have ever dreamed about.

I was foolish. I was careless. I let my reserve stockpile of cheap-but-entertaining kits that you-can-build-on-a-quiet-monday-night dwindle away and finally disappear over the last couple of months... only to be caught unprepared when today's monday night actually turned out to be a quiet one. Now I have nothing to build and no-one to blame. I must suffer, and I deserve it!

More suspension setup experiments on the DT-02.

I'm with you on the Pin Spikes, but I also always had a thing for the King Cab tires, with their odd push button style flat spikes. Very technical looking, they always seemed like highly specialized serious racing tires to me.

Had a quiet 4WD buggy moment, then went on to perform much-needed but boring maintenance work on far less spectacular, yet constantly run 2WDs.