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NWarty

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Posts posted by NWarty


  1. - Traxxas brought too many yucky methheads and unsavory customers into the Hobby Shop who couldn't even begin to learn how to fix their cars. This trend morphed into Crawlers and other RTR's.

    - Local hobby shops are typically terrible and severely lack customer service (I avoid the two of them in town like the plague)

    - Soccer and Travel Ball parents destroy any chances of running your RC in a park or field. They're like locusts and consume any park and recreational area.

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  2. Almost finished with this one, so I'll just post it up:

    Bought from a friend as a rolling chassis with no motor or electronics. Although missing the original MSC, I installed a Hobbywing 1060 brushed ESC, Tamiya Dirt-Tuned 27T motor, FlySky gt3c receiver, and front Futaba S3003 steering servo. I replaced all the bushings with bearings. Gave it a nice scrubbing and clean/re-lubed everything. Tore apart the Mini Yellow CVA's and re-built them also.

    I did get new Egress rear tires, but since the fronts are the weird 2.0" size, finding new ones is impossible. So I went with a 2.2" Astute wheel from JC Racing (Looks OEM), and front Schumacher pin spike tires (which are not installed yet). One swaybar end was missing, so I got one printed up thru Shapeways.


    Body is TBG with MCIRacing decals. Nathan hit it out of the park with the color in the decals. Incredible to see in person how rich and vibrant they are. Cockpit windows are Tam PS-31 Smoke.

    A very handsome buggy, and yes, it's not a shelf queen. I plan on driving the heck out of it

    1989 Tamiya Astute

     

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  3. After not having a restoration project for some time now (other hobbies and life being difficult), these two little guys have come home with me in the last couple of weeks. Many thanks to TC members @mtn bkr and @Saito2!

    The Astute is fully alive and nearly done and waiting on 2.2" front wheels from JC Racing, left gear box joint from the UK, and the TBG body/undertray. The Madcap is a wonderful rolling chassis in excellent shape. Other than the bald tires, the body is fantastic and it'll be a fun runner. I have nearly all the parts ready to go for that resto also, other than sourcing 2.2" dish wheels or something similar. Funny enough, an online seller accidentally sent me an entire set of Yellow Mini CVA's instead of the servo saver parts tree I ordered. So the Madcap will get them :)

    And lastly, a RC1O Teams B-stamp gold pan decided it wanted to come home with me last night also. So, for the first time, I'll work on something other than a Tamiya car :)

    Edit: I was able to find 2.0" Pin Spike front tires for the Madcap. Yay! I can use my original wheels since I have new Egress rear tires coming in the mail.

    MadAstute.jpg

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  4. 18 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

    In Japan they run a class like that, you can see it at 34:53 It really should be something run more often here, something simple and cheap.

    A lot of the fun in it, was that each and every Pumpkin was exactly the same. Same batteries, chargers, motors, etc. All sponsored by Tower Hobbies.

    My Midnight Pumpkin (which is in my showroom link below), was bought to compete in the league.

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  5. I raced in a league back in 2004 while deployed with the US Army. A Midnight Pumpkin league. Seeing 10 pumpkins on a road course, going full-blast, is something I’ll probably never see again, and it was absolutely glorious to watch. 

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  6. Started squirreling away parts for the Astute since it'll take a bit for some of them to cross the pond. In the mean time, I'm starting to tear it completely down and ordering an ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon.

    Soooooo, I ordered the following this weekend:

    - TBG Body/Wing/Undertray

    - MCI decals / Tamiya PS-2 Red

    - Full set of ball bearings (ouch)

    - JC Racing 2.2" Astute wheels

    - New rear Astute/Egress Tires / Schumacher 2.2" pin spike front tires

    - NOS drive shafts

    - Left Gear Box joint

    - NOS rod bag

    - NOS D-parts tree

    - Stabilizer Ball set

    - 3D printed B8 stabilizer ends from Shapeways

    - Tamiya 27T Dirt Tuned motor

    - Hobbywing 1060 Brushed ESC / FlySky GT3C Receiver

     

     

    I've made the decision to run all of my shelf queens from here on out. It doesn't matter that they're rare, or too pretty. I just can't let them sit there and collect dust. My sons don't want them, and they'd like to see me get enjoyment out of them. After the loss of my wife in January, life is too short to not enjoy things. Scratches, broken pieces, hard to find parts? (I do have runner shells for some of them). I don't care and I won't care once I'm a pile of dust and long gone.

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  7. 3 hours ago, bRIBEGuy said:

    To me, THAT is what has changed.  The internet propagates a belief that everyone should have everything, and that no one needs to wait.  Kids don't focus and save anymore (neither do most adults... ha ha ha). 

    This can be applied to every day American life with "Keeping up with the Joneses", having the latest phone/SUV/McMansion, clothes/TV/, etc. etc.

    Traxxas and RTR's succeed because of the Veruca Salt "I want it nowwwww" attitude that has infected modern life everywhere.

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  8. Nice topic Saito,

    I always joke that Traxxas is the realm of meth-heads, and people who want a toy but can't be bothered to learn how to put it together. There's no investment in the hobby for many of these folks, and I think that sometimes translates into a cold shoulder to others.  (I've seen way too many tweakers at the hobby shop who can't figure out how to fix a suspension arm when they took their nitro-douchmaxx off a six-foot jump and launched it a 100 feet in the air).

    I run my RC's in front of my house, and considering the amount of sidewalk foot traffic we get, am always prepared to talk about RC's if someone shows interest. In the 17 years I've been running them in front, only one time did a gentleman stop, and oddly enough, I was running my Heng Long 1/16 Tiger I thru the front grass. He was an old tanker from the 50's and we chatted about five minutes or so. I was pretty giddy about that interaction. 

    99% of people are going to view them as juvenile toys.

    I'd consider model railroaders and club flyers as the worst of the gatekeepers.

    • Like 1

  9. On 7/29/2022 at 9:10 PM, markbt73 said:

    I remember A-Hobby! I grew up in the Aurora/Montgomery/Oswego area, and mostly hung out at Whitt's Hobby in North Aurora, but made it up to A-Hobby once in a while. Never raced there, though, I didn't start racing until 1992 up in Duluth, MN, and that was strictly indoor carpet oval. (Can't for the life of me remember the name of that place.)

    That's amazing! It's where I started out racing before moving to the bigger stuff out in Cahokia.

    The shop is long gone, and so are the owners, Clyde and Debbie. That area has gentrified a lot from what I can see on Google maps.


  10. On 7/23/2022 at 7:26 PM, Flare65 said:

    The local track had a vintage race day.  Thought I would share some pics from the event with you all since everyone here has an appreciation of older RC cars.  I dusted off the old Lunchbox (Box art yellow in the pics below) for the event.  Was planing on running it as-is, but with an old 2 channel Magnum Jr AM radio, there was 3rd channel for the transponder so I ended up putting modern electronics in it sans LiPo batterys - Still running NiHMS.  Only mods are bearings and a Sport tuned motor.

     

    @Flare65

    I saw your thread title and was immediately transported back in time to A-Hobby in St. Charles back in 1988. At the time, I lived in St. Peters,  I raced an MRP-10 against, Frogs, RC-10 Frankensteins, etc. Some of the best times I had as a 13 year old kid. I then moved to Bolink Eliminator 10's and raced out in Cahokia when Ace Anglum was running the show out there at the outdoor track and indoor track across the street. Very fun stuff.

    I stopped racing competitively around 1989 when I moved to Atlanta. Funny I was talking to my kids the other day about A-hobby, Mark Twain Hobby, and the old D&D shop in old town St. Charles right there along the river.

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  11. Interesting topic Saito and thank you for posting this.

    For many of those here who don't know, I'm transgender. I've lived in the Pacific Northwest of the United States for the last 24 years (After escaping the South). After retiring from the US Army, I stayed here and raised my sons with my spouse. My family still resides in the South, in both Atlanta, and in North Carolina. I came out five years ago, so I was here on TC long before I was out publicly.

    I have not gotten rid of the hobbies that I grew up with, but I've changed in how I interact with some of the people involved in those hobbies. I no longer do many things in person, that I used to do. i.e. I've switched Games Workshops 40K stores to a more laid back and chill crowd because of toxic dude-bro talk over games. I no longer run model trains at a train club patronized by grumpy boomers. I no longer fly RC's at a field. Some hobby forums I've stayed on, some I've left entirely. I no longer visit American football forums or fan sites due to the amount of hate leveled at the LGBTQ crowd. 

    My politics/identity has put me at odds with my traditional Republican family (sans my younger brother who is my biggest cheerleader). I rarely speak to them anymore. My dad and mom are glued to Fox News 24/7. And I tolerate their political crap even though my livelihood is hanging in the balance in the near future. Long story short, my father and I raced cars together, flew planes together, talked hobbies together, but he doesn't call anymore. Neither of them call anymore other than my brother.

    I've discovered new hobbies and met new friends in my life (women). Although I don't do the old hobbies as much anymore, I'm enjoying new things with like-minded people. It makes me sad sometimes to see so much vitrol in our country. So many people just can't leave each other alone and let people be.

     

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  12. I'm in my late 40's, like many here.

    I haven't picked up a controller or charged a battery in nearly two years. I can't get the motivation to fix little broken things. I've done pretty much all the collecting that I'm going to do with vintage RC stuff. I've gotten what I wanted from my childhood, minus the 959, but that's okay. I go down to my bonus room every so often and rotate the tires so I don't get any flat spots. I'll pick one up and admire it.

    My sons aren't interested in RC (we do have similar hobbies though), so my collection will die with me. Maybe one day the passion with return, maybe they'll just keeping collecting dust.

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