Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
JeffSpicoli

Tamiya convention......

Recommended Posts

Maybe I'm wrong to think it, but shouldn't there be a meeting of Tamiya enthusiasts somewhere in the USA every year?  

In the euro community we have cars and coffee, cars and cappuccino, and the like, but where do Tamiya enthusiasts gather en masse?

It would be interesting to see booths, displays, and the like all in one place.

Discuss.

1-19-1991_0.50.40.00.jpg

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Good place to meet:  https://www.tamiyausa.com/tcs/raceway/

Calendar of (past) events:  http://tamiyaamerica.com/category/2021-tcs-race-schedule/

I think things will slowly open back up as Covids goes away???  Let's hope...

Terry

 

BTW, I'm always open for a meet-up in Raleigh.  The Teamsters Lodge building across the street from Legacy has a brand new paved parking lot...

 

 

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Been brainstorming this type of thing a lot lately too.

I have come to the conclusion that it's all about the location.

Check out Ultimate Scale Truck Expo and you'll see what I mean.

But how to do this in a more central location, or in each state?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I rarely see Tamiya-based conventions in SoCal, and I get the idea that the general USA attitude toward Tamiya is similar.  There are several RC related events around, such as crawler events sponsored by Pro-Line and Axial as well as countless sanctioned off-road and touring car race events.  

The multitude of comments towards Tamiya I hear are "Tamiyas are slow", "Tamiyas break easily", "all made of plastic", or just "Tamiya sucks".  Traxxas has tainted the marketplace with the "faster is better" mentality and RTR's to make it "easy" to enter the hobby.

As enthusiasts, we understand the premise is "models suitable for RC", with emphasis on building and hop-ups and learning.  This is where the proportionately smaller niche of USA Tamiya fans fit in.  I just don't see the regional density of fans great enough to support gatherings.  On the lighter side, I do see that the more popular YouTube channels are beginning to add Tamiya RC's to their repertoire of new videos.  Hopefully popularity increases in upcoming years.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
20 hours ago, SupraChrgd82 said:

On the lighter side, I do see that the more popular YouTube channels are beginning to add Tamiya RC's to their repertoire of new videos.  Hopefully popularity increases in upcoming years.

RC DriverOnline is one of the few US based “big” hobby channels that frequently reviews and hypes Tamiya Kits. 
the RC Saylors would be a good fit for some of the XB models , I think they really only do RTRs on their channel. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/20/2021 at 5:13 PM, SupraChrgd82 said:

I rarely see Tamiya-based conventions in SoCal, and I get the idea that the general USA attitude toward Tamiya is similar.  There are several RC related events around, such as crawler events sponsored by Pro-Line and Axial as well as countless sanctioned off-road and touring car race events.  

The multitude of comments towards Tamiya I hear are "Tamiyas are slow", "Tamiyas break easily", "all made of plastic", or just "Tamiya sucks".  Traxxas has tainted the marketplace with the "faster is better" mentality and RTR's to make it "easy" to enter the hobby.

As enthusiasts, we understand the premise is "models suitable for RC", with emphasis on building and hop-ups and learning.  This is where the proportionately smaller niche of USA Tamiya fans fit in.  I just don't see the regional density of fans great enough to support gatherings.  On the lighter side, I do see that the more popular YouTube channels are beginning to add Tamiya RC's to their repertoire of new videos.  Hopefully popularity increases in upcoming years.

 

I don't really hear the anti Tamiya sentiment that much although its around. The average person I'm around understands the difference between a 120 dollar tt02 kit and a 600-700 dollar Serpent or Mugen.

The market will always lean into RTR companies like Arrma, Traxxas, Axial, and the various RTRs from Losi, Associated and schumacher. Its accessible to the layman. Those buyers keep the hobby relevant in a world where something like Forza or Gran Turismo fills that kind of bill digitally.

Any time the argument of speed comes up I'll invite the person to a race around a track near me or set one up in a parking lot. Usually they chicken **** out because they know a 150mph 1/8 scale rc car is not really useful for anything an in a competitive environment its a turd. Its kind of why I stuck around in 1/5 scale so long. They are so big they are just not straight line fast like the small comparatively toy grade stuff from Traxxas or Arrma. They carve though. Something that big moving 40mph is far more impressive than a tiny thing moving that fast.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, is it not more the taste in Hobby?, seems to me that its a huge difference in Extreme performance, close to non breakable «cloned» ready built RC cars AND to have close attention to build details, how it looks , care about small imperfections on paint jobs, really feel connected to how that spesiffic Rc Car look and enjoy driving it NOT because you can put Razor blades on the Wheel Hex and Cut up the hole Lake from ice in seconds or jump 15 M up in the air on a Skate board Ramp etc but because you just enjoy watching it drive (Yes, im aware that their main fokus is probably to obtain great drive skill and drive as fast as possible on a course, kust setting it a bit on the egde). I mean most off us enjoy the build procces just ad much as driving them for crying out loud .

Yes, speed freaks do exist on TC also with Tamiya kits and i think its cool, its cind off going againts the wave and common sense :)

On PC Simulator im a speed freak though (Grand Prix Legend, Richard Burns Rally. Hardly any New Sim-games they are often to much Arcade like with very few exeptions).

I would like a Tamiya gathering to be more like a casual «camping» trip that includes Beer drinking, talking about paint/build jobs and drive ofc.. not very competive in other words. Or maybe its just the way i would like it to be

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I get it, Tamiya is a niche.   Most of us had 2 options growing up.   Tamiya, Kyosho.    Then Associated, Losi exploded, there were some Yokomos at the time, the Schumacher Cat had just come out when I was in high school.   I still remember when the graphite chassis era hit, that was like mind blowing stuff for the time.

My local shop, Cudahy News and Hobby in Milwaukee, had a basement carpet car circuit.   So guys were down there running their 12L 12i  Bolinks, etc.  I remember going down there and guys had milk crates with car batteries to charge their cars. It was mind blowing stuff for a teenager.  Then I heard about ESCs and you couldn't reverse?   What's this?

I had a Kyosho Ultima as my first car, and I hated it.  It was getting a ton of hype when it was released, it was $149, which was insane.  My dad's coworker's son built it for me.   I got rid of it really quickly and moved onto a Hornet.   HA!  But I loved my Hornet.  I had every mod on it you could buy at the time.

Tamiya is a special brand, esp to the older guys.  I suggested RC Girl build a Tamiya and I didn't even get a response lol.    She has no clue.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/20/2021 at 11:36 AM, Frog Jumper said:

Good place to meet:  https://www.tamiyausa.com/tcs/raceway/

Calendar of (past) events:  http://tamiyaamerica.com/category/2021-tcs-race-schedule/

I think things will slowly open back up as Covids goes away???  Let's hope...

Terry

 

BTW, I'm always open for a meet-up in Raleigh.  The Teamsters Lodge building across the street from Legacy has a brand new paved parking lot...

 

 

the TCS raceway has been closed for at least a couple of years now, I know they closed prior to COVID hitting by at least a year.

 

the closest thing is probably the Tamiya races in the summer.  I was at the one at Cal Raceway but it was very race centric.  I couldn't stay too long, I was supposed to race rookie but they were running behind schedule and had to leave.

 

It's crazy to think OCRC is now closed but this is cool Tamiya related

https://fb.watch/a331AF5fNb/

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/22/2021 at 11:27 AM, undertheradar said:

It's crazy to think OCRC is now closed

Wow, what happened?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Wow, what happened?

The story that has been going around is the church that shared the building with OCRC went and stole the lease from OCRC. OCRC didn’t have a chance renew or negotiate the lease. 

  • Sad 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/22/2021 at 11:30 AM, simalarion said:

I would like a Tamiya gathering to be more like a casual «camping» trip that includes Beer drinking, talking about paint/build jobs and drive ofc.. not very competive in other words. Or maybe its just the way i would like it to be

You're not alone. 🍻

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...