How many were tempted by other manufactures BITD?

[Marcwsm]

I tried Schumacher earlier this year after buying a cougar to add to my collection but after building it I realised that I was a tamiya guy so it was sold to fund another tamiya purchase 

[Chest Rockwell]

BITD it was Tamiya all the way at first, late 80's, early 90's but the more I read, the more I realised that there was better performing kit out there and since my mate had bought a Schumacher Cougar, I got a Shogun truck. Started drifting away from R/C then but had I kept interested I imagine I'd have been after Dog fighters and Bosscats rather than a Top Force. Luckily I didn't so came back to Tamiya. They've always been the best looking and that's what counts these days.

[T-StudioWorks]

Just do what you want to do.  It’s your hobby.  😊

 

[Pablo68]

BITD I had no idea what else was out there other than Tamiya. They were front and center because that's where all the Hobby stores and toy shops put them. I first saw the Wild Willy and thought, wow very cool, next ones I saw around were Marui, things like the Hunter and Whatever Jeep truck they had. I erroneously though Tamiya ripoff.
Later on a whole bunch more Tamiya Models came around. The first one I actually owned was the Hornet (~86-ish). Then came by a Monster Beetle about a year later.
It was at that time a mate I worked with introduced me to Kyosho....every Tamiya persons dirty little secret. I bought his Ultima off him (it had just won the ifmar worlds). I loved that Ultima and was much the same with my Hornet. As good as it lokked the MB ******* me off.

Then I didn't really keep up the hobby, for like....15 or so years.
Then I went searching for and found Tamiya cars again for my sons to get into the hobby if they wanted to.

I still love Tamiya stuff, but I'm somewhat of a brand slut these days.

[Kowalski86]

I'm not really loyal to Tamiya, it just so happens that no one else makes "goofy" Lunchbox/Grasshopper type stuff, and most of the realistic RC offerings are in crawler territory (where variety is quite poor imo).

[Big Jon]

BITD, my first hobby RC was an Optima, followed by a variety  of Kyosho, Associated, a few Yoks, and a smattering of Tamiyas. At the time, while I enjoyed my friends assortments of Tamiyas, they really didn’t fit what I wanted to do. That said, I had a ton of fun with a few of the Tamiyas that I had.
As badly as I wanted a Hotshot, a Fox, a Boomerang or whatever, they didn’t offer the performance or durability to be competitive on track at the time, and I always preferred to save up longer and buy race chassis.

Now, I have a large fleet from all sorts of manufacturers, and seem to accumulate more Tamiya than anything else. I don’t care as much about outright performance, as long as the chassis works as designed, and really enjoy building and modifying Tamiyas, and they are simply more overall fun than modern race or bash chassis.

 

[Baddon]

BITD ......a long time ago in a land far away (N.Ireland) there was a young boy who LOVED to know how things worked and building anything and everything. 

Started with lego then quickly evolved to technic lego then to wanting an RC car. Got a TYCO toy one then saved up and bough a 2nd hand boomerang from the local 2p a word newspaper adds.

Liked it but the batteries were so poor you lucky to get 3min and it was VERY used.

Later same year after subscribing to Radio race Care International I decided on a new Thundershot....Massive amount of money for a kid from a relatively poor family but i was good at saving and doing jobs for others.

 

LOVED it, started a club in school and loads of others also got buggies from same family. Local RC shops were practically next to each other in Belfast (Model Shop and Leisureworld)  Both ran the old Tamiya Videos basically non stop and what i really wanted was a Vanquish but could not afford it.

 

After a year or so got a Midnight Pumpkin as just love the monster look and fun wheelie nature. It was more fun if on my own but the Thundershot was defo much better for racing with school friends.

After I started to drive I forgot RC for a long time then when internet started I looked about and was taken with Traxxas T Maxx - was working so saved up and got one. Great truck BUT nitro was a pig to set up and keep running so got ignored. Got me back interested in RC and only local scene I could find was a local club racing Kyosho Mini Z indoors. NOW that was FUN and relatively inexpensive. not to hard on rules and was at it for several years. Started with F1 then we all migrated to saloon as they tended to not get damaged as easily as the bodies protected the wheels.

 

So no brand loyalty really back then. BUT as I am a hoarder I kept them all.

Jump forward 25 years and I started to see items on Tamiya re-re so parts sould be got to restore my old Thundershot.......and away we got again. Brand loyalty yes as sold all the Mini Z and Traxxas stuff. BUT the Tamiys stuff is brittle and lets face it compared to modern stuff its not as robust or as easy to just blast on rougher ground. 

As such changed the family fleet from Tamiya (2 madbulls for ladies and 3 WT-01 trucks for the boys) to the boys all now running Traxxas Stampede's. Faster, better handling and SO much stronger. Cope better with grass and dirt as well. 

 

BUT its vintage Tamiya that make me smile and I now have a display case with over 20 buggies in it. Mostly 4Wd from Hot shot on, 3 of the wheelie trucks and 3 2WD buggies. 

 

[Cynan]

When I was at primary school all I knew of RC cars were the typical toy cars you got that all worked on the same frequency and you couldn't race with your mates. Then one day I saw another kid with a Grasshopper zooming across the school playground and from that moment I knew I had to have one. We didn't have much money in our household back then but my mum found a guy selling a Hotshot 2, as his girlfriend at the time had brought him a newer car for his birthday. I don't remember what that was, but it might have been a Mantra Ray. Anyhow the HS2 was enough for me and I loved it. With it came a Tamiya catalogue and I would drool over the Avante. It was not until high school that I learnt of Losi and modified motors and felt like I knew nothing again with a toy car. Still, the HS2 was enough for me. Later on I had a Mardave Cobra where I dipped back into the hobby again for a short time.

It's only recently when I've got back Into the hobby and fore filled those childhood dreams of having an Avante and all the other cars I'd dream about that I've tried out a Kyosho and a Schumacher.