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RC with kids: how old to start them?

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Hi all, my son just turned five. I have been looking forward to building some kits with him since he was born basically! 

 To  any of you TCers that are mums or dads: how old have you started your kids on kits? I don’t want to be pushy or try something overly complex, but he’s very good at building things and interested in machine, planes, ships, etc. I was thinking something simple and classic like a Hornet or Grasshopper. I suspect he may not have the patience, and I don’t want to put him off for when he’s older. (I know, I’m possibly overthinking this somewhat…!)

Any advice and / or anecdotes would be welcome! Cheers 

 

ps: partially relevant subtext: it’ll give me time to finally get involved with RCing again…! 

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I know of some saying their their kids were born with a controller in their hands and winning national championships before they can walk. Mine are not that brilliant, I started mine on RC just before she turned 5, in fact she built her own birthday present (well partly). However, she started in basic static snap together models when she was 3 so she got a good grip of instructions, etc... 

This Christmas (6 years old now), she will be getting a Grasshopper 2. 

Next year (birthday or Christmas, undecided yet), she will be getting a 3R MG Evo with her brushless system. 

Her brother got a PUBG Buggy for his 3rd birthday and will be building it for his 4th. He is a little more restless so need to get him calmed down first. 

No matter what kind of kits, RC or static, she will not be doing the painting as she is too young to produce the standards I want, and some paint are just too toxic for their young lungs. 

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FWIW, my little man was fascinated with the helicopters that I fly. I figured that a copter was probably too much for a preschooler, so I started him with a cheap rock crawler.

Slow, easy to drive, and fun to drive over things. Then, he graduated to an RC28 before getting a Tamiya.

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I started mine early.. like 2..  driving my toy grade RC cars around them.. while they showed initial interest, never stuck.  

My younger son still has a like-new Wild Dagger he got when he was 8? .. but it’s been in storage since then.  He never asks about it.  :wacko:  I hope he forgets entirely and move out and it'll be mine.. :lol:

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Tough to say. Every kid is different. My daughter liked my Lunch Box as a toddler so I bought her a Jr/Mini 4wd version and left out the motor/batteries/gear so she could just push it around. She showed interest in my Madbull but that got sold off and I wanted to start her off with something 380-powered anyway. That something was a depowered Hornet. At around 5, she slammed into just about every immovable object in the surrounding area (the fence, the swing set, the porch, a bush, my foot, etc). I have video of it and there is no shortage of "bangs!" in it, lol. At 6.5 I tried again and everything clicked. She drove it perfectly. At 7 I disassembled a Lunch Box but she couldn't focus long enough to put it together, despite being good at Legos. At 8, I gave her the Lunch Box with a 35T crawler motor in it and she's happy but probably ready for more speed now at age 10. Interestingly, she did a class demonstration project of how RC cars worked. At least she showed kids what a Hornet looks like inside as well as some Lunch Box/Monster Beetle footage which really got their attention.

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I think it will eventually come naturally. Especially for boys. One of my sons showed interests in cars even before he turned one. And I bought him a 1:24 scale RC car when he was five and easily drove it like he knew already. Gave him my TA-04R when he was seven and bought him another drift RC when he turned 12. He's turning 25 in January and is so much into 1:1 cars. He drives a Toyota Celica (5th gen) and is very active with car meets.

 What surprised me was my daughter. I halted from this hobby in 2007 and just resumed in 2018. I decided to start off by restoring my late dad's CC-01 which I took from my folks house that year. When I finally finished the rebuild and repaint (She requested the paint color), I let her try it. It was amazing that I didn't have to teach her about orientation as it became natural especially when driving the car back facing her. She didn't have any difficulties at all. She also loved it and said that is so much better than any video games she'd played on her phone, PC and Playstation. She's 13 now and she still goes with me whenever I go RC trailing/crawling with friends. Drives the CC-01 but sometimes we switch and she drives the CFX.

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My son had his first at 2 1/2 and would spend 30 - 45min most evenings driving it around the backyard. I think he just liked time spent with dad.

I tried building a Lunchbox with him a few years ago and it was too much, but a few months ago after he had turned 9 we put together matching cars (Fire Dragon and St Dragon) and he managed about 95% of it himself. A few screws he couldn't tighten all the way and of course e-clips. There were a few bits where stuff was put on upside down etc, but nothing major. It took a few days as we managed about an hour, maybe 2, per day, then he got bored.

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In terms of age I think it is hard to get kids involved with "hobby grade" RC when they are less than 7/8 years old. Firstly the controllers are rarely small enough for a younger child to get their hands around (there are exceptions but not the norm and those that do exist are very basic). Second the level of complexity (tool use, painting, battery changing, even carrying them around properly) is a bit much. They can enjoy playing with the cars but to be honest they would get just as much from a £20 toy from Argos.

In terms of personal experience I'd echo what others have said, you have to be led by the child's level of interest. My kids have always been aware of my enjoyment of the hobby but have very little interest overall. I have stuff set up for them to use if they want to. My daughter has indulged me in the past by joining in but she's 16 now and has a lot of other things she would rather do. My son is 14 and will quite happily do a little driving with me but it is far from his favourite hobby (computer games win by a LONG distance).

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My youngest son is 7, but he has been into RC's since he was about 3.  He showed interest in my old Stampede, and things kind of exploded since.  He does some of the building, as he also loves building Legos.  "His" truck is his "dumper"... the Volvo A60H.  He helped do the gears and wheels/tires when "we" built it.  He routinely takes the wheels off and on, and changes the battery himself.  He is quite self sufficient.  He also has a 1/24 (?) scale crawler for when the weather is bad and he wants to drive around the house.  Without fail, he wants to drive an rc when he is here with me.  His 3 other siblings don't share the passion, despite all having their own vehicles as well.

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12 hours ago, sosidge said:

In terms of age I think it is hard to get kids involved with "hobby grade" RC when they are less than 7/8 years old. Firstly the controllers are rarely small enough for a younger child to get their hands around (there are exceptions but not the norm and those that do exist are very basic). Second the level of complexity (tool use, painting, battery changing, even carrying them around properly) is a bit much. They can enjoy playing with the cars but to be honest they would get just as much from a £20 toy from Argos.

In terms of personal experience I'd echo what others have said, you have to be led by the child's level of interest. My kids have always been aware of my enjoyment of the hobby but have very little interest overall. I have stuff set up for them to use if they want to. My daughter has indulged me in the past by joining in but she's 16 now and has a lot of other things she would rather do. My son is 14 and will quite happily do a little driving with me but it is far from his favourite hobby (computer games win by a LONG distance).

This mirrors my experience too (although 2 sons, no daughter). My eldest is just 16, my youngest is 6. My eldest goes through phases of interest. We used to go to a local club but after about 6 months he lost interest (having discovered he probably wasn't going to win the worlds in his 1st year racing). That said, about a month ago asked about going racing again and has asked for a tt 02 for Xmas- wants a need for speed style drift car. We're also members of a local rc model aircraft club, so he does enjoy rc'ing - but he also enjoys xboxing and computer games and recently saved 600 quid to buy a lightsaber...

My youngest is fairly ambivalent at present. A couple of summers ago we set up an obstacle course in our back lane that he enjoyed driving some cars around, as well as going to the park with cars. He's also expressed interest in rc planes, so might get him a cheap job for Xmas and see how that goes.

In terms of building/tinkering, neither have expressed any particular interest but maybe my eldest will want to put the tt 02 together - he's also really into lego (tanks, predominantly). 

So yeah, as others have said, play it at your own kid's pace. To an extent, I think my kids only joined in as they wanted to 'play with dad' but were not really interested per se.

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I've been trying to get my daughter interested since she was about 3, when I bought her a used Lunch Box to drive in the garden.  She actually played with it a few times, but mostly she'll forget about it unless I point it out.

She misses me when I go away to weekend meets, and she loves having days out with me, so I promised her if she could get good at driving her 1:18 scale crawler, she could come with me to the big meets when she's older.  She still talks about coming away with me, but never seems interested when I get her crawler off the shelf and suggest we do some practice driving.

She's 5 now.  We started building a Super Storm Dragon a few months ago, we've got as far as making the rear axle.  She has an attention span of around 10 minutes max, unless it's awful junk cartoons on Prime, or games on the iPad.  She did really well at painting the body, now all she can talk about is putting the stickers on - she enjoys that.  No doubt she'll over it with rainbows and unicorns and flowers from the myriad sticker sets she's got, which is fine, but I doubt it will translate into wanting to finish and drive it- which is just as well because winter is fully here now, the lawn missed its last trim* due to the weather, and there's nowhere to drive a 1:10 buggy.

*due to a combination of No Mow May and a summer of drought, my lawn got mowed once this year.

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Some things are very physically demanding, especially turnbuckles and that ... third high torque servo saver spring.

It's hard for young kids (<8-10?) to have enough patience, but they love getting involved and doing something here and there as long as they don't have to stick around for the full build.

It would be nice if the simpler kits were easier to build. E.g. Lunchbox is simple but old so I remember a few weird build steps. Mini 4wd and no-tools little gundam are a good start.

They love choosing the paint but prefer building Lego.

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12 hours ago, droidy said:

Some things are very physically demanding, especially turnbuckles and that ... third high torque servo saver spring.

It's hard for young kids (<8-10?) to have enough patience, but they love getting involved and doing something here and there as long as they don't have to stick around for the full build.

It would be nice if the simpler kits were easier to build. E.g. Lunchbox is simple but old so I remember a few weird build steps. Mini 4wd and no-tools little gundam are a good start.

They love choosing the paint but prefer building Lego.

I think that's a sign they're not fully into it.  My kids were the same way.. older one was worse, you could tell he was only there to be polite to dad.  30 minutes in, I told him it's okay to do something else and he immediately took off.   I never asked him to join after that, I just told him I'll be working on my RC if he wanted to check it out.  He never came, I never forced him.

It's not a bad thing they don't share the same hobby as you, they're just different people.  While heartbroken, I learned to cope with it because I struck out completely. 

RC.. nope strike 1.

Music (I have a pretty elaborate home studio) .. nope strike 2.

1:1 car (I have a pretty elaborate garage, MT cars included).. nope strike 3.

That's 3 strikes.  Better luck in the next life..  lol    :lol:

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My daughter was around 5 when i picked up this Hobby again, i soon found out there was no point leting here drive as she would just destroy them right away so i gave here a RC model of Mario Cart to practise inside and she showed mild interest (she showed a bit more interest in the Switch game Mario Cart which also help).

So my latest atempt is C.Avante which was a good choice as i find it very robust and can take quite some beating actually, so she have learnt to drive quite well eith this one but the interest is stil vague and would be none existing if i didnt remind here. And the case here is also 10 min focus then its off so i it always ends with me «emptying» the battery.
 

Which is also the reason im not on here as often as i want to anymore,  no success getting here hooked, shes 7 now and i do not want to push anymore and she never ask to drive :(  (the C.Avante is on her shelf stil so its not like shes not reminded that it exist). 
 

Last hope is my now 4 year old daughter that show some interest in toy cars and tractors etc so Maybe (cross fingers).

Either way regarding a good starting RC i think C.Avante is perfect for 6-7 year old that had  some practice 

 

 

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Great number of replies, views and experiences there, certainly provides wide range of perspective. Lots to consider! Thanks guys :) 

When my son was about 3-4, we would look at one of my buggies, and he’d get very focused on the different parts of the car and how they worked. , The ‘story’ was important: the battery puts power into the motor, which goes into the gearbox, which goes into the axle, which makes the wheels turn, sort of thing.

He likely didn’t properly understand it, I think, but the concept , or the relationships of parts, he liked. He also liked things like suspension/shocks, and the way the wheels steer and turn; things that moved or are tangible. 
 

I suspect if we tried a project together he’d get a bit frustrated, but because he amazes me frequently with the way he can get so obsessed with certain slightly ‘random’ or unexpected things with a big level of detail and sustained interest (current obsession: the sinking of the Titanic, three months in and no abate, he writes ‘books’ on it…!), I am curious and/or hopeful it could blossom in the sphere of RC.
 

Not so much all for the fun of driving, but  primarily because I think the design of an rc car can can teach so much about how things work, therefore I think the educational aspect is of great value. 
 

I might give it a go and see what happens. Perhaps not build it up on a ‘birthday present to him’ route, but a ‘help daddy make one of his racing cars’ team-approach type affairs. 

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3 hours ago, Willy iine said:

It's not a bad thing they don't share the same hobby as you, they're just different people.  While heartbroken, I learned to cope with it because I struck out completely. 

RC.. nope strike 1.

Music (I have a pretty elaborate home studio) .. nope strike 2.

1:1 car (I have a pretty elaborate garage, MT cars included).. nope strike 3.

That's 3 strikes.  Better luck in the next life..  lol    :lol:

We basically have similar hobbies when it comes to RC, music and cars. But yours is just too extravagant. :D

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My kids are sort of interested but I don't really try and push anything on them. They've had a little go round the garden with a Grasshopper but it's not driven any further interest. They are both girls aged 5 & 8. The eldest is interested in technical things and being an design engineer myself there's definitely scope to introduce some RC to help nurture her interest. 

Ultimately I'd love it if one of them got into mountain bikes (although my bank balance might not disagree!) so we can go ride together as that's my primary passion but we'll see,  I don't want my over enthusiasm to ruin the chances and realising this isn't a biking forum I'll save the details :P 

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1 hour ago, Krustybus said:

My kids are sort of interested but I don't really try and push anything on them. They've had a little go round the garden with a Grasshopper but it's not driven any further interest. They are both girls aged 5 & 8. The eldest is interested in technical things and being an design engineer myself there's definitely scope to introduce some RC to help nurture her interest. 

Ultimately I'd love it if one of them got into mountain bikes (although my bank balance might not disagree!) so we can go ride together as that's my primary passion but we'll see,  I don't want my over enthusiasm to ruin the chances and realising this isn't a biking forum I'll save the details :P 

 

My older son loves road bikes.. he even works at a bike shop part time and talks about bicycles all the time... I wonder if he would've wanted his dad (me) to be more into bikes and ride with him..  not sure. 

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47 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

 

My older son loves road bikes.. he even works at a bike shop part time and talks about bicycles all the time... I wonder if he would've wanted his dad (me) to be more into bikes and ride with him..  not sure. 

I'm a road biker, at least I was until the kids came along and now don't have much spare time to go!

This thread is great, as i'm having the same thoughts about getting my 3 (soon to be 4) boy into RC. I've been toying with buying a used kit on ebay to refurb for him, but I think it might be a little bit early. 

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1 hour ago, Willy iine said:

 

My older son loves road bikes.. he even works at a bike shop part time and talks about bicycles all the time... I wonder if he would've wanted his dad (me) to be more into bikes and ride with him..  not sure. 

Thinking back to being a kid, I found RC cars all by myself, mostly because like a lot of young boys there was something about cars & vehicles that just drew me in and messing with RC cars was a great way of learning how stuff works. That's really the attitude I have, there might be a spark of interest there for the kids just from seeing them on the shelf. I wouldn't even be mad if they took them out for spin without permission!

As for the bike riding thing, I've seen friends of mine riding with their kids and the kids very quickly becoming much more elevated than their elders in skill and speed. I guess there's a sweet spot in the middle where they're confident to ride well but aren't so quick they leave you in the dirt. They'll probably just hate it, and that's OK too.

Anyway, in conclusion, kids just find their own way and get into things of their own volition so age is almost irrelevant. 

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I’d say that the first sign that it’s a good idea is that they are very interested in it in the first place. I gave my older boy his first kit at 11. He put it together by himself (with me advising) and we have had fun driving our Tamiyas in the front yard. I will admit, he was not “Tamiya crazy” like I was at his age, and usually it’s my idea when we go out and play with them. They are expensive toys and should be considered as gifts only when the kid is extremely interested. 

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I’m fortunate to have a son who is very much into cars. He showed interest at an early age, much of it being that he saw me tinkering with RCs. 

At age 2, I handed my son an MF01X with Tactic controller, smallest I could find.  I would sit him on my lap and let him steer as I controlled throttle. By age 4, I had him at the track with me and would codrive the car with him. By age 7, I had him competing in 25.5 VTA class and he was keeping up with the pack. By age 8, he was troubling the top drivers in VTA and placed 4th at a big race 😁. He just turned 9 and had our track not closed down, he would be racing with me in 21.5 USGT class. 

There are 2 separate paths here. One is for them to build these kits at a young age. The other is for them to learn to drive them. 

I focused on the driving and not so much the building. 

 

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.. and @Raman36 uses the American Express card.  Don’t leave home without it.  

 

:lol:  (sorry, a pre-2000 joke for winners and celebrities). ;)

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3 hours ago, Willy iine said:

.. and @Raman36 uses the American Express card.  Don’t leave home without it.  

 

:lol:  (sorry, a pre-2000 joke for winners and celebrities). ;)

You betcha 😂🤣😂🤣

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On 11/30/2022 at 1:57 AM, Raman36 said:

I’m fortunate to have a son who is very much into cars. He showed interest at an early age, much of it being that he saw me tinkering with RCs. 

At age 2, I handed my son an MF01X with Tactic controller, smallest I could find.  I would sit him on my lap and let him steer as I controlled throttle. By age 4, I had him at the track with me and would codrive the car with him. By age 7, I had him competing in 25.5 VTA class and he was keeping up with the pack. By age 8, he was troubling the top drivers in VTA and placed 4th at a big race 😁. He just turned 9 and had our track not closed down, he would be racing with me in 21.5 USGT class. 

There are 2 separate paths here. One is for them to build these kits at a young age. The other is for them to learn to drive them. 

I focused on the driving and not so much the building. 

 

I also enjoy the building. Not only for my kits but other people as well. I have a lot of RC buddies who know the basic in building as per manual. But have no patience in doing other things like modding or DIYs (MacGyver-ing) some parts that needs to be improved. That's were I come in and enjoy the build even more. :D

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