First contact

[Saito2]

As noted in the thread about Tamiya "let downs", the models found disappointing seem to be varied. I'm sure seeing some of those models called out may have spurred interest in defending them among others who love them. The basic axiom of "different strokes for different folks" probably explains most of it, but rolling it over in my head today, I began to wonder if the timing of first contact with a model doesn't color our opinion of it.

Take something like the Midnight Pumpkin. Its not "good" in the typical sense but has many admirers. It also has detractors. I think if the Pumpkin was my first hobby grade RC and I had come from smaller, slower Nikko, Tyco, Tandy, etc. stuff from the 80's, it would have seemed quite a step up and certainly fast. Take that same Pumpkin and hand it to me today after decades of ORV monsters, King Cabs and Blitzers, I might find it terrible. I might not, if I'm the type of person that can get my head around the beautiful silliness that is a Midnight Pumpkin, but minimally, it would seem basic and toy-like compared to experience with prior trucks. 

With much of Tamiya's back catalog available to us thanks to the re-releases, we're in a unique spot to hop into a time machine. Sometimes when we get there, it might not be all we thought it might be. Its always interesting to see how our expectations crossed with our previous experiences equal the amount of enjoyment we might derive from a model. 

[BuggyDad]

I agree wholeheartedly. I started a reply to the "let downs" thread myself with a comment on the Falcon. Which was my hobby RC "first contact". Its main weaknesses are, I think, much more than just identifying the least good parts of something, or the compromises made for cost, which every car has. Rather they are genuine elements of poor design. 

However, I turned myself around while writing, because a let down is the last thing it was to me. Rather, for me, at that time, it was fantastic. So fantastic that perhaps the experience of it in my early years even had some influence on my later direction in life (sciences at school, engineering at university, then career choices that although in a different field relied on the same sort of mind/approach). And it presenting to me problems that 10-12 year old me could work out myself how to solve was perhaps the key to why. 

If I built and ran that kit today expecting something better, it would of course be a let down, but context is everything (and personal).

On returning to the hobby I bought a DT-03. For the time and context it again was fantastic. The right price point, the right thing to share with my 8-10 year old and the basis for some shonky (but fairly unique to ours) mods that solved serial breakages. If I'd done those things and moved on in that way with a different model at that time (quite possible) I'd have no desire to buy a DT-03 today, I even posted a thread up yesterday on something about it that bugs me, but we still love ours.

Edit: and if they release a DT-04 tomorrow will I buy one? It depends what it is obviously, but I guess most likely not, because it probably won't suit us at that time, but I can well imagine myself recommending it to someone else. 

[Wooders28]

I'm also sure the element of time and development, has hazed things too.

In 1980, if you had the Rough Rider, you'd have had one of the best, fastest cars, not much would have come close to it. Fast forward a decade, and some cars had become mid motored , double wishbone oil filled independent suspension front and rear, with modified motors so the speed and handling to match.

After driving, and getting used to a modern race machine, with a low turn brushless and lipo, the wow speed factor kind of isn't there for some of the cars I yearned for, so when I have bought them, they didn't leap of dunes like the old tamiya vids suggested (beginning to think some of those shots, the car was physically thrown..).

[Willy iine]

I would never buy a rere Frog that's for sure.    (not meant to be offensive to any Frog fans out there.   I just had horrible experience getting my butt handed to me effortlessly by an RC10 and Fox.. and Kyosho's for that matter when I was a kid).

[JimBear]

I guess this time machine thing is may be one of the things that has made me hesitate on getting another Monster Beetle. I loved building and driving it back in 1990 - but now I know more about the ORV gearbox weaknesses and reports about failures of the dogbones on the re-re - it might lay waste to the fond memories of it. I drove the original one for a shorter time, and then it ended up in a box - and maybe my memories of it would have been different if it had broken down on the third day?

Like @BuggyDadsays - context is everything.

As for the DT-01 that I bought (used) for the kid - it took me some good money, time and sweat to get it to the point where the serial breakage stopped long enough to be able to get out for a run, and the car still being complete when back on the bench. I never had this back in the day, so I had no idea what to expect; just going from the memory of my Monster Beetle, I bought it on a whim.

Somehow, between the screwdriver sessions and frantic orders, we grew - in confidence and abilities. Now we both know it backwards and forwards, and the kid has gone from basic level to actually being able to see beyond that: "what can I make of this pile of parts I have here?" And maybe the kid will remember the DT-01 fondly in the future? I have no idea.

Edited November 14, 2023 by JimBear
legibility

[87lc2]

My first was an RC10 when I was 13.  Loved building it and racing it for a few years, but for some reason I was always drawn to my dad's Tamiyas of the day (Grasshopper, Blackfoot, Clod, and a King Tiger). 

I guess it can go both ways - I started with a vehicle much superior to the Tamiyas of the time and now all I do is buy Tamiya re-releases and run them bone stock    I still race and have suitable equipment, but if it weren't for Tamiya I can almost guarantee I would never have gotten back into the hobby and stuck with it.  

[Kowalski86]

I started the hobby with a Traxxas Rustler, so my standard has always been "it just needs to work on its stock power plant with minimum fuss".

Later I'd get into re-re Tamiyas because they looked more simple, and the engineering is interesting...to say the least. There are still a few that I'd like to try (Thunderdragon, any Hotshot). I'd also try a TT-01 just to see a "modern" Tamiya.

I've grown to realize that there are two sides to Tamiyas RC division, the "novelty" side with goofy trikes, re-res, comicals, and the "serious" side with TCS and money pit on-road stuff.

If you gave me a TT-01 to drive today I'd enjoy it on a drawn up track, the Grasshopper (and really all of the solid axle kits) are neat noveltys, but not fun to drive for me anymore.

[Mad Ax]

Interesting thread, and it's made me think about the one I usually complain about on the "let downs" type threads.  Bear with me on this one, because there is a point to all this.

My first contact with the Lunchbox / Pumpkin would have been at primary school, when another boy brought in a Lunchbox.  I didn't know him, and since trying to talk to another boy about a cool thing they had generally ended in "get lost" or "push off", I only saw it from afar - and was totally in love with it.  The shape, the colour, the name - how cool was that?

I remember seeing a Midnight Pumpkin at secondary school.  Some kids had managed to organise a one-off RC car meet* in the quad** during lunchbreak, the first I knew about it was peering through the window while eating my dinner and seeing the Pumpkin, and being completely blown away by how big it was.  Everybody else had brought toy-grade RTRs but this Pumpkin was huge.

The closest I would get to a Pumpkin or Lunchbox was a Midnight Pumpkin Jr, which I bought, built and loved.  I would eventually get a Mud Blaster for my birthday, but I always wondered what the Pumpkin or Lunchbox would have been like.

Fast-forward to adulthood, and I was walking past a model shop and saw the Lunchbox in the window.  I had a chat with the shop owner, but as I'd had a bad experience with my Mud Blaster (weak body, top-heavy, rolled over a lot, got through batteries quickly) I opted for a Dark Impact.  I absolutely loved the build, it drove amazingly compared to the used Grasshopper I'd had 10 years previous, and it seemed rock solid too - despite hard use, very little broke on it.

I enjoyed the Dark Impact so much, I went back for the Midnight Pumpkin.  So, I guess my first "real" contact was when I opened the box and saw that basic tub chassis, those floppy shocks, that bouncy rear axle...  Yeah, it really wasn't what 15 years of dreams are supposed to be made of.  I thought it would at least be as good as the Mud Blaster I'd had before, flawed though that was, but it wasn't even close.

There are 2 important points to this.

1) if I'd got the Pumpkin back when I was 10, I'd probably have loved it.  The size, the wheelies, the speed.  And I'd have had nothing to compare it against, and the simple design would have been a good introduction to RC.  But, then, having got it out of my system during my childhood, I might never have got back into RC as an adult.

2) if I'd bought the Lunchbox when I walked past the shop 17 years ago, I probably would have built it, realised how awful it was, sold it on and never given RC a second thought.

Right now, I'm about to start my 4th day of re-organising my RC collection.  This collection, and all the good times and memories that go with it, are all thanks to:

• not getting a Lunchbox in the late 80s
• seeing a Lunchbox in the mid 00s
• not getting a Lunchbox in the mid 00s

 

*my friend and I spent months trying to organise a club the previous year, despite lots of encouragement from teachers to organise clubs, when we actually came to them with a plan it was thrown around like a live grenade, slipped off a dozen Teflon shoulders and landed flat on its face

**for reasons I'll never understand, the quad was usually locked all year round and only opened on very rare occasions

[hamtaro]

First contact was a Wild One.  Raced it, drove it round the back yard, crashed it.  Still have it, not usable due to the famous ABS plastic cracking in various places.  And my brothers grass hopper.  That was a fun car with a 540 in it, never could quite tell where it was going to bounce off to. 

[moffman]

My first contact with hobby grade rc was the ford ranger and at the time it was state of art and I thought it was absolutely brilliant but I wasn’t a seasoned racer (was their seasoned racers back then?) no internet no social media so it was basically what you seen with you own eyes and a monthly magazine so for me I had nothing to compare it to so it handled like paddy hopkirks Monte Carlo mini!……..I thought at the time.

role on now and previously looking through rosé coloured glasses I was overjoyed at the re-release of the SRB chassis praying that the ranger would be coming but I settled for the current models and the reality of how that chassis handles in modern times did take me back a bit as my freshly painted sand scorcher pirouetted on its roof and skipped off a couple of sharp curbs but do I love them any less. Definitely not!

[Twinfan]

I can't remember my first contact with RC.  I know that back in the day a friend had a Hornet that he used to bash with me against my Thunder Dragon.  I used to have a copy of the Tamiya Guide Book from 1988/1989 with the Bigwig on the cover but I don't know if I had that prior to my Thunder Dragon or if I got it afterwards.  I suspect my mate got his Hornet for Christmas/birthday and that inspired me to ask for a car for the following Christmas.  I also think I sent off for the Guide Book after getting my Dragon or picked it up when buying a replacement A-parts tree - I'm on my third and that one's cracked...

Getting back into the hobby a couple of years ago via a Lunch Box (that I always loved) I've gone through a bunch of re-re and new builds which I've enjoyed, but anything older in design than my Thunder Dragon has left me a bit "meh".  The Lunch Box is the exception though as I have two, one of which is a parts built mongrel that I take on holidays and I love tinkering with it, fixing it, upgrading it etc.

So I guess my takeaway from the first contact is that I tend to compare other cars to my Thunder Dragon, and for the most part if it's not as "good" then I'm not that impressed.  Hence my views on the Hornet and why I've got no interest in any of the buggy kits prior to 1988!