That moment when you realised, you messed up?

[Mad Ax]

Another inane thread to share the pain, frustration, or whatever else it may be from a daft mistake you've made.  I know we've done this before with things like cutting both battery connectors with pliers or plugging ESCs in the wrong way around, or "testing" your brand new Grasshopper before your radio gear arrives by manually turning the MSC around to full and putting it on the floor (I'm sure someone on here posted about that, maybe a decade ago).

However this one is a little different, and focusses more on decision-making than actual RC-related mistakes.  That's taking it dangerously close to the "I wish I'd bought..." and "I wish I hadn't sold..." threads, but let's see if we can thread this line with some stories, to brighten up these long, dark weeks (at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) while we wait for the weather to turn, the days to lengthen, and the distant end-of-January wage slip to start paying off the Christmas excess.

I'll go first.  Well, that's why I wrote the thread, really - I had something I wanted to share so I turned it into a question thread to make me look totally less vain than I really am.

Anyhoo - I've had one of those moments over the last couple of weeks.

A couple of months back, I built my Landfreeder Quadtrack.  I really enjoyed the build, and love how it looks, but immediately my thoughts turned to the Volvo A60H kit that's been sat under my bed for goodness knows how long.  I originally had plans for it, but by the time I actually got hold of the kit, the time had passed, and I realised it had been a mistake to but it.  This should probably be a Moment I Realised I Messed Up, although this isn't why I started the thread.  So, let's roll with that...

When my daughter was little, she used to love picking up stones, flowers and other miscellaneous items and putting them in the back of my King Blackfoot-bodied G6-01.  I'd drive it around the garden, and all the stuff would fall out.

I figured an A60H would be the perfect thing to buy for my daughter.  I could fit 4 wheel steering and a very slow motor, and even fabricate a remote tipper.  I could drive it around while she puts rocks in it, but eventually she might want to drive it herself.  How cool would that be?

But, sadly, the A60H kit was far too expensive to be bought from the Child Toys and Equipment budget, and was too costly for me to buy it as a gift, especially with bearings, radio, servos and tipper mechanism, so it got left on the "probably not" pile.

Some time later, my LHS got flooded during a storm and various kits got damaged.  Among them, an NIB A60H kit.  The shop owner put it up at a reduced price, but at the time I didn't have any money, so I let it go, although I knew I'd regret it, and over the following months it really felt like one of those "I wish I'd bought..." moments.

Well, some while later, probably over a year, I was in the LHS talking nonsense and avoiding work, when I spotted a cardboard transit box with an A60H cab poking out.  Turns out, it was the same flood-damaged kit.  100% complete, no missing or damaged parts - the box got sodden in the flood and had to be thrown out, but all the parts inside were bagged, so they were cleaned up for resale.  You'd never know it was a damaged kit.  We agreed a price that was way below shelf, and I took it home, full of excitement.

Back home, I took out the big box, ordered the servos and bearings, and wondered when I'd get time to put it all together.

And that was when I knew, I messed up.

You see - in the time that passed between having the idea, and actually getting the kit, my daughter had grown up.  Only by a few years, but enough to no longer have an interest in picking up random garden detritus and putting it in the back of my trucks.  I'd already bought her a couple of cars, but she rarely, if ever, drives them.  So I actually had a pretty cool and expensive kit, but not really any use for it.

I'd been watching some pretty cool and unusual G6-01 builds here on TC and they gave me great inspiration for custom builds, but they were more suited to a base-spec Konghead than a yellow-plastic Volvo, and that's when I discovered that, while I'd undoubtedly got a good deal on the A60H, I'd still paid more than I would for a Konghead.  And actually, a Konghead would have been better...

There's more to this story - this would not be the final mess-up that I've made in the A60H saga - but I'll let this one settle for now, and see if anyone else has a similar story to tell.

[Saito2]

I've had similar "mess up" points usually with the thought Why did I buy that? running through my head when I look at it. Usually my mechanical curiosity gets the better of me. I broke my vague rule of not buying designs past the first 100 with the BBX and TD4. It worked out ok with the BBX, no real regret there, but the TD4...

Well the point I realized I messed up with the TD4 was just recently when Tamiya was blowing them out super cheap. I bought mine for $100 less than their original $350 asking street price a year ago and while I missed out on some further savings that's not the issue in my mind. Those recent, steep, fire-sale prices pretty much sent a clear signal that this is likely a dead platform which is not a situation I like to be in. The build was new and interesting enough to balance out the irritation from the various odd quirks throughout assembly but in the end, I didn't need it. I have a bunch of 4wd buggies already. With the US market no doubt fully saturated from the recent Tamiya USA sale, I probably couldn't get $100 for my new-built, never run TD4. Oh well. Its a pretty cool paper weight.

[ADRay1000]

Last year I bought an unused A stamp gold pan at the LHS with the idea of it being the start of a NIB build, consisting of NOS parts that I would get on eBay (that I hadn’t priced out of looked at for availability). Then I’d have a new build RC10 that I wouldn’t drive. 
 

After some rough math, that project status is indefinitely on hold. 
 

the pan still looks cool hanging on the wall. 

[TurnipJF]

3 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Those recent, steep, fire-sale prices pretty much sent a clear signal that this is likely a dead platform which is not a situation I like to be in.

I can see your concern, but I don't think that the fire-sale prices are a sign that this is a dead platform. They didn't do this on other dead platforms such as the DF-03 and DB-02 for example.

Rather, I suspect that they are clearing the shelves for something else, most likely another release on the TD platform with a less repulsive bodyshell.

[ucacjbs]

3 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Well the point I realized I messed up with the TD4

I’m having regrets about mine. I think it was when the diff screw hop ups arrived that I realized I had little enthusiasm for it. I do think I’ll get something out of the build, but just not sure I’ll be into the finished model. Didn’t even break the seal on the box from Tamiya yet, so still time to try to get something out of it I suppose. 

[ucacjbs]

Just now, TurnipJF said:

but I don't think that the fire-sale prices are a sign that this is a dead platform

Tamiya USA does now list the Super Avante as discontinued, though as you say that doesn’t mean there can’t be some follow -up with a different shell. 
(also possible that the discontinued label is an error while their site is on its end of year break)

[Kowalski86]

I've goofed up many times, so I'm going to just stick with a more recent example.

As much as I like my Stampede, I went online to look for a replacement that would be more suitable for asphalt while still being good on dirt/gravel, and equally robust. Enter my umpteenth Traxxas Slash 2wd, an RC model that has come and gone in my fleet numerous times.

Thing is, I already have an Associated 2wd off-road truck that's just better all around, and once I got the Slash I remembered why I never got along with them.

Silly HCG chassis, crummy progressive springs, lots of tire/body rub, mediocre tires, the Slash is not a "bad" truck, its just redundant in my fleet.

[Mad Ax]

OK, so now it's time to reveal the second instalment in my "this was when I knew..." saga.

I definitely wanted to do something cool and different with the A60H, but it took me a very long time to work out what.  This is when I echo back to the sentence in my first post (which I probably should have edited out when I did a subject change, because it makes no sense - until now) - about the Landfreeder Quadtrack.  I really enjoyed the build, loved how the truck looked, but all it made me think is: I want to do something different with the tracks.

And then I realised.  The tracks can be installed on the back end of a G6-01, making a kind of double-track.  I'd seen this done way back when the tracks were released, and it looks cool.  Potentially not too practical, but cool nonetheless.  Except I'd never really worked out what I'd do with such a thing if I build one.  I mean, the tracks are neat and everything, but I think they're too fragile for rock crawling and I remain unconvinced they'll be much good in the sort of snow we get here in the southern end of UK (which kind of looks like snow until you touch it, and then sort of turns to muddy water).

So - a plan was hatched, involving the A60H, and 3 pairs of tracks.  But there I hit the same old problem: cost.  The tracks are available in pairs from RC Mart or Tamico, but they're not cheap.  3 pairs of tracks is well over the price of a whole new kit, and then you have postage, VAT and import handling ransom to pay.

Meanwhile, the Land Cruiser FT is available right now at a knock down price.  A month before Christmas, I advanced my plan: buy a Land Cruiser FT, steal the tracks out of it for the back of my A60H, use the yellow A60H wheels on the Land Cruiser, paint it yellow (my typical basher colour anyway) and have a GF-01.  That's a chassis I've never owned.  Superb!  Then, I only need to raise the funds for a single pair of tracks.

A week later, I could bear it no longer - an order was placed with Appliances Direct for an NIB Land Cruiser FT, and a few days later it arrived.  I opened the box, saw the dinky little Land Cruiser shell, and a lightbulb went off.

You see, that Land Cruiser shell, to my eyes, seems closer to 1:14 than 1:12.  With the right running gear underneath it, it'll make a superb runaround for the 1:14 big rig layouts, and will be a better talking point than the toy-grade Lambos, Mercedes and Land Rovers that mostly fill the car parks.  I'm always on the lookout for good, alternative 1:14 bodies, and this one is going to be great.

However, that now leaves me with a GF-01 with no body.  This isn't a terrible problem, as I have loads of random bodies lying around and I do enjoy cutting and shutting bodies to make them fit on different chassis, but I'd really got my heart into the idea of a yellow Land Cruiser with gunmetal stripes and big yellow wheels.

Meanwhile, I still needed the final pair of tracks for the A60H project.  That meant an order with Tamico.  But when I came to place the order, I found they have a minimum order value which conveniently puts it above the VAT point, so I'll incur an additional cost and ransom when it arrives.  For a while I held out, looking at the Tamico Advent Calendar, and a couple of times I almost jumped in when something I wanted was vastly reduced (I still feel a little sore about not getting the FAV, that's another chassis I've never owned and would have been a great civvy-style build for the 380 club) but in the end, I could only do that by withdrawing from savings - and as a rule, I never use my savings to buy RC stuff.

So instead I went to RC Mart, who had the tracks available for a similar price.  Except, by the time I'd added postage, it wasn't nearly as cheap as it looked.  I could do it without breaking into savings, but it was still more than I'd planned.  By that time I was already invested in the project, and I was kind of getting fatigued by constantly guessing and second-guessing my options, so I hit the Buy button and sat back to wait for delivery.

And then, a couple of days later, a thought hit me.  I messed up.  For around £30 extra, I could have got another Land Cruiser FT.  That would have given me:

• the 3rd pair of tracks for the A60H, plus plenty of spare parts
• 1 Land Cruiser body to use on the big rig layout, and 1 Land Cruiser body to use on the GF-01
• a complete spare GF-01 chassis to either sell, or build into something really random, like maybe an amphibious vehicle (I've been meaning to do one of those for over a decade)

Instead I blew best part of £40 on postage...

The annoying thing is, it's like I didn't think it through - as far as my brain is concerned, it went over all the options over and over again before it highlighted the best course of action.  Problem is, it completely failed to see the really obvious one.

[urban warrior]

Mad Ax, I see what you mean. And admittedly on some scale I am messing up constantly. I bought one of the Landcruiser FTs with the plan to buy another one or two, to have enough tracks to tinker around. With the idea in mind, that I will sell the chassis' and bodies to make somekind of a small refund. Ending up with a GF chassis I do not seem to sell. Instead I bought a Tamiya Jimny (Suzuki SJ) body for it. And instead of buying the other two FT Landcruisers I bought a Sand Scorcher, a 6x6 Clod chassis, three sets of Clod axles, three sets of trailing arm sprues for the Clod (and there still has more hardware to be bought to complete the Clod 6x6) and a used Konghead with a weird Lamborghini body.

I moved from a 50 square meter flat completely dedicated to modelling to the flat of my spouse, where I got only one room. More than 60% of my modelling stuff are located in a storage facility some 3 miles from me. And I still keep buying RC stuff. I guess I need medical help. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Sayer]

I mean, not on the scale of some others on here, but when I was doing my MadInventor inspired "juggernaut/txt with vorza motor" build, I ended up spending a pretty penny on rc4wd prop shafts that were for a wheelie king, and therefore, much too short. The upside, is those spares led to another project

[Carmine A]

Well........ I  finally found that "unicorn" motor, and bankrupted meself buying it!! 😜🤣☺️😂😅😭

Happy New Year my friends! 🍾🎊🥳🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻

[mtbkym01]

Oh no, be very careful @Carmine A, you’re playing with fire there 😂

[tim.senecal]

For some stupid reason i thought it would be cheaper to buy parts separately to build my day cab single axle k100 truck, rather than buy a globe liner and hack it up.  i figure i spent at least 2.5x the price of a globe liner getting all the separate parts bags i needed to build that truck.

[Mad Ax]

4 hours ago, tim.senecal said:

For some stupid reason i thought it would be cheaper to buy parts separately to build my day cab single axle k100 truck, rather than buy a globe liner and hack it up.  i figure i spent at least 2.5x the price of a globe liner getting all the separate parts bags i needed to build that truck.

Yup, I've almost been there too.  I took the single rear axle out of an NIB Scania 4x2 kit for a different project, thinking I'd buy the parts to replace it later.  I ended up hacking the rest of that kit into something totally different, even buying the parts needed to make a 4x2 rear end is prohibitive.

[urban warrior]

Sounds more and more like a "support group" ...

"Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community."

😉

[Carmine A]

4 minutes ago, urban warrior said:

Sounds more and more like a "support group" ...

"Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community."

😉

..... and we'll all take those 12 steps together, to try NOT to recover from this affliction!! 😂🤣

[Saito2]

Tamiya's tiny paint cans were $4 and change at one point. Now they're $7.75. I realized I messed up in being lazy and not painting my backlog of bodies earlier.

[Wystan Withers]

Do not, NOT ever get so deep into a project that you think THIS would be a good idea. I did manage to finish the fire extinguisher...

[mtbkym01]

I just ordered some YZ10 to MX4 wheel hubs to use on my Top Force. $60 shipped and I don't think they’ll work 

[magnumb]

Messed up big time by purchasing any remaining TRF201, TRF211, TRF211XM stock as i was planning on racing at my local track for several years with those platforms.

The track closed down several months after the purchases and never ran any of them:( Now i'm sitting on maybe 5k-7k worth of buggies and parts and not sure how to sell any of it. 

[tim.senecal]

On 1/1/2025 at 6:06 AM, Saito2 said:

Tamiya's tiny paint cans were $4 and change at one point. Now they're $7.75. I realized I messed up in being lazy and not painting my backlog of bodies earlier.

I remember grumbling when the tiny paint bottles went from $0.25 each to $0.33 at the local five and dime store.

 

edit:  i just looked it up...  they are now $3.29 a bottle.

[urban warrior]

19 hours ago, Wystan Withers said:

Do not, NOT ever get so deep into a project that you think THIS would be a good idea. I did manage to finish the fire extinguisher...

Maybe that's the reason why I haven't started with my 1/16 Tamiya Gepard yet ... aluminum road wheels, die cast tracks, resin AC and accessoires, loads of etched and metal cast parts, Corleis suspension kit ... not to forget all the electronics. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Wystan Withers]

17 minutes ago, urban warrior said:

Maybe that's the reason why I haven't started with my 1/16 Tamiya Gepard yet ... aluminum road wheels, die cast tracks, resin AC and accessoires, loads of etched and metal cast parts, Corleis suspension kit ... not to forget all the electronics. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Don't forget the special transmission for 'more scale speeds" (although the Gepard is modern enough that 'too fast for  a Tiger' is likely fairly scale). And the books, the countless books. Ultimately I sold it all at huge loss because I was afraid to paint it. Took me many years to learn the lesson of not comparing my skills (or lack thereof) to people's builds on the internet who likely have decades more experience and natural talent I don't have. In hindsight I likely would have been happy with at box stock kit and a rattle can paint job.