Shelf queen

[Josie]

Never heard of this term until joining this and a Tamiya FB group too!

Love Lego also, and amongst others have Cinderella's Castle displayed on my table and Titanic on a (very long) shelf.  

But never considered displaying any finished car kits on shelves as although nice to look at, my main personal  reason for becoming 

interested in this hobby was to learn how they work and how they run especially after finish building.  To feel like ive achieved something.

So guess im a shelfless queen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GreenBar0n]

I prefer the acronym NBR, or Never Been Run. I have quite a few built and completely ready to run NBR kits. I've already dirtied and broken RC cars at various points in my life, I just like building them and collecting the ones I could never have, these days, that could all change at some point, or not. 

 

[2qwik]

My last 2 collections had shelf queens. I'm running everything this time round including the yet to be built vintage nib kits... Whilst the return was good on the undriven stuff, ornaments they ain't!!

[Gebbly]

One advantage that lego kits have over the RC cars is once built they sit on my shelf for a few months and then I completely take them apart and pass the entire kit on to my niece and nephew and they get the whole build experience too.

[ADRay1000]

14 hours ago, Josie said:

my main personal  reason for becoming 

interested in this hobby was to learn how they work and how they run especially after finish building. 

cool! add “how they break” and “fixing them” to those goals and you’ll have great success. 😬

[ChrisRx718]

I hear you - it seems like wasted potential.

However - if we all admitted it, these are "Mass Produced" model cars. Models first, functional RC's a close second. 

They can make excellent display pieces - as your reference to Lego implies, despite the 'function' of Lego being play and re-playability. 

I have a lot of on-road Tamiya RC cars and the reality is that there are very few places to run them in anger without doing serious damage to body's and chassis components. The vast majority of my on-road collection is therefore very rarely run, if at all. 

I've recently started buying buggies instead - it's far easier to find somewhere to run them without fear of financial disaster!

The cabinets below used to be filled with on-road cars (or 'Shelf Queens') but it is slowly being taken over with off-roaders: (note the lego display top right)

 

Then there are cars which have a more sentimental value to them, like my tribute to my first ever Tamiya RC - The Castrol Tom's Supra 2000:

And also my very first 'proper' belt-driven RC tribute (tribute again as the original one had to be sold when I was younger) - The TA-03R-S Porsche GT2, with custom livery:

These cars will never be run because doing so would just ruin them! If we had a piece of tarmac as flat as a snooker table nearby, then I would most certainly give all of these 'toys' a shakedown, but we don't.

 

 

[Tamiyastef]

23 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

on-road cars

What chassis is underneath the PS21 Park Green Porsche?

Edit: And which one is missing second from the right top shelf?

Edited June 24 by Tamiyastef
not done yet

[ChrisRx718]

1 hour ago, Tamiyastef said:

What chassis is underneath the PS21 Park Green Porsche?

Edit: And which one is missing second from the right top shelf?

A lowly TT02  Not even an R, S or D Spec! I do have a bunch of Hop-Ups I've accumulated, and a new bodyshell acquired recently too. 

The missing-in-action is my TD2 Astute:

[Josie]

4 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

I hear you - it seems like wasted potential.

However - if we all admitted it, these are "Mass Produced" model cars. Models first, functional RC's a close second. 

They can make excellent display pieces - as your reference to Lego implies, despite the 'function' of Lego being play and re-playability. 

I have a lot of on-road Tamiya RC cars and the reality is that there are very few places to run them in anger without doing serious damage to body's and chassis components. The vast majority of my on-road collection is therefore very rarely run, if at all. 

I've recently started buying buggies instead - it's far easier to find somewhere to run them without fear of financial disaster!

The cabinets below used to be filled with on-road cars (or 'Shelf Queens') but it is slowly being taken over with off-roaders: (note the lego display top right)

 

Then there are cars which have a more sentimental value to them, like my tribute to my first ever Tamiya RC - The Castrol Tom's Supra 2000:

And also my very first 'proper' belt-driven RC tribute (tribute again as the original one had to be sold when I was younger) - The TA-03R-S Porsche GT2, with custom livery:

These cars will never be run because doing so would just ruin them! If we had a piece of tarmac as flat as a snooker table nearby, then I would most certainly give all of these 'toys' a shakedown, but we don't.

 

 

I just love your display cabinet. Makes the cars stand out even more, especially the white that really makes them pop. Thankyou for sharing.

[Josie]

3 hours ago, ChrisRx718 said:

A lowly TT02  Not even an R, S or D Spec! I do have a bunch of Hop-Ups I've accumulated, and a new bodyshell acquired recently too. 

The missing-in-action is my TD2 Astute:

Love that! Love the colours too. You made up my mind, ive decided to order a TD2 later this week, (payday!) 

[markbt73]

Technically, everyone's cars are shelf queens 98% of the time. Where are they when you're at work, or sleeping, or doing other stuff? On a shelf.

[Tamiyastef]

13 hours ago, markbt73 said:

shelf queens

Or wall hangers 

https://tcphotos.net/images/2025/06/24/20240204_131146.jpeg[/img][/url]

[svenb]

2 almost runners and 37 shelf queen's.

I spent far to much on them to run , imagine the scratching the carbon😭

[alvinlwh]

1 hour ago, Tamiyastef said:

Or wall hangers 

 

Fixed it for you. 

And here are mine. 

[Juggular]

3 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Technically, everyone's cars are shelf queens 98% of the time. Where are they when you're at work, or sleeping, or doing other stuff? On a shelf.

lol... so true.  

I enjoy tinkering.  If I have a choice of becoming a race car driver with fame and fortune vs being an designer of race cars?  I wouldn't hesitate to be the designer.  I don't know, make these chevrons for F-1 cars to create vortices over the top of the tires, to see if that improves anything.  

My cars are only driven to test out certain ideas (like making it run smoothly by taking shields off the bearings, etc).  They are not in the show-room-shine state.  I look at other members' show rooms, and I think, "wow, that's nice."  But I have no desire to duplicate it since what I'm interested in is mechanical in nature.  

 

[Tamiyastef]

36 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

mine

The feathers on the comical 

[MadAnt]

I'm more interested in running my cars than having shelf queens, but I do have a collection of shelf queens and most of them will remain that way. Even though I've been building runners lately, I have one more car waiting to be become a shelf queen after I restore it.

Actually I have two of them, but the other one is for parts. 

[TurnipJF]

16 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Fixed it for you. 

And here are mine. 

Wow! What tyres are you using?!?? I wish I could get mine to grip like that!

[El Gecko]

Yep, it's a term borrowed from 1:1 cars:
- garage queen: never gets driven, may not be operational
- trailer queen or track queen: never gets driven on public roads, probably doesn't have registration/plates/title or minimum legal equipment (lights, exhaust system, etc.) or is mechanically illegal to drive due to performance modifications etc.
- carpet queen: from the little squares of carpet people put under their tires at a car show, basically a rolling work of art or musuem piece

I've also heard carpet queen applied to vintage bicycles... bikes that don't get ridden and are just for show or display, or historical significance. Usually kept in a basement or carpeted storage area.

My RCs are all stored on shelves, so technically they're all shelf queens 99% of the time as @markbt73 and @Juggular pointed out. But they do all get driven, some just more occasionally or more carefully than others.

[JeffSpicoli]

Shelf queen is pretty common speak.  The more annoying phrase used on these forums is "rere" - any time I hear that phrase here or in a YouTube video I cringe inside.   lol 

[RichieRich]

I have a few shelf queens. One would be my original Frog. At this point, it's approaching 40 years old. I'm sure some of the original plastics are brittle and would not last long in a spirited run. Speaking of annoying phrases, the one that gets me is "repop". It's used as a short form for reproduction parts. In my mind, it makes no sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[timjz]

23 hours ago, svenb said:

2 almost runners and 37 shelf queen's.

I spent far to much on them to run , imagine the scratching the carbon😭

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way!

[njmlondon]

I’ve had far too many shelf queens over the years and have come around to only keeping runners now. 
 

But those runners are built with my usual OCD and run reasonably carefully and I rather like the odd battle scar and bit of dirt so when they do sit on the shelf I find myself appreciating them more than my old perfect ones.
 

I am even considering weathering them a bit and feel I have found a happy balance. 

[TwistedxSlayer]

On 6/24/2025 at 2:18 PM, ChrisRx718 said:

I hear you - it seems like wasted potential.

However - if we all admitted it, these are "Mass Produced" model cars. Models first, functional RC's a close second. 

They can make excellent display pieces - as your reference to Lego implies, despite the 'function' of Lego being play and re-playability. 

I have a lot of on-road Tamiya RC cars and the reality is that there are very few places to run them in anger without doing serious damage to body's and chassis components. The vast majority of my on-road collection is therefore very rarely run, if at all. 

I've recently started buying buggies instead - it's far easier to find somewhere to run them without fear of financial disaster!

The cabinets below used to be filled with on-road cars (or 'Shelf Queens') but it is slowly being taken over with off-roaders: (note the lego display top right)

 

Then there are cars which have a more sentimental value to them, like my tribute to my first ever Tamiya RC - The Castrol Tom's Supra 2000:

And also my very first 'proper' belt-driven RC tribute (tribute again as the original one had to be sold when I was younger) - The TA-03R-S Porsche GT2, with custom livery:

These cars will never be run because doing so would just ruin them! If we had a piece of tarmac as flat as a snooker table nearby, then I would most certainly give all of these 'toys' a shakedown, but we don't.

 

 

I'm very tempted to take mine(Ultimate TB01 and Shelf Queen TB02) to the Scout hut just around the corner, it has a super smooth hardwood floor and I figure that is a safe space. Lol

[El Gecko]

21 hours ago, RichieRich said:

the one that gets me is "repop". It's used as a short form for reproduction parts. In my mind, it makes no sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I prefer repop to rere, because I think about it in the sense that it's either 1. repopulating the number of kits out in the wild (the original population of kits has been reduced over the years due to destruction or hoarding), or 2. (re)popping a new batch of parts out of the same old molds.

I also interpret it along the lines of "these things just popped up out of nowhere in the 80s and now they're popping up everywhere again"