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essexboyracer

What did you learn from your first Tamiya?

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My first Tamiya was the Avante!

The first thing I learned was (plus a couple of others)

Avante plus skateboard halfpipe = all the money I had to repair.

2nd thing

Avante + Technigold + Gravel = begging dad for new rotor after a stone cut clean through a winding.

3rd thing

Sheer joy at building something and seeing it completed. Now I am an engineer and I get to build really big stuff![:D]

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and mostly..

5. Dont dismantle it and leave it for years in a drawer in garage (only to find out many years later its no longer there.

Im going to drift a litte off topic here but...It does involve my first kit....

Never ever pack 12 years of RC cars, equipment, books etc etc into a box and store it in your parents garage when you leave the country for 5 years.

I returned from Austraila 7 years ago and one of the first things I did was head around my dads to retrieve all my gear (which consisted of my Super Champ and every single kit and spare I had ever owned up until that point) ony to find he had thrown out my entire box of "toys" because he needed the space.

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My first r/c car was a Bearhawk.

I bought it new on the same day as I dumped my long-term pain-up-the-backside boyfriend (wow a whole 3 years as a teenager!).

"What did you learn from your first Tamiya?"

Well I learnt that no-one, I repeat no-one, gets between me & my toys!!! [:D][;)][:D]

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Hi,

I learn nothing but wheelie action from my Wild Willy M38, my brother had the renault (yellow) F2. My dad and brother built it, I was about 10 years old. It rolls over all the time but the roll bar is metal stick sandwiched. That big bulgy spring bumper works. A durable r/c chassis! Tested by younger me.

Joaquim

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My first Tamiya taught me how a differential works. I didn't understand before I built that car, building it showed me "hands on" how it functioned. And soon after that I got interested in full sized car mechanics and found there were quite a few things like that which translated to the 1:1 car mechanics really well. When I changed the diff on my Mini (1;1) I found it was juist the same as the one I'd worked on on that little model car a couple of years before, and it worked the same way.

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My first car was a Frog. I learnt 2 things.

1 ) Keep clear of 1:1 scale cars

2 ) The Frog chassis is **** strong.

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Guest DImblum

I learned that building your car on the carpet is bad. The guys at the local hobby shop will shake their heads when they discover carpet fibers in your gearbox.

I learned that the paddle tire on a GrassHopper can blister the skin on your big toe when it runs over your foot and gets stuck in the grass (car not moving, tire still spinning). Not my toe, my brothers toe :)

I learned that a 380 motor runs 3 times longer than my friends 540's. They could go faster, but they were jealous of my run times.

I learned that salt water is "very" bad for your electrics. Try not to get your car stuck in the sand near the beach tide.

I learned that the solder on cheap chargers melt during a standard charge (had to resolder the wiring on my charger several times).

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1:I learnt that RC trucks seem to fall apart rather easily when drove like a 4WD should be.

2:MSC's are ****, full stop.

3:Touching the motors after 3 , 20 mins runs with just 20 secs brake im between each run, really really burns.

4: after i learnt number 3 i learnt that you should let your car cool for at least 10 mins after a run with a long lasting battery (20 mins with a 3700mah).

5: I learnt that there is sutch a thing which is as good fun as Call of Duty 2 online ! (cod fans will know what im on a bout)

Many Thanks

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5: I learnt that there is sutch a thing which is as good fun as Call of Duty 2 online ! (cod fans will know what im on a bout)

This lad speaks the truth, RC is as good as lookin down your scoped Mosin-Nagant!

Probably pluggin the batt. in when teh TX isn't on, car fell off the TV. LOL!

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5: I learnt that there is sutch a thing which is as good fun as Call of Duty 2 online ! (cod fans will know what im on a bout)

This lad speaks the truth, RC is as good as lookin down your scoped Mosin-Nagant!

Probably pluggin the batt. in when teh TX isn't on, car fell off the TV. LOL!

lol yes and whilst I only have the original COD due to tamiya being my hobby now [:D] I know what u mean. What did i learn well.

1.) I aggree with alanto that MSC's are absolutely terrible and about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

2.) That a TT01 really is as strong as a rock despite my best efforts and those of my road area as well.

3.) That Tamiya is a real bad addiction for your future finances

4.) Finally that my LHS ripped me off for £50 more than I can get it in the uk elsewhere lol

Still it was definately worth it lol

regards Ryck

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Nice post Essesxboyracer, my 1st learning experiences were the same as yours as i had a 2nd hand hornet which came with a toolbox, tools, quickcharger and a few spares including a selection of bald tyres on various wheels. I used to race in the D class against all sorts including quickdrives, old RC10'S, and a few touring cars. Anything went really and i even had a spell (very unsuccessfully) racing a lunchbox. The great thing about my 1st car was that by trial and error i taught myself some basic electrics and mechanical knowledge and also not to be scared to strip things down to investigate problems. Sadly at 14 years old with little money i got into the bad habit of bodging things up to get them going, my old hornet must of done hundreds of miles lol.

One thing baffled me even then  was why did some of the top racers in our club turn up in things like old Talbot horizons which were riddled with rust and filler only to open the hatch to reveal perfectly laid out racing boxes with thousands of pounds worth of cars, matched saddle packs, pulse chargers and radio gear?

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I think it begs many questions like - priorities, My mate knows where u can get one cheap and back of a lorry gov lol.

I can symapthise with 14 year old finances as I too started at that age and my tt01 bears the scares of lack of investment, why i feel i need a new tub as its had some hard impacts and the bearings were run into the ground as I didn't want to (couldn't) fork out for ball bearings lol - tho things are a lot better now I'm 16 lol.

regards Ryck

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I learned what servo reversing meant. With my stick radio, I knew left was left and right was right. I purchased a Magnum Sport installed it in my Hornet and did NOT realize that the servo reversing switch on that was incorrect for steering. So, to this day, I still use a pistol controller turning the steering wheel right, the car goes left, steering the wheel left, the car goes right.

Embarrassing to say the least. I've tried to practice over the years to correct this problem by learning to steer with a pistol controller the correct way, but to no avail.  You should see the looks on friends faces when they go to drive my cars. I always have to flip the switch and trim the steering out.

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The first thing I learned is that with a mechanical speed controller you wont have any low and middle speeds without the wires plugged into the resistors. I was in a state of panic all those years ago when testing my new built Hotshot and only the high speed would work. [:o]

Probably the most important thing I learned though is that when running a car that uses the Ni-Cad battery to also power the servos, make sure when the power has visibly dropped you stop using the car, ie DONT let it run until you lose control of it!....resulting in your lovely new toy heading for the main road and all of those full sized cars ready to flatten it into the ground! [:D]

 

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i learnt lunchboxes dont fly well (10steps at a 45 dec angle) on to concreate the body posts broke the chassie split in two and the servo fell apart. call of duty 3 is even more fun than cal of duty 2 online but not as much fun as tamiya cars

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I learnt to enjoy assembling the Frog and the pure joy of driving it :blink: I also learnt that they break alot and cost alot of $$$ to repair (I was 17 at the time). Having a second battery is really handy when you have a 12 hour trickle charger lol. I still rememeber my first drive, got all excited and then 10 minutes or so later I had to charge the battery for another 12 hours. I also really enjoyed the maintenance side, eg: pulling the gearbox apart and giving everything a clean and then placing it onto my shelf ready for the next run.

Had great times with my second car too, a Toyota Toms 84C. I used to spin it out more than it went straight :o Whenever I think about my RC cars I always smile, many years of great memories and fun with mates. Thank you Tamiya :huh:

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Monte Carlo Rally Mini taught me that MSC's will stay on full when the battery gets low if you're not running a receiver battery pack. Also that if you don't use the car for years, the MSC will also stick on. Sometimes I wonder why I never got around to putting an ESC into that car (it still doesn't have one).

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i learned not to plug the throttle plug into the wrong channel on the receiver and then proceed to test it on the kitchen table by pressing the steering stick, the result being a burst of speed followed by all the kit parts being on the floor followed closely by the model itself. ;o)

Dude, i did that recently when rebuiling my scorcher. NIGHTMARE!!! Was on my hands and knee's praying that I could find all the parts to put it back together. Managed it, but scared the life out of me LOL!!!!!!

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Lunchbox isn't suited for wet muddy snow and mainly don't reverse the Lunchbox full throttle into the curb thinking it can jump it.

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I learned that pan cars don't like anything but very, very flat surfaces. Not having those = shelving the car for some time.

From my second car I learned not to hit walls head on. Stuff may break otherwise. :blink:

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I learned that you should not let unexperienced persons drive your car in a street with sidecurves... It will break your bumper...

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I learned that my friends 959 was faster than my Thundershot.

I learned that the batteries were c**p

I learned how to make RC go faster!!!

I LEARNED ABOUT HOP_UPS!!!!!!!!!! :blink:

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