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Hibernaculum

This Christmas, and your best Christmas R/C memories?

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G'day, 

Well it's now almost down to 4 weeks until Christmas. And that means toys.

So, how about a thread to get into the spirit?

1. What R/C stuff (if any) are you asking Santa for this year?

2. What are some of your favourite Christmas R/C memories, of years gone by?

 

[As usual, car names are bold in the waffle below, in case people want to skip to bits]

I've accumulated some stuff in recent months, and my girlfriend has bought me some things too, but it's all been put away until Christmas. Yes, I must have a lot of restraint [:|] I just figured it would be more fun to get it all in one go at Christmas. So, keeping in mind that this is a 6 month accumulation of stuff - I believe there'll be a NIB Rothmans Porsche 959, a NIB Wild One, a Tamtech-Gear Hornet and a swag of vintage spare parts under the tree. As far as I know.

It's hard to beat the Christmas's you remember as a kid. (Although this year is far more than I ever got as a kid, so maybe it will!).

My earliest Christmas R/C memory is the one I have hashed out here too many times, but it's still what I have to thank for my love of R/C - getting ath_Christmas1984_2.jpgth_Christmas1984_1.jpg humble Tandy Jeep Renegade for Christmas in 1984. Ah, the build up. Weeks spent looking at a Tandy catalogue, trying to decide which car I would ask for. Test drives in the store of the Jeep, the Porsche 935-78, and even that little yellow wheelie beetle. (Click the image at right for scans of the actual Tandy Australia 1984 Christmas catalogue - my Dad kept it all these years). Then a visit to Santa in a shopping centre. Then the hopeful waiting. Then Christmas eve. Then Christmas morning, up at 6am....

And finally - my first R/C car, new in the box! The disbelief, the excitement. The smell - a mixture of fresh rubber, plastic and electronic circuitry. Is anything more fun when you're a little kid, than getting your first radio controlled car?

Being able to drive this thing around from a distance, over grass, dirt, tracks, through puddles, up and down hills.....all of a sudden the whole world becomes a road for you and your car. You begin looking for R/C-sized trails everywhere you go. I used to sit on the bus going to school, watching the scenery go by, and looking for good bits of dirt or paths or trails where it might be fun to drive an R/C car.

Kids these days probably aren't quite as enthralled as R/C is more common and cheaper, etc. You can buy full function R/C cars made in China, for AU$20, and they actually work OK. Back in the 80s, the cheapest full function R/C car was about AU$50. And AU$50 was worth the same as about AU$100 is today.

But back in the 80s, R/C ruled in a way it may never rule again.

Several years then passed, and I had a few non-R/C Christmases. But after successive requests for another R/C car of some kind, so I could race them, I finally received two more in one Christmas - one from my parents and the other from my older sister. One was a Tandy 4x4 Off Roader (now a fairly collectible item) and the other was a Nikko Night Stalker 2WD buggy. I can't begin to explain how exciting this was, after the years of drought. Two cars - one a torquey little 4WD, the other a nippy little 2WD buggy with the ever exciting "Turbo" option. I had test-driven both before Christmas, so I knew them well. Now with 3 cars to race together, I was bouncing off the walls.

From Boxing Day onward I was outside, spending all my summer afternoons making little tracks for them in the garden and, if I wasn't racing them with my Dad, doing time trials of each car to compare their performance, and writing down the stopwatch times like a geek.

(PS. If anyone else happens to have a Nikko Night Stalker, please sell it to me! I need the parts. It was a 1/18th scale buggy)

The lack of Tamiyas in my life at this point was due to cost. Some would say "You could have got a Grasshopper for the price of two smaller R/C cars", but that was only when factoring the cost of the kit alone. When you added Radio, battery and charger, the total cost of a Tamiya was nearly triple in those days.

But shortly thereafter, my first Tamiya - an old Hornet - was given to me by my brother in law. After some fiddling around, I got it working somehow. And the experience was mind blowing - smooth acceleration, exciting handling. But with only a broken, unpainted body (missing the rear wing), I asked for a new Hornet body kit the very next Christmas. And when that arrived, it was almost like getting a whole new car.

I immediately went to work on it, and by the time Christmas lunch had hit the table, my Hornet looked like new - at least compared to before.

A bigger Tamiya Christmas followed the next year, when for the first time I received a brand new kit - a Bearhawk, plus new radio, battery and charger. My parents really dug deep, and this was easily the most expensive Christmas present I'd ever had, and I could hardly believe I finally had all this stuff. In the weeks leading up, I had been "putting the word in", but I had no idea which buggy (if any) might be on the cards. The Grasshopper II was another contender.

My Bearhawk had come from Toys R Us. Remember when they used to sell Tamiya cars? They had only recently built stores in Australia, and I remember walking in and seeing a long aisle with a glass cabinet full of display models. These days, their R/C section is pitiful by comparison - tacky looking "drift" cars with low profile tyres and chrome wheels and interiors, or monster trucks with stupidly tiny bodies.

I thought my Bearhawk was the most brilliant thing, in all it's brand new Tamiya-ness..... you never the forget the smell of your first NIB Tamiya either. And by Boxing Day, I had built it and had it tearing around on the warm summer lawn - impressing a few friends and relatives who were visiting. It's a great looking car and great fun - an underrated car to this day. Though I am probably a little biased for obvious reasons.

And the rest is history. Christmas has always been a defining moment in my R/C experiences. And while I was unfortunately a relatively late starter with Tamiyas, I made up for lost ground by collecting and restoring all the vintage stuff I could find from the early 90s onwards.

Those are just a few of my seemingly endless and boring Christmas R/C memories [:P]

I hope you all get something nice this year, regardless of whether it's big or small.

cheers,

H.

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Oh man, just looking at those old catalogue scans is making me nostalgic!

When I was a nipper, the first RC car I got was a Tandy/Radioshack Ferrari Testarossa. It was the business! Santa had to bring it all the way from America, as we didn't have RC cars or Radioshack in Ireland then. it was way better than the reverse and turn toys you could get here, you could steer it even in reverse! it had "real " rubber tyres and suspension you could  press up and down! It took about a dozen C cells to run, and the two weeks I ran it before I broke it were the happiest Chrimbo holidays I can remember. Even when I found the catalogue, years later in the garage, I remember poring over it, looking at all the different models.

 This year, Herself had bought me a Kamtec Land rover body, and there's a Spekturm DX2 hiding in the boot of my car for me too! Mostly I'm look ing for ward to be "all moved in" to my new house, so I'll finally have a place to work on my RC's again... :)

 

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OMG! Christmas '83 I was getting a Jeep Renegade from Tandys (England). My father and Uncle decided to do little modifications to it Christmas Eve, and broke it before I even saw  it. My Uncle bought me the Tamiya Subaru Brat for my 13th birthday (early Jan) to make up for it. So never saw the Renegade, but got into Tamiya shortly after[:D]

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First and so far the only Tamiya I got for christmas was the Holiday Buggy, 1983 it was. I assembled it with help from my dad on christmas day and was ready for the big test drive on boxing day.  My mate got the rough rider as well so we were set for some serious off roading.

Bang up to date and the holiday buggy is back racing up and down the street this time with my son at the controls. In fact I popped into a model shop just down the road from me (haven't been in there for over 20 years) wanted to see if they had any metal wheel bearings like the one's I put on the holiday buggy, when the guy in the shop saw the bearing he knew straight away that it was from a Tamiya rough rider, bit of a trip down memory lane for him I think.

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My wife has bought me an M-03M Suzuki for christmas this year. Before that it seemed to be birthdays for me rather than xmas, dont know why. I got a Terra Scorcher for my 14th birthday and then the Egress (which I stil have) for my 15th birthday.

Lego was allways out at christmas.

 

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This year, I have hopes that the pictures of the F-350 High Lift all

over the room lay subtle hints for my Christmas wishes.  The best

Tamiya Christmas, however, came on Christmas 1985, when my mom and dad

gave me one of the hottest things Tamiya had going at the time, the

Hotshot.  It was indeed a great present, and I only wish now that

I kept it intact.

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My first ever R/C car I received as a gift (pretty sure for one Xmas) was a Tandy / Radioshack Black Panther (Think it was called a Black Panther?) When I was about 5/6 

I remember looking forward to tearing open my pressies the next morning, have no idea what I was likely to get. Boy was I over the moon when I saw I'd got a radio control car. Well, it was a big phat monster truck, which looked great! Dad had charged the battery the previous night, so first thing I did was open the box, stick the battery in and tear around the house with it. I probably managed to hit every wall within the first few minutes as this was the first go I'd ever had on an R/C car, but soon got the hang of it though. And this wasn't any cheap 'forwards - backwards - full left - full right' truck either, it had fully proportional steering and throttle which was quite uncommon on this level or R/Cs at the time, but this proved the be it's downfall...

I remember taking it out out on the street and was amazed at how it would go over grass and rocky terrain so easily (being 2wd) and it even had a high/low switch, low switch being for more torque to get over obstacles, high obviously for speed. An older friend of mine came along and I let them have a go. They were rubbish at driving, and was cringing all the time. Then, to my horror, she drove it in the middle of the road when a car was coming, and, crunch. The reason? She's knocked the throttle trim to full without realising and couldn't stop. I was not happy, to say the least. Pretty sure I cried my eyes out. And guess who ran it over, the friend's Dad!

What really annoyed me was the way he got out of his car, picked up all the bits that lay sprawn across the road, brought them over to me and said, I quote exactly "Here, you might be able to put it back together". That was it, he got back into his car and drove off, and his daughter soon scarpered aswell. Neither of them said sorry, not one apology. This was my best ever gift that they had just ruined, and no, we couldn't put it back together.

Dad obviously realised how upset I was, so, secretly after he work he went to the Tandy store in Woking and bought me another car. It was a Tandy Black Wolf II, a buggy rather than a truck. It had all the same features, even the propotional steering, but it was never quite the same. I have still got that to this day, I think I'll make a point of cleaning it up.

 

This Xmas hopefully Santa will be bringing me an F103 GT Courage. Fancied getting back into racing at my local club and wanted a change from the ordinary 4WD racers, and hopefully this will keep me on my toes a lot too.

Sorry to ramble [:D]

 PS, I can't remember what the Black Panther looked like and I so wish I could. So if anyone finds and image online, please let me know right away as I've been searching for years with no luck.

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I've been hinting about the Hi-Lift as well, but I really doubt its in the cards.  I'm fairly certain a Hornet is on its way though.  That will be nice as my wife will now have a more competitive car against my Frog (she just can't seem to keep up when piloting the old Lunch Box).  I recieved many a "toy" RC in my youth as Tamiya's were considered way too expensive by my folks.  Thusly I got my first buggy (a Nikko Mosquito) and later my first truck (a Nikko Big Bubba, what a name!).  Many years down the road, one of the hobby shops was having a close out sale on Vanquishes.  $99.99 USD down from $224.99 USD!  I made it my one and only Christmas present.  I loved those close out sales!  This is almost sickening but... paging through a vintage RC magazine I saw an Egress close out for only $100.00!  Oh if I only had a time machine.

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My R/C Christmas was not a good one last year [:(]

I occupied myself on Boxing Day, building a M03L MINI from scratch. Late at night & nearing completion, stuffed full of turkey leftovers, sweeties and booze, my concentration lowered and I managed to stab a screwdriver halfway through my thumb.

Ouch Ouch Ouch!! *insert swear word* car... [8-)]

It took months for the mangled nail to grow out, and looked really grim and caught on everything! [+o(]

Suzy's tip for the Fesive Season don''t build a new car whilst full of 'Christmas Cheer' ! [:$]

getuserimage.asp?t=&id=img6733_08012006133052_3.jpg 

Photo was taken before the blood bath happened !!!  

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I've never got any Tamiya stuff for Christmas - used to get lots of lego and the occasional new pushbike, tho.

My

first RC was a Christmas present - it was a Nikko Turbo

Panther  - parents looked high and low to get me one in time

for Christmas, after we'd seen the boy down the road playing with a

white RC buggy.  My Dad was convinced that the Turbo Panther was

the same car, although I reckon the white one we'd seen was a

Grasshopper...

It was red (think they also did them in white),

2wd, with hi/lo ratio switch on the back - however our batteries never

had the power for hi ratio.  It had solenoid steering

(non-proportional) and a 2-speed forward, single-speed reverse control

(remember the shift/push Turbo option on Nikki controllers? [:D])

Christmas

Day was a disaster.  The Turbo Panther used 8 AA-cells, and Mother

and Father had generously bought me one set of Ever Ready Blue Seal

batteries (UK peeps remember those?  They were the bottom of the

range, blue paper-covered lead oxide batteries that had next to no

power and leaked after a few minutes).  We put them in, but they

didn't even have enough power to move the car across the room before

they died.  I had to wait a week until the shops were open again

before we could buy some rechargeable batteries and an overnight

charger.

I kept that car for years, even after I had been given

various well-used Tamiyas by friends.  Finally threw it out after

I knocked the control when it was on a wall, and it landed upside down

and smashed the roof off.

I

won't be getting any RC stuff this year - the parents don't know that

I'm back into RC again (and would probably whinge if I told them), and

there's nobody who can afford to buy me anything I want - i.e. more NIB

kits, radio sets, batteries, ESCs and motors!! :D 

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Great stories guys [Y]. Some random replies...

Tipsy - Pity yours broke! I still have my Renegade from 1984, and despite doing countless miles when I was a kid, and undergoing various running repairs - it still works. I also have two more NIB Renegades, one in the same gun metal blue, and the other a red one that came from an ebay seller in England.

I actually have almost every Tandy yearly catalogue between 1975 and 1995, including a few of the smaller christmas flyers (like the one I posted up top). My Dad just never threw them away and kept them in a pile in the garage for years. One day in the 90s I found them again, and have marvelled at them ever since - great memories. [H]  Petrolhead, your Black Panther would have been from the early 90s at a guess. I looked, but couldn't find a picture unfortunately. But I have pictures of the Black Wolf, and another buggy called the Big Panther - both made by Nikko, but sold under the Radio Shack brand. It's possible your truck was called something different over here, so tell us what it looked like and I'll see if it sounds like one of the others I have in these old magazines.

th_NikkoTurboPanther2.jpg

 

Mad Ax - this might be your Turbo Panther.

 

 

 

 

Suzy -  that's what happens when you get into that "must finish it today" mood building a kit. Been there, been hurt too [:)]

There's always so much desperation to get out and play on Christmas day, no wonder there are so many disasters [:P

cheers,

H.

 

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great pic brings back some memories check the first page of my showroom fore a pic of my turbo panther i had a different remote to you one with a wheel type control on it.

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