Getting Anything For Christmas? + Your Christmas R/c Memories!

[Rcfreak363]

im only 15, but ill share any way.

1. ill be getting a tamiya lunchbox kit for christmas, and a hole bunch o' hop up's, also ill be getting some parts for my super blackfoot, and my stadium blitzer.

2. i remember when i was 8 and one christmas i oppend up the biggest presnt, and it was a brand new tamiya stadium blitzer kit, i was so happy, i made my dad build it for me so i could play with it the next day.

[Hibernaculum]

Great stories, all.

I got my first R/C car for xmas back in 82 or 83, a Sears (Taiyo) Offroad buggy. It was a jeep like vehicle with full proportional control, and had an engine sound generator linked to the speed control.

I think I have something similar to that somewhere. It's a Sears (Taiyo) OffRoad Buggy anyway (3 speeds, made in the very early 1980s)

Another Xmas memory fragment from me...

Cast your thoughts back to when you were kid, and the excitement of getting things - even things that we would consider no big deal today. When you're an adult, you have your own money and and at least you have the potential to go without food and buy some nice R/C stuff if you really want But when you're a kid, you simply don't have any control, so you're usually at the mercy of what your parents will allow or can afford.

My parents weren't rich, so I remember one Xmas where all I wanted was a new Hornet bodyset for my Hornet. The car had been given to me 1.5 years earlier, for free by my brother in law, and had been in pretty poor shape when I got it. Over the months I had scrimped and saved my pocket money - this was the first Tamiya I had ever owned, but my obsession with 'originality' began early So it was effectively my very first restoration, and I was intent on making it look like a proper Hornet, as well as have barrels of fun with it.

Initially, the car had come with incorrect (and rubbish) 3rd party shocks, an unpainted body which was half broken (and missing the rear wing), a broken speed controller, worn bearings, worn (and non-original) tyres, and broken rear body mounts. But I was so thrilled to be given it, that rather than seeing a total wreck, I saw a new world of fun. I was fascinated by how 'high performance' it was in comparison to the earlier ready-to-run R/C toys I had owned, and I felt like I was finally part of the "Tamiya club" so to speak - the lucky people who owned a hobby shop style "high performance" buggy. It seemed so complicated to my inexperienced eyes, that I would pour over it's design. I would also study the pictures of Tamiyas in my tatty old Tamiya catalogue that I had got for free from another kid at school. Everything looked so amazing in the catalogue, that my ultimate dream was to restore my Hornet to catalogue-picture quality.

So with $10 here and $5 there, over a period of about 2 years, I had gradually purchased new plastic bearings, a new speed control, new tyres and new shocks for it.

But the car still looked terrible with it's broken old body shell. Super glue hadn't been very good for fixing polycarbonate (so I learned!), so all I wanted for Christmas was a Hornet body set, which was about $45 from a local hobby store.

Finances were tight, so my mum and dad (bless them) had to lay-buy it and pay it off over a few weeks. But sure enough, it was there on Christmas morning.

Needless to say, I had a great Christmas Day that year, and in fact by midday I already had the body set trimmed, painted and stickered. In my urgency I had made a couple of minor mistakes with the trimming, and some of the stickers began to lift a little over time (a result of not washing the body down before applying them). But all in all, I think I did an admirable job on what was my first body set ever. I remember the car scooting around on the grass that day, and around a little dirt track that my Dad and I made, and I was so thrilled that at last it actually looked like the legendary black Hornet - with it's bee sting striping and "anytime baby" wing logo (all positioned as perfectly as I could manage).

I was so proud, I took photos.

I still have that same Hornet today, and in fact, it still looks the same as it did that Christmas morning. Over the subsequent years of growing up, earning money, and eventually doing some more serious collecting, I have gathered enough brand new spares to completely rebuild it in mint condition if I wanted. But after thinking about this for a while, I realised that it would mean more to me to leave it as it is - a car full of great memories (particularly at Christmas) and representing my earliest efforts to understand and restore my first Tamiya buggy, with the help of Mum and Dad.

cheers,

H.

[Victorious Secret]

I've pretty much done mine~

TT-01 and numbous car bodies.

Yay for me!

I dont think anyone else will give me toys for the holiday... I've always got clothes or ugly ties that I dont care for lol.

VS

[SegaFalcon]

No R/C stuff for christmas this year but Ill be getting a PotC Music system in the form of the Dead mans chest My first r/c christmas memory was about 1994 when I opend up my presents to find a Nikko mad cougar which I used for years, over the years I have been given a Nikko mach 2 and a Carrera Tornado porsche but that little old toy truck sticks as it was my first car that I could drive around the house with out having to follow it or push it. I sorta wish it had been the Falcon sometimes as I had seen it a few times and later on down the line a Friend down the road got an Old Grasshopper from his dad which quite frankly rolled the nikko up in a rizzler paper and smoked it. I was beaten until my 11th birthday but Ill leave that story till another time as this is a christmas thread

[PeteC]

I've got a TamTech Buggy Champ coming my way...

My first serious RC car was a Rough Rider, back in the early 80s, then I moved over to rc flying, but recently I'm having yet another midlife crisis at 30-something, and getting back into SRBs as a desperate attempt to relive a part of my youth.

How excited was I when I stumbled across the Buggy Champ a couple of months ago?!! It went straight onto the Santa list, and I'm counting down the days!! (I've also managed to accumulate a Rough Rider and many bits from eBay, but those aren't Christmas items...)

Cheers,

PeteC

[Mad Ax]

I won't be getting any Xmas RC stuff from anybody - I live alone, and my family only buy me "essential items" and not toys. Plus they don't understand Tamiya, and would probably buy me the wrong thing anyway - or think it's far too expensive for a "toy"

I only have two good RC-related Xmas memories. I remember one year, about 6 years old, walking outside the house and seeing a white buggy go racing up the road. It sort of looked like a Grasshopper, although I can't say for sure what it was. My dad saw it too, and being a big kid at heart, he fell in love with it, and saw how in awe I was.

That Christmas we were looking through a department store catalog and saw a Nikko Turbo Panther - my Dad said "that's the car we saw outside the other week!" - although I wasn't sure it was the same car, I was dead excited that he might get me one for Christmas.

For the rest of the year they joked about going Christmas shopping, and about how the shop was sold out of Turbo Panthers. When Christmas finally came around, I could barely wait to open the big box under the tree - and what did I find? A bright red Nikko Turbo Panther!!

I was over the moon. However, the day was slightly marred by Mother Dearest's inability to comprehend things like batteries. The Turbo Panther took 8xAA cells, and she had duly purchase a total of 16 cells which she kept in her handbag. This was back in the days when Batteries meant Eveready - and Eveready had three brands - Gold Seal (the top alkali batteries), Silver Seal (long-life) and Blue Seal (budget lead batteries, only any good for torches). Mother Dearest was the household economist, and as such had bought the cheapest batteries available - Eveready Blue Seals.

The power output was so low that the car would hardly even move. After a bit of encouragement it rolled along the carpet, with the solenoid-operated steering clicking and vibrating on and off. Both sets of batteries were well and truly flattened within a few minutes of opening the box, and the car went back onto the shelf for the rest of the day.

The following week, once the shops were open again (remember when shops closed for the Christmas holidays?), my parents duly purchased a set of Ni-Cad rechargeables and a slow charger that plugged directly into the base of the car, so I never needed to remove them. That was a cool gift - although it did take a whole day to charge and only twenty minutes to wear them out...

Many years later I decided I wanted to get into RC aircraft, so my parents bought me a Nikko Sky Something - an RTR high-wing plane with elevator and rudder control, a fixed-speed electric prop, polystyrene fuselage and plastic wing held on by an elastic band. I'd already seen it at the hobby shop, so I knew what I was going to get - but Christmas day I was terrified of actually having to fly (having spent the last two weeks religiously reading a "how to fly RC planes" book from the school library).

We charged the battery pack in the car, loaded the transmitter with AAs, and headed up into the field. The first flight was wobbly and terrifying - I couldn't get the trims right, and the plane spent the entire battery pack doing circles about 10 feet from the ground. At one point it flew towards me and I froze, almost crashing it into my dad as he dived for cover. Then the motor cut out and it glided down for a beautiful landing.

We retired to the house to recharge the pack, then 30 minutes later went for another flight. This time I managed to get higher in the air, but quickly got confused. It wasn't very big, and I couldn't see which way it was facing. I also think it got caught in a crosswind which took it further away from me. I ended up drifting near some overhead power cables, which sliced the wing clean in half.

The fuselage survived with only scratches but the wing was finished - we ordered a replacement, but I never had the nerve to fly it again until I met another RC flyer at school... But that's another story!

[loaded]

I am 32, I remember asking for Tamiya when 9 and receiving a Nikko truck, all I remember is that it was red, took 8 batteries, which lasted 14 seconds and had two speeds with a switch selector! The next year I got the real thing, a Boomerang. It was funny, I was taken to the shop in advance, I knew what I was getting. Both my father (an engineer) and the shop owner said I could have either the Rocky (Kyosho for those of you who do only Tamiya) and the Boomerang, as they were similarly priced. I remember it well, we were in Milton Keynes, it was a little hobby store and the prices all kitted up were 185 and 180 respectively. I insisted on the Boomerang. Many people said the Rocky was far better technically, they might have been right.

To put the argument to rest, some 20 years later I bought a shrink Boomerang, a new built one, a NIB one, a Rocky NIB and two new build Rockys to see what was true. The feel of the Boomerang in the box is better than the Rocky, but as I look at the Rocky technically, I can't help thinking it would have beaten the Boomerang.

Either way, I now have both, not to mention fond memories, which after all is what it is all about.

Sadly my dad is now at the stage in his life where he doesn't remember building these models with me, which is a great shame, but I can keep the memories alive for both of us.

Paul.

[stulec52]

My first car was a Porsche 928, I guess it was the Chritsmas I was 9 or 10, and it was of those ones with a wire connected to it, and to turn you have to back up so it turned to the one side.

Sounds lame now, but WOW was it ever the best present ever !!!

Then in 83 when I was 13, I had already got my Sand Scorcher due to some extensive saving through the year, but for Christmas I wanted some things for it, new parts etc, but instead I got something else which I can't even recall now, only I remember NOT getting Tamiya stuff.....

So, in School my sympathetic Technical teacher gave me some brass rod, just the right size to make bushings with !! we knurled the outside, drilled out the insides and cut about 40 of the things !! kept me going a long time. other stuff I either had to make or save for myself.

This Christmas though, probably nothing coming my way, although I have a few re-releases that deserve to be built, so that could be fun !

[Live Steam Mad]

Hiya H., it's great to hear from you again, and yet again you have come up with another good topic. I've enjoyed reading the posts, it's like an emotional roller coaster ride . I feel a bit awkward here as I never got any Tamiya or any other RC's for Xmas, only a Corgi Mini-Metro (in my showroom) and a Tandy yellow 4x4 pick up truck for my 8th and 13th Birthdays respectively. I'm 33 now and still have a burning enthusiasm for RC models, more so than ever.

I often wonder about this point ;- If I had been given for example a NIB Boomerang, Big Wig, Avante, Egress, and Top Force Evolution, etc. on successive Xmas's when I was a lad, then would I still be in such awe of these classic, groundbreaking designs? Maybe the only reason that they are so worshipped (!) and legendary in my own mind, is precisely *because* I had no hope of ever getting them as a child, they were like a distant dream to me which made me dwell on them only more and more as I studied the 1987 Tamiya catalogue in utter fascination...

These days I find myself wishing again for the days back when I was 15 when we used to race wide type Off Road Buggies with wide type saloon body shells in the local supermarket carpark like I used to do at Earlestown, Newton-Le-Willows (5 miles to the East of St.Helens where I am, in the NW of England), I REALLY miss going there and racing, there were 30 to 40 people who always turned up every Sunday, it was just an incredible experience. I suppose that my nearest large "local" track now would be Wrexham (North Wales I think), I've seen a few videos of people racing there and it's an awesome looking tarmac track. I am thinking in terms of using a Turbo Optima Mid with a Frewer Metro 6R4 bodyshell (I have 3, NIP that I will never part with) in Computer Vision livery.

I really wish that there was an Off Road track (just like the one at Kidderminster) very nearby and a load of people locally who want to race vintage buggies, goodness can you imagine how cool that would be? I'd love to help set up such a track. They have one at Southport (22 miles from here on the NW coast) but it's 'closed for the Winter' now. There's an indoor track about 12 miles away at Aughton I think, where the Southport lot go in the Winter. Anyway, I digress, more of my private fantasies!... Time to get back to some Xmas RC stories, keep 'em coming, we're having a great time reading these tales good or bad LOL !

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[steviedee]

I have been told by the missus "i know something, you dont know""you got a suprise form chrimbo",on further interogation, she advised it is r/c related but she still wont tell me only santa knows. I'm sure its going to be cool, i kinda of love and hate surprises, if you know what i mean.

The worse christmas was when i was about 8 maybe 9 and i wanted an r/c car, and you will all know parents just see r/c and then buy any old piece of ****. At the time it was cool, i think if i remember correctly a "jet hopper" a cool buggy type thing with a spare wheel on the back roof, i thought it was the doggs danglies until i went to play with friends over the holidays and saw there kingcabs, it was good and bad all rolled into one. I can safely say i was hooked on r/c from then, this year will be no different.

[zulu69]

Hi...My first R/c memory and the reason why Iam here today was my friends Christmas present..The Frog..!! I had to wait a year to get mine but since when Tamiya has a special place in my hart.. ....Early Christmas for me this year...Just got me Two Hilux HighLifts and Two sets of Mountaineer Body sets..Iam very very happy..!! ... So I suppose its enough...happy Christmas to everybody..!!!!!!

[Hibernaculum]

I often wonder about this point ;- If I had been given for example a NIB Boomerang, Big Wig, Avante, Egress, and Top Force Evolution, etc. on successive Xmas's when I was a lad, then would I still be in such awe of these classic, groundbreaking designs? Maybe the only reason that they are so worshipped (!) and legendary in my own mind, is precisely *because* I had no hope of ever getting them as a child, they were like a distant dream to me which made me dwell on them only more and more as I studied the 1987 Tamiya catalogue in utter fascination...

Well, that's definitely how it was for me I remember showing my Dad the 1987 catalogue (definitely a peak year for Tamiya) and thinking how these cars were nothing but a far-off dream, but boy the pictures looked good. I would study those little pictures, and read the descriptions over and over. Sometimes I'd even write lists of the car specs, for comparison purposes. But the cars themselves didn't figure into those early Christmases. I didn't even bother to ask for one, as a $300+ present (once you factor in the radio, battery etc) was never going to happen

Instead, the more affordable R/C cars were obsessed over just as much (or more) because they were attainable. And I had two early Christmases where there was an R/C under the tree.

My first car was a Porsche 928, I guess it was the Chritsmas I was 9 or 10, and it was of those ones with a wire connected to it, and to turn you have to back up so it turned to the one side. Sounds lame now, but WOW was it ever the best present ever !!!

Pre-R/C, I had a wire-controlled semi trailer truck, and a wire controlled Citroen Traction Avant, of all things (still have it). Then came a sonic controlled Radio Shack Lancia Stratos (Group 5 racing version - still have this too). I don't think I got any of these for Christmas, I think they were for birthdays.

They were all awesome to me as a 6 year old, but none of them could run off-road, and we didn't have much pavement in our yard. So they all contributed to the huge anticipation of my first R/C car, which of course came at Christmas. And that was the magic year of 1984... :)

cheers,

H.

[Taman]

My first Tamiya car wsa a Frog which my mum bough two weeks before Christmas, wasnt alllowed to build it till Christmas So I spent every day after school looking at the box contents eagerly awaiting the big day. Very fond memory. After I built it I took it outside to run, must have got a good 10 minutes out of it before the battery died and I had to wait 12 hours to do it all again lol

Fo rthis Christmas I just got a NIB Jaguar XJR 12 from Jr-rc, got a nice little surprise when I opened the box. Looking to get a NIB Toyota Toms 84C hopefully aswell before Christmas (fingers crossed)

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Santa drops off some Tamiya under your tree

[Chilihook]

Hi Everyone,

I didn't see an "introduce yourself" thread anywhere, so hello! My name is Mike, I'm 37 and I got into R/C cars when I was 14 when I received a Monogram Lightning for Christmas.

It came pretty much pre-assembled, just had to put the wheels and body on and charge the battery... which took ALL DAY. While not the whole shebang like a Tamiya model, it did have the 540 S motor and was pretty fast. The one time I could run it on Christmas Day was the highlight of my day! I would think about making ramps and running the car while I was at school for the one good run I'd get in the afternoon. That car got me hooked.

There wasn't much to do for it mod-wise so after a while my focus shifted to a basic GrassHopper which over time I modified to resemble the Sand Scorcher with aluminum dampers, bearings, wheels and all sorts of other stuff. I still have that car, although it is in storage at the moment...

Next came a Marui Big Bear. I also go that on Christmas morning. By now I had a quick charger so I has many runs with both cars that day. The Big Bear didn't last too long, I stripped the transmission completely bare. I don't know why I didn't fix it, I wound up giving it to a friend of mine. I think it bought the farm via an m-80 or two.

The one car I wish I had hung onto: A Superchamp. I got it on clearance from the local hobby shop for something like $80. Got it home and assembled it and ran it in an afternoon. I was really dissappointed in how well it performed, even compared to the old Lightning. It was heavy, slow, and wallowed in the corners. Needless to say, it sat unused until I sold it a tag sale many years later. Yeah...geez, like 15 years later. It was pretty much perfect...had the box and everything. I believe it went for $20. That hurts a little!

The last car I got, I got when I was 17, a Boomerang. All wheel drive! Fun in the sand and snow! It was a lot of fun and many upgrades have been done to it as well. I still have this car too, but it is in storage as well.

From the age of say, 20 to 36 I hadn't thought about R/C much. Then for Christmas last year, my wife got me an electric heli model that I fell in love with. She got me another for my birthday a few months later and have been hooked on R/C (again...) ever since.

My Christmas this year is going to be a vintage Fox or Wild One. I am going for a used one that I can restore. I will be making the actual selection and purchase, but my wife will wrap it up and put it under the tree so I can have Christmas morning like when I was a kid again. I can't wait!!!

[highflyer]

Some of you are lucky chaps! I always got some crappy no-name R/C for X-MAS when I was younger.. But how times have changed....

I'm planning on:

Gold Lunchbox

TA05-R

Futaba 3PM fasst 2.4ghz TX/RX set

Motors and nick-nacks

That is my own X-MAS R/C list for ME! Just need to open the wallet and SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!!

[Wireless]

I got a Jaguar XJS "the saint" car when I was young

I had one of those. White with "The Saint" logo on the front. It either went forwards or reverse in a circle. You could use a remote or it responded you a hand clap as well...!

Aaah, memories...!

[weeman18]

Great thread

It think it was the year of 1987 the local sports centre would have a summer fun day sort of thing. I can remember seeing for the first time a bunch of radio controlled buggies going at rocket speeds of which I had never seen before, around a track that had been built on the rugby pitch by who must have been back then a local rc club. I was with my father and he must have seen my delight, because he asked on of the guy if I could have a little go of one of the cars. unbelievably the guy said yes. they were driving the cars from up in the seating stands so you could get a birds eye view of the track. after watching the guy do the odd lap he gave me the controls to the car (grasshopper) and I had a bash, anyway I think I did pretty good as the guy said that I must have done this before, and that was that I was hooked. for the next 5 or 6 months it was all I could think about, I would go to the local newsagents every week and get whatever rc magazines I could lay my hands on. these would be read with great interest for hours at a time day in day out. finally christmas came and i remember walking downstairs and looking at my presents and noticing a large box which I prayed would be a hornet that i had been hining for. I opened a few of the smaller ones first to be polite and then went in for the kill, and joy to the world it was the car that I had longed for, the only thing was the box was completely empty, and then in a blink of an eye my father drove the hornet form behind the sofa. he had built it for me on his night shifts at the fire station where he worked so I could drive on xmas day, what a guy. in fact he like building it so much he bought himself a boomerang. so here we are me and my dad down the local school gravel pitch on christmas morning racing our hornet and boomerang with a few of my friends watching. great memories I will never forget, and writing this it brings back the fond memories that these wonderful cars brought throughout my younger years. god bless tamiya

[Lemming]

Well...

Just ordered my 1st ever Traxxas model (not Tamiya - sorry all ), the new E-Maxx 16.8. Part present from the wife, part bought by selling my Avante to Lollo from here. Plus I still have a Goliath monster truck to build which I bought off Ebay (so may give it to myself for Christmas as the E-Maxx isn't released here until the 31st of December ).

Only real RC Christmas memory would be receiving a Grasshopper as a Christmas present many moons ago. Got to be at least 18 years ago now!

Loved reading the stories all

Steve

[ryanbored]

I have just received a Kyosho leaning rider NIB which will go under the tree; "to me, From Santa!!"

[Live Steam Mad]

Great thread

It think it was the year of 1987 the local sports centre would have a summer fun day sort of thing. I can remember seeing for the first time a bunch of radio controlled buggies going at rocket speeds of which I had never seen before, around a track that had been built on the rugby pitch by who must have been back then a local rc club. I was with my father and he must have seen my delight, because he asked on of the guy if I could have a little go of one of the cars. unbelievably the guy said yes. they were driving the cars from up in the seating stands so you could get a birds eye view of the track. after watching the guy do the odd lap he gave me the controls to the car (grasshopper) and I had a bash, anyway I think I did pretty good as the guy said that I must have done this before, and that was that I was hooked. for the next 5 or 6 months it was all I could think about, I would go to the local newsagents every week and get whatever rc magazines I could lay my hands on. these would be read with great interest for hours at a time day in day out. finally christmas came and i remember walking downstairs and looking at my presents and noticing a large box which I prayed would be a hornet that i had been hining for. I opened a few of the smaller ones first to be polite and then went in for the kill, and joy to the world it was the car that I had longed for, the only thing was the box was completely empty, and then in a blink of an eye my father drove the hornet form behind the sofa. he had built it for me on his night shifts at the fire station where he worked so I could drive on xmas day, what a guy. in fact he like building it so much he bought himself a boomerang. so here we are me and my dad down the local school gravel pitch on christmas morning racing our hornet and boomerang with a few of my friends watching. great memories I will never forget, and writing this it brings back the fond memories that these wonderful cars brought throughout my younger years. god bless tamiya

Hey I really enjoyed reading that story, it was heart warming, those are memories that are priceless. Just wish that we could go back to innocent fun days like that...

Cheers,

Ali. G.

[andi4x4]

My first r/c christmas ( that I can remember anyway ! ) would be about 1980/1 - I was 9 or 10 - I had seen the Tamiya Hilux in the Littlewoods catalogue my mother used to have. It was Big, Blue, and Beautiful ! I think I must have seen it during the late summer cos I remember spending weeks getting the catalogue out to have a look at it and show people what I wanted for christmas ! I asked my mum to get me one for christmas - ( as you do ! ) - and I got the standard " We'll see" every time I asked.

Now, I had never been into a toyshop or modelshop that stocked Tamiya kits, so, I had never seen the size of the boxes these things came in - infact - I had never seen a Tamiya r/c anything up close cos no-one I knew had one !

Any how, christmas day came - opened a few small pressies and a few large ones - I recall one was a cable remote controlled tower crane that stood about 4 feet tall - that was cool ! But one of them, was a Toyota Hilux !

No , not the Tamiya one - my mum said that she just couldnt afford it - Lame excuse I thought - I had been asking for one for months AND it was in the mail order catalogue available on weekly payment ! The fact that it was the best part of two months wages was beside the point !

The Hilux I did get, was, I think a Nikko one ? I cant remember now. I do remember that it was silver, had a one piece body with moulded in rear bed cover, it had switchable 2wd and 4wd by shifting a small white lever near the back axle, had big-ish tyres, no supension whatsoever, took 6 AA batteries (that lasted about three minutes ) but it went ANYWHERE ! It was an awesome little thing ! Loved it to bits ! I eventually broke it, as with most things, but, it outlasted a lot of other fads I went through - Star Wars, Action Man ( Yes, the Original 70's & 80's one ! ) even the Hornby Railways ( which I still dabble with now, after buying it all back off the guy I sold it all to in 1986 to fund my first Tamiya - The Original Grasshopper ! )

That little silver Hilux lasted about 4 years in working condition and it is only about 10 years ago that I finally threw it away - I just couldn't part with it !

What will I be getting this year ? Not a lot - socks, smellies, the usual ! My missus has asked for a Nintendo DS - 150 with a game or two - She will get it of course ! She asked me what I wanted and I showed her an NIB Bruiser on eBay - you can guess her response !

[Hibernaculum]

You guys are making this a truly great read Kudos to everyone.

I recall one was a cable remote controlled tower crane that stood about 4 feet tall - that was cool !

I had that! Mine was made by Joustra, an old French toy company. This pic only shows the box, but it's very like the one I had. Those cranes were really popular in the early-mid 80s. I remember seeing one on display at the local K-Mart and being so impressed. And then a few years later one was given to me by an older boy who'd grown out of it.

The Hilux I did get, was, I think a Nikko one ? I cant remember now. I do remember that it was silver, had a one piece body with moulded in rear bed cover, it had switchable 2wd and 4wd by shifting a small white lever near the back axle, had big-ish tyres, no supension whatsoever, took 6 AA batteries (that lasted about three minutes ) but it went ANYWHERE ! It was an awesome little thing ! Loved it to bits !

Similar to this? Or maybe the later version with bigger wheels?

cheers,

H.

[andi4x4]

You guys are making this a truly great read Kudos to everyone.

I had that! Mine was made by Joustra, an old French toy company. This pic only shows the box, but it's very like the one I had. Those cranes were really popular in the early-mid 80s. I remember seeing one on display at the local K-Mart and being so impressed. And then a few years later one was given to me by an older boy who'd grown out of it.

Similar to this? Or maybe the later version with bigger wheels?

cheers,

H.

That Hilux is the EXACT ONE ! Wow ! Never seen another one ! Where did you get it - I would LOVE to get my hands on another - just for old times sake ! If I remember it was about 18th scale or there abouts. I have seen the larger, red and white ones ( 1/10th size ) that came a little later, but, I would really like the original one I had.

The crane I had was diferent to the one in your pic - mine had a jib that moved in and out and a counterbalance that did the same when the jib moved - six buttons on the control box - jib/counterbalance in & out, raise/lower hook and turn left/right. It also had a car/equipment platform that could be lifted by the crane that was big enough to hold a Scalextric car.

[markbt73]

Well, my wife just "happened to mention" a bracelet she wants, so I countered by mentioning a Parma Hemi Coupe... I guess we'll see.

[Hibernaculum]

That Hilux is the EXACT ONE ! Wow ! Never seen another one ! Where did you get it - I would LOVE to get my hands on another - just for old times sake ! If I remember it was about 18th scale or there abouts. I have seen the larger, red and white ones ( 1/10th size ) that came a little later, but, I would really like the original one I had.

That one isn't mine But I have seen them on eBay. In particular keep an eye on www.ebay.de (German) because a lot of old Nikko models come up there (speaking of which, anyone know why German ebayers have this strange preference to taking photos of their R/C models outdoors on the dirt, instead of just on the kitchen table like everybody else? )

Anyway, yeah about 1/16th or 1/18th. I do have a Nikko Paris Dakar Unimog 4WD that was based on the same or similar chassis, and first released in about 1982. It was a real toss up for me as to whether I'd get that or the 3 speed digital proportional Jeep Renegade for Christmas from Tandy in 1984, as my first R/C car. The latter won

Man, what a Christmas morning that was. Really says something when my most memorable Christmas between the ages of 0 and 12 was the one time I got an R/C car. Fortunately my parents remembered the batteries, but unfortunately they were only alkalines, and I had worn them out in an hour trundling my jeep all around the front garden. Then I had to wait until after the holidays for more batteries

But enough of my stories, back to yours...

cheers,

H.