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dwayne

Are The Majority Of Tamiyaclub Members And Collectors In The Uk/gb?

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I hope this is'nt a dumb question. Are most of the members here from the UK and Great britain? In every thread I visit the vast majority of members are from UK. If this is indeed true why is that? Is Tamiya insanely popular there? Also for some reason whenever I find a car that I really,really want it is always on UK Ebay. I have to tell you, you guys are extremely lucky to have access to all the vehicles that you do. Are there vehicles here in the US that you guys consider rare and are hard to find in your parts? Whats rare here may be considered common to us I would think. I would love to make a trip across the pond one day and come back with a load of cars,they also seem to be fairly cheap in those parts but the shipping cost is insane LOL

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Hi Dwayne! As a TC member in the U.S., I appreciate your question -- not a dumb one at all. It certainly seems like most TC members are from the UK or elsewhere around Europe. The great thing about this is I've learned so much from TC members about Tamiya and the wealth of information they willingly share about each kit. In comparison, it's difficult to find equally knowledgeable and passionate Tamiya fans in the U.S. -- guys like Crash Cramer aside.

The downside is, it's nearly impossible to conduct a trade or sale with overseas TC members. I think the shipping costs hit U.S. and UK Tamiya fans equally hard, along with the fear of an item getting lost in the mail. Or maybe it's just me that's the problem? :(

I'm anxious to see the replies to your post.

Steve

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I've always wondered the same thing ! I have always suspected so - I know there aren't many of us from Canada around and I always say to the wife "I wish I was in the UK because those guys get together for fun all the time !" :(.

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Its a lonely life here in Montana when you collect / drive Tamiya models. There are VERY few people who have any Tamiya products at all. Its almost all Losi, Traxxas, Associated and HPI. The same is mostly true in Wyoming and Colorado too.

The UK guys certainly have more access to Tamiya stuff I think. I'm jealous!

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Hey Taliesin -- we need to set up a Wyoming/Colorado get together at some point. Besides, I want to see some of TC member Wyoming's toys!

Oh, thanks for the map Badboy! It looks like the multitude of TC members in the UK are causing seismic activity. :(

Steve

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I too have told my wife that I want to bash with the UK Tamiya Club members when (if) we finally make a trip there. :(

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Check this!

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/map.asp

And yes most collectors/TC members comes from UK

Use the zoom button and arrows to check/show the dots on the map!

Badboy

I just checked the map and noticed we have a few members that either live at sea of the coast of Europe, or they are highly intelligent underwater creatures that took up the best hobby in the world :(

Seriously though. I live in the USA (Southern California). It looks like there is a small group of us down here.. ToyMkr73 (maker of the Wild Wendy's) lives pretty close to me and ShoDog lives up north.

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When the map was first set up,it was really hard to hit the spot where you lived,loads of folks ended up in the sea.

It seems to work a bit better now.

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The ironic thing is that you guys in the states have so much more space to play in...

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The ironic thing is that you guys in the states have so much more space to play in...

So do we mate :(

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The ironic thing is that you guys in the states have so much more space to play in...

When you're talking about a 1/10th scale car, is there really any such thing as so much more space?

Oh, another thing we have here is pretty much NO good sources for Tamiya parts! LOL

I have bought most of my parts from the UK and Hong Kong.

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I've wondered too what the actual count of members is by country. It is nice to live in the center of the RC universe though. Racing year round, access to some nice shops and some of the most well known companies are down in Orange county: Associated, Losi, Tamiya America and Kyosho America. If I order from Tamiya America, I get the order in a day or two. :(

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Check this!

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/map.asp

And yes most collectors/TC members comes from UK

Use the zoom button and arrows to check/show the dots on the map!

Badboy

Thanks for the map BadBoy Sadly the three members that are near me have'nt been back on the site since 2007 and one goes back as far as 2005. :(

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Maybe I should have said 'private space' - anywhere I go near where I live there are loads of people around - and for some reason I just prefer to run in peace...

As for you guys down under - you're totally spoilt! I spent a few weeks down there a few years ago and everywhere I went there were places I wished I had a car to run in...

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A while back another member was bemoaning the fact that he had no one close by to run with, but it's a trade off.

Here in the UK our population density is very high, 66 million in one tiny group of islands.

It means we are never far from anyone else, but it also means the isolation & solitude that some of us enjoy if difficult, if not impossible for us to attain.

Getting back to the original topic, TC began life here in the UK so this may well have bearing on the numbers of UK members.

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Hey, I live in MD

Sweet!! Where at? Maybe we can get together and run sometime

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When you're talking about a 1/10th scale car, is there really any such thing as so much more space?

Unfortunately, our "Green and pleasant land" is exactly that! In the south of England much of the accessible terrain is mainly rolling hills covered in grass, we long for dusty open spaces and rocky terrain leading down to shallow pebble based streams. The biggest problem we suffer from is the "Private Keep Out" sign. The few open spaces of any interest are National Trust or Forestry Commission controlled areas, and if one were to read the byelaws in detail, you would find that the running of radio controlled equipment is forbidden.

We are also very short of public open spaces which are just left as what would be seen as wasteland, any old derelict factory sites or even just the land, is always fenced off in the interest of Health & Safety, and they're never derelict for very long as building space is such a premium here in the U.K.

You'll notice a number of the videos here are taken in retail parks during shop's closing hours, and even some of these I have come across have prohibiting signage for use of anything other than car parking, and have also seen it enforced.

Mud.

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Now where is my flame thower....Mud, did you give it back to me last time?

:blink:

I'll send it over to you with that Agent Orange!

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