How Were You Exposed To Tamiya?

[Saito 5]

In reading through the topics here over the years, I've noticed many of you outside the states were owners of Tamiya vehicles as children (and for that matter had friends with Tamiya vehicles as well). How prevelant was Tamiya exposure back in the 80's heyday? From my point of view, I never saw a commercial on TV for Tamiya products. They were never to be found in a toy store either. Had my grandfather (who was an avid wooden ship modeler) not taken me along with him to a proper hobby shop, I might not have known what a Tamiya or a hobby/model grade RC car was. Seeing them in that hobby shop led me to the guide books as well as RC magizines so I could suck up as much info as I could about these awesome models. After all, toys there're not . The only buggys the average kid saw were cheap toy grade Tyco Turbo Hoppers which were heavily pushed on the tube. If a kid asked for something as simple as a Grasshopper, they were usually shot down. First the parent would note it was a kit and that assembling it might be too hard. Next the concept of buying separate radio gear was a mind blower to some adults. I still remember my mother saying "what? for that price you don't even get the controller with it?" So it went. Its a fair guess that no one in my school had a model grade RC. So how was it in other corners of the world?

[vtecboost 17]

Crown Hobbies, in Miami Florida. The shop is still open, and owned by the same owner. So many memories!!

[Hibernaculum 933]

Nice discussion topic Saito.

My experience here in Australia was similar. My earliest memory of the word "Tamiya" was definitely at primary school. Kids would (of course) talk about cool toys and bring small toys to school occasionally. An R/C car was one of the coolest toys a kid could get in the 1980s. When I got my first one in 1984 (not a hobby grade one), I wanted to take it to school at one point, but my parents wouldn't let me - it was considered too expensive to risk other kids messing around with it. Along with my Lego Train set, it was the most expensive toy I owned.

But Tamiya cars were like a whole other level above most toys. They were these almost mythically awesome toys that most kids had heard about, but few owned. Mostly you would just hear someone say "So and so's older brother has a Hornet! It can go 50KM/h" (or some way out figure), and then someone else would come back with "Yeah but the Frog is better. Or what about the Hotshot?" and on it would go. Every kid seemed to be an "expert", yet nobody I knew personally owned a Tamiya (at least not until we were a bit older).

So my first exposure to Tamiya cars was just by word of mouth, and that series of animal names that seemed to make everybody think the cars somehow behaved a bit like the animals themselves (Grasshoppers would literally "hop" for example). The first Tamiya cars I ever heard of were: Hornet, Frog, Grasshopper, Hotshot and maybe Fox, Falcon and Wild Willy. Keep in mind I never even saw these cars for several years, only heard about them.

A while later, I got my first Tamiya catalogue (the 1987 one) from a kid at school. It was ripped and torn, and I remember it falling apart as he pulled it out of his school bag to give to me. But the R/C pages were intact, and I got it by swapping him an old R/C plane magazine I'd got for free from somewhere. So I was stoked with that deal

That catalogue totally blew me away, and I even remember studying it during class with some friends. Once again, everybody was an expert and at least one guy was 100% certain that the Hornet and Frog were petrol powered Me, I was just fascinated by the designs of the cars, the paint schemes and awesome buggy tyres and suspension systems, not to mention how they even slightly mirrored the animals/objects they took their names from. Some even looked real - like in the Porsche 959 action photos (if you ignore the aerial and body clips).

Above all, those early memories still remind me of the fun of being a kid - and of wishing for toys you couldn't have, and the sheer thrill of waiting for Christmas Day to come when you knew you stood a chance of getting something you really wanted.

Sometimes wishing for something is even more memorable than getting it

Sorry for the lengthy post!

cheers,

H.

[skinned 134]

the year was 1983...i went in with my grandpa at the age of 11 and wanted to buy a r/c helicopter owner said "you should start with a 2 channel first".....walked out with a sealed in box brat,stick controller,7.2 batt.,plug in wall overnight charger.the rest is history

Edited October 27, 2009 by skinned

[dinorider 51]

1987: My bratty neighbour who was about 4 years older than me bought a Hornet. I saw him drive it on the street and was blown away by the sheer speed of the thing. I wanted one sooo bad.

1988: I didn't get a Hornet. Instead my dad bought me a 1/14 Nikko Buggy, the Black Fox. Still, it was good fun... for awhile.

1990: I saved money for months, and finally bought my own Hornet.

Best memories include buying the RC guidebook (with the Bigwig on the cover) from a hobby shop, and staring all day after school, and while charging batteries for my Hornet, at all the cars and hop-ups I couldn't afford.

[HunterZero 76]

My experience is almost identical to Hibernaculums. I'd heard other kids talk about these cars, but never actually seen one. Then one of my friends was lucky enough to get a Hornet. I couldn't believe the speed of the thing! And it had real tires, with working suspension!

And I'd also heard that the Frog was even better. I had heard that in a race between a Frog and a Hornet, the Hornet had gone through a puddle and shorted out. But the Frog with its waterproofing had gone right through the puddle past the Hornet. So the Frog wasn't afraid of water, just like a real Frog. That sold it for me, I had to have a Frog. My poor parents, I must have pestered them to their wits end.

My friend with the Hornet had a bunch of Moko Chan RC lectures, and a few catalogues and RC guide books. He gave me the 1987 catalogue (same as Hibernaculum!) to look at - he didn't get it back!

Shortly after that, I was lucky enough to get my very own Frog for Christmas, with racing pack and clockwork timed fast/slow charger. My poor parents splurged on that one, but boy did I get their money's worth out of it. Still have it today. A couple of other friends of mine had cars soon after that - a Falcon and a Fox.

- James

[AC49er 0]

At a very young age my dad bought me a RC buggy, no idea what make it was even today, it was slow and not very good looking.

While looking through magazines I saw a hornet and wanted one and after pestering my parents, they bought me a small Hornet, not sure of the size, but it was not RC, just battery powered forward motion. (Still have it in the loft). Loved the look of it and me and my friend ended up with loads of different Tamiya models of this size, but after a while forward only motion gets a bit boring.

My friend then got a RC car which was alot faster than my unknown make RC buggy, so I put the pressure on my parents for a full size Hornet.

This time I ended up with a Mini Mardave, it was more fun than the previous buggy, but again slow and they never would buy me a Tamiya, my dad was always trying to get me involved with RC Planes instead.

A few weeks ago after a 15 - 20 year wait, I bought my first proper Tamiya, a lunchbox, now looking for my next kit.

[HomerJHandley 6]

I wanted an RC car and got one of http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=53198 for one birthday. literally ran it to death. Then for one christmas i wanted a professional radio control car (loL!).

Anyhow cant remember how the decision was made but ended up with a falcon, mainly as the hornet/grasshopper were lower spec and this was the next step up with having oil shocks/etc.

It was 'hidden' for christmas and i found it, and would sneekly just sit by it looking at the box art and the 'technical' diagrams on the side (and getting caught as well a few times .

This was from beatties in Liverpool St Johns, came with a techni-plus radio and a slow charger, this was christmas 1990 (i was 13) and can still remember it clear to this day, and excitement of things like finding the screws could use philips heads as well as flat screwdrivers!

ran the car as much as possible, and used to get spares from a shop in Bold St, this i think has long gone now.

Also the car is still going strong, replaced the (godawful!) srive shafts and hibs numerous times but a few years back bought thorpe metal fittings and bearings and and ESC, the car had a new lease of life. Also bought some new bodies with decals, but 50/50 on painting them as they may be worth something if left!

[WillyChang 1814]

Its a fair guess that no one in my school had a model grade RC. So how was it in other corners of the world?

We were early-adopters as Daddy flew planes controlline & RC back in the mid 1970s; we bought an RTR Parma Porsche 935 from the LHS who supplied our plane gear. Got too timeconsuming travelling to the flying field so moved onto cars - he started racing an Associated RC100 with recycled Futaba 4 & 6ch radiogear. The electric porker died so we built an Imai Renault Lemans to replace it, again with recycled Futaba gear.

When these Futabas eventually needed upgrading to hi-torque etc servos etc... a Tamiya 936 somehow got snuck into the deal too. This i built during kindergarten year; also raced 1/8th ICs aka hand-me-downs.

By the time i reached secondary school... the rich kids were bringing their Tamiya 956s & Foxes to school to race on the basketball court during lunchtime. They were mainly the older 3/4/5th formers; i never bothered bringing toys to school as (1) there were other distractions haha (2) my RCs were for serious racing on the weekend and (3) my main non-race basher was a Kyosho Beetle offroader which would never keepup with a blackmotor'd 956 on concrete.

Spent a heap of time reading T catalogs & UK magazines like Radio Race Car etc

Fast-forward a few more years... mid 80s... change of scene to Australia... without fail everyday after school & weekends there'll be kids playing RC on their lawns and deadend streets. Metro Jethoppers probably most popular, the luckier kids got Grasshopper/Hornet & Frogs.

[Tamiya1/10 382]

Must be when I was about 11, our class had a "hobby" day once a week for about 2 months and I remember the good static model kits were by Tamiya and I could not affort it / my parents would not buy the Tamiya kits. (I got the cheap stuff, and envy others that had the Tamiya or better kits. In around 1989 brought the Tamiya catalogue and got hook and the rest is history.

[terry.sc 16]

In the UK most kids only knew of Tamiya, and didn't know that there were other makes available. This was due to Tamiyas importers also owning a chain of toy shops called Beatties, which were established in major town centres and all large shopping malls here. Quite often the videos were played in the shop windows, or on prominent display on the counter, so everyone knew what Tamiyas were and what they supposedly could do.

If you saw kids over 8-10 playing with r/c in the street in the mid 80s it would probably have been a Tamiya buggy, not the cheap toy r/cs. It was often the one big christmas present they got and was easily the most sought after big present until the rise of the Nintendo NES and Sega Mega Drive meant kids wanted game consoles instead of r/c cars. Every hobby shop sold them, as well as the major toy shops and even home shopping catalogues.

I guess this is why a lot of the older members here are from the UK.

Personally, I got into r/c cars in 1979 through my local hobby shop and r/c car club, so started with AYK and Schumacher 1/12th cars. My first impression of Tamiyas were the heavy and slow (relatively speaking) F1 cars, and the SRBs that ran in a separate class that were very expensive while slow, unreliable and broke easily compared to the 1/12ths we all used. The local hobby shop just stocked 1/12th scale stuff and nothing Tamiya. Didn't think much to them, but when my brother and I wanted something to play with we got a Scorcher and Sand Rover, as the only available option was Tamiyas.

[Mulsanne 0]

I too got into Tamiya through looking in Beatties shop window in the late 80s my previous experience of RC was Tandy. I was already into building Tamiya static model motorcycles. Then my best pal got a Michelin Pilot Escort Cosworth when they were released. I had to have a Tamiya RC then. Couldn't afford the Cosworth so bought an FF01 Golf Vr6 that I still use to this day.

[Tamiya on the Brain 0]

At an early age my brother and I received early radio shack, radio controlled "faux" tyrell six wheelers. Soon after that we "upgraded" to more expensive one's at radio shack

I remember the day that our family was on a sunday drive ( Hamilton, Ontario Canada) and we were going through a little section of town. Low and behold on our right hand side, the car slowed and passed a hobby shop that had the fox and black foot prominently displayed. Needless to say, my brother and I turned to each other and then to parents " Can we go in please, can we go in please?

That was it - we went in and saw these enormous rc cars that looked so lifelike and fun that the love affair began. This was around 86 and I was 13years old. It was about 4 months later the fox was purchased and the envy of my friends who were not into rc began to rear it's head

the store is still there but the hobby shop has long since vacated - I wish I could remember the name.

Ahhh the great memories

G

[Swarm 242]

Great thread good to read everybodies first Tamiya experience some nice stories

It was back in 1985 for me I had just moved back home and gotten my first full time job so I had money for the first time to spend after paying board and lodging to my parents .

I was on my way home from work riding my push bike I had to go down a main street of a town and pass all the shops in order to get home .

I passed a well known toy shop we have here in Australia called Uncle Pete's I saw a promo video on in the shop front featuring a Fast Attack Vehicle I was compelled to go into the store as I walked into the front doors there was a pallet stacked 5 ft high with FAV kits for AUD $99.00 well that was it I immediatly pulled my wallet out brought a kit strapped it to my parcel rack on my bike and rode home .

When I got home I opened the box ready for an RC experience only to be confronted with this assortment of parts where was the FAV that I was going to pull out of the box and tear around the neighbourhood with ?where was the RC unit ? I didnt even realise it needed a chargable battery or paints at that stage.

I settled into a prolonged build trying to understand the instructions and work out what bag was needed for what job and wondering why I had screws and parts left over thinking I went wrong somewhere.

Eventually I got it together and to my amazement it worked and only cost me a small fortune to buy the rest of the bits.

I was the only person that I knew that had one of these RC buggies made by a company called T A M I Y A .

After that anything RC that was RTR was not good enough I needed to build it so I knew how it worked.

[30cms 7]

After that anything RC that was RTR was not good enough I needed to build it so I knew how it worked.

amen my brother - that is my philisophy too

where i grew up in Stafford (UK) we had a great model shop called Bagnalls Models. They had plastic model kits and RC stuff. Loads of giant RC planes hanging from the roof, and cabinets filled with used bargains (oh if i had a time machine) aswell as mountains of Tamiya RC kits and display models.

I used to build motorcycle static kits, that I would buy from there.

Anyway in xmas 1986 a friend of mine got a Hornet. I had a go and I was hooked instantly. To build a model that you could actually use, and it was FAST too!!!

I saved until my 14th birthday at the end of march in 1987, and bought a hornet kit, and my parents got me a racing pack and charger. My dad sourced me some radio gear off a friend of his who flew model planes. (a futaba FPT4L transmitter - like the one pictured in the old catalogues in front of the toolbox!!)

I can remember clearly building that car. It took me all night.

Still get the same buzz now, with anything from a cheap 60 quid kit to high end kit. I like to build!

[floppydisk35 0]

One word: Youtube. I wanted a FWD tourer, and there popped up a video of the FF01 made by this weird sounding company, Tamiya.

I feel weird now... xD

[Jonny Retro 12]

The first Tamiya product I bought was a set of 1/35 sandbags from R&D Models in Cambridge, around 1982. I think it was the box art that first drew me in - Tamiya really hit on something special with the white background, blue & red stars & excellent artwork.

I'd been used to Matchbox 1/32 & 1/72 plane kits (which whizzed all over Airfix, and were better than the average Revell kit), but the quality of the Tamiya mouldings - even on something pretty trivial like sandbags - was a whole level better.

I guess you might call it "peer pressure", but at the schools I went to from 1983 to 1986 or so, everyone wanted an RC car - and it had to be Tamiya - and it had to come in a big red carrier bag from Model Junction in Bury St Edmunds

Sand Rovers, Holiday Buggies, Sand Scorchers, Super Champs, Frogs, Hotshots, Foxes, Wild Ones, Willy's Wheelers, Grasshoppers & Hornets - we all pretty much thrashed & smashed them all mercilessly

[markbt73 5316]

I was building static car models from the time I was very small, starting with Monogram 1/32 Snap-Tite kits and moving on from there. I first discovered Tamiya through their line of 1/24 scale cars; I remember a Mini (not a Cooper, just a Mini) and an Audi Quattro being among the first I got. I was disappointed that the Tamiya kits always cost twice as much as the standard Revell or AMT or Monogram kits, but the quality and selection was much better. I could tell they were something special.

Later, when I got into RC, I almost started out with a Kyosho Pegasus instead of my Grasshopper, because I liked the styling of it better. But the shopkeeper let me look at both instruction manuals, and the Tamiya ones were so familiar to me - those lovely line drawings, terse text in three languages, little hexagonal dots indicating paint colors, just like the static kits, that I changed my mind. (I don't understand the folks who collect boxes, but Tamiya instruction manuals are flat-out works of art as far as I'm concerned.) And I've been hooked ever since.

[Hibernaculum 933]

He gave me the 1987 catalogue (same as Hibernaculum!) to look at - he didn't get it back!

James, nice to hear of another person who started out with the seminal '87 catalogue (a great range of classics featured on the R/C pages that year), and still has their first Tamiya as well. My first Tamiya was a used, worn out Hornet. So my first Tamiya experience was to restore this old buggy to try to get it running. But I used my 1987 catalogue as a guide (with no internet, it literally contained the only photos I had of Tamiya buggies) so at least I had some idea what my poor buggy needed to look like.

I passed a well known toy shop we have here in Australia called Uncle Pete's I saw a promo video on in the shop front featuring a Fast Attack Vehicle

Uncle Pete's was a toy store I always wanted to visit as a kid, but was never taken to When Toys R Us arrived in Australia in the early 90s, Uncle Petes market share plummetted (as did Toyworld). Now only a few stores remain, and Peter Pigott (aka Uncle Pete) is retired and lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

Anyway, in the past few years I've found a few leftover spare Tamiya parts around the place that still sport the "Uncle Pete's" price tag stickers. I'm keeping them all unopened, out of sheer nostalgia for the 1980s when Uncle Pete's used to be one of those legendary places I had heard about that had loads of Tamiya cars and parts

There's one Uncle Pete's ad on Youtube that'll bring back memories:

Also nice to hear of all the people who got their start with a car from Tandy or Radio Shack stores. Even though their cars weren't as good, they were loads of fun and a lot more affordable. Plus you could walk into any Tandy and "test drive" any of them at Christmas time. My memories of Tandy and their cars, are as fond as any I have for Tamiya, which is why I've slowly collected something like 40 or 50 of the cars Tandy used to sell in the 80s - right up to their top of the line Golden Arrow and Red Arrow buggies.

D i c k Smith was good too, and used to sell a few hobby grade as well as toy grade cars. Though never the vast range of different cars at different prices, as Tandy.

I recently heard that all remaining Tandy stores in Australia are going to be rebadged D i c k Smith stores over the next couple of years. Sad to see the Tandy shop name go.

cheers,

H.

[Tamiya on the Brain 0]

Tandy - yes - thank you Hibernaculum

I posted earlier above but this is a pic of what was my first rc car ( web image)

[Saito 5]

Great stories! My first catalog and guidebook are also from 1987 (still have 'em). Must be something about that year . The kids in my school all had Tyco, Tandy (Radio Shack) or Nikko vehicles. I had quite a little Nikko collection myself before I mustered enough determination to save my pennies for my first Tamiya (Lunch Box). I was the first and one of the few to have one as saving money at that young age is quite difficult.

[bowtiehorses 1]

My first exposure to Tamiya (and didn't know it was Tamiya at the time) was in the early 80s at Lionel Toy Warehouse. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time, and on the model aisle there was a stack of Sand Scorchers mixed in with the regular plastic models, I wanted one ( at the time I had plastic models kits all over the house, and was not very good at using glue) and my parents thought it was a glue-together model and said no. When I was in 8th grade, a friend had a Grasshopper, and I wanted one, but my Mom found a Hotshot kit with Acoms radio in the Sears Christmas catalog and that was my Christmas present (and absolutley wore it out).

[bjr250 23]

When I was in grade two I received a Tandy Lamborghini Racer for my birthday. This was my first RC car and it got a fair bit of use in the kitchen/dining room as it was the only place in the house that had enough smooth floor space.

In 1986 not long before my birthday we were in the local Toyworld and I saw a display with several Tamiya kits including the Hornet, Boomerang and the Fox. From there I was hooked, it was the box art that did it. I pestered my parents to get me one for my birthday but the answer was no as they were too expensive. I managed to do a deal with them that I if I could pay half I could get one. By using every cent that I could get together and getting my parents to double it (they probably more than doubled) I managed to get a combination kit with a 1200mAh racing pack, Acoms radio, timer charger and a Fox kit. That Fox has been well used and it still runs although it has had a few parts replaced over the years.

I do also remember the some of the promotional videos being on TV but I can't remember if I had seen them before I got the Fox. The Hornet is the promo that I remember most as it was on high rotation leading up to one Christmas, as a result Hornets were fairly common and to this day is the most iconic Tamiya buggy for me.

[Henk4Focus 0]

I was somewhere in my teens, 11 or so and I remember going with my cousin to Pretoria every now and again for some shopping. The good old days when Pretoria mid city was a hive of activity and awesome shops. The one specific shop where I first laid my eyes on a Tamiya car was at Jix hobbies in Pretorius street. They had a lot of cars displayed in the shop window, but that Midnight Pumpkin in that window just never left my mind. Everytime I went by there I always looked out for that beautiful black Ford on that huge box. There must have been much better cars in that time which were also on display but for some reason the Pumpkin left its mark.

Only years later did the Monster Beetle catch my eye.

Good thing is that even though mid city Pretoria lost its shine, Jix Hobbies are still going strong in the eastern suburbs of Pretoria and I have made good friends with Terry and his staff. I bought quite a few Tamiya kits from them, most noteably my Ford Escort and Focus rally cars, and the TNX.

Cheers

Henk

[taliesin 260]

I was just out of law school studying for the BAR Exam and my 1st R/C car had just been destroyed/detonated by a faulty battery pack explosion. I saw a Tamiya TT-01 kit with a finished body for $109 and the rest is just ballast on my credit card statements.

Shortly thereafter I bought a DT-02 and had so much fun with those two kits that I became a Tamiya addict. Now I own more that four dozen of the crazy things and I love them even more. It is really interesting observing the progression from one kit to the next and seeing how different models evolved and changed. Strangely, some of my favorite kits are vintage buggies with all their quirks and odd handling because it just highlights how they have progressed.

I didn't grow up with these models so it feels like an accelerated learning course, seeing how they improved with time. Kind of like planting a tiny little seed and watching it grow into ... a crushing debt on the VISA card.