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Run Or Shelf? After Too Much Time And Money Spent.

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Hello all

Was wondering if anyone else suffers the same dilemma as me. I always buy a Tamiya with the intention of running it after I've restored or built it from NIB. The problem is, I get that carried away with detail and ideas, that i spend way too much time and money on it and eventually am afraid to run it properly, what i mean by 'run it properly' is to run it just within its limits, including a little jumping, water, mud etc. Anybody else suffer this dilemma? Would be good to hear about it.

Cheers

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Hello all

Was wondering if anyone else suffers the same dilemma as me. I always buy a Tamiya with the intention of running it after I've restored or built it from NIB. The problem is, I get that carried away with detail and ideas, that i spend way too much time and money on it and eventually am afraid to run it properly, what i mean by 'run it properly' is to run it just within its limits, including a little jumping, water, mud etc. Anybody else suffer this dilemma? Would be good to hear about it.

Cheers

Dude. That sounds almost like me except I'm the guy who usually ends up not putting radio gear in because I've found yet another part or piece to buy instead then, when I actually do run anything, it's just to see it working just that one time then back on the shelf it goes while I work on something else! :rolleyes: Gone are the days when I'd just thrash my cars about methinks. ;)

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I build all my cars to run. In saying that however, how much time, money and detail I add to a model is directly proportional to how hard I drive it.

If I feel like thrashing the life out of a car I have the Savage which takes every bit of abuse I throw at it. If I want a pure speed fix there's the racer models which I expect will wear and break when I mess up... buy new parts, repair and go again. Then there's the scale type models with added detail which I drive in a scale type manner to enjoy how they move over the terrain and work. Nearly all have silly power bolted in, just not all get pushed to the limits (Brushless + Lipo = very long runtimes when driven calmly in a scale type manner).

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I got hit with this problem myself on several occasions. I bought and assembled a Top Force re-re and when it was all done...it was too beautiful to screw up. When I'm on the fence about certain models (which is often in direct relation to their age or the difficulty of the paintwork) I buy an extra body and set of tires. 9 times out of 10 its those items that take the most beating so when its time to retire the model, the new parts really spruce it up for shelf duty. The Sand Scorcher is a tough one. The boxart paintwork takes a good bit of effort and one rollover later, and its all scratched up. Yet, it almost needs that paintwork to "come alive" in my eyes as I run it. Decisions decisions...

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I bought and assembled a Top Force re-re and when it was all done...it was too beautiful to screw up

Me too! I did exactly the same thing... The emerald green Top Force in my showroom is the culprit. It turned out so nicely that I could not bear to run it. How nice is the Top Force... I ended up buying a 2nd one, but then the re-re proved to be very limited and disappeared from sale, so that one has been kept NIB...

That first scrape you get on a new car is always a little heartbreaking, but especially when a body shell gets damaged. This is because the shell can take a fair bit of time and effort to get ready and looking good, and it's not cheap to replace.

If the car is vintage and made of rare parts, it's even worse.

When I build a vintage runner, I will usually buy a couple of decent used examples and combine the best bits of both into one complete car, and replace parts with new parts only where the used parts are too damaged/worn. Then I keep the rest of the bits as spares. Then I don't feel so bad about running and breaking! I did this with my Fox and Super Shot.

- James

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Been there, in fact, I am still there, lol. I tend to do that most with models that I restore. When you spend so much time working on something, and then get it perfect, the idea of running it becomes less favorable. I do want to run my Mounty after I finish restoring it, but then I start thinking what if I wreck it! This will be a dilemma that will torcher us RC hobby participators for eternity :unsure:

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The only shelf queens I have are my SuperBlackfoot(NIB) my dad got me back in 1994 and an original(NIB) Kyosho Raider that back in 1989 was my very first Radio control car ever. Both of these have tons of sentimental value and one day they will be built to original specs, paint and everything then sat on the shelf. I'll never buy another with intension on being a shelf queen

For the rest..... I drive the living, "My bad", insane "woops" out of them.

Sorry to the mods for testing the bad word censorship lol. I corrected it.

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Been there, in fact, I am still there, lol. I tend to do that most with models that I restore. When you spend so much time working on something, and then get it perfect, the idea of running it becomes less favorable. I do want to run my Mounty after I finish restoring it, but then I start thinking what if I wreck it! This will be a dilemma that will torcher us RC hobby participators for eternity :unsure:

Why not just shelf it and buy a newer one for driving?... Parts are cheaper and plentiful, not the case for vintage stuff. If it were me I'd put the old models on the shelf..they are nice to look at in original form and adds to the value.

Why ruin those when you can buy something newer(and better) to have fun driving. This is why I purchased my BFX.... I WAS going to run my SuperBlackfoot, but thought "What for?..It's a nice truck, they don't make them anymore and I have been offered 400 dollars for it"

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When I started doing this hobby again after a long spell in the wilderness my intentions were to run everything I had and to build every Nib I got that worked great for a few months.

Well that has changed bigtime I find myself just collecting Nib's now and running nothing the last time I saw one of my cars running was over 12 months ago my daughters boyfriend drove my blazing star and trashed it (still not fixed) he didnt give a toss as it was not his car he just wrecked but from then on I decided nobody touches my cars except me if its going to break I am the one that is going to break it .

Its like lending a neighbour a lawnmower or power tool its all well and good until it gets returned broken they dont offer to pay for the damage never put petrol back in the tank dont replace parts for wear and tear .So I dont lend anything to anybody anymore I figure if they dont have it and they want to use it go buy it yourself like I had to then they might appreciate it more and take better care of it or perhaps they are the type of people that dont care about their things and have ruined most of what they have or they are simply just "Those types of people"

I do know what you mean in the past I have purchased cars/buggies with the intentions of running them spend ages hunting for parts / hop up's only to find that most of the time I never get around to finishing them when I got back into this hobby I had heard stories about people not finishing a project or spending to much time and money on a project and being affraid of running them ,I said at the time thats NOT me but alas it is me .

I am seriously thinking about selling most of my built cars and just focusing on Nib's I have built cars that look great but will never be run I have projects that have a job number on them waiting for their turn to be finished that will never be completed I live in denial about my projects but deep down I know they will never get finished and if they do they will never be run.

Anyways yup I know what you mean mate :unsure:

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Common theme it seems.

All of my R/Cs are runners, but some get run more gently than others.

Often I buy a car and don't have the heart to thrash it b/c its just so nice [i.e. factory painted M-03 Monte Carlo Mini Cooper - what a gorgeous shell]. Usually it gets driven very, very carefully. Normally, I end up with another one [or 3 ] to thrash. :unsure:

Sometimes I just bang a runner body on the chassis, saving the nicest body for display, but usually I end up with another car altogether.

Occasionally a car gets "retired" to a shelf in its battered and well-loved state of being. It reminds me of how much fun I had with it.

I like to buy 'em, build 'em, and run 'em, but I'm not big on shelving them unless it is for a well-earned "retirement" and I don't mean just adding new rubber.

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If I can find some of the "rare" parts I'm looking for that I know will get damaged then I'll run it more. I spent so much already, I want to at least use it.

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I think true enjoyment is the pleasure of building the RC and running her as she was intended. I know, others will say enjoyment is subject to ones own definition even putting the RC as shelve queen could be more enjoyable to some vs running it. Than I would say one is more concern of damaging it and not having the opportunity to test her out. Almost like one should not learn how to walk, since one will fall and scrap some skin, then one would never know the true enjoyment of mobility. Having just said that, I too have shelf queens that are sitting on stands after I have assembled them :unsure: But in the back of my mind I still want to run them, some day after fitting out the electronics... :unsure:

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LOL, this is EXACTLY how I feel!

I have a couple of runners which I use for bashing, but generally I spend so long on getting the details right I can't bear to run them and face a potential roll-over. I still ball-race every chassis and add radio gear though... just in case! :unsure:

Recently I've been getting into scale crawlers, which are supposed to look weathered and used... although the weathering takes so long I'm loathe to run those too!

I've discovered the answer is to buy someone else's completed model on eBay and use that as a runner - no guilt from bashing it, and if it gets damaged I can re-build it better than it was originally!

Tim.

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I spend time and effort in making them and adding the detail as i like it to look good on track or in the street/park. So i don't have any shelf queens. I see it if you do wreck them the parts are there to fix it.

To make it look good on the shelf have a 2nd body and some show wheels if your really precious.

All though it's nice for it to look perfect on the shelf there is nothing like a few real battle scars to make it look used but not abused, just like when you see a Le Mans car after 24 hours of hard racing :-)

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Same here :P I bought a NIB Nissan R91Cp with the intention of running it but after I built it I couldnt bare having it damaged. Same with my F104 Pro, intended to run it but after building it I really dont want to scratch the carbon chassis up. Luckily I have a 2nd hand Merc C-11 which was pretty scratched when I got it, so I run that. Just bought a TRF416 with the intention of running it......................hmmmmmmm

I know what you mean :unsure:

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Same here :lol: I bought a NIB Nissan R91Cp with the intention of running it but after I built it I couldnt bare having it damaged. Same with my F104 Pro, intended to run it but after building it I really dont want to scratch the carbon chassis up. Luckily I have a 2nd hand Merc C-11 which was pretty scratched when I got it, so I run that. Just bought a TRF416 with the intention of running it......................hmmmmmmm

I know what you mean :P

I do buy em to run them.. although some are more difficult for me to run. I take a lot of time making my cars look nice, and also run nice so its teh combination of the two factors that makes me really like the hobby. I have a few classics.. they still get run, but gently.. usually If i buy a kit new, I buy a spare shell / wheels and sometimes a chassis.. so if and when I decide to retire it I can strip it down for the shelf.

The one thing that you have to get over when you race is that breakages will happen, and that shells come and go.. I still take my time with the shells.. and its not until the shell has had a few knocks that my racing improves again as I am not nursing the shell :) But they are meant to be driven.. otherwise I would just buy model kits.

you should just race your F104.. top car and not racing a 416 is a sin ;)

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Hello all

Was wondering if anyone else suffers the same dilemma as me. I always buy a Tamiya with the intention of running it after I've restored or built it from NIB. The problem is, I get that carried away with detail and ideas, that i spend way too much time and money on it and eventually am afraid to run it properly, what i mean by 'run it properly' is to run it just within its limits, including a little jumping, water, mud etc. Anybody else suffer this dilemma? Would be good to hear about it.

Cheers

Yup, been there, done that with my SRB's.

The "solution" for me, was just to buy another wreck, with the intention only to restore it into a runner, but the same thing keeps happening :lol:

Now, I'm running out of shelf space and goodwill from the wife, so I need to pick a runner from my shelfers.

BTW. gentle running is not something I'm familar with, I run them like a 10 year old boy would.

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:lol: Eeeehhhhmmmm, I'm a build it and shelf it kind of guy. My first ever big resto was on my blue Clod. Check here, was the first time in about 5 years that Big Blue was run, and very slow and careful I must add.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...62&id=22744

It took awhile for me to stop running the Clod after the resto which took a mighty long time. I was still new to RC and after I think the 4th steering knuckle got busted I decided against running my truck. My Twin Det, Pumpkins, Baja King, F350 and TNX takes up the part as runners. The F350 is the car/truck which had the most roll overs ever! I'm redoing the paint again as the yellow was really starting to look aweful. I might just turn it into something with bling as I can't get the tranny to shift correctly so shelf here we come......or not.

I can see both sides of the coin, so if you build and bash or build and stash, I understand it all as I do both. Restoring a classic will always end up on the shelf. It has more value for me that way than being a runner.

Henk :(

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