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How Have You Changed As An Rc Enthusiast?

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Just as our perception of Tamiya has evolved, so have we as enthusiast changed as the years progress. Personally, I was always into old stuff. In 1987, SRBs, Wild Willys Holiday Buggies etc. were gone from most hobby shop shelves. NOBODY cared about them at that point. They were just old, out dated rubbish as everyone was hot on whatever the next big thing was. Even as a youngster, I relentlessly tracked this stuff down. Hobby store owners would often give me the most bizzare looks when I inquired about any old stock that might be lurking about. Sometimes (to my delight) they'd pull a dusty old box of some sort from under the couter and slap it down and say "here ya go kid, see if you want any of it." It would of course be stuffed with old Tamiya spare parts. Once to my utter amazement a nice owner went into the storeroom and brought out a NIB Fox and said "$60.00 and its yours". I jumped at it since it was half the price a Fox usually went for when it was still available.

One thing that has changed greatly is my willingness to modify things. In the old days I'd hack/cut/drill/modify anything in the quest for more speed or better handling. This came back to bite me as I had to undue alot of my childhood "inventiveness" when it came time to restore my collection. Ah, youthful ignorance! Nowadays I find it hard to modify even my old runners (re-res included) as I like running them as Tamiya intended. I'll stretch for bearings or an offical Tamiya hop-up, but that's about it.

I'm sure many others have had similar experiances. Some might not have been the hoarder I was and gave away or traded things they wish they had back. It was tough in those days when we all were excited to see what the next more advanced thing coming down the line was.

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As it often does, my experience parallels yours very closely :blink:

Except even as a youngster, I was hesitant to modify. I came to Tamiya from Tandy/Radio Shack/Nikko, and as such, I always had huge respect for Tamiya cars as they were so expensive and out of my reach for much of my childhood. This respect could even be described as a sort of "reverence". My dad was also partly responsible for this, as I was always taught to look after my toys, and to admire their engineering. As an engineering student when he was young, dad used to look at Tamiya models later in life with a kind of awe - he'd never see such impressive toy models in his childhood, and so having a son with which to have a "second childhood" with these amazing precision Japanese models, was great fun.

So as an enthusiast, I have gone from being very respectful and exactly-to-the-manual with my cars, to being....well, only more so :D My collecting goal is to have the cars I want, all set up exactly standard and painted to the catalogue style. This is the exact same goal I had at age 10 :D

cheers,

H.

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I tend to run my cars more gently now than I did back then. You realize breaking a part involves a search on ebay for a replacement.

As for modifying, I was always up for that. I made a rear cage for my frog in welding shop at school. I liked that my frog looked like the one in the CRP catalog dorky nerf wing and all. even now very few of my cars are stock builds.

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I tend to run my cars more gently now than I did back then. You realize breaking a part involves a search on ebay for a replacement.

As for modifying, I was always up for that. I made a rear cage for my frog in welding shop at school. I liked that my frog looked like the one in the CRP catalog dorky nerf wing and all. even now very few of my cars are stock builds.

I was more scared to run them hard when I first got into them. Now I just run them as hard as I want, but with knowledgeable maintenance backing them now. Before I didn't know anything!

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I tend to run my cars more gently now than I did back then. You realize breaking a part involves a search on ebay for a replacement.

I'm the same now, i look after my tamiya's and don't give them too much abuse. I definately dont run them as hard as i used to, i've got my traxxas's for that! :lol:

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I tend to run my cars more gently now than I did back then. You realize breaking a part involves a search on ebay for a replacement.

As for modifying, I was always up for that. I made a rear cage for my frog in welding shop at school. I liked that my frog looked like the one in the CRP catalog dorky nerf wing and all. even now very few of my cars are stock builds.

I am pretty much the same as you,modded the badword out my Falcon back in the day....sometimes i used tools and materials...sometimes walls and obstacles did it for me.... :lol:

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RC toys are designed to be run as hard your heart desires.

Main reason why vintage RCs don't get run as hard as moderns... well, the newies perform much better & go faster = harder impacts; and they'll actually survive them too!

Nothing wrong with improving original design; but some kids liked modifying using fireworks and flammable materials... :lol:

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I am pretty much the same as you,modded the badword out my Falcon back in the day....sometimes i used tools and materials...sometimes walls and obstacles did it for me.... :)

We are just getting older and tend to look after things better. Not as crazy about RC as before, but still enjoy them and would like to run them more often.

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I've had two cars break on me with in the first min. of me turning then on. I didn't run them hard or abuse them, was making sure everything was in running order. It's getting old FAST because they are breaks that mean I can't run them again until I find expensive replacements. I'll be getting out of this hobby soon.

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I remember back in the day I went to "Hobbylandia" (after more than one year raising money, mind you) with enough cash in my pockets to get one Tamiya truck home. I remember staring at the boxes in front of me for quite some time... it was the Midnight Pumpkin or the Black Foot. For me at that time it was a permanent decision. And no matter its higher price I got me the Midnight Pumpkin. It was amazing. I ran that truck a lot, but I don't remember abusing it, mostly because raising the money for it was not an easy thing. Now, after a couple of decades, I still take care of my cars a lot. I enjoy them, but not to the point of wrecking them. I believe if there is a thing I can say about what changed in me I guess that would be that feeling about cars that, back in the day, seemed impossible to have. Today, I have all the trucks I dreamed of. Clod Buster and Bruiser. And they did not cost me a limb! I think I still have the same excitement of the same day. I only wish Hobbylandia was still there :) . Oh, well.

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Now im older and moved our I have less time for rc but had more money to spend on it, right now i have complete re-re BC and an unfinished pajero, m03r, 1/4 scale Arx bike and 1/5th scale road bike all hardly used as yet! ahhhhh!

Just recently bought a 1:1 classic mini to so all my time is on that at mo.

One good thing my parents are moving soon and will have decent size yard so will have some where to run my offroad cars yay!

When I was in my teens used to spend my eves tinkering and cleaning! but had no money to buy much then lol!

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...One good thing my parents are moving soon and will have decent size yard so will have some where to run my offroad cars yay!

Um, you still live with your folks at home or your oldies live on your back lawn? :)

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I started not caring about the vintage stuff. If I can buy all the re-re then to me they are just as good. Plus I'm starting to race so less time (e.g. money) spend on getting vintage parts.

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Have I changed as an enthusiast ?

Yep only in the sense that i've been fed up seeing all my nib kits just gathering dust and i've slowly been selling off now for the past year. I'm left with 3 what I would call old (blister pack pre 150) a Brat a Frog and a Super Blackfoot. (frog and brat are staying forever, the SB may get built very soon)

As for the runners again I had loads and i've slowly over the years picked out favourites that I really enjoy running, the rest i've again sold on.

I've stopped running my touring cars (miss that a bit) and dont get out with my cars half as much ;) been on TC a few years now and seen many people come and go and I cant see me ever being out the hobby totally but I can defo see my collection reduce still further...

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Sadly, for me a lot of the magic has gone! I started with in r/c in the late 1970's when all there was worth having was 1/8 IC circuit cars or stox - electric cars were in their infancy and, due to the crude electrics, were shrunk in scale to 1/12 so the batteries could cope - not really 'fun' at all. It was another 10 years before I started buying into the electric thing now that the battery technology had caught up but still I was only buying lexan-bodied comp buggies, nothing with any hint of realism came my way until I played with a mate's Tamiya Monster Beetle, I decided to ignore my laughing peers (Tamiyas were always considered mere 'toys') and bought it off him! Back then of course there was none of this 'vintage' snobbery or NIB collecting, 'SRB' wasn't a buzz-word and everybody used the now-valuable boxes to spray the bodyshells against! No in my world at least you just had what you had and raced it about until you got fed up with charging the battery - the real magic came from the fact you were controlling a big realistic model car without actually touching it, something we all take for granted nowadays. I tried to re-kindle the old magic by buying cars I'd wanted back in the day but you can't go back in time so for me it will never be the same. Don't get me wrong I definately still enjoy running r/c cars but age, experience and (curiously) being able to afford them, has somehow dulled the excitment!

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I think I've become more of an enthusiast as time has gone on... but I've become less able to run my models. It seems I just don't have the time and, when I do have the time, I don't have the energy to go out again. Hopefully that'll change in the future but, for now at least, I'm happy just building, upgrading, etc. It's not quite the same 'magic' as when I was a child but it still feels pretty good to me. ;)

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Um, you still live with your folks at home or your oldies live on your back lawn? :rolleyes:

lol no sorry, I live with my fiancee and my parents are moving soon to a nice bungalow from the family home I used to live it.

Which has a decent size garden! :)

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How have I changed as an RC enthusiast?

I've become one! :rolleyes:

I've had various interests and hobbies over the years, but RC is the one that's really grabbed me, and I can honestly see me doing this when I'm old(er) and grey(er).

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My biggest change from the early years is I actually have the money to get what I want these days. Although I pretty much run everything I have the toys are also something to collect.

Started out in my early teens where my parents were nice enough to get me a Grasshopper and a Bruiser. There were all kinds of things I wanted but when you're young and don't have a job the choices are limited. Kind of out grew the things and went through the normal development stages, from RC to girls and the popularity contest that is high school (late teens), general screwing around (early 20's), getting an education to make up for all the screwing around (late 20's), and building a career (most of the 30's.) As I reached the end of my 30's I found the box I've been dragging around with the Grasshopper and Bruiser in it and decided to restore them and got hooked.

I never really planned on getting hooked this bad. I went from the original 2 cars to a collection of 2 dozen or so toys and counting. I've also added RC helicopters and planes to this since they were things I wanted back then but could never afford. I guess I'm living what I dreamed of when I was 11, if I see it and want it I get it. Now the biggest problem is finding the time to play with the things. I guess it's one of those cruel jokes in life, once you get to the point where you can get what you want you don't have the time to really enjoy it.

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My biggest change from the early years is I actually have the money to get what I want these days.

Yeah, I think that's the biggest change for me. I bought my Hornet for 50p at a jumble sale, never run, painted really badly but with no running or radio gear. Luckily I lived close to Apex Models and they did me a deal on a battery and charger, radio gear and servos etc. for just over £50. That was my birthday and Christmas present from my parents and Grandparents.

I ran the car for around three years, it got a new speed controller once (again, a birthday present) then it died and I packed it away in the loft.

When restoring it last year I totted up all the parts I would need, and decided to just buy a re-re kit. Went out that day and bought one.

I now own almost every vehicle I really wanted when I was a kid, certainly every one I remember from the top shelf at Beatties!

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Yes I have changed as an r/c enthusiast:

I have grey hairs now and I can't sit crossed legged on the floor for long periods now.

:P

Otherwise the same enjoyment is still there. I do miss having friends over after school tho (lol, some parts of growing up suck :D ) and sharing the enjoyment. But otherwise much the same. Best parts are weekends outside with rc boats and some relaxed race days, and of course the annual TC international meet at muratti's place! :D :D :)

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I have changed over the years since high school. Like almost everyone here I definately look after my collection better by treating the batteries well (ie no more 12 volt quick charges and running them until the car wont move lol) I tighten the wheel nuts, wash the mud off the bodies, avoid possible collisions and take a huge amount of care and double/triple checking instructions when building them. Happily I work mainly 8 hour days tuesday to friday so I have around the same amount of time to run them as I did when still in school, the bank balance to afford them and the 1:1 transport to run them far out of town limits.

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Have not changed much over the last 20+ years. I still race locally and bash when time permits.

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yes i have changed alot.

when i started out as a kid i got a used wild one. then i peiced together a hornet.

then i bought my first new car, a kyosho optima mid.

soon after i got into racing dirt oval and off road with losi cars.

i raced until i was 20 years old and got out of it due to the cost and unfriendly competition.

i took 10 years off and now i only buy tamiya and i only bash (lightly).

i enjoy the build more than running them.

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