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Which Was The Best Rc Year?

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When I think back (as I often do ;):rolleyes: ) I wonder which particular year I would want to return to if I could....

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Your vehicle is ready...

If you could be transported back to one particular year of the 1970s or 1980s (or even 1990s), which would it be and why?

Think in terms of:

1) Vintage RC (which cars were released or available that year? Do you have any special memories you'd like to relive?)

2) Other cultural aspects (e.g. the music from that time, the movies that came out, etc, or anything else that's important to you)

You can only choose one year! :)

My year: 1986.

1) In terms of vintage RC, I think 1986 was the peak of creativity, variety and (therefore) popularity :) Most of Tamiya's golden era buggies were available by this time, and other brands had also produced their nicest cars. After 1986, I think it was never quite as good - some great models were still invented afterward, but many boring models also :P Tamiya made some silly mistakes after model #60. Kyosho became progressively less realistic from 1987-onward as they focussed on racing. The RC market gradually became less "innocent" thereafter, as performance took precedence over style, and the market was swamped with competition and just generally too many models with too little "design thought" behind them (compare Wild One to Sonic Fighter and you see what I mean). Those are my reasons anyway :)

2) I still like a bunch of pop songs from that year by: Peter Gabriel, Eurythmics, Tears For Fears, Kate Bush, Robert Palmer, Dire Straits, Genesis.

I also love many movies from that year, particularly Aliens, Crocodile Dundee, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. And to a lesser degree - Short Circuit, The Three Amigos, Flight Of The Navigator.

Your turn :)

H.

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In 1986, at the tender age of 7. My dad and I spent a lot of time in the basement putting the grasshopper together. My first RC.

I have put in a photo request to my Mom's archives. Well see if anything turns up. But yes, good year.

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1991!

Former Tamiya Cup races in Singapore, usually being the only foreigner there. Was always GOOD fun racing on usually highly inappropriate surfaces (marble outside a shopping center anyone? :rolleyes: ), lugging along the big sealed battery from my dads electric golf bag trolley to charge my batteries with on this (then 'hot') black Tekin charger. Ah the feeling of practically melting Nicads in my hand :)

Man it was fun to be innocent and just have fun without having tire additive and com lathing and all the later 'helpful' knowledge in my mind!

Still then having a FAV and KC at home. And one of the coolest nights that year -a female school friend come over one night to borrow a computer printer and when I heard the car coming I thought their merc was sounding rough, only to look out the window and see her Dad had brought her round in his Testarossa! :):):) In Singapore!

Cool times, with hobby shops full of interesting Tamiya's and Kyosho's. I still have the Tamiya cup trophys in a box somewhere. They mean more than newer race results to me infact. Good times!!

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go to be 1984 for me......you still could get all the srb's,crp/proline/etc.. hop up parts..the hornet just came out i think....you could even get a OG rc10...

and for movies 16 candles/gremlins/karate kid/etc...

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I guess i it would have to be `87 for me, when i got my second hand Falcon for christmas.......I was never one the `cool` kids at school who always got the latest gadgets........Suddenly the Falcon made me cool B)

The racing was good and varied back then, a proper diverse range of cars, all the Tamiya`s were about, and people were racing cars like Marui and mardave and i remember one guy doing pretty good with a Maplin wildcat.It didn`t take big bucks and high technology to have a FUN weekends racing.It did not matter what you had, on a lucky day you could manage a top three finish,no matter what you drove. Good times

That said though i would be happy any year before 1989, that was when i really noticed that it had gone a bit more serious, and more expensive with it.

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88 for me, thats the year team losi released the jrx2. by far my all time favorite rc race car.

i love my tamiyas more but for an all out race buggy losi changed the game.

now if i could just find a reasonably price jrx2 i'd be all set.

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Interesting to read, because I got my first serious RC (my first Tamiya and non-toy RC) 8-9 years ago, and only got really active in the RC world about 2 years ago ;) So I can't really say anything about it. I do have to say though that from what I've seen, Tamiya is making some very critical changes in their lineup. There's an RWD M-chassis missing and all the RWD bodies are placed on FWD chassis' - however on the other hand, they are making a few awesome re-releases, many new bodies come with light buckets, they will be releasing a new FWD chassis, they have become really involved in competition RC cars over the last few years... All very awesome! :D

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1991!

Former Tamiya Cup races in Singapore, usually being the only foreigner there. Was always GOOD fun racing on usually highly inappropriate surfaces (marble outside a shopping center anyone? :D ), lugging along the big sealed battery from my dads electric golf bag trolley to charge my batteries with on this (then 'hot') black Tekin charger. Ah the feeling of practically melting Nicads in my hand :D

Man it was fun to be innocent and just have fun without having tire additive and com lathing and all the later 'helpful' knowledge in my mind!

Still then having a FAV and KC at home. And one of the coolest nights that year -a female school friend come over one night to borrow a computer printer and when I heard the car coming I thought their merc was sounding rough, only to look out the window and see her Dad had brought her round in his Testarossa! :o:P;) In Singapore!

Cool times, with hobby shops full of interesting Tamiya's and Kyosho's. I still have the Tamiya cup trophys in a box somewhere. They mean more than newer race results to me infact. Good times!!

****, that testarossa COE must have cost her father a fortune lol, remember when i Lived there I was looking at buying a car, managed to save $95KSGD (About £38KGBP) and was pretty much told the best i could afford was a top spec punto LMAO, unfortunately those COE's in Singapore are a killer (COE= Certificate Of Entitlement, which is like paying for the car full price which was already double Uk price lol, then paying another 100% in taxes then paying for a certificate to be "Allowed" to drive for 10 years!!!) talk about madness!, so i did the natural thing an expat with money to burn would do and went to Johor (malaysia) and bought myself a Yamaha R1 brand new for peanuts, got it registsred and insured at my mates place who lived in KL and rode it back over the border into Singapore ;-), and used that to go see my clients ;-)

Singapore is a beautiful place but you can keep your COE's and silly prices for vehicles LOL.

geting back on track, have to be 88' for me, first year i got my very first NIB tamiya (after a used Sand Scorcher and NIB kyosho raider).

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COEs are up for tender bidding, so market determines their value. At one stage they were

down to $7k about 12-18mths ago, then back up to the teens.... might have crept up a bit since.

Moreover there are different categories, and the supercar group isn't the most highly-bidded vs the 1600-2000c.

Sometimes the large cc category can drop to $2 if nobody bids for all the allotment that particular month.

What will kill your hippocket is roadtax though.

Especially on a 20+yo Testarossa with 200% 'age' loading (if you've renewed COE twice), could be $15-20k.

Whereas a latemodel Diablo <10y... roadtax only $7k last time for the one cruising down Orchard Rd spotted last yr.

You can only choose one year! :P

I'd choose 2010. :D

When else did we have such a great variety of RCs from old to currentmodel, offering such good value.

All the iconic Tamiyas have now been re-released, crazy nostalgic RC'ers can build a new one from kit & relive their memories.

At the other end of spectrum, we've got RTRs from all the big brands and they're not targetted just for beginners anymore.

"Race Rollers" ARTR out of a box and usually built pretty good too. Or in the right hands, even a basic RTR cane be taken

serious racing with nothing more than a settings tuneup (quite a few magazines doing articles like these lately).

We've got lipo batteries giving crazy amts of capacity in a lighter package.

Brushless motors for crazy power & efficiency.

Kit manufacturers understanding their customers will be putting in BLs into their cars,

and thinking ahead to design transmissions strong enough to survive BL power. ;)

And chassis frames designed pliant enough to survive the inenvitable impacts. :D

2.4 DSM, nuff said.

There is no time like the present!

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I see COE's have down in price since i was there 2000-2002, cars were just stupidly expensive hence the Superbike lol, me n my mates used to ride them up through malaysia into Thailand, great road trip that was!, I remember we once got pulled for speeding in Malaysia, we were "Clocked" doing 140mph on the Main Highway upto KL, eventually he caught up with us when we slowed down and he was going ballistic saying your going to jail and going to get flogged and all this rubish, we just shrugged at each other and we each gave him the equivalent of £10 (there were 4 of us so he got £40) and he smiled, said slow it down a little and waved us on, we settled into a setady 100mph cruise after that and made it all the way to Thailand without being stopped again lol, oh happy days LMAO

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Must have been 1989. For music and popular culture I know I'd go years before that, but for the RC hobby it would have to be 1989. The Clod Buster was at the top of the game, and there were new companies rivaling Tamiya with other interesting performers. Now for true scale cars and trucks, 1984 was one unfortunate turning point. The Fast Attack Vehicle (and not the Wild One) was the last one to keep alive what made Tamiya famous. After that there were nice cars, but nothing you would be able to actually see in some off-road events anywhere in the world. The Clod Buster would be one exception to that, because it is a scale truck.

My two cents.

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Has to be 1988 and 1990 for me, I remember jstairing at the two page spread of the Avante in the Tamiya Catalog and doing the same thing with the Astute. They were so beutiful and a blast to build. I didnt really care that they werent the fastest or the best. They ran better than the frogs and foxes and looked awesome doing it (well when the Avante wasnt broken or when the Astutes press nuts didnt fall off :huh:...)

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I'd choose 2010. :huh:

yep definitely 2010 still B)

re-re Sand Scorcher + TA05VDF

just the Sand Scorcher alone, that gunna be hard to beat

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What a fantastic thread! The first post says it all!

And I totally agree: 1986 for me also!

That's when I got my beloved Super Shot - that was for me the "perfect" RC car, I just loved it and drove it as a kid all year around!

And the Tamiya Cup...

The cars back then really had a SOUL!!!

:huh:

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I dont think i could pinpoint an exact year but for me it started in sept 84 i believe. A second hand willy bought from otley model shop(now modelsportuk). I adored it and broke the steering horn the very first day i got it with my knee while laying next to it in ore! I then cried!!

The willy lasted a good few years then....god knows where it went. Next was a falcon probably 86 bought second hand again. Then i had the kyosho ultima pro which i built on my own and it fell apart pretty much everytime i took it out. Then the 90's struck,girls,beer,clothes...all down hill. Id love to relive the mid 80's. Ive since bought several real cars from that era namely series 1 rs turbos,fiesta XR2,Cavalier SRI etc etc. Unforunately the world has gone mad now and "they dont make things like they used to lad"!!

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For me, best RC year was probably 2008. Bought a FO Tiger I from HK @ around $1.90 to the pound, then 2 weeks later the banks melted and the pound dropped to $1.50 or thereabouts. Was I glad I ordered it when I did :) .

Close second was 2007 when I was able to buy a new hotshot or the first time since 1985 (And the price was within £1 of the the 1985 price thanks to the strong pound and buying from HK ;):D )

3rd would have been around 1990, when I was working in my summer holidays being paid to do timber extraction with a County tractor on some reasonably steep ground (I'd been around 16/17 at the time, great fun). Blew the proceeds on a new clodbuster.

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I dont think i could pinpoint an exact year but for me it started in sept 84 i believe.

I really like 1984 as the buggies had heaps of character. The Frog and The Hornet were very popular and fun but hard to drive.

Then 1985 came and the Hotshot arrived which instantly showed how badly the earlier buggies handled. The Fox also arrived in about 1986 and was a step above the earlier 2wd Tamiya buggies. Buggy racing became serious with the advent of the Hotshot and later Fox here in Australia and took some of the fun out of it for myself. The price of a Hotshot bearing set was high in 1980's money and out of my budget. Then there was the aftermarket hop ups which started to appear in around 1985 which also made competitive buggy racing expensive for many who were serious racers.

Other non Tamiya buggies I remember circa 1985 were The Mugen Bulldog 4wd, Yokomo Dogfighter 4wd and the first RC10 which was a step above the likes of The Hornet and The Frog in terms of 2wd handling.

1984 does it for me as the pop music of the time made it a classic year.

Ian

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1984

I was blasting my Sand Scorcher! Friends and I were buying Grasshoppers and Frogs at Towerhobbies. A couple rich friends had 3-speed Hilux', and Wild Willies...

I was a freshman/sophomore in high school.

MTV came out. One of the most "Wonder years" of my life.

Then I discovered girls, and gave up RC until 2004. :)

Cheers,

Skottoman

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There is no time like the present!

I have to say, I'm with Willy on this one. I never want to go back to fussy mechanical speed controls, 1200SCR batteries, or 27mhz AM radios. I haven't jumped on the LiPo badnwagon yet, but I will someday, and it's nice to know they're there. I do wish more manufacturers offered kits instead of RTRs, and I dig the looks of the older vehicles, but the support equipment is just so much better that I can't imagine having to go back to the bad old days.

Now, that said, if I could go back to the summer of 1989 and buy a stack of kits (Wild One, Porsche 959, Monster Beetle, Turbo Optima, gold-tub RC10, maybe an Ultima), and stick them in the trunk of that 1972 Mustang convertible that I test-drove and didn't buy ($1100! I'm still kicking myself for that one), and put them in storage, and then come back to now, I'd do it...

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Got to go with WC, is 2010 with all the re-re and prices for the originals have come down due to the economic melt down and the value of the dollar, euro, pds, except for Cdn and Aus. $. Is also a great time to go in real estate if you are in the States.

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what a great thread...

for me its 1981; why?

1) For RC terms this was when I first saw RC vehicles in action at a school fair and I thought they were just awseome. From what I recall there was a Sand Scorcher, Ford ranger and Rough Rider. In addition to these Iconic models being available this was also the year the Toyota 4x4 pick-up was released and it would be cool to go back in time and snap one up at a bargain price by todays standards.

2) Well I always liked Condorman starring Michael Crawford hamming it up as Woodrow 'Woody' Wilkins :o aka Condorman as he tears across europe in his Condormobile pursued by a team of KGB agents driving black 911's; brill. :)

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