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So Rare And Expensive That They Get Forgotten?

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I often wonder if one day some of the really rare and hard to get parts - once or twice a year on ebay type things - will one day become so rare that people forget they even existed or indeed don't care or want them anymore.

Typical examples would be stuff like old SRB hopups from makers such as RCH or MIP.

The reason for these thoughts is the apparent recent decline of interest in the TC vintage forum, will the people who care about this stuff just slip away and not be replaced?

What do you think?

Paul

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I think as long as there are sites like this where memebrs showcase their rare parts, there will always be a draw.

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For me the vintage side of things bit the dust when Tamiya started the onslaught of re-releases - when I joined TC in 2005 those old cars were special, something to look forward to one day owning and the people who managed to find them, restore them and even risked running them earned a certain respect on here - for example I used to wait for Moosey's new vids to get posted with genuine excitement at the prospect of seeing Brats, Frogs and SRB's driven like they were meant to be ..how silly does that sound in 2010! I remember how thrilled I was to win an un-broken Lunchbox body on eBay for only £30 because the seller had spelt everything really badly and it ended at 2am - now, you can smash it to bits and replace it for under £15 brand new!! So what's the point in getting all excited about something genuinely vintage that looks identical to the ones you can buy in the shops? I'm just hoping the old Chevy licensing issues will stop Tamiya re-re'ing the 065 Clodbuster or mine will lose most of their appeal before I've finished collecting the parts to build them! I can't be the only person to feel this way so I think the hop-ups you mention will eventually be forgotten because they pertain to a scene who's own publicity will ultimately (in my opinion) cause it's demise.

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For me the vintage side of things bit the dust when Tamiya started the onslaught of re-releases - when I joined TC in 2005 those old cars were special, something to look forward to one day owning and the people who managed to find them, restore them and even risked running them earned a certain respect on here - for example I used to wait for Moosey's new vids to get posted with genuine excitement at the prospect of seeing Brats, Frogs and SRB's driven like they were meant to be ..how silly does that sound in 2010! I remember how thrilled I was to win an un-broken Lunchbox body on eBay for only £30 because the seller had spelt everything really badly and it ended at 2am - now, you can smash it to bits and replace it for under £15 brand new!! So what's the point in getting all excited about something genuinely vintage that looks identical to the ones you can buy in the shops? I'm just hoping the old Chevy licensing issues will stop Tamiya re-re'ing the 065 Clodbuster or mine will lose most of their appeal before I've finished collecting the parts to build them! I can't be the only person to feel this way so I think the hop-ups you mention will eventually be forgotten because they pertain to a scene who's own publicity will ultimately (in my opinion) cause it's demise.

if you are new to this hobby or lack the $$ before, you would thank Tamiya vs if you have been in this hobby for several years an had the $$$, you would curse Tamiya

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I often wonder if one day some of the really rare and hard to get parts - once or twice a year on ebay type things - will one day become so rare that people forget they even existed or indeed don't care or want them anymore.

Typical examples would be stuff like old SRB hopups from makers such as RCH or MIP.

The reason for these thoughts is the apparent recent decline of interest in the TC vintage forum, will the people who care about this stuff just slip away and not be replaced?

What do you think?

Paul

Interesting question and depends on your interests i suppose, with such a diverse bunch of folks into RC, itself made up of so many differant segments theres always giong to be demand but predicting levels would be impossible.

For me one of the drivers behind my collection is the 'people will forget they even existed' part of your question, price wise theres been many times have i hoped they didnt want them anymore lol! The whole point for me is to capture a slice of RC history and try and keep it safe. Theres to many examples to give to try to explain it but one for you is this, i paid £50 for a set of front alloy dirt burners wheel covers when i couldn't afford to and never knowing whether i'd find the rears to make the set! After three years + of searching i now have the rears along with DB's rear shocks, nerf bars, wheel hubs and screw sets - Repeat story x silly amounts for parma project cars, you-g, crp etc etc and you have a combination of , not speaking from experience but, gambleing and drug addiction. For me i have my own reasons for doing this but if you have none of your own and just want to bash/race then yeah get a shiney new whatever where you can get parts with ease, make sense.

In the manner of jerry springer my final thought for the day is this, these companies don't make these anymore! There is not an infinate supply of these parts and thats why i know i'll probably never capture all of the Gh's history - won't stop me having a **** good go though and i think theres always going to be people who apprecate the classics as well, for collectors of anything in the world the item with the stand out attributes, however you want to classify them, will always be prized.

Dean

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For me the vintage side of things bit the dust when Tamiya started the onslaught of re-releases -

I totally disagree, i think its one of the best things Tamiya has done in a long time. It gives people with vintage tamiya cars another chance to enjoy their old cars and repair them instead of throwing them away because no parts were available or too hard to find, and what about those that always wanted a vintage tamiya RC model but never got the chance to own one?. It also brings new interest back to the old models and with new interest comes new hop-ups and designs from Vintage enthusiasts like myself. The only complaints i ever see are from collectors..and why are they upset? money..and as far as im concerned if that's the only reason you hang onto your RC cars then you are in the hobby for the wrong reasons! i say bring on more re-releases! i bet this would make many tamiya owners with cars that they cant get parts for happy.

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The only complaints i ever see are from collectors..and why are they upset? money..and as far as im concerned if that's the only reason you hang onto your RC cars then you are in the hobby for the wrong reasons!

+1

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I think the re-releases can't be just be seen as either the best thing Tamiya ever did, or the worst thing. It has it's pro's and con's. Of course it's really cool that the cars and parts are now easily available, it gives a chance for many people to keep their vintage shelfer on the shelf but experience the vintage feel of their cars once more. It also leaves manny people with high hopes of new re-releases - which can be disappointing for some people - on the other hand it keeps up dreaming and having those 'what if' moments, which are pretty awesome by itself... ;)

However, on the other side, the collectability of the cars that are re-released mostly disappears. 'Why would you pay high money for the real vintage model if you can have a 99.9% Replica for (often) less than half the price of the original?' is a question that probably wanders about in the heads of many. It becomes hard to recognize the vintage parts from the re-release ones when you can compare them closely, but it is even worse with auctions. Really annoying, disappointing and possibly unrewarding to look for those parts. And indeed let alone the vintage aftermarket parts (what the topic was started for?), or the small companies making (modern) aftermarket parts for vintage cars like the motor and wheel covers.

Is the gain worth the loss? Well, that is a good question.

I think that if Tamiya wouldn't make any re-releases, they could well go or already be bankrupt. It's important to realise that companies, even as big as Tamiya, at the moment will have a struggle for maintaining their sales and profit numbers. As such, I think they can make some sacrifices to a group of collectors (which to be honest is relatively small and actually doesn't provide a big lot money for Tamiya) to make benefits to a larger group of people (which benefits customers and may make their customer group larger) on itself, and especially when you keep the global economic situation in mind ;)

To answer the exact question of the topic... The group of collectors of those vintage hopups will be smaller relatively speaking, but that's just because there are now so many more 'vintage' drivers. If the group of collectors will actually become smaller, possibly, but I think it would not be because of an uninterest in those parts, but rather the fact that they are so hard to source (and not worth looking for it so hard in comparison to the re-release stock parts).

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Good replys as always...

Lets not do the ReRe thing again search can provide you all you want on that subject.

The attitude I suppose I am missing is the I know its rare and that is enough for me. I guess at heart I am a bit of a showman and having something rare needs recognition ;) . I would like to think the small piece of history I have will never be sold (I know they are only toys and other things may happen forcing the sale...) but the thought of it being unappreciated (by all but me) saddens my heart a little.

Paul

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Good replys as always...

Lets not do the ReRe thing again search can provide you all you want on that subject.

The attitude I suppose I am missing is the I know its rare and that is enough for me. I guess at heart I am a bit of a showman and having something rare needs recognition ;) . I would like to think the small piece of history I have will never be sold (I know they are only toys and other things may happen forcing the sale...) but the thought of it being unappreciated (by all but me) saddens my heart a little.

Paul

I understand what you mean ;) I think 'unappreciation' would not be the correct word though... I'd rather call it a lack of knowledge in RC Cars and/or the History behind the Parts and Cars, or the refusal to admit that they would find it cool if one of their cars would be very rare or equiped with those rare parts.

It also depends on the people you talk to/with I think. I can understand that for people who run (all) their cars, having a rare car or a car with rare parts often isn't ideal because the parts are so hard to source. So it's somewhat understandeable that their interest is not at the extremely rare bits - although some people do run their cars with rare parts - or put them on their shelfers.

You could by the way look on the bright side... Luckily not everyone is looking for those rare parts... The increased demand would push the prices even higher, and not just a bit B)

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Good replys as always...

Lets not do the ReRe thing again search can provide you all you want on that subject.

The attitude I suppose I am missing is the I know its rare and that is enough for me. I guess at heart I am a bit of a showman and having something rare needs recognition ;) . I would like to think the small piece of history I have will never be sold (I know they are only toys and other things may happen forcing the sale...) but the thought of it being unappreciated (by all but me) saddens my heart a little.

Paul

I can see where you are coming from, but i think that just because something of rarity or vintage origins is reproduced the original doesn't lose its identity. Take for example real cars like the shelby cobra or some of the early mustangs..repro bodies for these cars have been available for a long time but this doesn't harm the value of an authentic car. True classics will still remain classics, and rare and old parts for these things will never be forgotten by those that know they exist. ;)

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I totally disagree

<snip>

The only complaints i ever see are from collectors..and why are they upset? money..and as far as im concerned if that's the only reason you hang onto your RC cars then you are in the hobby for the wrong reasons! i say bring on more re-releases! i bet this would make many tamiya owners with cars that they cant get parts for happy.

;) ;) B) B) :)

For what it's worth, Mad Zero, I totally agree with you. Mainly because I totally understand where you're coming from, and the reasons you feel that way. Because I feel much the same way. And I know it has NOTHING to do with MONEY.

You couldn't have said it any better Mad Zero. But sadly, it is almost impossible to express the nostalgic reasons for not wanting any more re-releases on this message board, without some re-re-evangelist coming along afterward and throwing up the money argument as the only reason why anybody (particularly those...eww..."collectors") could POSSIBLY not be leaping over rainbows with sheer orgasmic joy every time another car is re-released.

Re-read what Mad Zero is saying, and please try to understand that collectors collect for love, not money. If you disagree with the way some of us feel, then fine. But I haven't wasted a second worrying that the re-re's have made my costly originals less valuable. Only that some of the magic and the thrill of hunting down rare/lost toys, has been tempered.

H.

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i just like building the things

there is no way i could justify the cost of a NIB old school rough rider, so the rere buggy champ was a god send

i am a collector too, just one with never enough money!!

i think rere's and originals can exist in harmony.

some rere's are exactly the same as the originals though - and you can't really tell between the two.

that does take away the nostalgic feel of building, say, an old lunchbox

however rere's get a lot of people back into the hobby.

so it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

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i just like building the things

there is no way i could justify the cost of a NIB old school rough rider, so the rere buggy champ was a god send

i am a collector too, just one with never enough money!!

i think rere's and originals can exist in harmony.

some rere's are exactly the same as the originals though - and you can't really tell between the two.

that does take away the nostalgic feel of building, say, an old lunchbox

however rere's get a lot of people back into the hobby.

so it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

Pro's and cons of re=re's seems to boil down to several things.

1. Ability to be able to buy a re-re build it wreck it repair it all cheap and have something that looks like the original

2. Those that collect for money (Financial Gain) dont like it, those that collect for passion for the hobby/fun/give children a hobby etc love it

3. It gives re-sellers out there the ability to buy re-re parts cheap from japan/HK and sell them for double the price and people pay it for some reason lol.

4 It helps constantly create new topics on TC forums (of which there are many forums saying the people are leaving the forums?), so thats got to be good.

5. Parts are available cheap compared to 5 years ago (for the re-issue cars) and vintage parts are reasonably priced (relatively compared with rarity) due to amount of people now selling vintage parts so competition is higher and prices lower (just my opinion).

Cheers

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Re-read what Mad Zero is saying, and please try to understand that collectors collect for love, not money.

I really don't believe that every collector out there see's it as you do unfortunately because if they did then the issue of monetary value wouldn't surface into the subject. The general vibe i"ve been feeling off a lot of collectors is that they feel they have lost value from there collected items due to re-release's where as the genuine collectors who don't care about that are happy because they now have large sources of parts to play with and build their cars from and it isn't costing them an arm and a leg like it used when stuff wasn't as available.

5. Parts are available cheap compared to 5 years ago (for the re-issue cars) and vintage parts are reasonably priced (relatively compared with rarity) due to amount of people now selling vintage parts so competition is higher and prices lower (just my opinion).

;)

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You couldn't have said it any better Mad Zero. But sadly, it is almost impossible to express the nostalgic reasons for not wanting any more re-releases on this message board, without some re-re-evangelist coming along afterward and throwing up the money argument as the only reason why anybody (particularly those...eww..."collectors") could POSSIBLY not be leaping over rainbows with sheer orgasmic joy every time another car is re-released.

.....some of the magic and the thrill of hunting down rare/lost toys, has been tempered.

Just wondering H....genuinely...how does a re-release spoil your enjoyment of chasing an original? After all, you will still have the challenge of the hunt for the same vintage parts. If you wish to avoid re-re spares then that is still a fairly easy thing to do as sellers still clearly label the vintage stuff to differentiate it from the modern equivalent. And the re-releases have not made collecting the vintage stuff any easier. To add to that, out of the first 100 kits only 15 have been re-released. That leaves an awful lot of cars for lovers of the originals to focus on.

With regard to hedge's question..there are actually many parts that are becoming "once or twice a year" listings that were frequently available just a couple of years ago. Hotshot H.P Suspension Sets, SRM front wishbone supports and Hotshot II bodysets are examples that spring to mind. The merry-go-round of people buying and selling stuff has ground to a halt, added with the fact that there are 10 times more people chasing the same parts as there was 5 years ago. You only have to see how the TC population has exploded over recent years to realise that.

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