What were you guys doing in the 80's?!

[Wandy]

Oh yeah, to add.

Late eighties. Passing my driving test at the first attempt. Then writing off my first car within two months.

[Muddybaldboy]

One or two of us are still around

[MAD RACER]

Yep the good old days. Great thread.

I got my first r/c car the obnoxious Marui Galaxy ( red cage) Spent a heap on it too. There was always someone in the streets with a r/c car. Built my own track in our paddock

Bought a 2nd hand Brat & converted to Frog spec's. I had alot of good running with it for a good 2 yrs.

Late 80's started racing with a Turbo Optima. ( had to choose between that & the Super Shot)

A yr later put a deposit down on the new MID and was one of 3 to get the first batch.

Loved watching Knight Rider, BJ & the Bear, the world Touring championship ( Group A )

Stopped racing after the 89 for 10 yrs. Hence the void of my knowledge of Tamiya's after the 80's.

[mongoose1983]

Yep the good old days. Great thread.

I got my first r/c car the obnoxious Marui Galaxy ( red cage) Spent a heap on it too. There was always someone in the streets with a r/c car. Built my own track in our paddock

Bought a 2nd hand Brat & converted to Frog spec's. I had alot of good running with it for a good 2 yrs.

Late 80's started racing with a Turbo Optima. ( had to choose between that & the Super Shot)

A yr later put a deposit down on the new MID and was one of 3 to get the first batch.

Loved watching Knight Rider, BJ & the Bear, the world Touring championship ( Group A )

Stopped racing after the 89 for 10 yrs. Hence the void of my knowledge of Tamiya's after the 80's.

Gotta love 'em vintage photos. Thanks for sharing these with us, Mark!

Hopefully more TCers will feel like sharing old pics with us here in the forums.

You all have a great Sunday!

[yogi-bear]

I got into rc when I bought a Mauri Galaxy (blue version), must have been 1985 or 86. One friend had a Brat another a Hornet, I can't remember who got what first, but we ran the cars together a few times. I use to read the 85 Catalogue all the time (I still have it), as like many other kids I wanted a lot more than I could afford. I did like the marui, but it was really bought because it fitted into my budget. At the time is was a choice between the Marui and the Grass Hopper. Not too long after I bought a second hand lot with a Hornet, Mk 22 Renault and Celica LB Turbo. The hornet was my favourite and was abused often.

About a year after that my brother and I bought a new fox each from the local supermarket that had managed to get some it and undercut the local hobby stores. I drove my cars on and off until about 89. Around 95, while at uni a friend suggested we make a rocket car, and the Celica was called into action. Sadly this is the only set of pics I have of any my cars. Needless to say the celica rocket car didn't fair too well. We had 3 runs with it, the last almost completely destroying the body. Still I managed to find and keep most of the pieces.

Late 2010 I was chatting to friend, he was showing me his nitro monster truck he was building, and it made me think about my old cars. I went though my stuff downstairs, looking for the pieces. Looking over, I had lost one of the front tires from the Celica, plus the motor mount for the Galaxy (it also needed a new set of rear tires). I started looking online to find out some info and that made me feel old. My cars were now vintage collectables!

But it also made me want to get back into rc as a hobby. Since then, as many others have done, I started collected the cars I wanted as a kid. For this I am grateful for the re-re's.

[Toykid]

Some great stories so far,

Here's mine.

Like many I discovered Tamiya at the start of the 80's and by '84 I had my first Tamiya, the grasshopper. Soon after that I started racing it at my local club in Newbury Berkshire (the old TA center if anyone here remembers that). At about that time I also discovered BMX and then quickly Skateboarding. Like Scorchio I skated from then right the way through the late 90's. At the same time I kept racing or tinkering with RC, progressing from the Grasshopper to the Wild One, Kyosho Gallop, Thundershot and finally a race ready 2nd hand Schumacher Cat XLS before I went to University in '92.

Funny how skateboarding and RC were my 2 biggest passions in the 80's and are still with me today. I feel lucky to have found them and to still be a part of my life..

James.

[Percymon]

Early 80s - oggling the Tamiya stuff in my local hobby shop basement

mid eighties - racing bikes and girls

late eighties - university

late noughties - Tamiya time :D

[Tamiya Era]

loool,, early 80's i was 1-3 years old and what was doing is just giving my parents a lot of stress breaking stuffs..ohh yeaa,, and smashing some old Toys my Uncle was keeping...lool

[Daves956]

In the 80s I still had the B2B and was given the first of the 956s but I lived in a pretty wet environment and no way to really waterproof back then. I got into the N scale trains and static Tamiya models for the next 15 years or so. I remember a lot of travel that decade, married for most of it and the way too fast cars. The RC airplane was in that decade too.plus the first JPS and the almost complete wreck of the 956 come to think of it. I'd have to say that crash was what got me out of the hobby for a while. Ugly doesn't describe it,,,even the crystal in the reciever was broken.

[Gruntfuggly]

Wow - Mongoose, you have been trawling through some old threads!

In the 80s I was going to secondary school. I had a Sand Rover, a Sand Scorcher and half an XR311. My mates had a Sand Scorcher and a Rough Rider. Funny though, I don't seem to be able to remember really running together though...

[Theibault]

1985 on Aug 20th I asked my father to take me to a hobby shop for my birthday. At this time I was an avid plastic model builder. For whatever reason, my dad took me to a new hobby shop called the Hobby Shack in Cos Cob, Ct. My previous shop did not deal in rc. Just looking in the window, I saw to huge tank models. Turns out they were the Tamiya Gepard and Leopard tanks. walking in the door was a display case with a Hornet and Grasshopper Ni b sitting on top. The hornet had to be mine lol. My dad is a wonderful man, and since I'd recieved highest marks earlier in the summer ending school, he indulged me. That was the start of my passion and I never stopped. I raced all through junior and senior high. I even started rc clubs at both schools. In my day, there was no stigma about playing with toy cars. I had many students from different backgrounds join including football players and in high school we had a small female membership (surprisingly all four were cheerleaders who were dating the four football players). I took my hobby to the University of Arizona in Tucson where Brian Kinwald of all people taught me proper race setups. I've never looked back. I'll be 40 come this August and I still race and of course have fun outings evidenced by the videos I upload here. Of all my cars, including all the latest and fastest racers, I still enjoy my Tamiyas the most. This hobby has had such a profound effect on my life and has been the one thing in life that has been the most constant. Three generations of dogs have come and gone that have chased my cars with me. My parents still love that I've been in the hobby for life. Hopefully, one dayI'll be buried in an rc casket.

[schonbacher]

blimey this thread is ten years old!! scary lol

Anyway i was in my mid teens by late 80s having major spinal surgery in 88 and got my first tamiya in about 89 , a grasshopper! it got flattened by a ford sierra lol ******** MSC'S

i have one of those Marui Galaxy's pictured above in my cupboard!

[bowtiehorses]

Around '85, I got my first "hobby grade" R/C, a Hotshot. Built it myself, with alittle trial and error. I completely wore that car out. Then I got a Hornet, and went through about 13 frames (again, trial and error while looking for speed). While picking up a frame at a hobby shop, I ended up with a Big Bear. And after reading the Tower Hobbies catalogs for a couple years, I ordered one of the last Kyosho Datsun Stepsides they had left.

[bowtiehorses]

Forgot to mention; In the very early 80's, there was a Lionel Toy Warehouse about 25miles from where we lived. I got to go there probably 5 or 6 times before it closed. On the 1st or 2nd time going there, on the model isle, was a stack ( maybe 5-7 high) of Tamiya Sand Scorchers and another R/C kit. I was very young, not even 10 yet, and didn't know it was a R/C, just thought it was a large model kit. And because I had so many plastic models kits unfinished at the time, my mom wouldn't let me have another.