How was your first Tamiya?

[Saito2]

Years and years ago, I fell in love with the Tamiya Monster Beetle when it first came out. While I vaguely knew of Tamiya vehicles before this point, it was the MB that truly started the addiction and got me into the whole Tamiya lineup. I wanted nothing more in life. The shop I first saw it in wanted $360.00 for a "combo" deal with radio battery and charger. $360 USD might as well been a million to a kid my age. After working and saving for just over a year, I bought my first Tamiya which was a Lunch Box and my second favorite at the time after the Monster Beetle. I loved it. It was great. I still have it to this day, running strong.

The thought occurred to me that I was actually lucky to get the Lunchie first. It was durable and trouble free. It made me respect and fall in love with the Tamiya brand. I wonder what would have happened if I bought the "dream car" Monster Beetle first? The MB suffering (like the Blackfoot and Frog) from the occasional rounded half shaft and more importantly gear separation issues made have been quite upsetting to a young kid who had saved up and spent such a large sum. It's kind of funny now that I think back on it. I would have been crushed having the MB sidelined while saving yet again for a Thorp setup (the recommended fix back in the day). So how did your first Tamiya experience go?

[JoFan]

My first "real" RC was a Tamiya TA-02. I think I was sixteen, because I could drive a real car. Sedans and parking lot racing were hot then. I remember I bought the car itself used off a message board (well before evilBay), and didn't have enough for the electronics. I robbed the guts from a Radio Shack car and somehow made them work. You can imagine how great that was. But I saved up more and got some electronics, and later I did a lot more trading around and had a Blackfoot, a Traxxas TRX-1, Kyosho Triumph, and several I'm sure I don't remember right off. I wish I had never traded that Blackfoot. it already had the Thorp diff when I got it, and I hand-made a set of aluminum spindles for it, when the plastic ones broke, and I couldn't find spares.

[Hobbimaster]

In 1985 I was 12 yrs old and my parents bought me my first real R/C car, The Hornet. I loved that car to death, went though several motors, gears and tires. I jumped everything I could with it. To this day I have no idea what happened to it, but will say it was probably well worn out. I remember one of my friends, and one uncle having Tamiya Frogs, they couldn't keep drive shafts in them past 4-5 packs due to the course dirt around here. I fondly remember seeing a Fox and Boomerang sitting in my local hobby shop and dreaming of owning those as well, but it never came to be, till now. These re-releases have sparked my interest in surface R/C again (was doing planes,heli's ,quads), now have about 30 re-re cars, with more to come!

[Grastens]

My first Tamiya was 5 years ago - a Toyota GT-One:

I loved that car. Being the F103RS, it was a simple chassis with lots of parts support, meaning it was as good a kit as any to start with RC cars. Predictably, though, it was a bit expensive to acquire spare body pieces... It left quite an impression on me, to the point that I have only owned and ran Tamiyas at the hobby-grade level.

The car still lives on today, with all the usual signs of wear and a slew of hop-ups! I would say it was great  

[NWarty]

First one was in 1986, a Wild One. I just finished restoring a 100% period perfect one back in Spring.

Waited three months until my younger brother came to visit this past weekend to open her up and run her like stink on you know what. It was just as glorious as the first day I ran it as an 11 year old kid. Good Lord, it was that good.

I let him run it first, on her maiden voyage, and followed him around with my Frog. Two grown men giggling like school kids.

[Rb4276]

First tamiya was a super sabre around 1988 which cost me around $350 which was financed by selling a huge collection of Nintendo games to a local video store 

[RushRebel]

Christmas morning 1989, a Clodbuster awaited me. Funny story, The hobby shop built it and had the steering servo reversed (turn the wheel left, the truck went right). This being my first hobby-grade R/C, I didn't know about servo reversing and was naive enough to think this was normal for a truck with 4ws. Also got the VHS of Batman that year, quite a score!

[kontemax]

This year is the 30th anniversary of my Tamiya addiction.

My first was the Boomerang. I still own my Boomerang.

 

Max

[Tamiya Era]

My First Tamiya was the Vanquish. That was in 1993

Now it is upgraded to Hop-Ups.

[Lhodgo]

My first drive was my older brothers fox. I was too young to own my own and used to flick thru the tamiya mags dreaming of which one I might have...always wanted a hotshot. By the time I was old enough jet hoppers were all the rage! That was mine. Only a couple of years ago did I finally get my hot shot rere. Set me off big time 25 cars and counting....

[VagabondStarJXF]

My first was the Striker way back when in '88. How was it? Under my control it was awesome. Under my brother's control it was... ... ... ... ... destroyed.

<---- I still have it. It's rebuilt. I still think it's awesome.

[Mad Ax]

Interesting thread.

My introduction to Tamiya was a King Cab.  Didn't know at the time that it was a highly-strung race truck, I thought it was a toy car.  It was my cousins, I went to see him when he was building it and was totally confused by the clear shell.  He ran it for a bit then sold it to me with the rear tyres totally shot and the body wrecked.

I loved it - I only had a worn silvercan and an ageing Tamiya NiCd pack so I didn't have any issues with the diff.  Only real breakage was the rear hex, which on the KC is a splined type, the splines wore out while I was on holiday and that was that, no RC car for 6 weeks while a spare set of hexes was on order

Eventually I sold it to a school friend when my parents agreed to buy my a new RC car for my birthday.  They gave me a budget that came in well under what I could get a new kit deal for in the local hobby shop.  I managed to bump it up just enough to get a Mud Blaster kit deal, which was the cheapest the shop had, apart from (I think) a Mardave Meteor or maybe a Cobra, which looked very cheap compared to the Tamiya.  It wasn't until the Mud Blaster was built that I realised it was significantly lower spec than the King Cab; I'd expected newer = better.  That didn't stop me loving it to bits, I drove the wheels off that truck, but always felt I'd gone a step backwards.

In relation to the OP, I'd always been in love with the Lunch Box and Midnight Pumpkin trucks as a kid, but they were always beyond my dreams.  From the pictures in the catalogues I had, I'd imagined they were big, hi-tech monster trucks.  I was walking past the same LHS when the LB and MP were re-re'd, this time as an adult, and I popped in to have a look.  I was stunned.  A day later I walked out with....  a Dark Impact.  I'd figured a buggy would be more durable than a monster truck with more options to go racing.  It was the right decision.  I loved it.

A month later I went back and bought a Midnight Pumpkin Chrome Special - at last a change to live my childhood dream.  And was bitterly disappointed - I'd expected a hi-tech truck, I got a silly toy.  If it had been marketed as a stunt car then I might not have been surprised (or disappointed) but it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.  I sold it on pretty quick and got a Blackfoot Extreme instead - still not the worlds most advanced monster truck but at least it didn't spend its time upside down.

If that Midnight Pumpkin had been my first adult Tamiya, I probably wouldn't have bought another, wouldn't have got into RC, and wouldn't have a studio and a garage absolutely bursting with the silly things

[Saito2]

Nice replies. It's interesting to see how we all came to the brand. It's funny how age changes perception. As a kid, I loved my bulletproof Lunch Box. It seemed so big and advanced compared to all the other kids' cars which were all Tyco Turbo Hoppers/Nikko Lobos etc. As an adult however, it seems small, somewhat crude, but lots of laughs. A Monster Beetle would have distressed me back in the day with its mechanical shortcomings. Today, I just engineer fixes for those issues (like we all do) and am pleased with its increased performance over the Lunch Box. Changes in the financial situation probably have a lot to do with that.

[Ian_Gsi16V]

My first Tamiya was a Hornet that I bought for around £15 from a friend of a friend, extremely well used and on deaths door by the time I got it, 1993 at the age of 11.

I had owned plenty of Nikko and Tycos but this seemed so fast compared to it and funnily enough, more advanced 

It spent more time in pieces waiting for replacement parts to come in to the local hobbyshop than it did running, the final nail in the coffin was smashing the gearbox outside my Nans house and not being able to get replacement parts. 

Luckily at this point my parents had realised that they kept me entertained and I was more than interested in the stripping / rebuilding / fixing so they replaced it with a Toyota Pre-Runner and various others over the years (still own them all).

[yogi-bear]

1985 and two of my friends have cars, a Subaru Brat and a Hornet, awesome and how can I not want a car now. In those days after school I'd catch the bus into Dad's work and go home with him. Around the corner was Woolloongabba Hobbies and I would regularly visit there to look at models and rc cars. I managed to get the 1985 Tamiya catalogue and would drool over it daily. Eventually that year I have enough money to buy a car. I was looking at mainly the grasshopper and the frog as they were around my budget, but the frog was a little out of my price range and I wasn't too sure about the grasshopper. I ended up getting a Mauri Galaxy and its seemed pretty good for the price.

I still have my Tamiya catalogue though and dream of getting some of the other cars in there, mainly the Hilux, Audi Quattro or Sand Scorcher. I think it was around 1986 and I had been looking through the local trading magazine and spot an ad for some used rc cars. I managed to convince Dad to cough up the $40 and drive me over to the other side of town. For this effort I finally get 3 Tamiya cars! a Celica LB Turbo, A Renault Martini Mk 22 and a slightly modified hornet that had hotshot wheels fitted. I still have all 4 cars, although sadly a couple of rocket experiments have rendered the Celica in less than showroom state!

[Pintopower]

Mine was my Hornet. $5 at a yard sale from the same guy I got my RC10 from a few months previous. I think it was 1991/2 when I was 11 or 12. I have them both still. But un-restored and both still run often (The Hornet nearly every day). I had a used Tyco Bandit that I drove contantly as well as a Nikko Turbo panther that I recently restored. That Hornet went everywhere with me. It was constantly run and bashed. It was jumped off of anything and always came back for more. I have tons of photos I need to scan of it back in the day with the original body. Though it is all clean now with a new shell, the scrapes are all still there. I must say that the Tyco Bandit and Nikko Turbo Panther were worthy adversaries. I know people give toy rc's grief but the late 80's and early 90's brought us some remarkable cars I wish they would rere. That is what I really want, a brand new Tyco Bandit. 

[thunderstriker]

Mine was the Grasshopper 2 in, I guess, 1989 as I was in the last year of Primary (elementary) School. There was only one reason why I got the Grasshopper and that was because it was the cheapest 'real' RC car you could get, rather than cheaper toys from the likes of Nikko. My family wasn't well off so I had to wait and lust over the Grasshopper for a long time (well a birthday and a Christmas). I think with the radio and battery bundle it was about £100 all in, only a little more than the RTR Tamiya 'Quickruns'. It was surprisingly easy to build and my Dad didn't need to help me much at all.

A couple of years on I got the Thunder Shot, which was a different kettle of fish. I built it with ballraces and it seemed pretty **** rapid and handled like a dream compared to the Grasshopper. I recently purchased a 'spares and repairs' Thunder Shot on eBay out of nostalgia. I have the basics of it running with original motor and mechanical speed control and while this one is all nylon bushings and not very fast compared to modern stuff the really cool handling is still there - well worth a rebuild/resto with ball bearings and a faster motor.

Those were my only two Tamiyas and the last car I had before other things took over was a Kyosho Ultima, which was very rapid and saw me do a few club meets, although when I come home from college it was always the Thunder Shot I'd charge up and bash with to relax.

I'm now back into RC with the kids and it's amazing how, after nearly 20 years, some things have really moved on while some things seem pretty much the same.

[backtomyroots]

My first:

The Hornet.

Loved it !  I drove it hard and never broke anything.  Best experience a kid could have .

 

[berman]

Picked up a Boomerang and Porsche 959 both in parts in an upturned Boomerang box lid for $50 out of the trade and exchange (pamphlet buy and sell) in '88. Both had bits missing, the Porsche moreso than the Boomer. Got the boomer going thanks to parts from my LHS at the time and found a local track. Got the porsche going eventually once I had fixed it up and remember thinking "Whoa, this is fast!"  

[Pumesta]

My first Tamiya was an original Blackfoot way back in the mid 80's.  I still have it to this day, it never gave me gearbox or drive shaft issues. The first time the gearbox was apart was just before Christmas, when I decided to strip the car down and restore it, it still had the original hex shafts too

[MadInventor]

You're all making me feel old ............

My first Tamiya was a sand rover, which I seem to remember I was about 8 at the time. It was bought new from a model shop and my Dad and one of his friends assembled it for me. It was great fun and a reliable car, I enjoyed driving it around in our driveway and bouncing it down over small bumps. It then led me to a hotshot when I was about 11, after which I was thoroughly hooked. The Sand rover ended up getting scrapped for a few parts, the bodyshell ended up on my Mud Blaster before it went to be traded in at a model shop for a much newer model.

 

[Pintopower]

59 minutes ago, Pumesta said:

My first Tamiya was an original Blackfoot way back in the mid 80's.  I still have it to this day, it never gave me gearbox or drive shaft issues. The first time the gearbox was apart was just before Christmas, when I decided to strip the car down and restore it, it still had the original hex shafts too

You know its funny you mention that. My raced my Monster Beetle very hard and it wasn't until late in the 90's when I stopped running it. The diff finally dies but to this day the hexes are original and in great shape. I'll never understand that one. 

[Saito2]

I'll echo that. RC Car Action constantly spoke of the Blackfoot/Monster Beetle/Mud Blaster rounding off the hex headed halfshafts back in the day. When I finally got an Monster Beetle in the early 2000s, the driveshafts gave me no issues. In fact, only about half of the 6-8 Blackfoot based monsters in my collection gave me diff separation problems. On the other hand, every FAV/Wild One I've owned, old or re-re has eventually started skipping diff gears.

[richb77]

My first was in Christmas either 1985 or 1986. A Grasshopper i spied in my parents cupboard a month or so before Christmas. I had been lusting after the Subaru Brat and was initially disappointed to spy a Grasshopper. But i came round well before Christmas (To the point i tipped my parents off that i had seen it).

Christmas day arrived and my dad had built it up but forgotten to charge the 6v battery and the deal only came with a wall brick slow charger...overnight to charge!

Boxing day i took out the 380 powered 6v machine with its plastic bushes...I LOVED it. Still do as its the only original RC i have. Now fully restored and sitting on my shelf. All i ever wanted for that thing  was a fast charger!

My father reversed the MSC servo so down was accelerate. Something i do deliberately to this day.

[GTodd]

My first Tamiya was an Astute that I still have, in a million pieces, ha.  It fell apart on the first outing because I was 13 and too much in a rush to be bothered with loctite!!!!!  It was a good runner, wore down the pin spikes on pavement and thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was!!!!!!  The Monster Racer (Kincab re-body) was alot more durable and just as fun. That one is still in runner shape, did a thread on its restoration a few years ago.