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TheMidnight Pumpkin

What was the first RC that you ever purchased?

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Team Associated RC10B2 for me - think it was in 96 or 97

Had a Reedy motor, an M-Troniks charger and ESC, and a Sanwa stick radio set. I think the cells were Team Orion 1700 NiCd.

Used to race at a club behind the Black Swan pub in Donnington, Linc's

Was a blast!

 

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Ah Harrow and Wealdstone. Happy days. Was born in Edgware hospital but lived in Drummond Drive in Harrow Weald many moons ago in fact before RC cars even existed- just 🦖😆

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The first RC that I've bought by myself was a Kyosho Mini Inferno in 2005 (still have it). Before that I only had toy grade RC cars during my childhood which I've got to birthdays or Christmas from my parents.

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The first rc I ever bought was my TT02 Ford GT touring car.
I bought this after I fell in love with tinkering with my Traxxas Ford Fiesta st rally car that I had won from the snap on truck. I wanted to do more than tinker and now there’s no turning back.

I might even put my traxxas up for sale so I can get another tamiya kit. The story with my traxxas is that I had it about a month and let my coworker give it a spin(my first mistake). Well he gave it full beans without looking around the corner and got it run over by a GMC Sierra 3500. I was able to fix it and ended up upgrading everything that I replaced. So that’s when I started wanting to actually build one. I definitely love the tamiya more than the traxxas and feel it’s over all a better product… sorry for the rant and long story 

 

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The first purchased for me as a gift was a Hornet.  Purchased by me was a JR-X2, thus ending any interest I’d ever have in RWD off road RC’s.

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I shared RC's with my brothers. My very first purchase was a battery so I could always be sure to get a turn, otherwise my brothers muscled me out ;) 

The first car that was 'mine' was a modified Boomerang. My eldest brother had made it. My dad gave him some money so that I could keep it when my brother moved away!

The first car I ever purchased myself was the Egress that arrived last week. I've also pre-ordered the Wild One Blockhead.

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First RC, 1986: Tamiya Frog for my birthday, purchased by my parents from San Antonio Hobbies on San Antonio Road in Mountain View, California. Package deal of kit, Futaba radio with two servos, NiCd battery and charger for $115! Bashed it around for a year until I heard about racing. I showed up at Innovations Raceway in downtown San Jose and utterly humiliated myself. 

Second RC, 1988: Kyosho Optima Mid, purchased myself from Sheldon's Hobbies on Old Oakland Road in San Jose. Purchased for less than either a Schumacher Cat XLS or an RC10 because the exchange rate favored the Yen over the Dollar or the Pound, and Sheldon's would circumvent Great Planes Distributing and purchase directly from Kyosho Japan. That got them a nice injunction until Kyosho America was established. Also, I bought my first ESC and found out about adhesive-backed velcro. I raced that at Innovations until I got tired of getting yelled at by the older racers and ignored by the corner marshals. I got shoulder tapped for beer for the first time while racing there. I was sixteen.

Third RC, 1989: Clodbuster, purchased myself from D & J Hobbies on San Thomas Aquino Road in Campbell, California after selling the Kyosho. Gave up racing and just bashed around for a year until I discovered mountain bikes. 

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My first "real" RC was a birthday present from my wife (girlfriend back then) in 2009 while in between job. I had been building models since the 1980s and had some toy grades Nikko from my parents ages ago but always wanted a Lunchbox and finally got it for my 31st birthday. 

However as I was in between jobs at that time, and effectively homeless (moving from London to Shetland), most of my stuff had to be stored at a friend's, and I gave him permission to play with it if he wishes. Problem is, this guy was the type that thinks it is "funny to run the car at full speed into a wall" type. Needless to say, it got the body pretty trashed, but the chassis held up surprisingly well. 

Move forward, after moving to Shetland for me new job, got a new wife, another move for a new job in Orkney, new home, new kid, this poor trashed Lunchbox was mostly forgotten... 

...until this summer when out with a pair of hyper active kids that I realised RC is a great way of burning their energy without burning myself up! So ordered a new body shell from ebay, got some lights, upgraded to 2.4, and off it goes again! I did not bother painting it this time as I expect it to roll and crash, and I have to say, that's the right decision. 

Back in 2009, after I finished the Lunchbox, I bought myself a TT-01 Subaru Impreza, which got badly smashed up by the same guy as well. That, too got a new bathtub and repaired recently with the Lunchbox. 

Screenshot_2021-08-30-11-13-09-244_com_miui.gallery.thumb.jpg.6d8c9124b36fb154ef3d9d01741d3e54.jpg

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First was second hand fox bought from a member of a model plane club i was in.Then i built a hornet and blackfoot soon after,87 or 88 was the year.

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The first I actually purchased with my own actualearned money was a Kyosho Mantis GP Volvo 850 touring car in about 1996 with one of my first pay cheque.

Still have it today although have no where to really run a nitro car without upsetting people due to noise. I completely stripped, cleaned and rebuilt it a couple of years ago with all new bearings, oil dampers and a two speed transmission kit.

Before this and what was my actual first rc car (although i didnt technically purchase it) was a Nikko Turbo Panther in 1986 which was a christmas present and I absolutely loved thrashing about. Sadly I dont have this anymore.

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My grandma bought me my first real RC car which was a Tamiya Subaru Brat back in 1984 at TokyuHands.   She bought me a Nikko Jimny a few years prior which was superb.  Loved the car, but batteries were expensive and too slow, not enough power for my liking.  

I found this picture on the internet of the car I had. I always liked boxy cars and trucks.

IMG_Sep12021at33812PM.jpg.8d68dce68892687bcddb80cd60380c48.jpg

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15 hours ago, Superluminal said:

The first I actually purchased with my own actualearned money was a Kyosho Mantis GP Volvo 850 touring car in about 1996 with one of my first pay cheque.

Still have it today although have no where to really run a nitro car without upsetting people due to noise. I completely stripped, cleaned and rebuilt it a couple of years ago with all new bearings, oil dampers and a two speed transmission kit.

Before this and what was my actual first rc car (although i didnt technically purchase it) was a Nikko Turbo Panther in 1986 which was a christmas present and I absolutely loved thrashing about. Sadly I dont have this anymore.

I have the EP version of that, bought back about 96 but it was more than 1 paycheck since I was at school and working parttime. Still got the body too, although a Porsche 993 Turbo sits on it now. We raced them in a spec class and did terribly, so not much has changed I guess...

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Mine was 58117 Lancia Delta Integrale. The local model shop had a savings scheme where you could reserve a kit and pay weekly/monthly until it was all paid for. Took me about a year on my meagre wages back then, took my time building it up, wrecked the shell, bought a couple of Escort Cossie shells to replace it. I managed to strip the main drive gear, so it sat neglected for many years, then on a shopping trip to London, I found a spare part in Harrods of all places, so I bought it and got it running again. This spurred me on and now it's restored with the proper shell back on in all her glory! I kept the box, even have all the trimmed-off bits from the shell and the empty spray cans I used to paint it (WHY!?) I do need to get a new interior for it though, and maybe put the original wheels back on one-day....It even lead me to my Tamiya obsession, as a few months after getting it running again, a friend was selling a Fox cheap, so I bought it, and then one thing lead to another, and another........lol!

 

 

delta.jpg

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This is my first. Here I am in 84 aged 10 looking ultra cool sporting the latest in bowl hairstyles and about to thrash my grasshopper around the garden. 👍

850ED821-595F-424B-A89B-7021D7D64439.jpeg

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I'm not sure about my first - these we given to me as a kid, and I can't remember them all. Small 4 x AA battery trucks mostly. The first ones had wires. I remember buying them from jumble sales and fixing them up - usually just a loose solder on the motor.

The one I remember from my childhood was the Nikko Spider 3 - it was a 1/14 scale off road buggy with two gears, turbo (i.e. two speed forward) and it was great. I've looked high and low for a replacement.

Fast forward a pandemic, adulthood and my first car after a 20+ year break was a Nikko Turbo Panther. I picked up a lot of older Nikkos, before getting my first kit car, the GF01 which I took for its first ride yesterday.

I remember my brother having a grasshopper, and being pretty jealous - I still need to get one of those. I also remember lusting after the Mardave on road cars (the Renault Megane perhaps...) and the Midnight Pumpkin, as well as the Rustler. 

Even now high end cars don't really appeal - there's something about a fun bouncing RC car that brings it back much more than a 3S monster.

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5 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

The one I remember from my childhood was the Nikko Spider 3 - it was a 1/14 scale off road buggy with two gears, turbo (i.e. two speed forward) and it was great. I've looked high and low for a replacement.

Some of the Nikko cars just seem to be disappeared. I had a Nikko Big Grolly when I was a kid. It's almost impossible to find one for sale, not that I need one. My brother had an beautiful (in my memory) Nikko Buggy. But I can't even find some pictures of it in the web. At that time most of the cars were trashed when broken or out of use.

 

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5 hours ago, Aerobert said:

Some of the Nikko cars just seem to be disappeared. I had a Nikko Big Grolly when I was a kid. It's almost impossible to find one for sale, not that I need one. My brother had an beautiful (in my memory) Nikko Buggy. But I can't even find some pictures of it in the web. At that time most of the cars were trashed when broken or out of use.

 

I've looked at a few catalogs and never seen the Big Grolly!  95% of Nikko cars/models were recycled from other cars - so I think they could afford to have a car for a year then rebrand to the latest trend - so the catalogues were always full of *new* cars.

The good news is that if you know what to look for you can easily pick up spares from less popular versions of the same model.

 

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