Where do you live and how long have you been into Tamiya?

[JeffSpicoli]

Live:  Raleigh, NC (but spend most weekends hanging out in Wilmington, OBX, Charleston, SC, Jax Beach FL.

Got my first Tamiya in 1990 - A Hornet which I hopped up like crazy, and put a lexan Beetle body on. With a motor I still love - the Kyosho LeMans 240ST - it was blazing.    Then I got a Blackfoot as well which I painted fluoro green with a white Poison logo on the hood    Graduated HS in 93.  Came back to Tamiya in 2001 when I bought the MK4 GOLF V5.   Took another hiatus until 3 weeks ago when I walked into RC Outlet in Jacksonville FL, saw the BRAT, went across the street, took out $180 from the ATM, and bought the truck.

Other interests:  Photography, European cars (VWs mostly), vintage BMX bikes (late 80s).

[Baddon]

N.Ireland.  Started at about 2nd or 3rd year (30 ish years ago) with a 2nd hand boomerang which I still have. Then got a Thundershot which was my first build. raced with a few others in school even started a club in school for them. Got a Midnight Pumpkin just for fun.

About 8 years later raced Mini Z indoor locally for a few years.

Now have 2 sons who started playing with my old Mini Z (note I throw nothing out.....) stuff. So got my old Tamiya kits out and then got 5 new ones (mostly 2nd hand) for us all to run (my, good lady and our collective kids, 12, 7 & 4) 

Then restored my old Thundershot and decided to collect the Thundershot range. Restoring as I go, 2 done on third 4th on way in post.

Also need to restore my Boomerang, have bought a Super Sabre to add to it and want a Bigwig. I DONT REALLY want to go back to the Hotshot ones HONEST----I have no shelf space left anyway.

SO 43 now and with a few quid to waste/invest in Buggies..Good lady just laughs at me and kids love it.

[Bromley]

 

Medway based novice racer and basher.

 

I had a 2nd hand Hornet nearly 30 years ago. Always fancied getting into the hobby but couldn't afford it back then. After breaking the Hornet a few times I lost interest and the other kids I knew that were in to RC were all racing by then. Even if I could have afforded to race my dad was always working away and mum didn't drive, the nearest races were miles away.

 

….20 something years pass.…

 

I bought a Tamiya TT-01 race truck about 3 months ago to compete in the race series locally. This has proven to be great. A whole community has been opened up to me. Good friends and something engaging to do on a Friday night for less than the price of a few pints. And no headache the morning after.

I have also fulfilled a childhood dream, I am now the proud owner of a Lunchbox! I looked at these in my local model shop when I was young thinking I'd never have one. Well it makes me smile from ear to ear bashing this ridiculous van around the local industrial estate.

My latest purchase is a TT-02 Delta kit. Not started building it yet, as I am waiting for some bearings to turn up.

[NWarty]

Live: Olympia, Washington USA

Child of the 80's also. My first Tamiya was a Wild One bought by my parents for my birthday in April 1986. I restored one back to 100% vintage OEM a year and a half ago. Raced competitively in the late 80's and fell out RC as I entered High School. Deployed overseas in 2004 and bought a Midnight Pumpkin to tool around with. Started restoring old buggies from the 80's and the rest is history. 

Other interests: Scale models, camping, my dog  

Spicoli,

Are you on vwvortex by chance?   

 

 

Edit: To add, I always love threads like this because I'm all like "where the h e l l is that place? Must Google Map that" 

[78Triumph]

New Jersey.  First hobby grade RC was a hand me down Tamiya Rough Rider when I was 10 or 11.  Then I got a Tamiya Saint Dragon when I was 12, then a Losi Jr. T.  In High School i sold them all (what a mistake!)  In the early 2000's I got the MK4 Tamiya VW Golf as well because that's what I was driving in real life at the time.  Sold that a few years late (another dumb mistake).  Got the RC bug again and bought a Re-re Frog.  It's been downhill since then.  I drive a full size VW GTi so I had to get a GTI body to put on my XV-01 chassis, then there's a Neo Scorcher, Neo Fighter, a CC-01 Unimog, a Mk1 VW Golf M-05 chassis, a MF-01X rally Beetle, and today I just ordered a re-re Boomerang. 

[zakspeed]

Live in Wakefield West Yorkshire. First tamiya was a Subaru Brat as a Xmas present in 1984 (pics of that in my showroom) had a Frog, Hornet then an RC10. Stopped racing around 1989 ish. Had a gap of 11 years but had sold my original cars by then. Started racing again in 2000 and collected rc and been a member of tc since 2003. 

Cars I have now are pretty much keepers bar a couple of duplicates. Don't really run them anymore but still enjoy tinkering and restoring them. Really enjoyed our mental antics with the tamiya101 crew but that's 10 years since now!!! Time is flying by. 

[JeffSpicoli]

1 hour ago, NWarty said:

Live: Olympia, Washington USA

  

Spicoli,

Are you on vwvortex by chance?   

 

 

 

I was but don't go on it any more - just too much politics and too many grudges that people carry from thread to thread if they disagree with you.

[NWarty]

1 hour ago, JeffSpicoli said:

I was but don't go on it any more - just too much politics and too many grudges that people carry from thread to thread if they disagree with you.

I get it. I'm still on. 17 years with a MkIV Jetta before I sold it  

[JeffSpicoli]

1 hour ago, NWarty said:

I get it. I'm still on. 17 years with a MkIV Jetta before I sold it  

sweet!  i was up there in 2007 for Waterwagens, many memories.   Loved Portland, Kennedy School, Pike Place and the homeless, the space needle, Cobain's house, Goonies House, Cannon Beach, Meister's GTG,  I got in a lot of **** in 6 days. 

[speedy_w_beans]

Winston-Salem, NC here.

Got into Tamiya about 8 years ago with a DF03 Dark Impact, then a DB01 Durga, and several more buggies, touring cars, and trucks.  Showroom:  https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=37537

We've been to a few beaches on the coast, but my family prefers Surf City/Topsail Island.  The beaches are great there for running Grasshoppers, Mad Bulls, and Lunch Boxes.

[JeffSpicoli]

52 minutes ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Winston-Salem, NC here.

Got into Tamiya about 8 years ago with a DF03 Dark Impact, then a DB01 Durga, and several more buggies, touring cars, and trucks.  Showroom:  https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=37537

We've been to a few beaches on the coast, but my family prefers Surf City/Topsail Island.  The beaches are great there for running Grasshoppers, Mad Bulls, and Lunch Boxes.

Love WS, cool city that I don't think many know about.  Love the arts district and the shops.

[Jonathon Gillham]

Auckland, New Zealand (I thought I needed to add the city and country since you yanks get to put city and state!)

First RC when I was about 7 (Maplin Super Apache) followed by a Nikko Venus 3, both being toy grade once they broke they were toast.  So the first Tamiya was a Boomerang I bought off a mates older brother when I was about 13.  That was sold to fund a Kyosho (I think) Skyline belt driven 4wd which I attempted to race, but that was sold to fund a Kyosho Mantis EP Volvo BTCC which was the car for the entry level class at the local club.  This was indoor carpet racing at a pool hall near where I lived.  I still have the Mantis, it got put away after a season or 2 of racing and pretty much forgotten about.

Girls, beer and a real track car intervened replaced RC for a long time after that.

Fast forward to 2016 when I sold my business and had a summer off and my son was 3.  I bought 2 Plasma Edge II's for a bit of fun during my time off.  Then the Boomerang rere and Novafox followed, then the race cars and a Monster Beetle rere, so now I'm at 10.

Other interests, running is about it.  I think I'm fortunate to have 2 hobbies, race indoor onroad and outdoor offroad once a month each, and have started training for my third marathon which is in October, so I have a nice easy build up.  I guess cars but I just have my daily drive at the moment, need to get the new business humming then a 911 or Lancer Evolution 3 can join my XF in the garage.  One day...

[Frog Jumper]

Raleigh, NC.  Nearby our Thread Starter - though we have never met...

I first saw The Frog at the LHS maybe 1984ish...  I wanted it for my birthday and I got it!  

Fast forward a few decades and I see my neighbor playing with a Traxxas.  "I have an RC car at my mom's house!  I should dig it out!" I think to myself.

Three years and several hundred dollars and late nights later, here we are...

Terry

 

[markbt73]

Portland, Oregon, USA.

First RC car was a Grasshopper in the summer of 1986, but I was building static models for years before that, and I had a few Tamiya kits then. Been at it ever since, though interest has ebbed and flowed a few times.

RC and other model cars compete for my free time with a 1971 MGB GT and a few guitars, and various home inprovement projects...

[Saito2]

Southern York County, Pennsylvania, US

My first Tamiya kit was a Lunch Box (still got it) in '88. It took a very long time to save up for it. I had a few Nikkos before that. Even then I was into collecting old Tamiya stuff. Took a short break around the time I got my driver's license but got right back in. I've been over-the-top obsessed with vehicles (large and small)  since I was an infant and owned over 50 full size cars in my 41 years. The birth of my daughter 5 years ago plus changes in the car culture led me to step back from that hobby and now I concentrate mostly on RC.

Other than keeping my '73 Nova, '86 Corvette and '66 MGB running, the only other hobby I have time for is messing about with guitars.  

[grimlock]

Vienna, Austria.

My first RC was a Robbe Presto, with the Suzuki body (still have it).

The first Tamiya I got was the Porsche 959. I think it was 1986/87.
My brother got a Marui Big Bear at that time and a friend had the Tamiya Ascona Rally.

NIce memories.

 

[Wooders28]

Glasgow, Scotland

First actual RC was an early 80's Tandy Martini Porsche 935 , which was rubbish, and I broke the rear wing off booting it to make it go quicker. Mid 80's I saved my pocket money and bought a frog , after seeing a hornet being run in a playground it was rapid! , Santa got me the rc gear, nice big acoms techniplus 😁 

Ran it at the Southport club, and got left for dead by RC10's, and broke loads of outdrive splines, so saved my pocket money, paper round money and bought a kyosho Ultima, much better. 🙄

Early 90's everything started to head the way of TC, rally cars, which coincided with me getting 1:1 and served in pubs, so sold everything 😢 

Got back into it in mid 2000, when I bought a Dark Impact.

[Juls1]

Western Australia, 

the first tamiya RC I ever drove was a fox, I was about 11/12, it was the neighbours and I loved it, but had no chance of owning one. They where so expensive here it just wasn’t a option. Forward a few years I saved my penny’s and managed to afford the base of all base models about late 96, a fighter buggy RX (dt-01). At the time it cost me $330 aud for the car, a 2ch am stick radio, a 1200mah nicad and a 30 minute timer charger (no not a peak charger, just direct current!) 

i drove the heck out of it, bearings at the time where $5 a piece, money I didn’t have. I drove it so much that by the time I had money to buy bearings, all the shafts where totally worn out, car was toast while I saved for those bits. Then the friction shocks died, somehow I saved the ungodly amount of money at the time $90 for a set of hicap dampers for it. 

Throughout my teens I had a ta02 f150 (with a celica body) and few kyoshos (which sadly where junk, wasted my money) eventually a hpi rs4mt. At 17 I picked up a ff01 Opel vectors off someone where I worked, it was so fast in a straight line with a 10t modified, but turning was it’s own issue, along with stopping it haha. 

at 18 cars and life changed things a bit but later on at 22/23 I got into racing for a few years, I also had a bombed rc10gt which apart from a traxxas jato later on was my only  nitro I spent a lot on. 

Over the years I had a ton of traxxas, vaterra and tamiya kits but they got shelved about 4-5 years ago.

a year back tamiya re released the top force, I had to have one, that started something, I decided to restore/recreate my original ff01. What really happened is I spent a rediculous amount of money building a new fully bombed ff01 like I would have dreamed to own. I finished that project, but then I suddenly had about 5 more tamiya kits, then another 5, then a few more, and some more... and since I bought the top force last year my tamiya collection has increased by 33pcs... 

ahhh why did I go count them.. 

[Man1c M0nk3y]

Manchester. UK. 

First car. 2017! Better late than never!

Would have loved one as a teen but mum just couldn’t afford it. Friend had a Ford Escort Cosworth. How I lusted after that as indeed I did the real thing (still do, silly silly money now).

As I grew older the interest came and went but always seemed to be some reason I didn’t bite the bullet and get something. Then last year I was reading a thread on a MTB forum and the rest is history!

I built a DT03 Racing Fighter to start with which is now in bits as it becomes an Aqroshot for the girls. 

Also have a 2017 Top Force re-re in the process of being built that’s for me.

Have about 6 others in baskets and watch lists 😂

Current life commitments limiting time and funds for both. 

[Jason1145]

London UK

Like Manic Monkey above,  my parents couldn’t afford to buy me a Tamiya when I was little, the best I got was a Taiyo Nissan Racing Truck from Hamleys on Regent Street... what a treat to visit central London that was..... that car was the love of my life for approximately 5 hours, untill I got home with it, hit a kerb and broke something that wasn’t fixable... nothing was fixable back then it seems ( except punctures on my BMX thanks to dad).

Then a little while later I was able to have a brand new Tamiya QD Monster Beetle... now even back then I knew this wasn’t the real deal after seeing my mates Bear Hawk.. he would leave me for dust in the street

This has always stuck with me and to this day I have a huge distaste for the red Monster Beetle... be it QD or the even the proper 1/10 kit version... sorry to all you MB fans out there but I can’t stop thinking it’s my lame, 8xAA eating, unrealistic looking, slow as  a tortoise plastic lump from the 80’s  

Fast forward to 2012 and I decide to try RC again and jump straight in, over ni-cds and Nimh’s, into lipo power! 

Stupidly I blew £300 on a 4s Kyosho 4WD Mad Force VE Monster Truck.. blooming awesome in size and construction with a chain drive! Now not knowing how to control a car in the air I kept breaking it from jumps... I blamed the useless truck as I went through 6 sets of knuckles and steering parts... only after I then bought a ‘better’ Thunder Tiger MT4-G3 did I see jump control videos on YouTube!

Better late than never I guess... but I sold my Mad Force and then a couple years later my daughter arrived.

This meant logically get rid of the big 1/8 MT4-G3 and get a nice small manageable Tamiya car.... much more sensible... takes up less space, cheaper to run etc etc 

Now my daughter has just turned 2 and I have 33 cars, 3 of them aren’t Tamiya.

 

[Badcrumble]

Like @Jason1145 and @Man1c M0nk3y I am a relative newbie. Whilst others had Tamiya when they were younger, funds in my family only stretched to a Taiyo Mini Hopper - which I still have! The Tamiya I recall wanting was a Hot Shot - I now have one awaiting restoration.

My Tamiya introduction coincided with my boss fulfilling a boy hood dream of a Hornet as I was ‘parking’ my dream of a 1:1 kit car. My son arrived around the same time. El Kid is now getting to grips with RC, bashing up my WW2! 

Oh, I come from Medway (like the OP?) but now reside in Reading, Berkshire.

[ThunderDragonCy]

Sheffield UK

Oh how i lusted after those Grasshoppers in the Littlewoods catalogue in the mid-80s. I would hang my nose over the vast stock of Tamiya in the toy shop. Then amazingly in 1989 the simply perfect Thunder Dragon hanging in the window of said shop was bought for me for my birthday. Had it ever since, although i think the shell, bumper and motor mount are about the only original parts left!

After getting bored quickly with no one to run with and 10 minute nicad run times it got dragged around with me until about 7 years ago when a mate from work with a super sabre mentioned these new fangled nimh batteries. Got some with an ESC and 21t motor and had a bit of fun. Then about 18 months ago spotted @Pintopower on YouTube and being an engineer by training thought designing a shock mount for the Thunder Dragon would be cool. Found this place, bought my DT03, a Rising Fighter for the kids, a lunchbox (sold), a DF01 project (sold) and all manner of parts and hop ups. Love learning about the cars and their history and tinkering to nake them better.

My other big thing is mountain biking. 

[JeffSpicoli]

In the summer we used to wake up and either work on RC buggies or go ride BMX or both.  From 87-92 that's all we did.  And make trips to the local Hallmark to buy posters of Alyssa Milano and Nicole Eggert LOL hahahahahahaah.

I miss those days.   Sitting at the table eating cinnamon toast crunch and looking thru the latest RCCA about 4 times.

Always hoped for good tech tips.  One that I still use is clothes pins marked charged / discharged for battery packs.  Or having a motor handy to discharge a batter pack with a Tamiya connector on it

[Ray68]

I live in West Wiltshire and I have been interested in RC for around 38 years.

Sorry if this is a bit of ramble.

When I was a teenager my first introduction to RC was when my  parents bought me an original Holiday Buggy for my Birthday complete with Acoms and 6v Ni Cd I think the deal price back then was about £75 a Sand Scorcher was too much money and the Holiday Buggy was a stretch for my parents. I run that buggy for years with various homemade modifications as buying parts was not easy as there weren't the suppliers back then ,only GK Models in Bournemouth did a RC catalogue which was mail order  if your parents had a credit card which they didn't plus i did not have much pocket money. Whilst still at secondary school I bought a brand new Sand Scorcher for £50 with intention of building then buying radio gear etc,being honest I got frustrated by the design as it was an obsolete model at the time so I never managed to get it running. I remember buying a Renault F2 single seater with 380 motor for £16 from a Melksham Toy Shop which I subsequently sold to a friend.

I got into RC  again when I was working with reasonable wages and the Manta Ray was launched so I bought one as a deal with the luxury of bearings. I was lucky  to find a model shop in Chippenham (saldy gone) which opened up a new world of modifications but at the time still using Ni Cd's.  Built Manta Ray with as many Top Force parts as I could then sold it for a Nitro Ten which was noisy and fast. Whilst the Nitro was fun it got boring and lonely just running it on my local school field on my own plus other pressures got in the way. People said I should grow up and stop playing with toy cars! I gave up RC but continued with plastic modelling as I have throughout my life.

Years passed when we purchased our own house and got married  I bought a M03 Mini Cooper which I ran locally locally with my wife.

What really got my interest back was around 2006 when the Dark Impact was launched and  Castle Brushless combo started appearing producing rocket speeds compared with what had gone before.

Since then I have bought DB01,TA05IFS,CC01,DT02,DT03, Rough Rider plus others

Today at nearly 50 I must be the oldest person here but  I still enjoy building models and the scale side of things plus trail/rock crawling.

I have three boys but none are particularly interested in modelling /RC

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

[ncpantherfan71]

I live in Fayetteville NC now,  but grew up in Clayton.   Started with rc in the 80s with a hornet.   Stayed with it until my teens when 1:1 cars and chasing girls took all my spare time and definitely all my money.   Joined the Air Force and started to get back into rc.  Didn't get too involved,  living in the dorm with no storage,  room to work, and chasing girls still took most my money! 😆 

Around 97 I was stationed in England, my wife (all the girl chasing paid off) we're watch a British show where they ran a couple m01 mini coopers.   My wife wanted a 1:1 but I didn't think they were too safe,  basically a drink can on wheels, so we picked up 2 kits to build together.  I still have both kits on my shelf, with about 40 friends. 

I'm retired from the Air Force and working part time at the local hobby shop in Fayetteville.  Interest kind of goes up and down depending on what I'm doing at work.   I have built several Traxxas vehicles to use for show and tell.   I'm currently trying to get motivated to finish a monster slash 4x4 and a custom trx4.