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What Are Your Themes When Collecting?

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Baseball card collections.  Comic book collections.  Hot Wheels collections.  What about Tamiya collections?  Virtually all of us are building kits and running them, and many of us have at least one shelf queen or a model driven with extreme care, but do you have a stash of vehicles just because, well, you want to collect them?  Most of the vehicles I have are a patchwork of chassis and bodies that caught my eye, but there are a few cases where I bought all of a series or my favorites in a progression of a series.  For example:

  • I have all five of the TB-03 Autobacs kits -- ARTA Garaiya, Xanavi GTR, Dome NSX, Calsonic GTR, and Amemiya SGC-7
  • I have all three of the modern RM01 kits -- Tom's 84C, Newman Porsche, and Mazda 787B -- and wish they would re-release the Rothman's RM01 Porsche
  • I have my favorites in the progression of DF01, DF02, and DF03 chassis -- Top Force, Gravel Hound, and Dark Impact

I expect a few of you might say, "I have the first 100 (or the first 150)."  But what aspects of Tamiya's catalog really geeked you out, and caused you to collect?  Do you have all the variants of the F103?  Do you have every hopup made for a particular chassis?  Maybe your collection is specifically one-hit wonders, like the B2B Sidecar and Solar Eagle.  What aspect of Tamiya pushed you over the edge and you said to yourself, "I want every one of X?"  What are the themes to your collections?

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I have no collection (yet!) but am quite tempted to pick up the DT01 and DT02 to go with the 03 I have just to see the difference. 

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Mostly touring and sports cars. A couple F201's since those are pretty cool Several TA01/02 since those are what got me stated.

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 I've only been doing doing this since January so I don't think 4 cars counts as a collection. But I think I'll collect as many styles as I can. Have my TT-01 race truck, race vehicle check, a TT-02 rally car, so got the 4wd rally car covered, got my Lunchy, so 2wd monster truck thingy sorted, DT03 Racing Fighter coming this week, so 2wd buggy, tick!

Hmm next I think an M chassis car, just because they seem to have all the nicest body options, then there's the Blitzer Beetle I'd like for birthday.  Then.....oh god I think I have a problem.

 

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Whatever RC off road car i can get cheap! 

Most of mine were under £50, and only ever bought 3 cars new.

Even race cars I've gone with Schumacher, as they were cheaper than kyosho! 😁

 

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Between 2003-2009 it was nearly any buggy or truck that I liked the look of, plus most of and multiples of, every re-re

Prices soared because of the world financial crash so I reduced the spending and starting selling, a lot of kits once built and/or driven lost their appeal slightly

2010-2014 started the proper thought behind how I want my collection to look, still buying new releases as well without question and pushing vintage and new buggies with brushless setups etc

2015-2017 began the period of the most running because I was lucky enough to have a part time job and would regularly drive my cars almost daily, with my favourite chassis clocking up at least 50-100 hours each

This extended running time also allowed me to appreciate these chassis further so I initiated another downsize and parts tidy which I'm still going through at this time.....i try to have a nib, runner and a new build of each where possible, the collection is always being tweaked and now have plenty of room for any new Tamiya surprised they may release!

If some kit prices weren't so high of probably have a couple more kits maybe but with new kits like the dancing rider and king yellow there's plenty to keep me busy

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Well, I'm into the Chris Claremont/John Byrne run on the Uncanny X-men...oh wait, never mind. I'd say the first 100, mainly off road, with some exceptions. The "era" I got totally hooked on Tamiya would be everything featured in the 1987 Tamiya RC Guidebook. Once past the Top Force my interest begins to wane with some standouts like the Juggernaut, High Lift, TXT-1 etc. being the exception.

That's not to say I don't like earlier stuff. The early models were almost an obsession for me. Before the internet or collecting, finding information on the earlier cars took a lot of detective work. I started with a list of models and parts (no pictures) from MRC, Tamiya's importer. I had to dig around to find out what a Blazing Blazer even looked like (although by cross referencing the parts, I knew it must have been similar to the Toyota Hilux 4x4 pickup.). I wanted a Wild Willy and Super Champ in the worst way. I used to dig around hobby shops begging for old catalogs and print media, but much of it got pitched. I literally used to dream about a "fantasy" hobby shop that had all the Tamiya models available. Weird, I know, but I digress.

There are themes within my collection. I love the Hot Shot series and have one of each on the shelf plus 3 runners. The Avante series is important to me because the Avante and later the Egress were always the pinnacle of Tamiya advancement in my eyes. I like the monster trucks so I have multiples of all the early monster trucks. The Madcap, Astute, King Cab (and Egress, to a degree) were all introduced around the same time with fresh, innovative engineering at the time so I collected them (still need and Astute though). The Fox is kinda a lone wolf but its beautiful, so I have a couple. The rest of the collection is what catches my eye. Sorry, no Strikers but a Wild One is nice to have. As far as the early models, I just want them all ;).

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A few themes have come and gone for me. I had a small collection of JGTC/Super GT inspired cars, with each variant of the TA chassis (TA01 - TA05, not sure if the TA06 had been released then). SRBs caught my imagination for a while but somehow didn't live up to expectations. Crawlers and trail runners too. Kind of went through peaks and troughs, tried quite a number of cars and types. Had lots of fun but also lots of frustration and almost fell out of love with the hobby.

For me, the answer had been with me for a while. A Wild Willy 2 was one of my first purchases when I came back to the hobby 10 years or more ago. When I was a kid I was captivated by the catalogue photos of the original M38 Wild Willy and 25 years later I had the nearest available equivalent. It had stayed while other cars had come and gone - the shape of things to come!

Wild Willy gradually took over my collection - now almost everything is Wild Willy, Honda City Turbo or WR-02 based. I can't really explain why, except for those childhood impressions of that crazy little jeep. But whether I'm just admiring them on their shelves (usually with a smile!), building, painting, tinkering or running them - I'm happy :) 

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"Did I have it, or want it, between 1986 and 1990?" pretty much sums it up. Some of them I've had, enjoyed for a time, and sold on (Fox, Falcon, Kyosho Icarus), some are here to stay (Boomerang, Blackfoot, Optima), and some I haven't found yet (Marui Big Bear, Kyosho Gallop).

That's for "collecting." I'm less discerning when it comes to cars to just run or tinker with. There' s no theme there other than "what can I turn this into?"

For my budding static model collection, I'm going to start aiming for "ordinary cars," and specifically American cars that were around when I was young. Not exotics or hot rods or rare collector cars; I want models of Dodge Omnis and Chevy El Caminos and AMC Gremlins and things like that.

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I thought I was going to fall into a few of the traps mentioned here, I have avoided the NIB, Shelfer and runner for just one Model because I’ve no desire to have a NIB version lol... but the runner and shelfer of whatever chassis appeals big time.

I thought I would also fall for the M chassis bug needing to collect one of all 7 varieties ( 8 if you include the MF01X) but luckily I can convince myself the M01,M03 and M05 are all the same Front Wheel Drive Cars so I can stop at the M03 I have ( pls don’t tell me the differences I am being naive I know!) However I do want a RWD and 4WD M chassis to complete that set and have all the driving styles covered.

Other than that I’ve no theme to go for.. it must be even more addictive having specific models to look out for all the time rather than what happens to catch the eye at any given time. 

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Without knowing I've been collecting iconic (in my honest opinion anyway;)) racing buggies! Egress, avante, Schumacher cat xls, optima, topforce, grasshopper, hotshot, RC10, and a few others plus again without realsing quite a few of the early tamiya RC guide books and promotional posters:wub:

I think for me it's not a theme so to speak it just all the buggies which have come and gone over the 40 or so years I've had RC cars in my life so it's a continuation of the road down memory lane:D

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So far the theme of my fleet is that it has no theme, unless a lack of theme can be considered a theme in itself.

I have a buggy, a pan car, a truck, a mini and a touring car. I would like to add a few more vehicle categories to the fleet before I pick one that I particularly like, and start a themed collection based on this choice. 

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I'm currently on the CW-01 theme. I have all the variations of the Lunchbox (Gold, Blue, Black, Yellow), and will be adding the Black Midnight Pumpkin to my Silver Chrome Pumpkin. Besides the usual Grasshopper, Hornet, Frog, and Novafox, I guess you could say I'm into the vintage Tamiya 2wd R/C's.

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I'm not really a collector, but have managed to end up with 10 cars.  They are influenced by my experience with RC cars back when I was a kid, which was really split into 2 parts.  The first was the buggy stage which was most toy grade, culminating in a Boomerang.  A mate had a Kyosho Outrage too.  Then I went racing a few years later and thats when the TA01 or 2 and FF01 ruled the Stock Touring roost.  I couldn't afford to run in the proper clasess (Touring Stock or Mod) so ran in an entry Kyosho class.  We couldn't find anywhere to race buggies back then, its funny how hard it was to find out about things like that with no internet.  Even if we knew we couldn't drive so wouldn't have been able to get there anyway.

So when I got back into the hobby 18 months ago it was the Plasma Edge II as that looked like the buggies from that era, then some rereleases (Boomerang, Fox, Monster Beetle).  This was really to play around with my son so the buggies also work well as we generally run in the backyard.

Then I decided to go racing as I now have the budget I always dreamed about (thats not to say I have a big budget now but compared to $5 an hour pumping gas I have all the money in the world!), so ended up with 4wd and 2wd buggies which is what I would have wanted to do as a kid - who doesn't like rooster tails of dirt and big jumps? 

The onroad cars though have fulfilled that childhood dream of racing "proper" onroad cars, rather than the budget racing we did back then.

There are a few models that catch my eye (Top Force, Egress, Sand Scorcher, Konghead, Dyna Storm) and I would like more but I'm sitting tight for a while now, my wife has been very patient up to now but now the time is more of an issue than the money as I'm committed to going to toy car meets at least 3 times a month (I joined a committee too so have committee meeting plus 2 race meets).  I also need some new things (charger, spare parts, tyres etc) which will soak up the budget for a while yet. 

So after all that, there really is no theme.  The only double up I have is the Plasma Edge II which are run almost daily, and any new purchases are most likely to be racing related and they are more about whats "best"

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I was going to say that I have no themes like Turnip.  Like Wooders, I get whatever is cheap.    

Then it occurred to me that I don't have any on-road cars.  That's strange because I started RC with Porsche 956. I do like seeing cars going over rough terrain. But I still want old M2 chassis like Alpine A110, Honda S800, Alpha Romeo Guilia (this is the only thing I have in common with my wife; when it comes to on-road cars, I like "cute" touring cars).  So, in order for me not to have a theme, I should get some M2 chassis (or M6).  Maybe XV01 is on-road-ish enough?  (then I can kill two birds with one stone)

 

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17 hours ago, markbt73 said:

"Did I have it, or want it, between 1986 and 1990?" pretty much sums it up. 

 

 

This. 

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No real theme apart from I usually gravitate toward stuff that can go offroad.

Apart from that, my brain pretty much has the consistency of a wasp stuck in a shop window so there's no fixed pattern.

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I don't tend to have a theme, I usually see something and think "oh that's cool I want one". 

Back when I was serious about racing it was usually the latest bleeding edge bit of kit but these days I'm tending to go either more scale or something that I lusted after in my childhood. 

At the moment there's only two cars I'm seriously wanting to get my hands on and that's the Manta Ray and the King Kong Rc CA-10. 

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I am currently working on completing my Thundershot range (mostly upgraded to Terrra Scorchers -apart from my original Thundershot from BinTD which I have rebuilt to my last running state with new tires and wheels)

I would like to add to this from my 1st Tamiya my old Boomerang which is in the que to restore from this to the Thundershot (Super Sabre and Bigwig) to this end I have wheels, new painted TBG shell and a rebuilt SS either here or winging their way to me.

I need off road and buggies as we have stones on the drive and anything lower is not usable. 

As a family we run WT-01's and Madbulls. With three of each. It means parts are easier to keep to keep them running as we break cars at an alarming rate.

 

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Hotwheels for me.  Obviously it needs to look cool to my eyes.  Ends up being American muscle cars, European sports cars, and lately the Japanese cars they have been getting into, vintage Skylines being among them.  None of them stay in their packs, they are all in mirror backed display cases.  Tonight I should snap some pics.  5 cases that hold 144 cars each, and a sixth one needs to be ordered soon.

As far as my Tamiya collection... no trend, yet.

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For me it's usually just something that's ridiculously cool and sought after in 1:1.   My other passion is collecting all of the OOP shells that I can.  Most everything I buy is mid-engine in 1:1, but I've bought a few that aren't with plans to acquire or make the proper config in RC.  

My current want is a front-motor RWD m-chassis to commemorate my recently passed daily driver, a Mazda MX-5 NB (1999-2005 generation).    I genuinely wish there was such a chassis as it could fit the various iterations of the MX-5, many of the M04/6 cars (S2000, Alfa, SLK, etc) that are strictly front-engine RWD in 1:1.

 

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13 minutes ago, Ronnyhotdog said:

I want to build a fleet of Unimogs. I have two!!:D

I am building one right now

 

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