When it's not nostalgic anymore

[Saito2]

Does anybody know what I mean by "the feeling of nostalgia?" In my case, its a very strong and distinctive feeling. I heard some music from the early 90's the other day that was outside the genre I would have listened to back then. I knew of the song, had forgotten it and then felt nostalgic when I heard it again. Listening to music that was in my genre from the same era, (Stone Temple Pilots for example) doesn't make me feel nostalgic because I never stopped listening to it.

It dawned on me that I'm in the same spot with Tamiya now. I felt strong nostalgia for the brand (and RC scene in general) when I returned to the hobby about 20 years ago. Today, having been in the hobby longer now than I was the first time, I don't feel that way anymore. Tamiya and RC are just a way of life. The re-releases are great and all, but I see them as a second chance to get something I couldn't back then rather than a nostalgia fix. Anyone else feel this way? 

[Juls1]

It’s not nostalgia really for me, since 99.999% of them I never had. It’s more the opportunity to discover if these kits where what I thought they where. Some exceed expections while others fail miserably (that’s rare though). But it’s more than just that for me, tamiyas are familiar to me and make sense to me. I’ve got trays of Tamiya bits and pieces that translate from old to new and vise versa. It’s that cross model compatibility that I love too.

I’m guilty of owning some traxxas, kyosho, vaterra and a few other brands. But I think we mostly all are. I have tenfold more tamiyas than any other brand though. 

[Saito2]

1 hour ago, Juls1 said:

tamiyas are familiar to me and make sense to me. I’ve got trays of Tamiya bits and pieces that translate from old to new and vise versa.

I couldn't agree more.

 

1 hour ago, Juls1 said:

I’m guilty of owning some traxxas, kyosho, vaterra and a few other brands.

Same here. But as you said, they either don't quite make sense to me like Tamiya or their lack of familiarity can be a little off-putting at times. A Traxxas is straight foward to the point of boredom at times (construction-wise). I have a deep growing respect for the old gold tub RC10s and despite making sense from an effective engineering standpoint, I don't like wrenching on them like an old Tamiya.

[speedy_w_beans]

I didn't have RC as a child or teenager, but I did build static models of cars.  RC was just a distant dream seen through the pages of RC Car Action's annual buyer's guide, even through my 20s and 30s.  It's only in my 40s that some time and money has freed up.  So no real deep feelings of nostalgia here, although I have a few things to bring back that feeling:

• Round2 has re-released the MPC 1975 Datsun Pickup truck model, so I bought one and it's on my list of things to do (Datsun Pickup).  I built one of those when I was 8 or 9 years old.  Opening the box and checking out the sprues a few weeks ago was a real treat and walk down memory lane.
• I was able to score a F104W Wolf WR1 for a decent price this summer, and it brings back memories of the 1/12 Wolf WR1 I built when I was 10 or 11 years old (1/12 Wolf WR1).
• When visiting Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry a few years ago, I was lucky enough to get another copy of the Mold-A-Rama steam locomotive I used to have when I was a pre-teen (Mold-A-Rama Locomotive).

These are really powerful feelings of connection with easier, more carefree times, and these items provide some assurances in an ever-changing and more challenging world.

But in terms of RC, it was never really about nostalgia for me.  It's more about fulfilling some desires planted 20 years ago.

[Juggular]

Nostalgia is my favorite word.  

Recently, I've been thinking much about my very first RC car, Porsche 856.  Getting a used one may not bring back memories, unless I get NIB, which would be crazy expensive.  Nostalgia is not worth that much.  My hobbies are a revolving door.  Every time I think about my RC projects, I think of a static kit of M561 Gama Goat.  The next could be sketching, collecting cheap $2-5 fountain pens and inks, reading a bunch of junk novels, messing with my bicycle, etc.  I don't sell my RC cars because I know I'll come back.  Now that I lost some weight and gained some energy, I have a feeling that I could cycle through them much faster.  

I got a used NIB, M06 last week.  I haven't had anything so new (7 years old).  This was "modern Tamiya."  It was interesting.  Enough to keep me from cycling through my other hobbies?  I don't know.  I wish the weather was warm enough to paint many bodies I have lined up.  Where did nice autumns go!?  The summer was mild, all the rain until now, and suddenly it's freezing!  

At any rate, if there are excitements about RC, there must be the tail end of excitements also.  Not just about nostalgia, but the whole RC.  Maybe you and I might be getting close to that?  There is more to life than RC.  You could binge watch Japanese animations for a year, learn Japanese and visit Japan or something.  My friend's dad always wanted to visit Japan.  Before he got to do that, he passed away several years ago.  His wife visited Japan alone a couple of years ago.  Life is short.  Go skydiving or kayaking (don't die doing them though, life would be shorter if you do that).  Get a cheap dirt bike and run all over dirt tracks or something.  If your love for RC is running on fumes, no need to stick with it.  Unless you said "I do" to "until death do us apart" to RC. (I hope you didn't)    

 

[Jonathon Gillham]

I know where you're coming from, when I came back to RC a couple of years ago I wanted every kit but managed to resist. I didn't want to be that guy who dives in boots and all, spends thousands and then in a year wonders why I have all this stuff I don't want anymore. I managed to limit the Tamiya's to a few which were important BITD and then get some racers as well. Now it looks like the fleet will stabilise at around 12 cars. I say cars as there is now a scratch built boat and I'm going to start another boat soon. Scratch built boats appeal as they cost about the same as a DT03 kit but take about 100 hours to build, so much better bang for buck

[ALEXKYRIAK]

I never had 99% of them, but the nostalgia couldn't be stronger since getting back into it a few years ago. I read the guidebooks over and over and over again as a kid, lusting after the models on display in those pages - and the action shots, the driving technique guide pages, the track setup guide pages, the spongy tyre on road racer models, and the photos of cool people taking part in actual races in faraway countries. To me, Tamiya was this mystical, magical thing.

Having rediscovered Tamiya at the start of 2017, I couldn't believe it was all still going, I'd sort of assumed it was just something from the past in my 80s/early 90s childhood, and hadn't even considered it would still be a scene/thing, let alone the possibility of re-re's and the like.

The term "getting back into it" is perhaps even too strong a term, as I don't consider myself to have been in a "scene" as a kid in the first place - my Hornet and Terra Scorcher were "just" toys I used to have, albeit amazing ones. I was unaware of any scene, and certainly didn't know anyone else with these "toys".

Just seeing something Tamiya is massively nostalgic to me. Seeing those two white stars on the red and blue background will always give me a warm glow inside, forever more I think. So maybe in 20 years from now, if I'm still going on this, my second wind, I might feel the same, but right now, I still have the "feeling of nostalgia", and it's one that I now realise had never left me in the interim.

[Saito2]

2 hours ago, ALEXKYRIAK said:

I read the guidebooks over and over and over again as a kid, lusting after the models on display in those pages - and the action shots, the driving technique guide pages, the track setup guide pages, the spongy tyre on road racer models, and the photos of cool people taking part in actual races in faraway countries. To me, Tamiya was this mystical, magical thing.

Sometimes I wonder how many of us did this as kids around the world back in the day. I know I did.

4 hours ago, Juggular said:

At any rate, if there are excitements about RC, there must be the tail end of excitements also.  Not just about nostalgia, but the whole RC.  Maybe you and I might be getting close to that?

Perhaps this is true. I never want to leave it behind altogether. My hobbies are a revolving door as well. When the weather's decent, I tinker with 1:1 cars. I also dream about getting my busted up body back on my mountain bike (someday!,lol) Later, I'll futz around with my electric guitars, maybe modify maybe build a new one. When winter hits, I'm tucked away in my hobby room spinning the screw driver and twirling the box wrench on some Tamiyas. Despite all those hobbies, I usually spend most of my time with my daughter and that's the best time spent of all.

[TwistedxSlayer]

I know what I wanna say I just don't know how to say it without total waffling. So consider my input into this thread good. Lol

[Mad Ax]

12 hours ago, Juggular said:

Go skydiving or kayaking (don't die doing them though, life would be shorter if you do that)

 

I'd much rather die doing something I enjoy than die on my way to work earning the paycheque I need to keep a roof over my family's head.

And I'd much rather die from having enjoyed my life than die in a care home, too frail to move and too confused to know who I am, where I am, or who my family are.  So pass me another slice of bacon.

1 hour ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

I know what I wanna say I just don't know how to say it without total waffling. So consider my input into this thread good. Lol

I rate this contribution 5/5 for informative usefulness.  Thank you for sharing

[Mad Ax]

I was thinking about this only yesterday.  Music is so important for memory, I think.  (And smell, but that's a whole other story).

I didn't have a lot of Tamiya cars when I was younger.  I didn't even know much about the full range.  The local shop didn't stock a lot and I never saw an RC guidebook.  I just heard about stuff word-of-mouth.  For example, I knew that the Clod Buster was the biggest and fastest RC car you could buy ever.  (I also knew, from the same source, that the Santa Cruz was the fastest skateboard ever made and it had a warning attached not to put oil on the bearings because it would make it too fast to ride).

I have very little desire to buy back the old cars I had as a kid.  I suppose I just like the way the older cars were put together, which is why I've enjoyed the re-releases.

I have come to realise that I get a great excitement about buying a new RC car - doesn't really matter what it is - but once I've got it, the excitement goes.  It's a kind of addiction.  I've got several NIBs in my storage area that I bought because I really, really wanted them, but having got them, didn't know if I wanted to build them for the shelf, build them as stock runners or turn them into custom projects.  So they're still there.

Quite often I'll be home bored and figure I could walk to the LHS and buy another NIB.  He always has loads of cool stuff in stock.  But my disposable income is much lower now my wife doesn't work and I just can't afford that.  It's hard to adjust but it's better also - being able to just buy stuff whenever I wanted it made me lazy about saving, or thinking about what I really wanted.  Now I'm focussing more on setting up my runners so mates can play with them when they come over - that means having more transmitters and batteries, and that sort of thing is costing me as much as buying new kits every time I get bored  

[moffman]

I think it's an addiction that we heavily disguise as nostalgia I've just massively culled my collection which now just consists of 2 tamiya's (avante, fighting buggy) and Schumacher cat xls I have a brilliant basher (losi rock rey) which has gives me a RC fix😉 it's such a fantastic bashing machine, I've kinda lost the fire in my belly so to speak when a new re-release is announced😐 no idea why🤔 it could be if I want to use them it was just a small trip down the end of the street on the bit waste ground and carpark but that's gone now (new houses) and it's now a trip in the car through a busy town and to be honest it's a total pain only wort it if I'm taking the rock Rey coz I'm using it for a few hours coz I have a few 3s lipo batteries for it! 

[Superluminal]

I think for me its not the actual brand or products I feel nostalgic about but the form of building something as a hobby that i feel nostalgic about. When i was a lot younger i used to love lego and graduated up to meccanno and airfix kits and then gave it all up, went to school, college, work etc. Thirty five years later I have discovered that feeling again by building rc cars - i find short periods of time sitting quietly at home with an instruction manual and bag of screws or pots of paint one of the most enjoyable ways of spending my free time (thats what i feel nostalgic about)

[Badcrumble]

2 hours ago, Superluminal said:

I think for me its not the actual brand or products I feel nostalgic about but the form of building something as a hobby that i feel nostalgic about. When i was a lot younger i used to love lego and graduated up to meccanno and airfix kits and then gave it all up, went to school, college, work etc. Thirty five years later I have discovered that feeling again by building rc cars - i find short periods of time sitting quietly at home with an instruction manual and bag of screws or pots of paint one of the most enjoyable ways of spending my free time (thats what i feel nostalgic about)

This for me. I had static models and Lego as a kid. Tamiya was something to drool over in the mail order catalogues, I was lucky to get my Taiyo Mini Hopper one Christmas. I made it a Lego trailer so that it was better than Big Trak.

I'm lucky that my four year old son likes building things too. He's getting into Lego and likes my RCs though his hands are a little too small for the tx at the moment. Even my wife enjoyed chucking the WW2 round the garden yesterday and likes the idea me of having a hobby that can involve and inspire the kid.

[Juggular]

 

6 hours ago, Superluminal said:

... sitting quietly at home with an instruction manual and bag of screws or pots of paint  ...

Just like Mad Ax said!  I just remembered the smells of Humbrol enamels!  That hit me with nostalgia big time!  lol...

 

[Frog Jumper]

I collect concert tapes of the band Phish from the 80s through to 2000...  It has everything to do with nostalgia...

Terry

[Mad Ax]

15 hours ago, Juggular said:

Just like Mad Ax said!  I just remembered the smells of Humbrol enamels!  That hit me with nostalgia big time!  lol...

Years ago I worked for a small company.  I worked really closely with one other guy, but things weren't working out for him, so he moved on.  I missed him.  The job wasn't the same.

A year later he decided to come back to give it another go.  The boss kept it quiet, but he mentioned it to me a week before he came back.

Of course, being completely absent-minded and incredibly stupid, I forgot all about it over the weekend.  I came to work on Monday morning expecting a normal day.  But as soon as I stepped into the office, a whole flood of memories came back to me.

It would be wrong to say that my colleague had BO, but everybody has a specific scent.  Usually we're blissfully unaware of it since our sense of smell really isn't that strong compared to many other mammals.  But the moment I walked into the office, I my nose started sending signals to my brain and my brain started firing up all those memories of the fun times we'd had working together.

And then I remembered - he was back, my old buddy!  Fun times again!!

 

Two nights ago I stuck some Future Sound of London on the workshop stereo.  Lifeforms.  I haven't listened to that for ages.  About 15 years ago I had a night job delivering pizzas around the city of Bath.  All night in a beat up old Nissan, driving around the tiny city, dropping off pizzas and listening to music.  I never ate before I started the job, because the constant smell of pizza could upset my stomach; instead I'd be hungry all night, the pizza smell tormenting me.

About 2 hours before end of shift I'd put on FSOL's Lifeforms album; it was a great, relaxing way to finish the night.  Cruising around in the dark, surrounded by the smell of pizza, windows down and ambient music on.  10 minutes before close I'd put in an order for my end-of-shift pizza (medium base, double pepperoni, double olives, extra cheese).  After my last drop I'd stop at the off licence for a 4-pack of Stella Artois from the chiller.  By the time I was cashed up and off duty my pizza would be cooked, and I was away.  I'd get home just after midnight, watch some old sci-fi film or a couple of BBC nature documentaries while eating pizza and drinking beer.  Such a simple joy, and so unhealthy, and in a period of my life that I consider to be the darkest, but those were simple joys.

So two nights ago I was in the workshop, and Lifeforms started playing.  And all of a sudden, the smell of other people's pizza is in my nostrils.  Suddenly I'm starving, with a terrible hunger for double pepperoni and double olives and a few ice-cold tins of Stella Artois.  I'm supposed to be working on my CC01 project but I'm longing for shimmering footage of deep-sea tubeworms and the enthusiastic voice of Sir David Attenborough.  I want it to be 2am, so I can drag myself to bed alone.

That's audio-induced nostalgia, that is.

 

Similarly, any time I hear "Stay" by Sash, I have a longing to go driving around the streets of my childhood town, my friends in the passenger seat as we make our way into Bristol for another crazy night out.

[markbt73]

I kinda get what you're saying. I never really stopped being involved in RC cars; even when I wasn't really doing much with them, I had my "ear to the ground," so I'm aware of what the hobby was doing even when I was off doing other things. So it's not nostalgia, it's more like a long-term friendship. You don't need to catch up; you just pick up where you left off.

I'm starting to realize that, for me, the nostalgia thing only works if it's the actual item, or as close to it as I can get. Just hearing, for example, "Heart and Soul" by Huey Lewis and The News on the radio won't do it. But if I hear it it as track 2, side 1, off a vinyl copy of Sports, suddenly I'm 10 years old again, remembering that I don't really like the song after it, but I'm too busy with what I'm doing (usually building a model car or rocket) to get up and go change the record, so I'll listen to it anyway, because I like the song after that.

And speaking of model cars, that feeling is a large part of the reason I've started collecting static kits, but only those kits from a certain era, about 1979-86, which is when I built dozens of them. I can look at my shelf of MPC and Monogram kits, and even though there aren't many there (yet), I get a taste of the excitement I felt going into Toys R Us on a Saturday afternoon with $5 to spend. But it has to be the real thing, or else I don't get that feeling.

I really liked the idea of the re-releases when they started, and I got a good hit of nostalgia off my re-release Grasshopper when I first built it, completely stock, with decals but no paint, just like my first one. But then I ran it, and realized how "bad" it was compared to the modern RC vehicles I was used to, and that feeling went away. I chased it through a few more re-releases, but never really got it again. And now, I don't really care what they re-release; I'm probably done buying them.

[Capucine]

When I was in my teens I was building plastic kits, AMT, jo Ann, monogram, revell etc etc. In the 60's these plastic kits were very high quality. After started in RC, planes, boats, land vehicles, helicopters etc etc. I always wanted the top quality and I found it in Tamiya. All good stuff except some items that should be included in each kits like the ball bearings for instance. Plastic bushings dont have their places in high quality kits. My house is full of just about everything in hobby. Just keeping all my batteries charged is a full job alone but it is my past time since always. 

[78Triumph]

17 hours ago, markbt73 said:

I kinda get what you're saying. I never really stopped being involved in RC cars; even when I wasn't really doing much with them, I had my "ear to the ground," so I'm aware of what the hobby was doing even when I was off doing other things. So it's not nostalgia, it's more like a long-term friendship. You don't need to catch up; you just pick up where you left off.

I'm starting to realize that, for me, the nostalgia thing only works if it's the actual item, or as close to it as I can get. Just hearing, for example, "Heart and Soul" by Huey Lewis and The News on the radio won't do it. But if I hear it it as track 2, side 1, off a vinyl copy of Sports, suddenly I'm 10 years old again, remembering that I don't really like the song after it, but I'm too busy with what I'm doing (usually building a model car or rocket) to get up and go change the record, so I'll listen to it anyway, because I like the song after that.

And speaking of model cars, that feeling is a large part of the reason I've started collecting static kits, but only those kits from a certain era, about 1979-86, which is when I built dozens of them. I can look at my shelf of MPC and Monogram kits, and even though there aren't many there (yet), I get a taste of the excitement I felt going into Toys R Us on a Saturday afternoon with $5 to spend. But it has to be the real thing, or else I don't get that feeling.

I really liked the idea of the re-releases when they started, and I got a good hit of nostalgia off my re-release Grasshopper when I first built it, completely stock, with decals but no paint, just like my first one. But then I ran it, and realized how "bad" it was compared to the modern RC vehicles I was used to, and that feeling went away. I chased it through a few more re-releases, but never really got it again. And now, I don't really care what they re-release; I'm probably done buying them.

patbateman by Joe, on Flickr

[Wooders28]

Nostalgia for me, isn't just the car, the NIB Ultima or lunchbox,  it's the whole bashing with mates, having a laugh, making jumps out of old doors, crashing/repairing etc.

Am I going to get that with a mint car I used to have, that costs so much I'm afraid to use it?  Nope

What I have done, is bought cars, my kids can drive and crash, also cars I can race at a local club, and just enjoy. Then maybe in the future I can get nostalgic about a neo fighter or a KF2! 😁

[OCD]

On 10/21/2018 at 8:01 AM, Saito2 said:

Does anybody know what I mean by "the feeling of nostalgia?"

Nostalgia/nostalgic.

I think about these terms more than I'd like to admit. Philosophically speaking, it's a timeless debate, but since I'm nowhere near being smart enough to properly encapsulate it, I'm gonna put this link here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia

"Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations"

I think this statement does a great job of exposing the paradox that "nostalgia" presents to anyone ever enchanted by something we remember fondly from our past. It's the past. As in, no longer. Gone, but more importantly, not forgotten, which makes sense on a biological/evolutionary level. We as early humans probably depended on these fond memories to remind ourselves where that *really* good food or resource was, and what lead to the precipitation of its eventual enjoyment.

By reading a lot of the posts in this forum on the topic, I see many recollections that start with the smell of the old kits, or the feel of the old materials. Smell and touch are proportionally the two most commonly associated senses when it comes to recalling old memories of good times. This is supposedly because the two regions in the brain that are responsible for the processing of the senses are both located near amygdala, which is where emotional memories are recorded.

Emotions.

As far as emotions go, we can probably all agree that feeling "good" or "happy" is a preferable state-of-being. As I previously stated, there's very good reason for this trait that has been handed down by our ancestors. We're all thinking of an ideal past whether we like it or not, since it's so closely tied to our survival. I can't help but think about the best parts of what Tamiya meant to me when I was first getting acquainted with their products. The amazing and unique qualities that I hadn't seen elsewhere. The technology. The entire aethetic that was completely novel. It was... mysterious.

But what becomes of that mystery? How can I recapture the "complete" feeling that lead to my nostalgia in the first place? What was once unique to me is now no longer novel. No matter how hard I try, I will never be able to truly revisit the emotions I once had.

Warning: this diatribe against nostalgia is about to get dorkier.

Thomas Wolfe wrote a book "You Can't Go Home Again", which quite ironically was published after his death. The title, which was originally was suggested to him by journalist Ella Winter, is specifically referring to the concept that you can never return to a previous experience. Once you leave home, the very meaning of "home" has forever changed. Your own memories of home-life are now tempered by newer memories of a different home, and your naivety is forever lost . My feelings for old Tamiya products are affected by either the progression of technology, or the loss of old production methods. In both cases, the thing that I once loved no longer exists in the same status that my memories hold so dear... and it's bittersweet. But the cycle goes on. The things I enjoy today will become my nostalgia of tomorrow. 

 

 

[Saito2]

6 minutes ago, OCD said:

I can't help but think about the best parts of what Tamiya meant to me when I was first getting acquainted with their products. The amazing and unique qualities that I hadn't seen elsewhere. The technology. The entire aethetic that was completely novel. It was... mysterious.

But what becomes of that mystery? How can I recapture the "complete" feeling that lead to my nostalgia in the first place? What was once unique to me is now no longer novel. No matter how hard I try, I will never be able to truly revisit the emotions I once had.

Excellent observation and quite true. I felt similar feelings when I got into aircooled VWs in my mid 20's. Being a hard core car-guy (I've basically thrown my life away on it at this point), getting into something so different as Aircooleds was like embarking on a mysterious journey. Now in my 40's. I've flipped the other way and prefer sticking to things I'm familiar with. I just don't have the time or energy to throw myself into something completely new.

Some great views on nostalgia here. I always felt the neurotypical brain has a habit of dumping bad memories from the past leaving the good, hence, fond remembrances of the past. The perfect breeding ground for nostalgia. I could remember my Marui Toyota Land Cruiser that way, but I'm autistic. This means I remember everything with disturbing clarity, like a MSC that fried quite rapidly, the trouble finding a 6V battery to fit the chassis, or the idler gear eating into the diff case. All those emotions are right there on tap and they aren't good because I wasn't happy as a kid when I felt them. On the flip side, I clearly recall things from my crib and my curtains in my first bedroom, to my early Tamiya exposure. They were good feelings (honestly) and still are. 

[Juggular]

2 hours ago, OCD said:

Warning: this diatribe against nostalgia is about to get dorkier.

Thomas Wolfe wrote a book "You Can't Go Home Again", which quite ironically was published after his death. The title, which was originally was suggested to him by journalist Ella Winter, is specifically referring to the concept that you can never return to a previous experience. Once you leave home, the very meaning of "home" has forever changed. Your own memories of home-life are now tempered by newer memories of a different home, and your naivety is forever lost . 

1

It's the garden of forking paths!  Once you make a decision, the path is laid down.  Once you go down that path, you can't go back to the past.  Because we can't go back, we can only remember.  Because we can only remember, we feel nostalgic about it...  

In the sense you described, I wish I never knew RC until now.  But then, maybe not... the memories from early teen years are as fresh as they get.  I remember how my wrist hurt from all the screws on the Grasshopper.  I wonder if I'd remember specific feeling if I ever got myself a NIB Grasshopper.  It took me an hour to find the batteries I bought 30 days ago.  I don't think I'll be nostalgic about my experiences in my 40s.  My "Tamiya nostalgia" could be more about a slice of childhood wonders.  Through adulthood and repeated exposure, that wonder does fade.  But fortunately, the love for these cars doesn't go away.