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Saito2

Then and Now

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Being interested in magazines as a kid meant I also enjoyed writing and taking pictures when I could. Being an RC addict meant they were commonly my subject matter. I found some old photos while going through some things and decided to share them along with some current day pics. Keep in mind, I was very young and the shooting with my mom's ancient Kodak Instamatic camera (when she'd rarely let me use it) which didn't really focus.

47643636631_966faed8f0.jpg20190419_103206 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Here's probably my first Tamiya product purchase. The Monster Beetle was the one that got me hooked. I had about as much chance of buying one back then as I did jumping to the moon. The Mini "Junior" version was well within my reach. I collected a ton of them but the Monster Beetle Jr. was the first. Here it is, freshly assembled, on a warm June day.

47643637761_ab27c19aed.jpg20190419_103743 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Here it is today. I painted in some details later when I was a kid like the shocks and wheels, but its still in pretty good shape.

46727983045_0b28958c61.jpg20190419_103237 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Fast forward some years and here's my new-built Lunch Box "crushing" some of the other RC cars I had acquired before it. It took forever to save up the money for it, but the Lunchie was worth it. Its tackling my first buggy, a Nikko Mosquito, a Radio Shack Turbo Beetle (the closest to a Monster Beetle I could get at the time, lol) and a Nikko Fiero, the first RC car I ever bought.

 46727984575_400d91ccaf.jpg20190419_104248 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Here's what's still with me today. The same Lunch Box and the remains of the Turbo Beetle. I robbed the tires off the Beetle for my Frog at some point decades ago. They were actually close copies of the Tamiya tires. The Mosquito and Fiero were thrown away by my parents while I was away at college without my consent. I did slow down in the hobby while I was away at college but picked right back up when I graduated. I was not happy to find half my RC equipment randomly tossed in the garbage. But, this isn't the worst of it.

 

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47590833352_4c607d992a.jpg20190419_103312 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Here's my second RC kit, the Marui Toyota Land Cruiser. I desperately wanted a Wild Willy as a kid but they were gone from store shelves before I had a chance to save the money. My grandfather (who was a great guy) once took me to every hobby shop in driving distance looking for one tucked away, but to no avail (Thanks grandpa!). The Mauri Land Cruiser was the third best thing (after the Marui CJ7, which was getting thin on the ground also at the time). Omin Models had a bunch of Land Cruisers on closeout for $49.99 and I snagged one. I constantly messed with things as a kid and from the photo, it looks like I'm "evaluating" front tires and rear shocks.

47590835882_3c97375ef7.jpg20190419_103324 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

Here's as close as I got to a "Wild Willy" as a kid. Lunch Box rear tires and genuine Wild Willy front tires certainly lifted things up. The Wild Willy tires were a score from one of my hobby shop old-parts searches. I was always scavenging for older RC parts back then even before people thought to collect this stuff. I was a weird kid, but the shop owners were happy to offload the old parts. Looking at it now, I can almost see the beginnings of the Wild Willy 2 in it .

47590838922_10d082d5c9.jpg20190419_103253 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

My first kit buggy was a Super G. Here it is at some point in my "suspension and handling" development. Like I said, I was always messing with stuff. I remember trying various rear tires (here it looks like I have the Land Cruiser tires on it) trying to get the hopping solid axle under control. The front wheels are flipped around for some unknown reason. Who knows what I was doing, I was always up to something.

 47643658891_b0a8d04394.jpg20190419_104356 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

...and here's what's left today. Yep, that's it. The chassis from both the Super G and Land Cruiser (along with the Mosquito, Fiero, an Aristocraft Dolphin and a Nikko Big Brutus were victims of my parents tossing stuff. I think they wanted to re-purpose the cabinet they were stored in, so in the trash they went.  I'm lucky the body and few Super G parts were stored elsewhere. I was speechless when I came home and starting moving my possessions into my first apartment. 

All that aside, I'm very lucky to have the chance to have what I had. I'm also lucky to have as much left as I do. With the exception of selling an old RC10T to fund a Tamiya Twin Detonator many years back, I don't have many personal regrets in letting things go. Hope you liked the trip down memory lane. Sorry for the long rambling post.

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Cool! I like seeing old photos like that. I only have a couple of photos of RC stuff from "back then," one of me and a neighbor kid driving my original Grasshopper, and one of me unwrapping the Blackfoot I got for my birthday in '87. I'll see if I can dig them up and post them.

I know about having stuff disappear when you aren't looking: my parents got divorced while I was away at college, and I lost all my original hobby stuff in the ensuing house sale/garage sale/dumpster filling: the Grasshopper and Blackfoot, as well as a Falcon, a Marui Big Bear, and an AYK 566B (bought NIB at a garage sale for next to nothing, the guy didn't know that it didn't come with the radio, and so gave up on it), as well as a ginormous Tyco slot car track, and dozens of static model cars and airplanes (including a beautiful 1/8 scale Monogram Camaro, a really nice SR-71 Blackbird, and a half-finished Pocher 1/8 scale 1907 Fiat). And about a hundred Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and Corgi cars.

Like you, I feel lucky to have had what I did. But man oh man, browsing eBay and playing the "I used to have one of those" game gets to be really painful. Luckily, I have a very understanding wife, and an entire room in the basement all to myself, so my current "collection" isn't going anywhere...

Oh, and I totally remember seeing those Beetles in Radio Shack. I thought they were cool, but hated the stickers...

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2 hours ago, markbt73 said:

I lost all my original hobby stuff in the ensuing house sale/garage sale/dumpster filling: the Grasshopper and Blackfoot, as well as a Falcon, a Marui Big Bear, and an AYK 566B (bought NIB at a garage sale for next to nothing, the guy didn't know that it didn't come with the radio, and so gave up on it), as well as a ginormous Tyco slot car track, and dozens of static model cars and airplanes (including a beautiful 1/8 scale Monogram Camaro, a really nice SR-71 Blackbird, and a half-finished Pocher 1/8 scale 1907 Fiat). And about a hundred Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and Corgi cars.

That's rough. I'm sorry for your loss. I don't get what motivates parents to offload their children's possessions without consulting them. Baby things maybe, but a lot of us were teenagers and young adults when we were still fiddling with RC.

2 hours ago, markbt73 said:

But man oh man, browsing eBay and playing the "I used to have one of those" game gets to be really painful.

You aren't kidding. I was looking at Marui Land Cruisers a couple years back on a whim and they aren't $49.99 anymore :unsure:. The Grasshopper 2 re-release is slightly tempting me to recreate my Super G but I don't know if I'll pull the trigger. I'm very close to the "I have enough" stage at this point.

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meh no loss on the Maruis, it's better it "got away"

back when they were $50ea or less i acquired a bunch of wrecks for CJ7 Wheelie & Big Bear... even by then all their plastics haven't aged gracefully - they're brittle & always the same part breaks. Accumulated perhaps 6-10 cars worth & still couldn't piece together 1 unbroken whole :( in the end got fedup & offloaded the lot. 

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Very cool, I wish i had pictures of ANY of my cars from back in the day .

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Great thread :) 

We lived in the middle of nowhere when I was a kid - and the nearest model shop was over an hours drive away ... which in 1970s / UK made it a once a year birthday ‘road trip’ at best ...

That meant ‘make do and mend’, a lot of ‘creativity’ and some absolute aberrations ... like the first Rough Rider built with my Dad, which ended up with replacement rear arms cut from a perished metal window frame and a front bumper made from unravelled, baked bean can !

The Super Champ I made on my own fared worse ... not making it out of the box w/o ‘repair’ (as I broke more delicate parts being clumsy 🙄) then being thrashed within a inch of its life over huge home made ramps made for my BMX ...

Not having any pictures of either is prob a blessing 😂 but like others I’d love to have either of those first 2 cars back in the mess they ended up in.

Neither of would be worth much in that state - but they’re a reminder of simpler times, how invention / patience had to replace modern convenience and what all that taught a developing mind !

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In the same boat here.. I understand the “I have enough stage” however I set my stopping point at when I acquired all that was lost.  Fortunately for me it was only the Hotshot II ( which was thrown away due to a faulty MSC by my father) and the Kyosho Icarus.  I’ve had more fun restoring my collection and will continue to do so.  

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On 4/20/2019 at 2:01 AM, markbt73 said:

Oh, and I totally remember seeing those Beetles in Radio Shack. I thought they were cool, but hated the stickers...

Ah those Beetles ^_^  Forgive me, while I give the Radio Shack Turbo Beetle it's moment in the sun. They were great.

tandyturbobeetle005.jpg?w=479

https://rctoymemories.com/2012/12/28/tandyradio-shack-turbo-beetle-1987/

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