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Saito2

Building vs running habits

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I was out with my daughter at the playground this morning and, as usual, she coerced me into climbing over the playground equipment with her. Up ladders, down tube slides over monkey bars etc. I can't say I felt he same thrill I did when I was 6. In fact, in the end, I was tired and sore, but it made her happy so it was quite worth it. I did bring my Blackfoot along (which broke, as usual) and began thinking (as usual). 

This subject has been touched on before. When I was young, there was a bit of rush to get the kit assembled to go out and see it come alive. After being assembled, that model would be run nearly daily for years. Of course when grown-ups or other kids showed interest, there was a bit of pride in saying "I built that". Even in the 80's, not every kid could do that (whether due to skill level, or simply patience)

Now, running becomes much more sporadic, maybe once a week. The build though, now that is something to be cherished and enjoyed (far more than in the rush of youth). So, many of us find the enjoyment factor flipped in our older years. I think we always liked both the build and the run, but one more than the other (they've just changed places for some of us). Anyone else feel this way or care to comment on why the change in priority for the whole RC kit experience?

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For me it's because i'm time-poor for running (need a commitment-free weekend, appropriate weather, daylight), but time-rich for building as that can be done most evenings. Also having what would seem like a virtually limitless budget to a kid, there's always the urge to continually upgrade/change what I've got instead of run it a hundred times over in the stock configuration as most kids would. I'll often hold off running a car because I'm waiting for a certain upgrade part to arrive. 

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Ooh, good topic... I don't have time for a lengthy response right now (gotta take the dog to the vet in a few minutes), but I have written about this before...

https://dustylexan.wordpress.com/2019/07/13/the-modeler/

https://dustylexan.wordpress.com/2017/10/11/just-run-the-thing/

https://paintandcementnotincluded.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/the-draw-of-old-unassembled-model-kits/

(BTW, I still haven't run the Optima, and now I'm thinking I won't...)

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I am cursed when it comes to running my cars. Here’s a few examples: drove my Bush Devil off a walk in to the ocean, return spring on my TX snapped, BL sensor wire damaged (twice! & with no visual damage) wow those things are fragile! But builds, on the other hand, always seem to go smoothly ^_^

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Running does become a frustrating challenge when equipment fails. I've replaced virtually all the plastic on my Blackfoot and still find things I missed/didn't consider. Today, the tip front body post came off (one of the few original plastic pieces left), but not before the body clip tore a hole in the hood. Then the servo saver disintegrated (not sure of its age). At this point, its so expected, I'm not disappointed anymore. If I truly want to run, I think (subconsciously), those are the days I grab the Stampede for hassle-free fun.

I can understand @nbTMM point. As a kid with tons of energy and time but little money, running becomes the attraction. As an adult with less time and energy, its easier to slip into the hobby room whenever possible for some build time.

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I get 95% of my enjoyment from the build and from tinkering...

I'll spend hours working on my cars, then drive for about 5 minutes to make sure the new tweaks work...  Then they go back on the shelf...  

Terry

 

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I definitely spend most of my time building, cleaning and tinker. I never put a dirty rc away and I enjoy checking everything once done.

For this reason, running nitro is also easy as I never have an engine that has been left to sit after a run. I clean my electric cars just as much, and swap the occassional(read, quite often) hop-up part etc.

Here everything runs and can be taken out with a moments notice. I know many who has as many rc's as I, but my rigs are always complete and in working order. I hate it when I see a nice collection of rc's, only to find that half of them are in pieces or not working.

So yes, wrenching and building is the "thing", but I spend plenty of time running my rigs as well.

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I'm very much like nbTMM these days - I get a lot of free mornings and evenings to tinker on projects (as well as do my other hobbies) but I don't often get spare time to go play with them.  Plus I don't have many local friends in to RC any more, and I find playing on my own to be rather boring these days.  It's OK for a quick test-run before an event but I don't really care for going out alone.

The era around 2006 - 2009 my life was almost all about running.  I didn't have the budget for buying new kits all the time (although I had more than I ever had as a kid), but around that time there were a lot of local RC fanatics and we'd have a bit bash several times per year.  Back then I couldn't afford good electrics or hop-ups (or I'd spend the money on new kits), so often my days were frustrating and short; my batteries would fail early, my cars would break, and I'd be envious of all the stuff everybody else had.

Around 2010 most of my friends dropped out of the scene and the bashing stopped.  I tried racing but didn't get on with it.

Between 2010 and 2017 my budget increased, so I bought more and more kits.  I enjoyed building, but I had the money to chase the dream of having lots of runners, so I was building to drive.  Build, modify, improve, with the goal of making a well-mannered, robust and reliable car.  But what I wanted was to bash.  Around 2014 - 2015 I found the Iconic RC group and went to some great bashes, the type of stuff I've dreamed about and never done.  My huge stockpile of runners made for some wicked days out.  But alas, Iconic RC moved on to other things.

In 2018 my budget dropped (starting a family will do that!) and so did my spare time to go bashing.  The best way to get the best out of my budget was to do custom builds - making my own parts, using cheap materials and the tools I already have.  But often I'm so tired after doing a full-time job and doing all the family stuff at home that I don't have the mental energy left for cutting new parts or designing new things, nor for doing my other hobbies (like writing and music), so over the last two years I have been building my way through my NIB stock.

I actually really enjoy stock builds, even on basic kits, although the big rigs are better because they can be done over weeks instead of days.  So yeah, these days my life is all about building NIBs, when I have the cash to do it.

Just recently we have a bit more income (at least for a time) so I'm planning to plug most of my extra finances into re-stocking my NIB collection for some long penniless evenings when the next child comes along ;) 

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The nice thing about the hobby is that you can do both, for me it always changes between running and building/ tinkering.

I have periods of driving a lot  at least 4 or 5 times in a week for 2 or 3 months then I always get bored with driving my cars, and then the building tinkering upgrading stuff takes over for some months until I get the spark back of driving.

But I thinks it just a ADHD thing, I have it with al of my hobby's, I like to play video games but with that it is the same  as rc stuff I get real excited for 2 or 3 months then I get bored with it and then have to do something else and after some months It always comes back to me.

Lately I spent most of my time building and tinkering, thats because I have got a lot of things to do in and around the house, have to do the garden, change the second floor in to a bigger hobby room for myself, I am rebuilding 2 50cc mopeds and some other stuff, and it is easier to spend a half hour on some thing to  do in my hobbyroom.

The last 16 months I spend less time on rc because of the born off my daughter, little kids eat your spare time, but I love that little girl.

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Great thread @Saito2

Completely agree the fun tends to flip over time  

For me, it’s a bit like type 1 fun and type 2 fun with my kids - where the first is pure thrill and the second carries a bit of effort - maybe (God forbid ...) eduction - to get there

When we’re young it’s all about an instant hit of type 1 fun - largely because patience comes with age and, more recently, because Apple, amazon (and others) have weaned the next generation to expect immediate gratification from everything ... which is nuts 

So that’s why running was definitely the ‘goal’ when I started out ... and the reason a lot of my much loved (then ran to death cars) in the 70s and early 80s were rushed / sub-optimal builds to say the least 😂

Ironically that also made them wear out way faster than they should - but try telling that to any wide eyed, 9yr old ...

Wind the clock forward 40 years and I wouldn’t dream of using anything but the right (often judiciously hopped up) type of pre-tapped screw, driver, grease and glue in anything built or restored 

Or making sure the finishes are immaculate box art to start with 

Why ? Partly because the time thing mentioned above is true 

But mainly because if you still love Tamiya kit enough to get excited about the ‘next one’ when you’re pushing 50 it’s earned your respect / care - so type 2 fun is the reward 😉

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I like both equally but between finding the time during daylight hours and dry weather, I tend to spend more time building and tinkering.

I really do enjoy driving though. I try to get some decent video now and then too, it's great to watch your hard work in action. 

There's nothing quite like when the planets align and I get to head to the beach after work with an RC for a good bash. Especially in the summer when there's enough time to get some video and then enjoy a good drive afterwards. It's hard to concentrate on filming and enjoy driving too but when you have a couple of hours you can easily fit in both.

I suppose for a lot of people the two things go hand in hand anyway. It's very satisfying to take a vehicle out after you've done some work to see how much of an improvement has been made.

 

 

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I'm noticing a trend. It seems that outside of say, scratch building or dedicated running (like racing/competition) there seems to be a cycle. We buy the kit and enjoy the kit (building, then running). Then we upgrade/tune/hop-up. Next we run some more to see the improvements we've made in action. At some point, there's nothing left to upgrade, so its just running and maintaining. This is the point where the cycle starts anew as we start looking at new kits. I'm guessing in the early early days before hop-ups were plentiful, hobbyist did much more running and maintaining as hop-ups weren't as plentiful unless they were scratch-built which another rabbit hole to go down.

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Very true @Saito2

And even more so for later kits - maybe 84 onward ?

It’s also interesting that for 76 to 82 ? there were hardly any hop ups at all 

Take a look in the first 4 r/c guide books - spares yes, lots of them, hop ups ? Hardly any - unless you were happy / able to adapt sister chassis ... which at 9yrs old is brave

So how often we built, ran then built again before 84 was maybe more down to Tamiya design quality ?

Noting rushed builds by kids (and weak durability) were surely the majority back then ?

All that then flips when we come back to things as (in theory) grown ups - where I’ve added more TRF blue (plus aftermarket bling) to a CC01 and TT02 than either ever deserved ... and the most fun was (belatedly) finding out from views in here that I was an utter idiot 😂

Type 2 fun is now knowing precisely where Tamiya’s original design / manual benefits from help - and, even then, not always doing it because a stock drive (with a little help on durability) often can’t be beaten 😊

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I still enjoy both, but most of my running is done at the racetrack now or with my son or friends - having 4 cars racing around the backyard track is a lot more fun than just 1.  I haven't run a car by myself for a long time, excluding the times when I have just repaired a car and give it a run to make sure it is working properly (after putting my car down and it going backwards because the diffs were in the wrong way I'm more careful about these things!).

I really enjoy the build so started making the Racing Sparrow as a way to get the fix without buying a new Tamiya each time.  While its probably going to work out about NZD$500 - NZD$600 which is 3 TT02 builds, it will also be about 100 hours of work vs 12 hours to build 3 TT02s so is good value for money.  The other problem with building new kits is what to do with them, I'm not that keen on having 30 or 40 models sitting on shelves (that I don't have anyway).  Scratch builds also mean you have to solve problems rather than just screw everything together in the right order so it is a lot more challenging.

The next step for me will be when my son is able to build his own kits.  That will probably be when he gets a new race buggy, when he is wanting to build the whole thing himself (probably a good excuse to get 2 so we can build them together right?!).  When he is interested in doing that then I can see a few new builds happening again

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It seems there are few who get value from the hobby now the same way when they started the hobby. As we are in the hobby longer, it seems the joy that we get changes, especially as life's circumstances change. 

For me at the moment, I like to make parts, then build, then running (but I prefer trying to film and run the cars at the same if I can). When I got back into RC, I started out just wanting to restore the ones I'd had as teenager, 4 cars seemed a lot back then!. Soon after discovering the smorgasbord that is eBay, that soon grew to collecting the cars I wanted as a kid. I'm pretty much done with collecting anymore cars, so now I want to learn how make parts for the scale look, but I have a long way to go.

However my work load means I do very little of any of the above, but at least I now earn decent money, so I mainly collect or buy tools. My busy workload won't be forever, so when I get some spare time, at least I have lots to choose from :D

 

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