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The Twingo Lord

What was your first rc car?

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When I was really young, my grandmother bought me a full function Toy 'R Us tractor trailer. The first RC I saved up for and bought was a small, full function Nikko Fiero. My first Tamiya (also bought with money I earned) was the Lunch Box. I desperately wanted a Monster Beetle, which hooked me on Tamiya, but I couldn't hold out so I got my second favorite.

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Cool thread, brings back memories.   My dad has a few RCs when I was a kid, Grasshopper, Blackfoot, RC10, Clodbuster, and a King Tiger.   He let me use the Grasshopper but I wasn't allowed to drive the others (he knew I would destroy them - smart guy).   

When it was finally time to get my own I really wanted a Clod or at least a Blackfoot, but he bought me an RC10 so I could race locally.  As soon as I started building it I was hooked, loved every minute of it.  I raced the car for a few years and beat it up pretty good.  Still have it to this day, wouldnt trade it for anything.  

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Radio shack porsche my brother got it for me when I was 10 maybe. It was awesome, I may still have it somewhere in a box. My first hobby grade rc was a tamiya king blackfoot.(really wish I still had the king blackfoot)

E95BAC95-BB07-4F70-AD25-3956EBFDB7E7.jpeg

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The mighty Tyco Hopper was my first car.  These were branded under number of different names from what I can gather.  All I really remember of it is that it had a switch on the back for low or high speed and that I spent forever charging up 8 AA batteries to drive it around for probably about 5-10 minutes.

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I still like the look of the body and I think this is the car the makes me believe that buggies should be rear wheel drive.

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Nikko Turbo Panther - in black which I had as a christmas present in the late 80s.

Seemed pretty robust considering the amount of trees and kerbs it hit and jumps off home made plywood ramps. There were a few bits held together with araldite but I think it was thrown out during a house move in the mid 90s. Wish I still had it.

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12 hours ago, Juggular said:

Instead of giving you something for nothing, you were forced to delay gratification?  Making you tenaciously hold on to your dream for 2 years?  In hopes that you will stick with whatever you set your mind to, when others give up?  

That's a dad I can respect.  

 


That is pretty much it. I had expressed interest in other things before, only to get bored immediately on opening the present at Christmas. I think my Dad saw that this was different. I was an osessive visitor to the LMS, poring over their catalogues, drinking in the videos playing on the old colour TV in the corner, picking up the display models just to feel the weight distribution and the feel of the mouldings on the tyres. This seemed to go on forever, until eventually he obviously decided this was really something I was excited about.

I also think he may have been holding off as he is an engineer and he knew that he was going to be involved in it too, so he wanted to make sure he wasn't just getting me one for his own enjoyment. Sure enough, he ended up being my mechanic and advisor for the rest of my involvement in RC racing until I drifted away from it at the age of 18 or so.

 

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11 hours ago, moffman said:

My first rc car was a Porsche looking thing call a R101 performance was pretty poor even back then but on hindsight and thinking back when you buy Woolworths own brand of batteries you're not going to be doing doughnuts and smoking the tyres😄 but my first tamiya back in the late 70s (ish) was the Ford ranger

 

They called it the R101? While most kids won't know it, that is a name with a lot of unfortunate connotations.
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1131885056_R101After.gif.31789ffd4c9ff43307d25d5668662c7c.gif

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45 minutes ago, Yalson said:

They called it the R101?

Oh, the humanity! :o

 

My first RC was a Nikko Turbo Panther, a Christmas present in the 80s.  I saw it in a catalog and asked my parents for it.  IIRC they came back from Christmas Shopping Day and told me they were all out of stock, so they'd got me something else instead, but come Christmas Day there it was.

My mum had bought one pack of batteries for it.  It took 8 AA batteries, and back in the 80s not all batteries were equal.  Ever Ready (remember them?) made a wide range of batteries, including Blue Seal, which were the cheapest of the range.  My mum has always come from the "they're all the same but with different price tags on" school of economics (apart from Cornflakes, which have to be Kellogg's), so asking for better batteries was always going to be a non-starter.  True to form, they didn't even have the power to move the Turbo Panther along the carpet.  It just about moved on the kitchen tiles but it only lasted a few minutes.  My mum was annoyed for the rest of the day that she'd bought me a present that was going to turn into a money pit in batteries.

My dad bought me some Uniross rechargables a week later and at last I got to play with my Turbo Panther.  I seriously drove the wheels off it, probably remained my favourite toy for many years.

First hobby-grade was a Tamiya King Cab that I bought used from my older cousin for about £15 in the early 90s.  He'd owned it from new, but, much as I loved my cousin to bits and always looked up to him, he was one of those kids who managed to break just about everything he owned within a few minutes of taking it out of the box, and there wasn't much left of the poor old King Cab when I got hold of it.  It came without a body, so I bought some random truck body from the LHS (I think I had to blag some pocket money for that), along with some brush paints - the wrong sort, obviously - and proceeded to drive it into the grave and beyond.

The start of the dry season (which here in the UK is unpredictable and generally lasts for about a fortnight) was invariably marked by something breaking on the King Cab which could only be replaced by a call to Riko and a 6 week wait for the slow boat from Japan.

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A Hornet, must have spent a good few months gawping at it in the local model shop on my weekly visit for a 1/72 Air raft to build. Finally got my grubby little paws on it for my 10th birthday I think, had to go back and grab a radio and battery as there were no packages back then.. Must've been 1985! Speed of it for the 4/5 minutes it would run for blew my little mind.. Hooked ever since. 😁

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A Wild One for my birthday in 1986. That car kept me company for a couple of years, and a couple of moves through three different states.  

 

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I didn't have one as a child but a few years ago while bored on eBay bought a second hand Hornet in Blue that after a couple of chassis and body shells is now a hornet grasshopper cross with very few of the original parts and a few other eBay buys later there are now 7 cars around the house    

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Tamiya Frog.

When i was about 12 i asked my dad for an rc car for christmas. I expected a Grass Hopper, but i was well pleased when i got a Frog..... Cheers dad :D

J

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I was given the 'Mini' Jet Hopper in 1986 (I was 7) - my elder brother had the larger, faster 'Jet Hopper,' but being the younger brother I had the 'mini' version. We played tag with them so much - still not sure what happened to them, I'm sure they'll turn up one day when Mum and Dad do a massive cleanup under the house!

In the ensuing years I had a range of toy grade RCs - they'd be a laugh for minimal dollars, but they always broke and inevitably were thrown out. Toy grade RCs are only good for the occasional hard body, and landfill.

Then, for Christmas 2012, my wife bought me a Traxxas Bandit. I think I enjoyed Christmas more that year than any other, possibly even more than my 2 children! Since then the collection has expanded, substantially, and many cars have come and gone, but I still drive that Bandit regularly. Only 2 of the original parts remain (chassis and upper chassis), but it is my most treasured car.

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My first car was the Tamiya Astute, I spent all summer of that year saving up for it.  If I recall correctly it cost me 340 US when I purchased it, that inclded the car, battery, transmitter, and charger. 

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My first RC car was the Tamiya Subaru Brat. I converted to a Frog because the Brat can't race. No differential gear, it either keeps flipping or fish tailing on corners. I changed the gear to differential, changed the rear shocks to aluminum, front body post, wheels & tires (used Wild One's), and a Frog body. I also had a Ford Ranger, same chassis as the Rough Rider and Sand Scorcher but I rarely used it because it was too heavy and same as the Brat, keeps fish tailing and flipping on corners. Definitely not a track racer.

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Mine was the Apache which was probably my 8th birthday.  Like many here it used AA batteries and luckily my Dad got me 14 rechargeable batteries, but only charger so it took a day to charge them all for a 5 - 10min run.  Worth it though.  When I google it now the only reference I can find is the Maplin Apache and the ad from the UK.  I was the first of my friends to get one and they were all jealous.  My best friend at the time then got a Nikko Venus mk 1 the next Christmas which was amazing as it had the turbo thing on the remote where you pushed the stick to the side and up for extra speed.  Not sure what the point was, you always drove it full speed, a gimmick that appealed to 8yo's I guess.

The Apache broke a shock tower and that was the end of it, but I replaced it with the Nikko Venus 3 with Christmas money.  That also broke a shock tower when it fell down the stairs which was the end of that.  That lead to a Boomerang which I bought from my mate's older brother who had replaced the Boomer with a Kyosho Salute.  The Boomer was amazing as it had been upgraded with bearings and an ESC and was a proper hobby grade car which never broke.  I still regret selling the Boomerang but know where its sibling is which was identical but painted yellow instead of white.

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On 10/9/2019 at 8:09 PM, Disco said:

Toyota Celica GrB ... it took until I was 32 to get one as when I was young I didn’t have the money and later on found other pastimes.

 

On 10/9/2019 at 8:09 PM, Disco said:

Toyota Celica GrB ... it took until I was 32 to get one as when I was young I didn’t have the money and later on found other pastimes.

Hi, do you still have the celica.

 

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I do have a couple of celica’s but unfortunately not the original one as I run it into the ground many years ago!

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Both of mine are original just not originally owned by me.

Gr.B Celica can fetch anywhere from about £175 to £500 plus depending on condition and completeness.

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#1 Something with cabel between remote and car. I hated it! This kind of chistmas presents where people expect you like it :D

#2 A late 80s Nikkon Monster truck witch was pretty slow but RC and only had two old batterys which last for 10 minutes and took 2 days to charge.

#3 :) Still have my TR-15T, luckily I forgot it in the cupboard and did not sold it together with my Sega Genesis collection when I was a teenager.

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