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c64orinoco

Tamiya pricelist, June 1983

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Another garage find, this time the pricelist for Tamiya RC cars from the 'Mini Golf Shop' on Norfolk Island, for June 1983. It was a hobby and toy store with attached mini golf course; if only brick-and-mortar stores todya were so innovative!

I bought my Super Champ from this store in late December 1983; it was AUD$169, which was considerably cheaper than mainland Australia. At the time Norfolk Island was tax and duty-free for all purchases. It was also the chepaest place outside Denmark for buying Lego, too. I still have one of the Lego sets I bought there at the same time.

I recall that my total purchase was AUD$327, inclusive of a 2-channel Futaba radio, batteries and a charger. This was around 18 months savings for me at the time, $300 was a very serious amount of money! My brother got the Sand Rover there at the same time; thats the car I'm currently restoring.

I've included both sides of the pricelist as there are lots of other interesting items there too.

4232_001.jpg

4232_002.jpg

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Y'know, always thought a golf course fairway would be the PERFECT runway for an RC plane...! :) have yet to tick that off my bucket list... closest I've gotten is driving a CC01 on the green. :P 

 

Wow 1983... yeah $300 is serious dough for a toy car. Think you could buy a new 1:1 Holden Commode for like $10-12k then; average wage wouldn't be far off same.

 

Back in the 80s the rural farmers were still very rich & most LHS did a heap of MailOrder sales out to the country. Or they'd send in a S.S.A.E. for the catalogue or price list, then mum or dad or farmhand might go visit the store when they're next visiting the city for supplies or banking. 

Manufacturing, mining, agriculture - Australia had it all. 

What happened to it all...? :( "Lucky Country" indeed. 

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5 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Y'know, always thought a golf course fairway would be the PERFECT runway for an RC plane...! :) have yet to tick that off my bucket list... closest I've gotten is driving a CC01 on the green. :P 

I may know someone who ran a brushless Egress on the green :ph34r:

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10 minutes ago, Snappy1 said:

I may know someone who ran a brushless Egress on the green :ph34r:

It's probably designed for that... only place that won't overtax it's suspension :P

heck maybe I should've added brushless motor and lipo to the PowaKaddy... and maybe a "follow me" remote controller... then might be able to finish 18 holes in under 2hrs or me losing attention/patience, whichever comes sooner.

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wow... I just googlemapped Norfolk Island as my geog is weak... it's an isolated little Isle in the Tasman sea pretty much midway (~3000km to either) between Brisbane & Auckland!!

So begs the Q, what were you little boys doing there?? :) were your families working/living there or just holidaying there? 

 

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Inflate any legacy RRP by the usual economic indices + current vintage kits are a bargain 

Esp NIB 

To be fair, v few sold undiscounted but even a retailers’ 20% off still makes you sweat vs current prices 😶

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5 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Inflate any legacy RRP by the usual economic indices + current vintage kits are a bargain 

Esp NIB 😶

heck yeah

back where & when I grew up, just a basic kit eg Hornet was about a week's average salary

Radio gear with 2 servos, another week's. 

Battery & charger, 3rd week.

Paint? Bearings? A dozen AAs? 

You're up to a month's wage.

 

RC in the 70s & 80s were pretty elite hobby, only really affordable for "average" kids in a few countries. Pretty much limited to Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia in SEAsia. Kids from neighbouring countries would drool. 

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On 1/24/2020 at 11:24 PM, WillyChang said:

wow... I just googlemapped Norfolk Island as my geog is weak... it's an isolated little Isle in the Tasman sea pretty much midway (~3000km to either) between Brisbane & Auckland!!

So begs the Q, what were you little boys doing there?? :) were your families working/living there or just holidaying there? 

 

Holidaying, and we had family friends who lived there (lucky sods). Yep, it's isolated alright; not so much now though, it's a major node for the internet cable to the US. When we were there in '83 they had just finsihed ANZCAN - the first high-capcity undersea cable linking Aus/Nz with west coast America. For a long time it was tax and duty free; I don't think it is now, as the local government was agressively disbanded by the Australian Federal and NSW governments. NI has always had a very strong independence movement, and our local junta took the opportunity to crush the local legislature under the dubious auspices of "Border Security". Yes, I'm an NI independence supporter! The takeover was illegal, NI put in a submission to the Queen, but she doesn't get involved in politics (except when she does and dismisses a government... or did she? duh-duh-duuuuuhnnn!)

OK thats enough poltiics for TamiyaClub; it was relevant because that politics BS took away a really cheap source of Tamiya cars and parts!

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On 1/25/2020 at 5:24 PM, WillyChang said:

Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia in SEAsia. Kids from neighbouring countries would drool. 

Those pretty much are our neighbouring countries! :D

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On 1/25/2020 at 11:46 AM, SuperChamp82 said:

Inflate any legacy RRP by the usual economic indices + current vintage kits are a bargain 

Esp NIB 

To be fair, v few sold undiscounted but even a retailers’ 20% off still makes you sweat vs current prices 😶

Yes, current kits are equivalent to our groceries for the week. Which is great - I just only eat Vegemite sandwiches for a week and I can afford another car! :lol:

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On 1/25/2020 at 7:24 PM, WillyChang said:

heck yeah

back where & when I grew up, just a basic kit eg Hornet was about a week's average salary

Radio gear with 2 servos, another week's. 

Battery & charger, 3rd week.

Paint? Bearings? A dozen AAs? 

You're up to a month's wage.

 

RC in the 70s & 80s were pretty elite hobby, only really affordable for "average" kids in a few countries. Pretty much limited to Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia in SEAsia. Kids from neighbouring countries would drool. 

You're forgetting your better looking cousins a bit further south. NZ had a lot of Tamiya's back then too

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3 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

You're forgetting your better looking cousins a bit further south. NZ had a lot of Tamiya's back then too

Lotsa sheep too, so I'm told :ph34r::lol: profitable trade, farmers were rich back then

But NZ isn't part of SEAsia :) it's Oceania & Pacific. 

 

Whats the history of T distributorship in NZ?

Thought Ron O'Donnell (ToyTraders in Oz) might be the first guy knocking on their doors for foreign country distribution rights, unless he got beaten to it by Richard Konstam (Riko in UK). Was Trevor Bringans far behind? This would be mid 1970s. 

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