Ads of future past

[Saito2 5286]

Not sure if the title makes any sense, but its part of my favorite Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny Xmen, so I ran with it. With ever escalating prices of vintage RC (particularly un-rereleased) variants, I thought I'd post up some old ads from a time when these gems were just unwanted and out-of-date models that hobby shops (remember them?) had to unload. I can honestly say that I was into old RC even back then. In the mid/late 80's and early 90's when RC dominated my life, I was trekking to various hobby shops looking for anything I could find on discontinued models like the Wild Willy and SRBs. I could only wish I had the finances to get some of these incredible deals that popped up in the magazines form time to time. Many (but not all) of these ads come from the mid-ish 90's. This seems to be the time when many of us had other distractions. 1:1 cars, the opposite sex and college come to mind. I don't think we'll quite see deals like these again except for the occasional bargain from a few sources like Tamiya America. The $175 TRF201 and $110 DN01 come to mind among others.

So, who'd like a NIB Hilux MR for $89.95? Nowadays we can only dream about a potential rerelease...but it won't be that cheap. Oh! and hey, look! Tamtech cars for the same price! All with radio, battery and charger included no less. 

How about this discounted trio? I wonder if anyone would jump at a $89.95 Astute today, let alone a Saint Dragon and Thunder Dragon at fire sale prices?

Here's more discounted Astutes and Thunder Dragons from another hobby shop (RC International). There's what a Terra Scorcher went for on closeout. A bit cheaper than the re-release, but all things considered the re-re is a pretty good deal at its current price. These went for about $215 when new BITD. There was stash of Turbo Scorpions that must have been unearthed around this time. Several shops, including Tower Hobbies were blowing them out for $69 back then. I don't doubt we'd all jump on that Celica too for that bargain price today.

This one from Great Northern Hobbies is near and dear to me. This is how I got my Vanquish. These normally ran at Clod Buster prices around $225 so $99 was an incredible deal. I begged my parents to make it a Christmas gift for me that year. They agreed as long as it was my only gift that year. I didn't hesitate and never regretted it. It was, by far, my most advanced car from back then.

About a year later, this Avante popped up. I originally wanted an Avante but the Vanquish was probably the better car in the end. I'm surprised there was any Avantes left by this time. While they were wildly exotic looking and exciting upon release, their shortcomings didn't take long to become apparent.  Prices dropped like a brick.

 

 

Here's another personal one. I saved for a loonnnnggg time to get a Clod Buster or Bullhead. They were about $250 at this time and I had $200 saved up, so I was getting close. Imagine going through the latest RC Car Action issue and seeing this. Yep, I was just a bit excited. Here's the post-it note my mother put on the ad so she could read of the fine print while ordering it for me on the phone. This was long before I had a credit card of my own.

  

A bit later, the Bullhead dropped in price some more. Here's a nice little deal where you got a Clod body set along with the Bullhead. The Bullhead was brought out just after the Kyosho USA-1 was trying to steal the Clod's thunder. We all know how that worked out. The Clod lives today and the USA-1 is a memory. The Alien Mid was a cool buggy too. I would grab one for $99.99 if I could.

[futureworks 751]

What a fantastic thread to have started 👍👍👍👍

The old printed media really is great to see. I don’t have anything special, just this one from Japan in I guess the early/mid-1990’s, which is for a gas conversation chassis kit for the Tamiya TA01 cars from a company called MRE.

Let’s see what other folks have!

[Truck Norris 2231]

When accounting for inflation, prices are cheaper now. The $220 Clod in 1995 is $370 in today's money and I believe you can pick up a Super Clod for about $290 (and that includes an ESC).

[Juggular 4539]

12 hours ago, Saito2 said:

$110 DN01 come to mind

I'm glad I heard about that through Tamiya club and snatched one (to my wife's dismay -- for all she cares, all you guys are bad influence! Cheers!).

 

[Legacy 8]

Very cool to see. I have some old ads for the Monster Beetle and Blackfoot I plan to frame once I display them. 

Wow, that Avante price! Was that 1988? Equivalent to about 1k now. 

[mtbkym01 3295]

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/90710-20-new-vintage-media-articles-just-released/

[matisse 1484]

So cool, these mail order pages fuelled my dreams as a kid

[FoxShot 279]

Wish I still had my old Radio Control model Cars magazines from back in the 80's.

And my 4 Tamiya Guide books

[graemevw 819]

I was doing some price comparisons yesterday, and rc was alot more expensive back then! In todays money a new procat kit was about £560!

My old nosram esc was the equivalent of over £200 today!

I was using bank of englands converter so i assume thats reasonably accurate. 

[retrotx 7]

14 hours ago, matisse said:

So cool, these mail order pages fuelled my dreams as a kid

Also @FoxShot
If you want get lost in nostalgia for a few hours, the Internet Archive has many RC items in its archives, including a lot of magazines going back to the 80s and earlier.  Some books may require a free account to borrow (like a library) but much of the older stuff doesn’t.  

Just scroll through here

https://archive.org/search.php?query=radio+control&and[]=mediatype%3A"texts"&page=4

This is a how-to guide from 1990 (requires free account to read)

https://archive.org/details/110scaleelectric0000gree

Lots of magazines

• RC Car Action 1989
• RC Car Action 1990
• 1988
• 1987
• 1986
• and so on

 

[Rhino1977 3]

I am new to this forum, having just purchased (delivery awaited) a Tamiya Aqroshot for the kids (and me, obvs!). The reason I am posting here is that I have the majority remains of a well used Hilux Monster Racer with King Cab body too (I used to race it in the 90s). Not sure if there is any value / interest in it or where to start = photos (see below) and an ad I guess... It was running when I put some power in it, albeit suspect the ESC or receiver are shot as it was running without input and when I used the control it was giving throttle input on the steering and vice versa.