what brought you back to the rc hobby.

[Ferruz 2151]

I never really lost interest in RC cars, though for most of my "grown up" life it remained in the backburner, giving way to other things (sports, girls, travelling, work experiences in different places,music, partying...) like it's the case for many others.

In the past few years I've been relatively more stable, and found myself spending winter weekends in rural Canada, with everything covered in crusty snow. I started thinking "I should find something fun to do with it" and, while too shy to commit to buying a 1:1 recreational vehicle, I thought again about a re re Hornet I've been eyeing for a while on Ebay. Definitely not the best car for the snow, but that's what I always wanted as a kid. My wife was actually the one that convinced me to pull the trigger on it, and I'm grateful that she did!

A few months later, we managed to fetch the old Kyosho Big Boss I had as a kid, which spent some 22 years in my parents' garage in Italy. Back to Canada with my childhood favourite toy (always regarded by me as something way beyond a toy) I found myself in what felt like a time warp, stripping it and cleaning off early '90s dirt while in my new environment overseas. I am quite a nostalgic person, not in a bad way, but all of the above definitely stirred some emotions inside me and I've been deep into RC ever since.

It's also about this forum, though: it would not be the same without it. As already pointed out above, this really is an amazing and wecoming community where to share knowledge, fun and just about anything regarding our passion. People in this forum are great, it shows every single time. And this comes from someone that has no facebook, twitter or social network whatsoever. I too wish that we could all meet up in person to have some good times together with our cars, how awesome would that be! 

But even if this can't happen, I still feel lucky to have found Tamiyaclub and to be part of this online community.

Ps I also love how we all help each other justifying various RC purchases and quirky behaviours when they conflict with families or common sense 😄 makes the community even tighter lol

[Baddon 804]

It was my sons wanting to play with my old RC cars (Kyosho mini Z first then the Tamiya's)

The mini Z were more recent and worked with no parts needed (but very limited indoors)

The Tamiya buggies all needed a few parts and to my absolute amazement were all still available. A few google searches later and a look at Glenn Barkleys display cases (on his utube videos) and I was like a kid in a sweet shop OR to be more accurate I was transported back to those days spent looking at the cars and watching the Videos in the Model Shop in Belfast. 

First I fixed up my old Pumpkin, then my old Thundershot and got in touch with an old school friend who had my old Boomerang to see if he still had it and it was suddenly winging its way back to me. He has his own collection with a Wild Willy a 959!!! and a few others including his old cars.

Then with a few more £££ available than as a teenager my collection started!!! As did the family fleet of bashers - all Tamiya to start with.

I now have two display cases (same as Glenn did/does) and they are filled with the buggies I wanted as a kid. Each person collects what they want (mostly what they wanted as a kid with some changes accounting for changes in taste or style) and makes them feel good. 

Sometimes we go through a flat spot where we loose interest until something draws us back in again....

[nowinaminute 1920]

Hmm hard to narrow down to one single thing but obviously a big factor was nostalgia.

I got back into it in 2016 but I did have a few little spells before that where I would obsess over Tamiyas on and off. Especially the Lunchbox.

I never had hobby grade as a kid but the Lunchbox was the one of the ones that made the biggest impression on me, perhaps because I had a Tandy Jumbo Van which was styled after the same real life vehicle. 

Photography was my main passion for over 15 years and it still is deep down although I've neglected it horribly since getting into RC, I was supposed to start combining the two hobbies better this year (for example, a trip to the beach is as equally a good opportunity for RC and photography, likewise a walk up a trail) covid kind of put a damper on that!

Anyways, I think a contributing factor was that photography wasn't always compatible with the weather and I saw RC as a hobby I could work on indoors in terms of wrenching etc.

I also saw it as something that would get my mind ticking over a little bit with all the associated planning and problem solving etc. It seemed like a better alternative to vegetating in front of the tv/youtube (still do a lot of that though lol) and it was something to get my hands busy too. I was always tinkering and meddling with stuff as a kid.

I found the idea of discovering bargains on ebay and gumtree quite appealing too, hunting out hidden treasure and bargain wrecks to work on. And when I found out Nikko made a load of high end semi-hobby grade stuff that appealed to me too because it was another source of cheap projects to work on.

So like I say, hard to pin it down on one thing but I would say nostalgia was the main thrust, especially having only admired hobby grade from afar as a kid. Then add a good dose of mental stimulation, tinkering, bargain hunting, creativity, lot's of information and knowledge to absorb, problem solving, another reason to get out of the house and be active, sense of community and various other things!

Another factor was coming out of a marriage in 2012 and having much more time on my hands and absolutely ZERO desire to get back into a serious relationship again. 

I grabbed a Maisto Rock Crawler JNR for £10 off Amazon in 2016 because I read it was quite effective for a toy so I got one just to test the waters. Me and my little girl had loads of fun with that little thing, amazing what it could scuttle over. Before long, I had modded it for more flex than added an extra AA battery holder to boost the speed (I figured it can run on 4 alkalines which is 6v fresh so it should be able to handle 5 nimh which is 6v nominal and it did lol)

Before long, I decided I was enjoying it a lot so I grabbed a job lot on ebay that had a Nikko Dictator and Tamiya Falcon among other things and that pretty much set the precedent. From then on I purchased various toy grade and hobby grade vehicles and enjoyed working on them, upgrading them, repairing them etc.

First brand new kit was the good old Grasshopper, enjoyed every minute of it. 

So here I am 4 years later (can't believe it's been that long already!) with way too many projects up in the air as a result of finding way too many bargains over the years. I thought my meagre disposable income would keep things in check but it's only giving me a terminator like efficiency for finding hidden bargains and unloved relics going cheap.

On the plus side, I can safely say I will never find myself sat around with nothing to do!

Sorry for the life story but I couldn't really sum in up in a few words as usual 🤣

[Hairyjon313 313]

Simple really, my mental health. Needed a hobby, a get away and stumbled on my original Clodbuster at my parents house. Really felt that this was the thing to occupy my mind. And have loved it ever since. 

[moffman 2346]

Rc cars never really went away I just had to grow up and a job opportunity that would and has changed my life came my way back in the early 80's (very early)  but It meant I had to move away from my home so I left the rc behind and life, family, mortgages took over but I always had subscriptions to the rc car magazines so I always kept in tune (incidentally what's happened to rc racer magazine its just vanished together with a fresh amount of money I'd just Subscribed with??) although I never owned a rc car all the way through the 90's up until the early millennium because families are expensive things! Now I have spare time and a bit spare cash (and i mean just a bit) kids have flown the nest i had every intention of returning to the hobby and I bought a hpi savage and used it to death then re-releases turned up and the savage got sold to buy the hot shot and so the hobby for me re-started!

[MrBlz 19]

Going through the basement and came upon the Manta Ray that my boys gave me in 1991. Purchased a new battery and motor, swapped the slider for an ESC and off we went. The grandkids were as excited as I was so I decided to buy something new. Fast forward and we have a Terra Scorcher and a Bigwig. I forgot how much fun this is and glad that I found this club as well. I would love it if they re released the King Cab. We have one of those and it's worn but still runs. 

[Carmine A 1318]

43 minutes ago, MrBlz said:

Going through the basement and came upon the Manta Ray that my boys gave me in 1991. Purchased a new battery and motor, swapped the slider for an ESC and off we went. The grandkids were as excited as I was so I decided to buy something new. Fast forward and we have a Terra Scorcher and a Bigwig. I forgot how much fun this is and glad that I found this club as well. I would love it if they re released the King Cab. We have one of those and it's worn but still runs. 

Im ready to ROB A BANK when They Re-Re the King Cab!!! 😁😁😁😁😁 

Welcome BACK to the madness.

[Mirrorman 125]

 My travel in Tamiya RC was pure accident, and quite recent.    I had no experience with anything RC before about 8 years ago. 

I was searching for vintage Tamiya slot car parts, when by pure chance I discovered a stash of vintage Tamiya RC parts instead.  I didn't recognize anything , but what was there looked fantastic, and intriguing enough for me to buy the lot.  

I had to do an internet search and learn more about these vintage RC parts .. especially (see the image).    What the heck was this for??  

Well I soon discovered (thanks to this forum) that the part was for an SRB chassis. Now RC collecting is well under my skin. Three Sand Scorchers, plus are troop of other Tamiya RC kits and cars can attest to that.