Our little group...

[Saito2]

...has always been and always will until the end. Sorry, I still dig Nirvana. Seriously though, how big (numbers wise) do you think our group as vintage RC enthusiast is around the world? What if we break it down from those that buy the occasional rerelease to those who are deep into vintage RC almost exclusively for years? Any guesses? It not a big leap to surmise the Tamiya group is likely one of the biggest otherwise there might be a Kyoshoclub too (wouldn't that be cool?).

[DeadMeat666]

Your question has made me wonder whether or not I would qualify as a 'vintage RC enthusiast'. When I was a kid I'd help my dad build/maintain his Rough Rider and WW, and in the 90s in my teens (before re-res were even a thing) I had a Hornet, a Manta Ray, and a Merc C11 lemans car. Starting last year the Tamiya bug bit me again and - as if making up for lost time - I bought/built no less than 12 (maybe 13?) Tamiya RC kits in the past 12 months.

So... am I in or out? 

[Grumpy pants]

1 hour ago, DeadMeat666 said:

Your question has made me wonder whether or not I would qualify as a 'vintage RC enthusiast'. When I was a kid I'd help my dad build/maintain his Rough Rider and WW, and in the 90s in my teens (before re-res were even a thing) I had a Hornet, a Manta Ray, and a Merc C11 lemans car. Starting last year the Tamiya bug bit me again and - as if making up for lost time - I bought/built no less than 12 (maybe 13?) Tamiya RC kits in the past 12 months.

So... am I in or out? 

Definitely in 👍

[Saito2]

1 hour ago, DeadMeat666 said:

So... am I in or out? 

In! Life's too short for elitism.

[junkmunki]

I recently asked a similar question when i discovered that at the bottom of the page it says that there are currently 53050 members just in TC alone, so i would imagine the number of enthusiasts worldwide would run into the millions.

J

[futureworks]

I believe the membership number (53k or so) is actually the number of people who have ever joined over the club’s near two decades, rather than an accurate reflection of active (regardless of how active) members. I think if you are active, as @Saito2 wrote, you must be ‘in’. TC and the Forum have always had a pretty inclusive feel I think, regardless of interests, how long a member etc etc.

[87lc2]

TC is one of the most inclusive forums/communities I've been a part of and it's just great.  Everyone here shares the same passion and is more than willing to help when they can, just a good vibe all around on TC.

As far as the Tamiya community as a whole, I think it's definitley the largest in the RC world.  Just looking at second hand items avaiable for sale (Facebook/CL), there's always more Tamiya around than anything else.  I've also had quite a few people that I wouldnt even expect recognize my Tamiya models but nothing else, pretty interesting.  Now, a lot of them were probably only casual fans, so the actusal dedicated community might be a lot smaller but really hard to say for sure.