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How I got into RC and Tamiya

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Hi everyone! I just recently joined the forums because after about a year being distracted from the hobby by other things I've decided to buy a couple more kits and I can't help buy finding myself drawn to the Tamiya models the most. I wanted to make a post sort of talking about the cars I've had and the cars I've recently ordered. And the kits I want to get soon. :D

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I grew up in the late 80s and 90s so I had at least a couple of the RadioShack cars. I've been trying to remember exactly what, but I feel like one of them was a big rig black truck with monster truck tires. Possibly the Wild Horse, but I don't recall that many stickers on mine. It was definitely one of those situations where we just never had enough batteries to get much use of it. Also during my session browsing RC Toy Memories, which is what actually led me to this forum, I saw the Taiyo / Tyco Jet Hopper and was really surprised by how well I knew the body style. Turns out I probably didn't have the R/C car, but I did have the slot car track! While it sure does look cool, I have distinct memories of the cars constantly getting stuck on the bumps if you didn't go fast enough or them shooting off the track while you were trying to avoid getting them stuck in the bump sections. Those paper mountains disappeared so fast... It would be fun to have a decent slot car track these days, but those Carrera ones are just too huge and expensive. I wish someone would resurrect Tyco, but mostly because...

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I'd have to say that my first love with R/C was actually the Tyco Scorcher 6x6. I got the grey one for Christmas one year and had the best times blasting it down the street and kicking it into the spins. It was XTREME!!! and the fastest thing I'd ever had at that point. I really adored that toy. The looks of it were right up my alley with the big, fat tires in the back, the wedge-like shape and aggressive appearance. The party ended when I ran it through ditch water and I never managed to make it run again. I'm going to have to track one down one day even if it would be something akin to a "shelf queen" like you people say.

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*mwah* true 90s beauty!! My baby!!! Hahah, okay...moving on to present day.

I must have stumbled upon Tamiya RC models back when I was more frequently using Tumblr. I want to say I saw pictures that someone posted of the Fighting Buggy / Super Champ that blew me out of the water. I started to dig and found out that Tamiya made this in the early 80s and were still making kits to this day of this and other retro models. I eventually decided to pull the trigger on a modern kit and being into rally cars at the time I snagged the Lancia Delta Integrale on the TT-02 chassis. Man, what a trip to build something like that! Yeah, sure, when doing the body I felt like I was in decal badword, but the actual build of the chassis was super fun and interesting. It was incredibly fulfilling to see it all come together.

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If only I had known about the soapy water trick at the time! I had a lot of fun with this one running it around my neighborhood and in nearby parks. However, I'm not sure why a "rally car" would so easily collect rocks and dirt inside of it. I probably need to get one of those chassis shrouds to prevent this. I'm guessing this style of chassis isn't actually meant for dirty off-road driving as the tires just kick anything and everything up and inside the car. I probably should have went with the XV-01 version. Anyway! I spent most of last night cleaning it up and getting ready to run it again once the weather here is less rainy. Also...I have been tempted by some new years deals on certain websites.

I now have an X-SA Hornet on the way which should be showing up next week. I figured that I wouldn't be planning to customize it much so for an extra $20 I don't have to bust out the spray paint or mess with decals. Now I get to feel as cool as my older cousin did in the 80s. Can't wait to bring it to the beach! In addition to that I also put in a preorder for the Neo Fighter Buggy which I plan to paint up to look like the Frog with pink accents and some spotlights from Ampro. It would be cool to figure out a way to put the two flags on it like the Frog also, but I haven't found much that seems like it will work for that. That's about all my bank account can handle at the moment, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was drooling over the re-re of the Kyosho Javelin. I might even have a pre-order in with my mouse cursor hanging over the cancel button. LOL!! Once a new wave of these are out are they generally available for a while or is it the kind of thing where if you don't preorder you miss out?

I'm feeling pretty smitten with the re-re versions of the classics. I know my future holds a Lunch Box and The Frog at the very least. Anyway, I'll be around on these forums probably asking for opinions and questions about all of these things in the near future. I hope I can contribute by taking some cool pictures and sharing them with the community. Thanks for reading this if you've made it his far and I'd love to see what led you all into the hobby.

 

 

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This is a GREAT topic. 

My first exposure to RC was due to a few friends of mine that had Frogs and Grasshoppers. I can't remember which it was exactly. They looked so amazing to me . Their "big" exposed motors. Larger plug in battery I can remember how amazed I was at them and the awe of it all.  

My first RC was the Sears Lobo (Nikko Lobbo marketed primary in America vis Sears). It was featured in Sears's AMAZING wish book toy catalog. I stared at that advertisement for the lobo for HOURS. It took (8)!!!! Double A batteries and (1) 9v for the radio. They were fun!

My first Hobby Grade RC was the Tamiya Astute, I still have it. Restored it a couple years to go with shared parts from the Rere Super Astute (body, and front bulkhead) improved it with the Rere TTC as the og ball differential is goo in the Astute but spares are too expensive.  And used Jazzrider front and rear hubs. I still love it. It is a fun car!!! Brings back very fond memories of a simpler time!

 

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Started with  Tayio Jet Hopper then a 2nd hand Boomerang, a NIB thundershot and then a Pumpkin.

Then got a Traxxas T Maxx a few years later as was FED up with short battery life.... NITRO was a total pain and barely ran at all BUT that truck was awsome.

Raced Mini Z about 10 years later for a few years.

Fast Forward another 10 years and the boys started asking about my old buggies and mini Z and could they use them and when I looked realised I could still get parts for the Tamiya's due to the Re-re and I was off again. I now have over 20 vintage or re-re Tamiya with a family fleet of Bashers made up of mostly Traxxas monster trucks.

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Welcome to the club,once you get your first tamiya you always want another.The hornet was the first kit i built back in 87 and it is a great buggy,you will love it.

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Welcome to the board :)

I sort of got into RC when I was young, my first proper full-function RC was a Nikko Turbo Panther in the 80s.  Must have been pre-87 as I had it for Christmas at my second childhood home, so I would have been less than 7 years old (we moved out of that house just before Christmas ''87).

I had that thing for years, but had limited terrain to drive it on and those 8 NiCad rechargeable AA batteries would go flat real quick and take all night to charge.  The 9v battery in the transmitter seemed to last forever but when it went flat there was no hope of getting another until the weekly shop, if I was really lucky and it didn't get forgotten.

Then my cousin got a Tamiya King Cab, around 1990-ish.  I was awed at how big it was compared to my little Turbo Panther.  Well, my cousin drove it for a while, completely trashed it, then sold it to me for next to nothing with no body and completely bald tyres.  I drove it a lot but it was always breaking, it was so worn out and misused.  Eventually I sold the King Cab to a school friend and managed to get a brand new Tamiya Mud Blaster for an early Christmas present, but although it was new and pristine it was never as technically good as the King Cab, so I was always sort of disappointed in it.  Plus the rechargeable battery lasted a few breaths before it died.

In my early teens I dabbled for a bit with planes and gliders but never really had much joy with them.  I never had the courage to build or fly them alone and my parents didn't really have the time to help out.  I was almost finished building my Precedent Hi-Boy, which would have been my first proper nitro trainer plane, but I needed my dad's help to finish the last bits and it sat on the workbench for 2 years before it got sold along which all my other plane stuff that I'd never successfully flown.

At one point a family friend gave me a wrecked old Hotshot with a custom racing chassis (possibly a TMS) and a broken Grasshopper and said I could keep the GH if I fixed the HS for him.  Well, the HS was beyond repair, but I fixed the GH and ran it loads.  It was older and simpler than the Mud Blaster but more fun - it was faster with a big 540 motor in it, the smaller wheels turned quicker and drew less power from the battery when steering, and it didn't turn upside down every time it went round a corner.  I loved it.

Then a while later another family friend gave my a 3-speed Toyota Hilux and a Mardave Mini which had been left behind by an evicted tenant.  I didn't really know what either of them were and none had battery or radio, but I kept them anyway because I thought they looked cool.

And finally, after wrecking the chassis on my Grasshopper at 16 years old, I bought myself my first ever nitro car - a Kyosho Sand Master II.  Well, it turns out I wasn't ready for nitro - it was much more of a budget car than I thought, it self-destructed the drivetrain every time I ran it, my dad complained that it was too noisy to run in the garden and it wasn't big enough to go over the bumps in the fields, it just got stuck everywhere.  And that, really, was that - I turned 17, everything got stowed away, I went out and started living and forgot all about it.

Around 2006, I was walking past a model shop in the city where I worked, and I saw a Tamiya Lunchbox in the window.  I remembered that I really wanted one when I was younger, and was surprised they were still making them, so I went in to ask about it.  A few days later I went back and bought a Dark Impact buggy, which turned out to be absolutely the right choice.  After that I bought a Midnight Pumpkin, a TT01 touring car, and before long I had a growing collection.  I sold all my full-size car and motorcycle projects and put the money into RC instead.  Since then I've had a go at most things from racing, big rig trucking, scale crawling and custom building, and I live the RC lifestyle almost full time.  It's a daft hobby and it can get expensive if you're not careful but it's far easier on the wallet and the storage space and the relationships than full-size vehicles, plus you can take them into your nice warm home to work on them - no more crawling around in the grit while the snow falls to replace a leaking radiator.  There's not much that's more ironic than having to go out in the freezing depths of winter to fix a car that keeps overheating.

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Agree, great topic👍👍... Some proper good vintage photos.. 

I got into RC in mid 80s, can remember staring at the cars in Beaties shops 😂... First car was blackfoot, ended up with about 5....came out of hobby for years, then dipped into the re-releases a bit... Then a couple of years ago dad died, so I suppose as a part of dealing with that I started completely refurbishing all my original vintage back to perfect condition... We used to build them together so this helped and relived good memories 😁... Then once u start you get hooked again... 

Everyone has a story👌

 

 

 

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A friend in junior schools had a few rcs early 80s and his dad flew planes. He had a Holiday Buggy and a mardave marauder he used to let me have a go with so naturally always fancied one but never got round to getting one.. Fast forward twenty five years or so and started looking at them again and was walking past Something Wicked This Way Comes in Huddersfield and they had the fighter buggy RX in. Mentioned it to the mrs and she said yeah ok. So ended up with my first.

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I love topics like this and love hearing everyone's story.  Won't share my whole story and bore everyone, but I really think if you have that "moment" with RC when you're young it just never goes away.  Mine was building my first RC (an Associated RC10) with my dad.  I can still close my eyes and see myself building it at the kitchen table.  Got away from it for years but it never really went away.  Honestly can't ever see getting away from it again, it's just a part of me now.  

 

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First thing i remember is the worn out Tamiya Magazine, i believe it even replaced my xxx magazines under the «pillow» for a period, i think i was around 11-13 and after looking in the Magazine and going to the store just watching the box art several times for hours i finaly went for Black Foot. I still can remember some of the other models in that shelf, im sure it was Subaru Brat (because i almost choosed that), The Frog (i think they also had TGH, Wild Willy), im sure there was many more but those where the chosen ones. A friend of my dad built it and i remember him telling me that he was not that into building these sort of kits but more into racing, i later got one of his buggy RC cars but i could not handle it, it was crazy fast so it was just collecting dust pretty fast as i gave it up, sadly i lost thid RC car not that many years ago when moving, i often think about it and wonder what RC car it was, especially now when i picked up the hobby again and know so much more about it compared to back then, i have vague memories of a rubber band making it 4wd, a Orange motor, spikey tires and alminium oil dampers (remember they did not work at one point and i did not know what to do about it). 
 

So back to the Black Foot, i had some great fun with it and i remember my friends had The Grasshopper and that white Jeep with spare tire on body that i do not remember the name of right now. For some reason i badly wanted The Grasshopper and did even at some point regret i picked Black Foot. Which is the reason for it bieng the first kit i bought from TimeTunnel picking this hobby up again and i love it! :). At some point back in the days i got s issue with Black Foot that i could not fix and it was no Ebay, Internet or other ways to help me fix it at that time so that was sadly the end of it.

Bought Agrios recently and that is probably the adult version of Black Foot :), having some great times with it now in the snow with my daughter. I almost went for Bruiser... oh this got me started its far to late now :)

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4 minutes ago, simalarion said:

First thing i remember is the worn out Tamiya Magazine, i believe it even replaced my xxx magazines under the «pillow» for a period, i think i was around 11-13 and after looking in the Magazine and going to the store just watching the box art several times for hours i finaly went for Black Foot. I still can remember some of the other models in that shelf, im sure it was Subaru Brat (because i almost choosed that), The Frog (i think they also had TGH, Wild Willy), im sure there was many more but those where the chosen ones. A friend of my dad built it and i remember him telling me that he was not that into building these sort of kits but more into racing, i later got one of his buggy RC cars but i could not handle it, it was crazy fast so it was just collecting dust pretty fast as i gave it up, sadly i lost thid RC car not that many years ago when moving, i often think about it and wonder what RC car it was, especially now when i picked up the hobby again and know so much more about it compared to back then, i have vague memories of a rubber band making it 4wd, a Orange motor, spikey tires and alminium oil dampers (remember they did not work at one point and i did not know what to do about it). 
 

So back to the Black Foot, i had some great fun with it and i remember my friends had The Grasshopper and that white Jeep with spare tire on body that i do not remember the name of right now. For some reason i badly wanted The Grasshopper and did even at some point regret i picked Black Foot. Which is the reason for it bieng the first kit i bought from TimeTunnel picking this hobby up again and i love it! :). At some point back i got s issue with Black Foot that i could not fix and it was no Ebay, Internet or other ways to help me fix it at that time so that was sadly the end of it.

Bought Agrios recently and that is probably the adult version of Black Foot :), having some great times with it now in the snow with my daughter. I almost went for Bruiser... oh this got me started its far to late now :)

Worn out magazine... Love that.. Still got one😁

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@Kelleye Whait e sec! I think thats it! If my brain dont play tricks on me i belive Hot Shot was on the cover, i also think i wanted this but it was to expensive (not sure of this), Wow that was a flashback!.

edit: The Grasshopper is really a lovely buggy!, timeless

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7 minutes ago, simalarion said:

@Kelleye Whait e sec! I think thats it! If my brain dont play tricks on me i belive Hot Shot was on the cover, i also think i wanted this but it was to expensive (not sure of this), Wow that was a flashback!.

edit: The Grasshopper is really a lovely buggy!, timeless

That's why I chose that page 👌

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I've discussed in other threads, but The Frog is what started it for me in the 80s. Still vivid memories of heading to the only local store that had one with my dad when i was all of 4 or 5, and then patiently watching him build it.

That OG (still have it, in working order and original components, but i do not run it - though needs some TLC as can see in the photo) took a badword of a beating at my young hands growing up.

Around the same period, my grand parents neighbour had a Fox, which i always thought looked pretty slick but not as cool as The Frog - @Kelleye that magazine also brings back memories.

Outside of this, i didn't have a lot in the way of RC - the occasional cheaper Tandy/RadioShack car - but i do remember having a lot of the Tamiya Mini 4WDs growing up, and Tamiya plastic model kits; though a school mate had a Lunchbox (hate me if you like, just never saw the appeal of them)

I started to get back into the hobby in the mid/late 2000s when they released the TamTech Frog and then the re-re. Since then, I've also added the re-re Fox to the collection and Hot Shot, essentially fulfilling the childhood nostalgia side of things.

More recently, have started to get into some of the on-road side of things F104W and most recently XV-01. Looking to pickup at TT-01E or TT-02 sometime soon, though a part of me really needs to pickup a Neo Fighter to complete The Frog family instead.

For me this is very much a part-time hobby; i can go months without getting the cars out and when i do, its generally just local car-park / park bashing. The Frog will always have a special place, due to being the first, and since my dad passed away several years back, a nice way to keep his memory going.

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Also started with the radio shacks cars around late 90s. Had this really fast red Porsche loved that thing. My first hobby grade rc was from a pawn shop which my bro got me. Best I can remember it was a Blackfoot chassis with a grave digger body and Blackfoot wheels glued into clod buster wheels. Not much later I remember getting a new tamiya king blackfoot for 99 Canadian and visiting my first hobby shop. 

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i usually play maximum tune 5 at the arcades (along side other hobbies) and use a GTR in that game. given the arcades are closed atm, getting an RC car with similar body design for the time being is the closest thing.

im still green to the RC stuff but i like building kits of various types.

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10 hours ago, simalarion said:

First thing i remember is the worn out Tamiya Magazine

I never had any Tamiya magazines or catalogs, but I did have a few Mini 4WD cars.  The bottom of the box always listed the other Mini 4WD cars in the range, and I knew at least some of those were available as RC cars too, so I would stare at them day after day and wonder what the full-size RC car was like to drive.  It was interesting when I came back into RC in 2006 to look at the RC history on this newfangled Internet thing and see pictures of RC cars that I'd only been able to imagine when I was younger.

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