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Saito2

Getting older in RC when...

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You had/have transmitters with crystals

You have to make sure you don't poke someone in the eye with your transmitter antenna

You were blown away by the amount of capacity those yellow SCE NiCads had (1700mah!)

Bearings for the car kit you just bought could cost up to half the kit price depending on how many you needed

You were careful not to burn yourself on the hot resistors

You avoided driving at low speeds too much because Tamiya warned you it might burn out the resistor

You were puzzled the Tamiya guidebooks recommended against driving in sand but then promptly saw just that on the tapes playing at the local hobby shop

You HAD a local hobby shop

Tower hobbies put out a massive catalog every year

You cleaned and keep your MSC lubed with Tamiya switch lubricant

Tamiya Super Gripper pin spikes were tops in traction

You actually raced a Blackfoot...on a track

Holiday Buggy tires were a hot tip for the rear of your RC10

You remember Nikko showing up at the Worlds

TOMY made a somewhat competitive buggy

Traxxas made kits and became competitive

The Clod Buster was just about the largest thing on Earth RC-wise

They made ski kits for the front of 2wd buggies

Thorp made driveline stuff for everything

CRP made a lot of cool parts

You had plenty of types and compositions of brushes to choose from for you motors and Trinity was king 

Orange suspension on the Race Prep AYK Pro Radiants

Chain drive was common in 4wd

You geared and prepped the car just to make it to the end of a race before the dreaded battery dump

Flat graphite chassis were the best you could imagine

Shocks came in cool colors

I'm sure there's plenty for others to add... 

  

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Great post, my only reaction is that we have it soooo easy in this hobby these days.  I actually think going through the early days gives us older guys that went through it even more appreciation for the modern advacements that so many take for granted.  Every time I go for a trail run that lasts an hour or two I'm always amazed that I made the entire run on one 5000mah 2s lipo, it still blows my mind how far electronics have come.

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Just to add to excellent extensive list @Saito2,

You also know your getting old when you no longer have to wait painfully for a monthly/bi-monthly publication to come out to see what’s hot and what’s not. Instead you can look up anything anywhere instantly on an unbelievable device you could only enviously dream about in James Bond movies.

Jet Packs can’t be far off now...

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My local hobby shop had HPI or Protoform touring car shells for less than £20 ( I could actually afford one every month back then, now I see the crawler ones for over £100 )

Most of the things on the list I have encountered.

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Sitting around waiting at a practice night at the track for someone else to finish their battery pack, because they have the frequency clip you need

Having to make sure you got the right battery pack to go with your car's connector, because Kyosho connectors were "backwards" from Tamiya

Popping the hood of the family car to hook up your charger to the battery, because it was DC-only

Separate radio battery packs, on an electric car

Connecting the two little wires on Novak ESCs together so you could run it on 4 cells

John Gudvangen Manufacturing

Twinn-K tires

Chris Chianelli

... that's enough for now...

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Saving pocket money for 12 months to buy a Super Champ.

Trying to make sure 50cm aerial doesn't tangle in your wheels.

Using a multimeter to do your peak detection charging for NiCds because you can't afford a decent charger.

Swapping radio gear / servos from cars to planes to boats because you can only afford one set of radio gear.

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visiting your uncle in another state. Damage RC and need a new part. So you have to get out yellow pages book, flick through and find RC hobby stores. Walk over to the rotary dial telephone and ring each store until you find one that stocks your part. You work out you have enough save money to buy said spare part, hopefully someone can give you a lift!

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How about,

You remember what it’s like to troubleshoot glitching problems 

You saw the movie Dead Pool and immediately bought that 63 Vette body and BoLink foams for your RC10

You remember when the JRX2 came and spanked the RC10s right out of the box

You bought a monster truck conversion kit for your buggy.

You used Velcro on your ESC because you only had one no matter how many cars you had

You thought Neon/Fluorescent paint and wheels were cool 

Your charger had a hand turn timer on it

You have heard the dreaded clicking of a failed Frog/Blackfoot tranny/rear end.

You heard about the MRP High Roller floating on water.

You drilled holes in your RC10 Chassis.

You know what a matched pack is.

You saved your red SCR packs for race day.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

For me it was realising last year I needed glasses when I was trying to do the tyre lettering 🤦

Don't feel too bad. I need glasses for everything RC now. I had perfect vision until about 4 years ago.

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I resent the implication in this thread that Neon/Flouro colours are no longer cool.

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  • Haha 2

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Staring the Grasshopper and Hornet in the Sears catalog

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I can relate!

Bearings were about $4 each.

BEC was just coming out.

Clod Buster was the king truck.

A 1800 MAH battery (nicad) had power.

Saving money all year to buy your next kit. (tax refund)

4 channel radio was a lot.

Light bulbs (glass) for lights not LED.

Making most hop up parts by hand.

Yes, Trinity was the motor to get.

Futaba about the only radio available.

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7 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

I resent the implication in this thread that Neon/Flouro colours are no longer cool.

I should have said that you remember when they were everywhere!

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This is a great topic. I remember charging my 1200mah hump pack for hours and hours just to get 6 mins out of my Pajero. The biggest revelation was the introduction of BEC....no more receiver batteries. I ran that car to death. Great times!

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Excellent topic! I remember finishing school on a Friday (3.30pm) running home getting my backpack ready with my transmitter, spare tyres, batteries x3, charger (which was heavy) and assortment of tools parts I think I may need the backpack was full so I used to tape my car on the frame of the bike then bike to the Friday night rc club at the community hall.......brilliant times! Charging my 1500mah batteries until they were baking hot so I could get the 6 minutes out of them! And like has been mentioned the invention of the BEC system was a game changer saving the biggest killer in rc back then!....weight! I raced my boomerang with mechanical speed controller which had so much bad soldering on it because the ceramic resistor could only take so much heat before it stopped working I honestly couldn't understand how it kept going? I wouldn't have swapped them days for anything😄👍

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Apparently I'm living in the past because I still do half this stuff? Especially make my own parts.

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2 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Apparently I'm living in the past because I still do half this stuff? Especially make my own parts.

If that's living in the past? There's nothing wrong with that! 

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I do remember a time when Radio gear was all proprietary and not easy to mix and match with.
Also buying a new servo if you cooked one was really expensive, like just get another radio kit expensive.
Not too many radios has channel reverse either.

Thankfully by the early nineties this had all changed.

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On 1/10/2021 at 11:02 AM, Tamiya Fan 1 said:

Clod Buster was the king truck.

The Mod Clod racing community might like to have a word with you ( not that there is a lot of stock clod left in one of those rigs) 

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