Why do your cars sit in a non-running state?

[pourMoneyIntoSea 55]

11 hours ago, Willy iine said:

I have many shelf queens, but they are all functional.  Not that I drive them.. something about keeping them functional makes it an "RC car" for me.  Otherwise they become more like static plastic models which is fun to look at, but they don't move nor have the detail of a plastic model so for me they are not as fun to keep in that state.  

same here. i installed all electronics including battery in every shelf queen

[Willsls1 342]

Well out of the 6 cars I have currently,  2 are ready to go and the other 4 are in various stages of being built. 

[Sprocket 52]

Mostly a lack of funds for electronics, but also the standard problems of time and parts availability are keeping some cars shelved

[Palfertronic 74]

Only 2 of my 20 something cars are shelfers, but they are both still capable of working, but i am critically short of Madcap spares! The Desert Gator is a shelfer, because its never run out doors, so its pristine..

[Problemchild 2163]

Because they are too nice to smash up

I’ve a 2WD buggy, 4WD buggy and monster truck for driving (and a cheapo RTR)

The rest are for show - but have motors, servos and receivers and are paired to a transmitter 
 

JJ

[Problemchild 2163]

4 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Mostly a lack of funds for electronics, but also the standard problems of time and parts availability are keeping some cars shelved

Most cars come with motors and ESC 

servos and Rx can be had for under £10 each and you only need 1x £20 transmitter 

JJ

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

They dont... but even if they do... parts necessary to get them running are arriving.

 

mostly its due to lack of recievers

[Baddon 860]

I have 2 fleets, one bashers. I livein the country, enjoy bashing the heck out of my RC's with jumps, obstacles at speed. 

Unfortunately, after spending time and money restoring my old Thundershot I soon discovered Tamiya is not up to modern standards in terms of toughness and had to rebuild it again. BUT for me the pleasure gained from my Tamiya shelfers is not diminished as its about the nostalgia while I get a thrill of using from my Traxxas. 

With more spare money than BITD I have continued to add to my Tamiya shelfers, all on display next to the dinner table in our open plan hall, As such they are seen every day by anyone in the house. Still make me smile and the kids constantly tell me which one is their favorite.

 

At the end of the day its what makes you smile and what you enjoy doing with your spare time (again about making you smile) Never worry about what others are up to, waste of time, effort and it sill certainly not make you smile if it upsets you.

[SupraChrgd82 1434]

The decision to display a car rather than run it is sort of an algorithm of many factors, including;

• rarity of the kit
• rarity of hop-ups
• obsolescence
• market/resale value
• expenditure on hop-ups
• time spent detailing the body
• general appearance
• historic significance

[Problemchild 2163]

10 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:

They dont... but even if they do... parts necessary to get them running are arriving.

 

mostly its due to lack of recievers

I sell skyfly receivers for just under £10 delivered 

JJ

[speedy_w_beans 4286]

Vision + mood + raw materials + time = a fun build, maybe some fun driving, and some photos/videos.

In the past year something strange happened.  I'm no longer in the mood to build or drive much of anything, and therefore, I'm not making much time for the hobby either.  There's still some vision and there are materials to work with, but it just seems like there are other things catching my interest right now.  There's about 8-10 projects in process; I wonder if they'll ever be finished?

[Matty36 267]

All my cars are shelters for now, due to lack of space to use them. The nitro touring cars need a big smooth track, the nitro truck is in pieces, the rally car is just too newly painted to damage, the 3 electric buggys and electric truck are waiting on the local track to reopen, the zonda is too low to use in the street.

All of them would be capable of use apart from the nitro ones that havent been started up for at least 15 years.

[El Gecko 1637]

Money, time, all of the above. I love R/C, but it has just never been a big priority for me, so it's ok if a few cars sit idle (undriveable) for a bit longer while I find the parts I really want.

They've been in storage for the last 20 years, so at least they can enjoy some fresh air (and admiring glances) from their new home on the shelf while they wait!

And if looking at the non-functional chassis on the shelf is making me feel sad, there are 5 others on the shelf that do run (barely!), that I can go hoon around with to make myself feel better

[lsear2905 1279]

On 3/21/2021 at 1:49 AM, Willy iine said:

I have many shelf queens, but they are all functional.  Not that I drive them.. something about keeping them functional makes it an "RC car" for me.  Otherwise they become more like static plastic models which is fun to look at, but they don't move nor have the detail of a plastic model so for me they are not as fun to keep in that state.  

I think this is a very astute observation - as a model on a shelf they're not as nice to look at as a proper, detailed, scale model. As an 'RC' they can, understandably, have less detail and show wear.

I feel like building, and subsequently driving that RC (even if only sporadically), creates more of a sentimental attachment to that RC, a kind of 'shared experience.' The cars I run the most, and give me the most enjoyment, are the ones I value the most, even if they're not worth the most on eBay!

[Willy iine 18842]

49 minutes ago, lsear2905 said:

I think this is a very astute observation - as a model on a shelf they're not as nice to look at as a proper, detailed, scale model. As an 'RC' they can, understandably, have less detail and show wear.

I feel like building, and subsequently driving that RC (even if only sporadically), creates more of a sentimental attachment to that RC, a kind of 'shared experience.' The cars I run the most, and give me the most enjoyment, are the ones I value the most, even if they're not worth the most on eBay!

RC is only worth what you feel it is worth so if it makes more sense for you to drive all your cars, that is perfectly good.   My shelf queens are only active maybe 20 meters to setup the electronics and then placed on the shelf or in a display case in perfectly new condition.  It will most-likely never be driven, but the thought of it being functional and 'can be driven if I want to' is where the value is for me for those particular cars.  

I have runners that are near shelf queen appearance where I actually drive it off and on (and not crash) with minor body clip and tire wear, and they also have a special place and meaning.

I also started collecting NIB cars where kits will never be assembled, but placed on my display shelf.  That may make even less sense for someone that loves to drive RC, but that has value to me as well.  It is a great conversation piece too. 

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

6 hours ago, Problemchild said:

I sell skyfly receivers for just under £10 delivered 

JJ

I have a transmitter FlySky GT3 and 2 receivers I dont even use. I dont like the feel of Flysky protocol and dont use them at all. Only Sanwa or Futaba. Might sound cheesy but I dont drive that much lately. Thanks for the offer though 

[Badcrumble 4432]

4 hours ago, lsear2905 said:

I feel like building, and subsequently driving that RC (even if only sporadically), creates more of a sentimental attachment to that RC, a kind of 'shared experience.' The cars I run the most, and give me the most enjoyment, are the ones I value the most, even if they're not worth the most on eBay!

The car that is now most run in my household is the second-hand Hornet I bought so not a lot of money. The shell was really badly painted and peeling. I modded it with some AmPro parts and my son asks to run it in the back garden more often than his Dual Hunter. I'm treating it to a new shell and custom graphics but what it really needs are a rebuild, new wheels and tyres! What's it worth? Not much on the open market but I've realised that if I could only keep one, that would be it despite that.

[jonboy1 3754]

On 3/20/2021 at 4:14 PM, MadInventor said:

For me non runners are due to:

1. Lack of time

3. Lack of motivation to get something out and run it when all the space I've got is a bit of flat lawn. After shielding from Covid for over a year it seems like a lot of effort to bundle stuff in the car to run by myself.

5. The spare parts I need to get one of my favourite runners (TXT) going are only available in Germany and the model shop won't sell them to me due to our new trading relationship with the EU.

7. Getting pulled into buying something looking at pictures and other people builds, then getting it and realising it's not actually that much fun.

8. I think I get more fun out of building things than driving them.

 

 

On 3/21/2021 at 8:55 AM, Problemchild said:

Because they are too nice to smash up

These two sum me up completely. 

Out of the 15 cars I've got, 2 are proper runners; 4 are what I'd describe as far too fragile or rare to risk running on anything other than a nice large flat indoor area with lots of padding around the sides of the room  but they do all have full radio and electrics in; 2 are ready to go but I've not had the time or opportunity since lockdown to take them out somewhere; 6 are works in progress that are generally waiting on me having time and the inclination to finish, and the other 1 is in bits in a box waiting to start.

1 of the 2 proper runners (Durga) I am a bit precious about running as I know exactly how much it has cost and how difficult it can be to get parts for, so I've actually been buying a few bits and bobs for it and stashed them away so at some point in the future I can put it back to perfect condition. 

I've only got a small garden, so not being able to go out and have a proper blast with any of them has really stunted my motivation to finish off the ones in progress. It's picking up a bit now though, so hopefully I'll have at least one finished off this year!

Seeing other people's cool builds and being inspired is proving to be quite a problem with me at the moment. I've got 2 projects started off because of this and a third knocking around in my head that my willpower is only just overpowering the urge to unleash the credit card on!  

I definitely enjoy building and restoring them much more than running them, which is added to by my forever tinkering and finding new hop-ups for ones I've "finished" to such a point that I'm scared to run them as I could never repair them if they broke!

[A-Baum 352]

I have a couple that have been pilfered for ESC/servos, but that's the only reason they would be in non-running condition.  For example I picked electronics out of my Plasma Edge to make my Top Force run as it came with no ESC so I thought it was a noble thing to do.  I'll get around to ordering some more electronics, but it's pretty scarce out there and I refuse to order from anyplace on ebay that ships from China.  Could be 3 days or 3 months.  

[Strady_Ita 0]

I have a turnigy 9x transmitter, with more or less 5-6 receiver.

Almost all the models i've assembled were run or tested at least once. So they were fitted with motor, ESC, servo, and one receiver of the above.

I have more or less 5 models Ready To Run (if I'm smart enough to remember to charge the battery on friday..)

The other models are equally splitted between:

- SHELF QUEENS: Models with strange chassis, or bling bling hop-ups that i don't want to ruin. Quite all are without any electronics. Only a couple of really OLD models have the vintage period correct electronics. (non 2.4Ghz obv)

- Ex RACER: Models that i had run, then put aside and cannibalized electronics to be placed on other models. Many of them still have the Servo and maybe the motor. 

 

I had to admit this lack of RTR models irritate me a lot, in fact i've purchased some ESC and some Servos and i'm planning to complete as much as the Ex Racer to be able to run them whenever i like. (maybe it will never happen...)

 

[Sprocket 52]

On 3/21/2021 at 1:57 AM, Problemchild said:

Most cars come with motors and ESC 

servos and Rx can be had for under £10 each and you only need 1x £20 transmitter 

JJ

Cheap electronics does me no good when I need to fund difficult to find parts. I have a few sets of electronics that I rotate through my fleet to make runners. Otherwise, I have many projects that need attention to some degree

[Problemchild 2163]

4 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Cheap electronics does me no good when I need to fund difficult to find parts. I have a few sets of electronics that I rotate through my fleet to make runners. Otherwise, I have many projects that need attention to some degree

Oh well - was only trying to help 

Sorry 

I picked up these 2nd hand for £20

 

So that allows me to get all of the kits in a runner state 

JJ

[ddaenen1 278]

Mine have all turned into shelfers over time for various reasons:

1. I spent so much time and effort restoring it that i don't want to risk damaging it

2. Parts are hard or impossible to come by if i damage something

3. Time constraints

Fact is that apart from my TA04S converted into TRF, almost all of my cars are Tamiya vintage originals and the only one i run occasionally is a Protech XT4 nitro. Also vintage but i have no emotional attachment with it, bought it for cheap just out of curiosity, it is fun to drive and very very fast and last but not least, it is quite robust, actually better quality than your average Tamiya and if i crash it eventually it is good for the bin as parts are impossible to come by.