Share your nostalgic stories of R/C.

[Rich_8717 114]

I started writing this post out as a reply to the 'what have you done today' thread but decided it's probably too long to go in there,  plus I would love to read some replies from from other members on here who I'm sure will have similar stories to mine.

This sort of came about as a result of me recently digging my 2004 re-release Hornet out of the cupboard with the intention of selling it and whilst going through the box I found an old photo of my brothers original Hornet which was taken the night of finishing it. I'm not sure why it was in there but seeing it made me think about how r/c has always been a constant in my life one way or another and how great it would be if I could step back in time and re-live certain moments of it or have certian models back! As a result I decided it probably wasn't worth selling the re-release for £50 or whatever they go for these days and that instead I would re-do it to look like the one in the original photo and maybe re-capture some of the feelings I had as a kid.

A bit of background story here is that I have an older brother who got an original Hornet for christmas 1986 which was 6 months before I was born, so as a result I grew up with it around and it was the first and only Tamiya kit I knew of as a small child. I vividly remember him taking it to parks and chasing other kids with it and driving it about on the cul-de-sac where I grew up.... making me go flip it back over when it rolled and pushing the throttle just as I was about to pick it up. I remember the distinct smell that only the orignal models seem to have and the sounds of the servos and trickle charger - the suspense of waiting for 30minutes (an obsolute age to a kid) as it ticked down and the final few seconds waiting for it to click over as I say in the cool of the garage on a hot summers day, then running off to tell him just so I could see it going again.

As you can probably tell I was obsessed with r/c cars (and just cars in general) when I was little and had dozens of toy grade r/c cars that my dad bought mainly from car boot sales to keep me quiet on a Sunday afternoon (most of them were on a wire attached to the remote or would only turn in reverse if anyone remembers that!) but all I really wanted was a proper 'build up' r/c car like my brothers Hornet which was not only far too much money (I think he got his as a combined birthday/xmas present) but I think my dad had probably learnt the hard way that it would be an on-going expense!

Annoyingly enough my brother would almost never let me have a go with his, and if he did it would be just as the battery went flat, which having a mechanical speed controller would often end up with it getting stuck at full throttle and dissapearing under a parked car or a hedge which was terrifying as a child.

Eventually years later when he had lost interest he did pass it down to me but it was so used and abused it never really ran properly and I was lucky enough to have got a few of my own kits by then so wasn't too bothered about it. Inevitably it was butchered for parts and sold on as a job lot of Hornets that I had collected off ebay and made into one nice one back when it was very hard to find new parts for them - there's actually a photo still on here of what remained of it but the member I sold them to is no longer active.

So, back to where I began, we all know 2004 saw the re-release of the Hornet and although I had kind of been out of the Hobby for a while at that point I decided to get one and build it up. I painted it green as I remembered my older brother telling me he used to have a friend with a green one and as a child I always thought that probably looked so cool so decided to make that 'dream' a reality. I ran it for a bit when it was done and it inspired my older brother to buy another Hornet from ebay (a restored original) to run again. Unfortunately he eventually broke that and gave it to me (history repeates itself) but this time I fixed it and now keep it on a shelf. It crazy to realise that 2004 is 17 years ago and we are almost as far from the re-release date as we were from the original release of 1984 back in 2004!

Below are some photos of the cars, obviously the re-release 'replica' has re-re decals on it, so it's not 100% accurate but I've tried to make it as close as possible - I've even painted the end casing of the torque tuned motor black to replicate the original 540 end bell and might even paint the ball cups black as well unless I can find some proper ones. The original '86 Hornet also ended up with red wheels at some point which is how i remember it, so I do intend to paint up another set but for now it's close enough. I'm glad I decided to keep it and will enjoy running it and pretending I'm 6 years old again....

 

So, hopefully for anyone that has managed to read all that waffle I'm hoping some of you will have similar memories and will share them on here so I can have a read. Tell us about your first r/c car and how you got it, tell us about your first Tamiya kit and anything else you remember about r/c from when you were little. Do any of you still have your first cars? if not have you replicated them some how? or do you think it's better just to keep them as memories. If you have any photos please share those as well.

Cheers guys!

[Willy iine 18805]

What a fun thread.   I wanted an M38 Willy back in the 80's but my buddies all thought it was stupid (peer pressure) and I could not afford one anyways so never got one.  Ended up with a basic Subaru Brat which I loved along with a 5844 Pajero my pops bought me a little later.  I also owned a Grasshopper which was later slowly converted into a Hornet, and also a Frog and a 2nd hand like-new condition HotShot.

Late 90's I raced sedans (Pro2, TC3) in stock and modified classes, M03's.  I did pretty well. 

These days I went back to my roots and bought a few M38 Wild Willy's.  I also have a 5844 Pajero coming to me so will be building that too for nostalgic reasons.  I also have a re-re Bruiser NIB I still need to build... all for nostalgic reasons.  

 

More pictures available in my profile  if you click my signature..

[Rich_8717 114]

4 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

I also have a 5844 Pajero coming to me so will be building that too for nostalgic reasons.  I also have a re-re Bruiser NIB I still need to build... all for nostalgic reasons.  

Awesome! funnily enough another of my most vivid memories was seeing a green Pajero hung on the wall in Beaties model shop. It looked so amazing to me as a kid that it's etched into my memory, the size of it and the detail and how there was no chance I was ever going to be allowed to have it 

Strangley enough I was in Modelsport a few months ago and one of the guys that works there had put his one in the display case by the counter so I was asking about it, whether it was an original or not etc, the guy serving me didn't seem to know or care... I thought about looking for one myself but I know I would probably butcher the body so haven't bothered.

I love your wild willy collection and can sympathise with you having so many, I'm have a similar 'problem' with the Top Force, it's like I'm constantly chasing that feeling I had from when I first got my original one so keep getting more and more but it's never quite the same, I almost convinced myself to get another Hornet this week so I could have one with a number 9 oon it but have managed to talk my self out of it (so far)!

The peer pressure thing is also interesting to me. I was really the first kid from my friendship group to have a proper R/C car (I was the only one to have a much older sibling who had lived through the 'glory days' of 80's r/c so no one esle really knew about them) but eventually a lot of my friends starting buying them, some even bought some vintage Tamiya cars, but slowly we all 'grew up' and sold them on and there was a period of time in my late teens when I would have been embarassed to be seen with an R/C car even though I still loved the hobby. Nowadays I wish more people were still into it and when I take mine out I hope to see other people with one but it almost never happens.

[RichieRich 685]

I've always loved cars...hot wheels, matchbox, corgi. Then one day, a friend and I were walking to McDonalds and cut through an orange grove. I was 10, so this was 1983, and the orange grove is gone now, replaced with houses. Anyways, we saw some kids driving a buggy through the grove, doing jumps and throwing up rooster tails. It was amazing. I didn't have time to stop and ask those kids what they were playing with as you know Mom's with their mental clock going. "It takes X minutes to do Y things."  

It was clearly a Tamiya Super Champ. Whenever I was lucky enough to be at a toy store, I looked for this buggy and of course could not find it. I did not know that hobby shops existed. It wasn't until a few years later, I found Tamiya kits at Sears on accident. Finally ordered a Tamiya Frog in 1986 and the rest is history.

[markbt73 5315]

It's easier if I just post links; I write about this topic a lot.

https://drivetribe.com/p/time-capsules-and-time-machines-GW4cDly8SPuPGRDOu8akAQ?iid=G3vxA2oYQFy7RV8gHzlQew

https://drivetribe.com/p/the-king-of-the-cul-de-sac-S5BzWQbbQYetMn_9o62kaQ?iid=SIQySDSbTEKa7O-6mk7Jnw

https://drivetribe.com/p/life-is-short-buy-the-toy-truck-ZMZgGlUkT_KkxeBrtJuAiA?iid=DzhAdvceTYeswMpW6_SCyg

[Unknown Driver 262]

I guess I'll throw in my $0.02 on this one...

I missed the golden-era, having been born in 1984, but when I was about 10, a friend's big-brother gave me a Blackfoot in pieces. I went to the local hobby shop to buy parts and eventually got it running. Added a Thorpe transmission, Trinity Slot Machine II motor, and a Novak Hammer Pro ESC. The hobby shop in town raced carpet-oval (K&N RC) so during highschool I did that. Lots of fond memories getting home at 1-2AM on Saturday morning after a long night of racing...then wake up, do homework, and go BACK to the track to practice Saturday evening. I can still smell the Paragon traction compound...

Anyway, college happened, I got out of the hobby, bought a house, yadda yadda yadda - but once I was settled I started picking up cars on ebay. I had a couple old Losi XXTs right as short course trucks took off, so I converted one of them, changed the tires/body, and I've been racing offroad carpet at RC Madness (Enfield CT) ever since.

About 10 years ago I convinced my buddy to sell me his original Blackfoot, which I finished as a replica to the one I had as a kid. Then I thought, "Gee...I wonder if I can find a Super Blackfoot...or a King Blackfoot...

And here we are today. They're not "concourse" quality restorations, but I'd say my work is 9/10. Lots of help from TBG and MCI. The only drag is it seems the market is hot thanks to Covid, so it's been tough finding good deals on salvageable cars.