Last one...(?)

[Saito2 6686]

Do you ever get to the point when you begin to seriously consider, this might be the last NIB Tamiya you crack open? Here, on my cluttered old work bench is a Thunder Dragon that I waited so long for since placing the order, that I literally forgot about it until it showed up on my front doorstep (I am horrendous about keeping up with emails, so I didn't see the notification from Tower that something was on its way). I should have been anxious to get it, but I kind of dreaded it. Tamiya purchases have slowed to a trickle over the past few years so with each new kit that comes along the likelihood it will be the last goes up. I let it sit for several weeks before slitting the plastic wrap (perhaps for the last time(?)) and savored the experience. Its one of the perils of being decidedly locked in the past. There is a finite amount of material to deal with. With my music or comic book collecting, that well of cool vintage material is deep enough to keep me buried for the rest of my existence, but with Tamiya, there's only the first 100 for me and with 80 cars or so currently hanging around ...well, the math is obvious the end is drawing close. I know we all joke about how we can stop at anytime (or not!, lol) but the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Its been a heck of a journey... 

[Wooders28 4723]

I know where you're coming from, the re release must be getting close to the end of their ,heyday.

I'm hoping the Super Avante starts a line of interesting buggies, and not just slapping a different body on the same chassis!!

 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I've been tempted a few times to buy a NIB from Tower, but I'm awash in RC stuff already.  To keep it a little more fun/interesting, Scollins and I have been actively trading stuff from our caches as the mood strikes.  He sent me some Kyosho, I sent him some HPI, he sent me a Tamiya, I'm sending one to him soon.  I think we all have kits lying around with not a lot of emotional attachment; why not do some horse trading?

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

I might be with you on this. I have a Sand Scorcher which I've been eyeing up for years and its still in its box. Admittedly this is only a week after getting it, but still. I see this as my last Tamiya, until I upgrade the racers which could mean a TRF something. 

I think I'm done with collecting and backyard bashers (as in I have what I want and don't need more) so this is probably the last frivolous purchase.

[Saito2 6686]

There are possibilities for future new Tamiyas to enter the fold for sure. A King Cab or Hilux Monster Racer would be a shoe-in as would a Falcon or Sonic Fighter. I could see a Super Sabre purchase to honor my late father (it was the one Tamiya he showed interest in) but that's about it. Never say never but the door is obviously closing. In retrospect, its time too. There seems to be a growing mania of pre-ordering, worries of under production, limited runs etc. that's beginning to surround the re-res that I'm not down with. Whether this is Tamiya-based of fan-based hype, I don't know. I just want a re-release to hit the stores in a timely matter (pandemic delays understandable) and if I want it, I'll buy it like the earlier days. I don't think the last run of Novafoxes or Fire Dragons ever hit Tower hobbies and tbh, I'm not hunting all around in a panic. If Tower has it, I usually buy it. Stuck in my ways. I've got the typical US/grind you to dust production job, a special needs daughter and a wife facing a potentially life-long disease so my hobby and collecting things for it doesn't need to be stressful. There are days I just think about purging all of it but I know my moods well enough to know that "future-me" would really be angry with "present-me" if I did that, lol.

10 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I'm hoping the Super Avante starts a line of interesting buggies, and not just slapping a different body on the same chassis!!

I'm with you. Its the first new Tamiya to tempt me in awhile. Boxart would tempt me even further.  I fully applaud them them for it. It gives me hope for Tamiya's future. If it fails, I'm always up for a Super Egress, lol.

9 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

  I think we all have kits lying around with not a lot of emotional attachment; why not do some horse trading?

That's a solid idea. Thanks.

[Wooders28 4723]

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

  I fully applaud them them for it. It gives me hope for Tamiya's future

Not keen on the box art,

Not keen on the wheels,

Not keen on the battery removal,

But, it generates emotion, which is absolutely ,  brilliantly Tamiya! 😁

[Mad Ax 9312]

I keep thinking the same thing.  I've been sort of hinting as much in almost every thread I create.  It's not that I've lost the love, it's just I've run out of space and money and I'm thinking I need to do something more valuable with my spare time, something I'll thank myself for in 40 years time (if I make it that far).  I've sure wasted an awful lot of my life on various things because I've never really done anything with any direction or intention, I've just gone where the current takes me and, for the most part, watched from the sidelines, or at very best, been an also-ran.

The problem is, I still have the love and the excitement for it.  Recently I impulse-bought a G-made BOM.  I didn't need another scaler - actually I've been crawling literally once since I built my CFX-W last autumn - but I've really, really enjoyed the build, and it's given me something other than watching TV to help me unwind.  I really should be spending my spare time working on my novel or getting some of the hundreds of pieces of music I've written over the last 25 years ready to share online, but after a long day of work, child-rearing, cooking, home admin and all the other myriad insignificant but soul-grinding things that come with running a 21st century household* I just don't have the energy, inspiration or inclination for it.  I just want to watch films or build kits.  But I know if I look back in 40 years time at a dozen hard drives full of unfinished, unheard music and unread novels, a garage literally overflowing with toy cars and a bank balance that won't leave anything for my family when I'm gone, I'll regret it.

*first-world problems indeed

 

[moffman 5752]

I go through peaks and troughs! sometimes I just can't wait for another tamiya kit to build and other times I've bought a kit and just can't be bothered and its sat unbuilt for months i can go for months without even thinking and looking at my rc!,  I've collected hotwheels since I was a small boy up until my now very adult life but the last fair few years I've not even give them a second look and they are all in the attic I'm hopeful to move them on just trying to find a good outlet to sell them as one job lot (to many to sell on ebay) I'm in the fortunate position to have a lot more me time because of family grown up and flown the nest and what comes with that is more space in the home and financially no more dependent children and now my pension is on the horizon which to be honest is long overdue as I've been working since the age of 13 so I can hand over the reins to the next generation? I'm hopeful that tamiya or kyosho any rc manufacturers will be with me all the way through the next chapter in my life? although I don't buy as much kits as I once did simply because I've now got my dream garage!

[Saito2 6686]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

I keep thinking the same thing.  I've been sort of hinting as much in almost every thread I create.  It's not that I've lost the love, it's just I've run out of space and money and I'm thinking I need to do something more valuable with my spare time, something I'll thank myself for in 40 years time (if I make it that far).  I've sure wasted an awful lot of my life on various things because I've never really done anything with any direction or intention, I've just gone where the current takes me and, for the most part, watched from the sidelines, or at very best, been an also-ran.

Yep, I'm in the same boat. I had direction and drive in my teens and 20s that got me into restoring antique/classic cars. I've had my hands on some nice stuff but never ever felt I was "good enough" at what I did. Zero confidence. To this day I rarely take my personal classic cars out because I feel they are a poor reflection on my skills. The feelings of being an abject failure at just about everything or at best, an also-ran, keeps me on the sidelines. Now life is just aimless, surviving from one day to the next. At least I have the goal of fixing up and selling our current house in ten years and moving to the beach which is about all my wife and I want to do in life at this point.

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

I really should be spending my spare time working on my novel or getting some of the hundreds of pieces of music I've written over the last 25 years ready to share online, but after a long day of work, child-rearing, cooking, home admin and all the other myriad insignificant but soul-grinding things that come with running a 21st century household* I just don't have the energy, inspiration or inclination for it.  I just want to watch films or build kits. 

I feel the same way. I get roughly 45 minutes each day to myself at the very end of the day before bed. I'm too half-asleep to draw or learn anything new on guitar. The idea of working on a 1:1 car makes me shudder so I usually find myself reading comics or sitting quietly with a Tamiya at the workbench while I learn about something like Dumble Amps or film theory on my smartphone in the background.

Perhaps this is just mid-life malaise. The realization that life is short and time is precious certainly weighs heavy.

[ThunderDragonCy 7877]

@Saito2 Having read this I just want to drop in and say thank you having any kimd of production job in a western nation. Goodness knows we need to make more in the west. I hope your daughter is as good as she can be, and is getting the help she needs and i hope your wifes illness isn't as serious as you think. And for your classic cars: everyone is their own worst critic. As a lifelong designer of things and very poor maker of things, i (and i am sure many others) doff my hat to your skills at restoring any kind of car. Take it out and enjoy it and to badword with what people may (but probably aren't) thinking.

Cheers 

[Badcrumble 4203]

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

I get roughly 45 minutes each day to myself at the very end of the day before bed. I'm too half-asleep to draw or learn anything new on guitar. The idea of working on a 1:1 car makes me shudder so I usually find myself reading comics or sitting quietly with a Tamiya at the workbench while I learn about something like Dumble Amps or film theory on my smartphone in the background.

Perhaps this is just mid-life malaise. The realization that life is short and time is precious certainly weighs heavy.

Totally in agreement with @ThunderDragonCy there.

I also have that little free time, too late in the evening to go out and start making noise in the garage and I’m often too tired get the urge to do anything. Like now, I’m on here and like you, I’ll read a comic or too!

Those small moments are to do something you enjoy and take a break, they shouldn’t be a chore and a hobby isn’t a hobby when it weighs you down.

As for the 1:1, most reactions to a classic are positive so get it out there if you can and revel in the sensations of driving a proper vehicle. When I see something interesting I’m always shouting at my son ‘look!’ and frantically waving out of the window of my would-be-white-goods-if-it-wasn’t-black-Ford-MPV. I’m certainly not going ‘that chrome needs attention’!

[moffman 5752]

9 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

Totally in agreement with @ThunderDragonCy there.

I also have that little free time, too late in the evening to go out and start making noise in the garage and I’m often too tired get the urge to do anything. Like now, I’m on here and like you, I’ll read a comic or too!

Those small moments are to do something you enjoy and take a break, they shouldn’t be a chore and a hobby isn’t a hobby when it weighs you down.

As for the 1:1, most reactions to a classic are positive so get it out there if you can and revel in the sensations of driving a proper vehicle. When I see something interesting I’m always shouting at my son ‘look!’ and frantically waving out of the window of my would-be-white-goods-if-it-wasn’t-black-Ford-MPV. I’m certainly not going ‘that chrome needs attention’!

I must admit my free time is always just at the weekend's again I'm fortunate enough that I'm unable to work at weekends because of working time laws but like you and a few other on this thread my week day working has me working sometimes past midnight from a morning start so my rc never gets a look in during the week other than opening parcels that the postie has dropped off! but that has been my working life for the last 35+ years so I don't really no any different? Although it just so happens I managed to get home this Friday before 8pm which was very odd but good and that again like the good guy's on this thread say you just don't have the energy to do anything other than zombie in front of the TV screen and as I'm getting on in life especially the last 18 months I'm really feeling completely and properly tired!

[Juggular 4964]

23 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

not just slapping a different body on the same chassis!!

You mean you don't like polka dots and the unicorn pinkness?  Blasphemy!  

There is a rumor that the new Wild One is going to look something like this.  I didn't get Wild One when it was re-issued.  I might get the blue one.  

So, apparently Tamiya knows @Saito2's concern. They are trying to increase the sales.  Obviously, these are not what we grew up with; no nostalgia factor. 

But I am cool with upgrades or tweaks.  I liked little front anti-sway bar tweak Tamiya did on NovaFox. 

The "Frog 2" with front laid-down suspension and steering linkages @RizFiz rigged himself, could be turned into "NovaFrog."  They can sell it as "2 kits in 1" deal.  If a purist wants to make Frog 1, he could.  But it could have parts for NovaFrog too.  Tamiya already has all the parts except for the aluminum plates.   

Not exactly the first 100 we know.  But if Tamiya comes up with cool tweaks, I imagine I'd buy.  

[Unless Tamiya insists on polka dots.  I think my mom wore polka dots before I was born. I don't care how pretty those dresses were. I refuse hand-me-down dresses from my mom!  Just to be clear, I'm not bothered by other men dropping out of men's race and choosing the feminine side. It's their choice.  Just that polka dots are not my cup of tea. But I imagine girls might like pink tires. Maybe it was a lure to draw girls into dad's hobby? I doubt that even girls would like dots on buggies... unless they have 1950s fashion sense...]  

Anyway..

How about a 6 speed gearbox Bruiser?  They can leave the gearbox as it is. Just add another 2 speed gearbox on the motor to double it, and make the tires and suspension much more supple.  

Neo-Grasshopper with a new rigid gearbox & portal gears?  Not to crawl, but to raise the ground clearance? 

Functioning front disc brakes retrofitted to few of old buggies?  

If they do upgrades and tweaks (not just new color schemes), it would be like "what ifs" of the 1980s.  I'd be glad to throw money at it.  

 

[nel33 870]

maybe they will deep down more to re release other kits that did get a re release..

[Killajb 1546]

I truly sympathize with you guys and what we seem to share as some doldrums in our hobby at times.  @Saito2, I hope the family is well.  As before, if there's anything you needed from this side of the globe please don't hesitate to ask (promise I won't forget what I've got in inventory this time..).  

 

I've wondered about the thought of building my last NIB kit as well after building my Turbo Optima.  Not that there aren't kits available, but just that my interests have narrowed somewhat.  For sure the Super Avante is model I look forward to, but will I even be able to purchase one before stock runs out?

 

I'm old school just like perhaps a lot of us here.  There used to never be an issue with items in stock or waiting lists.. or even trying to speculate on a release date!!  Before Christmas, kits were announced and you had your savings ready, all you had to do was choose which was right for you.  Now?  I made a habit of going to my LHS website daily to see if the waiting list for the Super Avante is open yet for fear of missing this production run.  

 

Then comes the 45th anniversary Porsche announcement.. and I think well that would be nice to build too.  ........if I can find one!!!  

 

As frustrating as it can seem, I have learned to just be patient.  Time is our most precious commodity and even that is conditional.  I went to play with my Wild One the other day and one of the brake lights wasn't working.  Apparently a wire came off of one of the LEDs.  When I went to investigate further, I ended up taking all of the electrics apart before soldering the wire again and re-installing.  Just when I went to turn it on, I noticed the other tail light was out.. I had pulled it off by mistake during the assembly.  So, I just put everything down on the shelf and decided to come back later when I could take a better look at it.  I don't like leaving things in a heap and ODC kicks in, but I resisted.  Sure enough, I came up with a more robust wiring scheme and added flashing lights as well as upper brake lights which I like better now.

 

Sorry to ramble.. and I hope everyone is doing well.