My first 'proper' RC car. What was your first 'proper' RC model?

[Mysticpuma]

I was 12 when I bought these, having spent an entire school summer holiday working for my father's company. I really wanted to get into the RC racing/play world and my brother bought the "Rough Rider" (oh the innocence 🙂 ) and I bought the "Sand Scorcher". I think I remember correctly that they were one of the first to have a waterproof housing for the engine/battery and radio kit, so we raced them daily in puddles and shallow streams. They both had exactly the same chassis, just a different body.

Eventually of course we moved on and other hobbies took pride of place (mine was Photography, his was real cars) but this was my first real RC kit :)

 

 

 

 

[javelina]

My first RC was a Sig Kadet, with a .40 K&B, and 4-channel AM radio set, (many, many years ago).

here's something I've been building via my 3D printer setup.  Still a WIP

[ZachariasX]

15 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

my brother bought the "Rough Rider" (oh the innocence 🙂 ) and I bought the "Sand Scorcher"

Look, you can build them again. Go on ebay, there are still new in box kits from the re-re kits available, prices not being obscene yet. 😉

 

My first,the Wild Willy. Alas, I sold it at some point to a friend about thre years after I had it. I needed the cash for upgrading my next buggy. I got it for my b'day in 1983. A friend of mine had just got that one and I absolutely must have had one as well. A remore controlled car unlike I ever saw!

I was in RC before, it was a big hobby of my dad as well and I just had gotten into RC airplanes. But Tamiya kits being the kits they are, I had to have more of them.

Next was the Grasshopper when it came out, that I then pimped and converted to the Hornet. It came out the year after, so next b'day it was. The Super Champ was way out of my price bracket (but they have the re-re of it now that is still on sale. For trademark reasons it is called the Fighting Buggy.), the Rough Rider was just out of sale, same was the (now) legendary Blazing Blazer and the Toyota Bruiser.

But as third iteration, I had to have the SuperShot when it came out. Another friend of mine got the HotShot as that one came out, in many ways a revolutionary car back then. When I finally had the money, it had the SuperShot though.

As they were cheaper as kits, I had the NewMan Porsche and the Williams Honda F1. First taste of really fast RC, but man, those poor cars suffered for that...

So, in the good old days those six were the ones I had. Along with RC boats and more RC aircraft.

 

Some two years back, a friend of mine who had kind of gotten back in the hobby told me that he was thinking about buying an Avante. That was the buggy that just when I was about to exit the hobby somewhat (for getting a pilot license) that I no way could affird, the dream car. i was like whait, what?? Then I saw that Tamiya was preying on helples people like me by making those re-res of those cars and sure there it was on sale. I couldn't help it, but as they were going out of production, those last units actually were available on sale! So there I was back in the hobby with my re-re Avante2011. What a joyful build! Totally overengineered and one can see it is from an era, where many parts that are standard now were not and certain links were constructed from more generic parts. Maximum 80's vibes!

At least the expensive kits, they still come with the blister packs etc... and they smell and feel exactly like they did back then when you open them first time. As if you were 10 years old again. Now I can afford those toys just like that, but boy they need accessories to run. (All this anodized aluminum bling bling stuff... totally unreasonable, but hey, were not doing this for being reasonable.) Also, it is borderline obscene what you can do now in terms of motors and batteries. It goes twice as fast for almost an half an hour continuous full power instead of maximum 10 min.

But as building RC cars and plastic models is about the only mode where I can be present, but folks recognize me for being "unavailable" for the rest at home, I began to appreciate it as a nice past time. And the list grew quick.

The Plasma Edge II and the Super Anvante (actually both are great buggies in their own way) are my kids cars. Feels like 1985 going to their school yard along with the kids and spend an hour there (on a single battery!!) zooming around. The kids there in general, lobotomized by the iPad, still recognize that this is something somewhat cool. It's their fathers (that also get expelled from home from their vives for some hours) that sometimes would get glassy eyes... because.. we all were there, weren't we?

So, eventually I added the re-re Bruiser, the XV-02 chassis with the Audi body, the XV-01 Lancia to the collection. (One HAS to have the Lancia.)

And now, since Tamiya came out with the BBX, I have this one in my stash now and will build it as soon as I have time for it. The BBX seem sto be the essence of the Rough Rider and the Super Champ in an all new, modern buggy. It has great reviews, much better then the TD4 Super Avante, who's only real downside being "just an Avante in name" but IMHO actually it is the better buggy than the Avante ever was. Of the bat, it runs like a charm; few tweaks required (like a slipper clutch).

So yes, so far for me, Tamiya only. Kyosho make great products, especially the helicopters. Top notch. Yet they never really intrigued me. Even though they are usually of superior quality (lots of metal parts, high quality plastics), as kits they come across to me as Meccano does versus LEGO. You can try to like as much as you want, but it's just not the same. In the end though, I might get weak and build at least one of them. And the Optima Turbo that is currently available again and it is a marvelous buggy indeed.

To me, the cars get most their charm through building them, and there are simply no kits like Tamiya kits. And I don't care that none of their cars are actually robust in any way or would even remotely qualify as bashers. Ideally, they still run on a silver can motor. But with some care, you can make them fast, 40 mph is easy works with many of them. And that is plenty fast. But if you crash, then that is a 40 mph crash with the result of a 40 mph crash. Going faster is also easy, but I think you have to be completely emotionally detached from your car to make it go 100 mph with the almost guaranteed result. Also, you need a fantastic amount of space to drive it.

Team Associated and Schumacher make fantastic racing buggies and seeing an RC10 surely can make certain grown people emotional. I undertand that. Those cars indeed are awesome. But they are mostly awful builds from what I saw. Putting together the re-re Bruiser is a great experience and when you have it together, and it just works, then that's still this great feeling.

What I could never do, is buy a RTR car. That is like ordering your Netflix&chill date chilled alredy, so it's just gonna be Netflix. Ehm, no. I see the utility in saving time in principle, but "This is not the date I am looking for".

A similar issue I have with modern racing buggies that can well run circles around anything I ever built. But they are so friggin' ugly that they are most definitely "not the date I'm looking for".

 

3 hours ago, javelina said:

here's something I've been building via my 3D printer setup.

I so much need this!

[Mysticpuma]

@ZachariasX

Just wanted to say what a cracking reply 👍