what got you into rc?

[Juggernaut jims]

Started out with toy grade nikko as a kid and as I grew up women beer and kababs took over now that I have settled down a mate gave me an old broken Blackfoot and so it all began the expensive ways

[Deadleg Roberts]

Like many others, I first got into it as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. I had a Tamiya Fox and then upgraded to a Kyosho Optima Mid. Raced a few times, but didn't really have the money or know-how to get anywhere.

Got back into it a couple of years back trying to get my Optima working for my nephew, but unfortunately I had lost a lot of essentials such as radio, charger, batteries, as I had moved around a lot and probably left them in a previous flat or something!

I still have the Optima car, but realised the amount of money to get it into working order would probably be better spent buying a new car RTR. Plus, I was surprised by how the technology had progressed, with the introduction of brushless motors, Lipos and 2.4ghz radios. (No more crystals!)

So I got the brushless Carnage, and it has been a fun car. Very fast compared to the brushed Optima and handles well. Unfortunately, it isn't very durable, so I recently got the MT4 G3, which is a serious piece of kit, and never fails to impress!

 

I try to get out to drive a couple of times a week, and like to explore new off road spots where I can park up and have an hour or two.

I am quite happy with my cars and don't think I will be buying any more in the foreseeable future. I will probably just get a couple more Lipos and experiment with tyres and stuff.

[oodboo]

I've always been into off road.My folks couldn't afford for me to do MX.I saw a rough rider in the local hobby shop,sold my bmx & bought it.I quit rc for years & did a lot of MTB ing.Got too old for that & got back into rc.

Too old for MTB? I met a 70 year old at Whinlatter once.

I've always been into gadgety stuff and was always drawn to RC cars. Had a few toy grade cars when I was young which we're very poor and kind of lost interest a bit. Then when I was about 14 or 15 my mate got a Thundershot and I saw how good RC cars could be. Wasn't long before I got a thunder dragon. But as much as I loved it my paper round didn't earn enough to keep it running properly and it went into the cupboard to be sold years later for about

[PurcyP]

Dorset model car club used to race at the school i attended in the gym before said school closed down.

 

I was invited to have a go, was only young, in year 7 so what 10 years old? had a go and loved it, by the time i got my own car the school closed down lmao :/ 

 

First hobby grade RC ..barely was a nikko evolution 1/10, basically looked like a tamiya tl-01 

 

So that was the end of that ...fast forward to april 2013, out of hospital myriad of problems, was told to look at a hobby i can do. ... and here i am, got a FTX frenzy, learnt a lot, swore a lot, had fun a lot, ended up working in my LHS on a saturday to help with repairs and tune ups. 

[CJCMods]

I always loved anything with a engine I got my first nitro car when I was 16 it was a thunder tiger one the old ts4n models I think with a ford focus rally shell then I got a hpi rush evo n loved it until I went over a jump with it and the clutch bell teeth snapped don't know how had that for a few years and I have another rush what I got from the skip and decided I want to make my own parts instead of buying so I have called it bumblebee lol. my fionse thinks I a child for doing this hobby

[ade909]

I dreamed over the tamiya escort and scooby kits/quote]

I so remember the Tamiya scooby kit in the Argos book when I was a kid. Good times

[53HRA]

My love for 1:1 cars and tinkering with stuff brought me to the world of RC

[QRC]

My dad got me started in the hobby back in the very early '80's, went to local store and purchased a Tamiya Sand Rover, never looked back since.

[Zardoz]

Always wanted a Tamiya kit as a nipper but never had one. Decided one day that rather than buying and building static models I should take the plunge with RC. Second year into the hobby now, just about to move to the air with a Bixler in the next week or so

[atom3624]

I think RC got into me ......   

 

Al.

[b19jas]

I had a toy grade Nikko Jeep back in the mid 80s' Loved it then. My persistence in getting it to jump down stairs resulted in it being broken. Took to to the only model shop in cardiff and left it for repair. It was an electrical repair so deemed worth doing. After weeks of ringing they finally told my mum that the manager had done a bunk and taken all the running stock with him. I was told to come down and see what we could sort out. I will never forget that day, I walked in, the man behind the counter told me to help myself..I looked at him in a little disbelief  and he told me again.....I could have ANYTHING in the shop I wanted......ANYTHING on the house as an apology from the owner. Home I went with a NIB grasshopper.........................and so it began !!!

[Dubberz]

Had a Tandy buggy when I was young which died. After a bash at fishing when I was about 12/13 I sold my tackle and bought a TL01 Escort. Loved building it ! Then I discovered that there was a club at my school so started carpet racing . Soon moved onto a Schumacher SST Chassis and electronic esc etc. Won a few trophies etc and my parents bought me a hopped up HPI RS4 PRO Chassis. Loved it! Eventually got to the point where it would cost too much to 'step up' so I flogged the lot and bought a bmx! 12 years went by and I decided on a nitro buggy, eBay was where I found my Hyper 7. Needless to say, I'm hooked again!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Mr. Doktor]

I always loved machines and mechanical toys like Lego Technic and Meccano, I even used to build my own trucks, cranes, excavators etc and then just added a motor, batteries etc.... And it has escalated into RC.

I think I got it from my my grandfather who is a mechanic, he even built his own car when he was young ( and I want to emphasize it was at a time when my country was in a deep communism behind the Iron Curtain, so people had to wait to buy stuff like cars, washing machines, ovens, there were literally lists of people waiting for a product, not like today that we just go to a shop and buy one ) and his car was the 22nd in the whole city Too bad I did not inherit more technical talent from him, it must have got lost somewhere between my and his generation...

[TinVin]

I had a Tamiya hornet in the 80's but being a teenager rc was lower down than my other...er...hobbies at the time. Fast forward to March 2013 I had gone a year since giving up tobacco and wanted to reward myself. My daughter had just got a toy grade rc and I found how much fun it was so I dug my old hornet out and searched the internet with a view to getting it running again. Wow, how much rc moved on in 25 years was amazing. I bought an FTX carnage for me and a maverick xt for my daughter converted both to brushless and now we have a hobby that we enjoy together.

A big thanks to this forum for helping us get this far.

[the watchman]

This is a great toppic, intresting read for sure, my story starts with a nikko toy grade rc when i was about 6/7 back in the mid 80's, my nan one christmas then bought me a midnight pumpkin obvuiosly in kit form, being 8 years old and never built one before my nan asked my dad to build it and spray it for me ready for christmas day, thing is my dad had just got out of a long prison stretch and he doesnt really care about anybody else exept for himself, so he built it up and started to use it before i even knew i had one, so when christmas day finaly come around i received one used midnight pumpkin ??? Worn tyres and a few scratches due to wheelies, didnt bother me then as i had finally a proper rc, man it seemed fast then lol, but the more i thought about it i asked my nan why a new car seemed used or something along those lines only to find out my dad had been playing with it with his then girlfreinds son ?? He was 2 yrs older than me at the time, anyway my nan hit the roof over it and over the following years she bought me a tamiya bear hawk lol, which i built and sprayed myself, very badly i might add, so after the initial kinda upset i had finaly built my own rc :-) i was a happy lad for 5 mins until i snapped a front shock tower lol but by that point, building, painting and playing with rc's the bug had well and truely bitten, i had a new tamiya every christmas for the next few years until i started noticing girls lol, so been into rc a long time but had a break for years whilst doing other things (mainly girls), then just over 10 years ago i met my fiancee, setled down and bought my daughter a hpi rush lol, the bug bit me again and i bought a hyper 7 to use with her, the rest as they say is history.

[RyanBowk]

 

 

 if it wasn't for my 17th bday pressy of a hyper 7 i probably would have packed the hobby in along time ago

wow and the kid next door was spoiled??

For my 17th I had a pair of Hi Tec atlanta trainers

[Pistonhead]

For me it was a not too bad toy grade Nikko 1:10 Peugeot 206 WRC i got for my 14th birthday, i hopped it up with a sprint motor, different tyres, and a more powerful nicd battery. That thing was my pride and joy, until i clapped eyes on the Savage when it was first released then i decided i had to have one.

I couldn't afford one so got the next best thing (at this time i didn't know of other manufaturers) and got an MT2, had a blast with that and did a few mods to that before selling it to my brother because of a tuning issue that i didn't have the knowledge to fix.

A few years went by and got a brand new Hyper 7 in late summer 2012. Thanks to forums, being old enough to afford them and my own transport to take them out meant the bug bit me pretty hard and since bought four more last year, with another to be added to the fleet in the next few weeks.

Would i ever sell all my gear? I seriously doubt it, it's such a fun hobby and is certainly cheaper than drinking or getting tattoos...

[Thunderwolf]

wow and the kid next door was spoiled??

For my 17th I had a pair of Hi Tec atlanta trainers

 

i paid half of the cost via pocket money. hyper 7 was also cheaper back then

Edited April 25, 2014 by Thunderwolf

[BigBadJFly]

My dad had an old sand scorcher and kyosho scorpion when he was younger (and still has them), so was quite into rc and got me a tamiya DT01 Fighter Buggy RX when I was about 9. I used it for about a year then it was put in my wardrobe for about 3 or 4 years, before I discovered one of my friends also had a Tamiya. When the Sand Scorcher was re-released I just had to get it, and my collection has just expanded from there.

[Hendo7249]

I started out with an rc speed boat about 2ft long, at about 12 years old went to visit family in Pembrokeshire ended up buying 2 ta01 cars secondhand

Then it was a thunder tiger nitro scooby then gave it up for few years until I saw an Fg marder! I had to buy it never looked back since!!

Sent from hendo7249 Iphone

[Robbie 1992]

Always used to get electric rc cars from Argos as a kid still got them all and then I got a nitro car hobao hyper 10 on road car only payed

[J.K]

A Tamiya TA03 from my parents for my 13th birthday. I still have it, in the middle of updating and upgrading it

[Stav]

Too many Saturday mornings spent in Beatties toy shop in Aylesbury in the '80s led to me falling in love with the box of the Tamiya Astute.  My dad grabbed me one in '90/91.  Raced it a little behind the garden centre at Toddington with a school mate.  I was the uncool one at that stage as if I recall, if you raced you didn't own a Tamiya.  Digging the Astute out of the loft a few years back kicked off the desire to get started again.

[Huktonfonics]

Some bloke at work selling a Savage SS for

[monsterman26]

was bought a tamiya ford mondeo kit (i think it was the ta01, the motor was mounted in front of the front wheels) when i was twelve. built it myself (mostly). and have been hooked ever since. over the years i recon ive had nearly 30 different models, from vintage tamiya and kyosho on road cars to 8th scale off roaders. now i just got my 1/5 baja....