Most important/influential items in RC?

[Pistonhead]

Not just lipo, brushless etc, but specific specific products too.

 

For me it's the Traxxas Slash, it gave the industry a massive kick up the backside at a time it was going a bit stale. It may have not been the first sct or the best, but it really kickstarted the sct class imo. 

Also the HPI Firestorm - brushed, brushless and nitro powered - my go to recommendation for a first rc because it's cheap to buy and maintain, but also built like a tank.

 

 

[RCbutcher]

Engine kill switch.  No led kits

[Rover Man]

FG Marder. where large scale off road racing started 

[sean-vrs]

Tamiya hornet and the Traxxas eze start that helped joe public (me as a boy)  get into nitro

[bmhill]

33 minutes ago, sean-vrs said:

Tamiya hornet and the Traxxas eze start that helped joe public (me as a boy)  get into nitro

me too with the Eze Start and i think all rc cars should have the 1 handed start the same as this as standard

[Tug]

RPM for the blunderers!

The uBEC for better electrics. 

Lipo; it is what it is. 

[Deafty]

influential items in RC?

E-clips

[Leo Best]

Wheel type transmitters!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[RCbutcher]

Dogs danglies. 

 

Argos. That's the only place I knew of hobby grade as a kid. I begged and begged but only got wired rcs. Obviously that had life long damage.  Now ther like pokemon gotta get all. 

Edited January 26, 2016 by RCbutcher

[Thedrum2010]

3 hours ago, RCbutcher said:

Dogs danglies. 

 

Argos. That's the only place I knew of hobby grade as a kid. I begged and begged but only got wired rcs. Obviously that had life long damage.  Now ther like pokemon gotta get all. 

Tandy always had a few am tx/rx models

Edited January 26, 2016 by Thedrum2010

[TMaxxDave]

Tamiya. That is all.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 Neo

[Noj]

The 2028. simple as.

[mond]

16 hours ago, sean-vrs said:

Tamiya hornet and the Traxxas eze start that helped joe public (me as a boy)  get into nitro

The Hornet was so iconic in the 80s. Pretty much all of the 80s Tamiya cars stand out. 

[atom3624]

2.4 G.Hz - Tx / Rx

 

Interference / Glitching limited.

[Gaz!]

The licensing of 1:1 vehicles, bringing in a whole new market of people.

it gives us chance to own replicas of cars we could only dream of.....

[Zyphruk]

Hpi baja, brought large scale RC to a more consumer market and made it more available to people that aren't so hardcore into the hobby

[XV Pilot]

Undoubtedly it would have to be...

 

The legendary Conrad 240826!

[Carpmart]

Tamiya Sand Scorcher - that was the start for me...

Beaties - I could pay for my RC in instalments as I could not afford it in one go at that time!  

[Nick]

ESCs, huge step forward from mechanical systems

2.4ghz as already mentioned for convenience and reliability

Cable ties

 

[Madmini]

Injection moulding. Without it Rc would never have taken off

[Pingman]

Control

electric speed controllers

2.4ghz radio

 

Performance

high capacity batteries

lipo batteries

brushless motors

 

Nitro

nitro electric starts kinda handy

Better fuels

 

Build quality

Manufacturers putting way more R&D into their products and using much stronger materials 

 

Old-skool RC'in used to be SO frustrating!

 

Kids today will never know the struggle of:

 

• MSCs  getting stuck or go out of configuration so would either fly off and crash or not move.
• 27mhz radio gear that suddenly decides to not work when your car is full pelt due to random interference so it flys off and crashes.
• Rubbish low capacity Nimh and Nickel batteries that lasted no time at all and took ages to charge.
• Not very good glow fuel that was pretty hard to get engines running on and seemingly never consistent.
• The cars broke, like allot. Your RC time was always cut very short because your naff battery had died in 5-10 mins use or the car broke, either through failure of a poor part or more likely your car ran off and hit something hard at full pelt and destroyed half its self, and that would happen basically every time you used the car! with a nice expensive rip to the LHS and then a load of time repairing it. Rinse and Repeat.

 

Man I don't miss any of that! 

 

The modern performance of a lipo battery and brushless motor in a well built strong, reliable, controllable car is what RC'in always dreamed to be.

 

I still find it novel to go out and run one of my cars and get to run until I have finished playing a

[coffeecup]

RTR.
When manufactures switched over it really changed the market. It means a teen can save up a relatively small amount of cash, buy a Stampede and run it the same day. It also saw a general increase in the availability of parts as more model shops took the risk of stocking high value RC cars because they could just sell a complete box set up without having to have the knowledge of every single product. RTR has caused a massive shift in the RC landscape and I can't see it ever going back.

 

Fibre Reinforced Plastics
Pretty much every RC now uses them, there was a time where they were reserved for the A-Arms of racers who didn't want to use expensive graphite arms. The drop in cost of these plastics as well as developments in the area mean we are seeing stronger and stronger cars. I mean we've all seen cars going 15+ feet in the air and landing perfectly fine, for their scale that is incredible. That wouldn't be possible without the materials and manufacturing developments that are now common place. My old AE buggy used to eat arms with a bad turn, a flip could often mean a broken shock tower, now I don't even flinch. 

The Internet 

Forums like MSUK create a community that drive the hobby forward. We can search the web for answers to our RC questions, places to meet and local groups. I stumbled across RC by accident as a child with my dad when a village hall was double booked on the day of my birthday for my party with 5 or 6 guys carpet racing. The exposure the internet allows, the driving down of prices and the general access it gives the consumer drives the hobby. We all buy from Modelsport, Hobby King, AsiaTees, Dollar Hobbyz to name a few....In fact the last RC I bought came from Switzerland. It allows RC brands to works faster and more efficiently. I know it's not specially just an RC thing but it really can't be overlooked. It is where our main community lives. I mostly drive on my own, but I am never alone as I know there is a community out there that is really awesome. A hobby is nothing without the people. 

[turok007]

if you started the hobby a long time ago then the best thing was BEC

[mond]

On 1/26/2016 at 3:24 AM, RCbutcher said:

Dogs danglies. 

 

Argos. That's the only place I knew of hobby grade as a kid. I begged and begged but only got wired rcs. Obviously that had life long damage.  Now ther like pokemon gotta get all. 

 

I see your Argos and I raise you a Beatties (RIP)

[NG15]

The burning of all nitro models. Oh wait that hasn't happened just yet :L