Classic RC car from our childness! back to the 80' !!

[Doctorbass]

I was searching on ebay for some NEMA 6-20R receptacle and as usual there was some featured suggestions on teh sid eof the page and i saw one of my very dirst RC car !! Oh man!! that was like a nice flashback!!

I immediatly began to search for more o fthose that i had.

Like many of you guys my favorite catalogue was the RADIO-SHACK catalog !!

This begin in 1984 when i began to read every pages carefully and dreaming about buying every of those fantastic gadgets and thinking for my next birtday or christmas gift!! lol

That was also a great time !!.. back to 80' guys !!

Onw of my great passion was the RC.

This began one day when in class i was about 7 years old.. and this was a special day where our teacher had asked us to bring with us our favorite toy.

I brang with my my 200 in one electronic project kit... I remember i did most of the project many times...

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1985/h154.html hey guys if you ever visit this link.. .please comeback to teh thread on E-S :lol: I know you will be addicted to take a look to all these great pages of souvenir !!

BUT !!! there was a guy that had with him this fantastic CRAZY "FAST" RC dune buggy from TYCO.. he powered it ON and it ran so fast on the class floor !!! i was like.. freeze in place... .. that was just incredible!!!

That RC car was: the Tyco Turbo Hopper !!! only 73$... and required 8 AA battery and one 9V for the control...

This was what instantanously created my RC buggy addiction!!!


I also wanted one like that !!!


I have asked for these for the next christmas, but our great parent dont necessarely give us exactly what we dream of!! :lol: so i received this one:

Well.. it was not like i have imaginated... lol.. the performances was ok.. but nothing extraorinary..... I have to say i was a bit disapointed... but i enjoyed it a bit at least... this was better than nothing!


Then at my birthday i received the great 4 X 4 SCX10 truck again from Radioshack ! This one had two speed gearbox and was really high torque !! I was not able to beat the speed of the turbo hopper above but it was really amazing on offroad condition and mud and snow!!

Than a few years later it was time for more serious toy !! My father and me went to an event of RC racing !!!



That was the summum of my excitation!!!

I was all these very fast RC that was also looking alot more quality and powerfull than the radioshack i knew until now!!

So we visited this great TOY store in Quebec that is called "Passe-temps 3000"... translation: hobby 3000 at the Place Laurier super shopping center, the biggest in Canada in that time with 350 store inside.

And i saw all these RC buggy kit, the same cars that i saw in the Race... Kyosho, Tamia, Team associated, etc...

but the price !!! ouch !!
I had really not the required budget for that!!

Thit triggered me to make a budget and better manage my money! I had calculated that i would needed 600$ to buy the entire kit and i was only 11years old.

I took 3 years !! to accumulate all the money by selling some of my toys, asking for money at my birtday and christmas, and recycling hundreds of kilo of empty glass bottle and bear and soda can to get money by taking them back to the grossery because each one was giving me 5, 10 or 25 cent for each one...

Every time i watched the accumulated money in my bank i was closer and closer to the goal !! that was a very great motivation and an excellent way to learn how to manage properly my money.

then... After 3 years!!! that was time !! 8)

I remember that the day before i was not able to sleep!! i was imaginating me coming back to the RC store and choose every parts one by one... i the next morning i had to go to school and .. it was just insane !! I haz ZERO CONCENTRATION.. What the teacher was saying in class was like saying bla bla bla ... lol
Then there was the dinner at the restaurant and FINALLY we went to the Passe temps 3000 store!

After like an hour of hesitation between the clodbuster from Tamiya, the Samurai and the RC-10 from Team associated i decided to keep the last one, the RC-10!! it wond many world champ race and thai was enough to convince me! lol... It also had real oil shock ! and differential and alunimum frame !! that was an entire new world compare to the plastic molded radioshack !! 8)

I also bought the futaba Attack remote control and 2 7.2V Nicad and a 15 minutes fast charger and some paint fo rthe buggy shell.

I played years with it!!

one of my friend became addicted because of me.. it was like contagious around me!! also got one but he bought the Golden Arrow from Radio shack.

This one had absolutly no speed control precision.. it was RELAY that was activating the motor !!! lol... every time it pushed the handle on teh remote the rear tire was spinning very quickly! This RC car was quicker than my RC 10 on teh start... but it was taking few foot to my RC-10 to catch him and loose him in a cloud of dust !!

Here is the golden Arrow :

That was really great time!!

Than when few years later we was playing harder with thjem and installed butane torche on the back of them to show big flames like reactors... lol... the plastic Golden Arrow nearly completly burned lol...

During one winter i had installed ski instead of wheels on the front.. just like my E-trike today !

Oh.. ! and i remmeber i also replaced the rear wheel propulsion by a giant 8" propeller to the Leman spare motor i had. To find the right power spot i tuned the timming of it by rtating the brush holder.. I also rewound it according to a CAR ACTION magazine that i was following...


But TODAY !! i discovered that on ebay there is a Classic RC-10 Limited release from 1984, the same years mine was built at !!

http://www.teamassociated.com/cars_and_trucks/RC10_Classic/RC10_Classic_Kit/


Damn!!! that is endless guys !! :lol:


What was yours ?


Doc

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

Thxs for this topic, the RC-10 from Team associated was a dream car!
I have had few low cost ones before having a 1/10 TAMIYA ASTUTE
(sorry generix pics I have no picture of mine)

it was an overcomplicated car with its adjustable slipping differential and a lot of adjustment features which mostly ended in lot of plays all over,
and I better forget the cash I dropped in that thing, as a kid it was all the Pocket money going in there
Later on TAMIYA did the super astute which was a simplified version, but I was broke already
Loads of fun and got some buddies joining the RC bug, the trend at that time was along the monster truck fever

Later on, I got an Anderson MB4 1/18 buggy, which is an exact scaled down 1/8 buggy so very robust

I upgraded to brushless with a 20A ESC 3s battery and a 5200kV motor : speed is crazy with 200W is such small vehicle
...but OK, I wasn't a smal child anymore

 

[Lebowski]

I didn't have all that, I had a simple one (very early 80-ies ) that went forward in a straight line and followed a clockwise arc in reverse.
But I had it with a lot more volts to make it fast, so at a certain point I managed to achieve what all RC car enthusiasts aim for: to
chase the cat all over the house and to scare it sensless

it had only one button for control: press once and hold for forward, twice fast and hold for reverse...

 

[amberwolf]

I never had any of those...all I had was the original US version of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak
back in the early 1980s I think it was.

Was nifty, but took lots of patience to program it to do things, cuz it didn't have a control you could hold and "learn" it from.

At the time I had no idea how much my mom had given up of her own stuff to get us kids things like that (cuz we were pretty poor, even compared to other poor people in our county in farm country)...I don't think any of it really sunk in until she died almost 10 years ago now.

 

[Drunkskunk]

All I wanted for Christmas in 1984 was a Tamya Hornet. There were light, fast, and while they would lose to an RC-10 on a track, they were faster across lawns, dirt roads, and fields where the low slung RC-10s got hung up on every bump, clump, and pinecone they hit. Most of the older kids in my neighborhood had one or the other, and I wanted to join the fun.

What I got instead was the Grasshopper. Learning to say thank you when your childhood dreams have just been crushed and trampled should be a prerequisite for any diplomatic job. it was the hardest thing I had ever done up to that point in my life. I was devastated. While the grasshopper shared some of the parts with the Hornet, it was heavier, had less than half the power, and was missing some of the features that made the Hornet an RC-10 killer.

I tried to be brave, but the first time I showed up at the park with a Grasshopper and tried to play with the older kids, I got shoved to the ground and pinned while some of the older kids jumped on my Grasshopper. Any childish RC dreams I left that weren't crushed on Christmas morning were being crushed literately in front of me.

Almost.

But it also made me mad, and that gave me resolve to do something about it.

Since I had to rebuild my car, and it had to come out of my allowance (My parents blamed me for the car's destruction), I spent many hours in the RC shops talking to the reps, and hours more at home reading every RC magazine and sales brochure I could get my hands on. I researched everything I could, and then started buying parts. The Hornet shared enough parts with the Grasshopper that converting it wasn't hard, just expensive from a kid's perspective. But there were also many upgrades available. Ceramic bearings, higher powered motors, lightened and strengthened parts. And also a few articles on how to race prep the Hornet. Various modifications and setups that improved the way it worked. Minor things kids my age wouldn't likely do, but the racers did.

It took all spring, mostly because I was earning the money a nickle at a time, but when I was done I had rebuilt the grasshopper into a Super Hornet. Every single part had been upgraded or modified. It was running 8.4volt batteries on a high powered tunable motor, all ceramic bearings, special gears that let me run larger diameter tires for more clearance, most steel screws replaced with nylon or aluminum, most non structural parts drilled for lightness, high powered metal geared servo, a digital throttle, and real oil filled aluminum body adjustable shocks just to name a few highlights. But instead of the Hornet body, I decided to be a troll. I'd gotten a lightweight Grasshopper body to replace the heavy original. Now when I showed up at the park, I ran circles around the other kid's cars. I never told them what I had, and I wouldn't let them get a close look at it. It was technically still a Grasshopper, so that's all I would tell them about it. Only my closest friend knew what I was running, and he wasn't telling either.
I kept that one car all through my childhood and even my Teen years. It got even better as time when on, and I even raced it in organized events. I made a lot of friends through RC, and had a lot of good times. I think the trials I went through getting started, though, helped shape who I became later in life.

I wish I still had it, but I gave it away when I went into the Air Force. Tamya has re-released it, and I'm considering getting one again, but I'm not sure it would be the same. Some things are just better when they stay a fond memory.

 

[flathill]

Isn't it funny how we all share the same experiences and it has lead us to ebikes? We've always know EV's rule and just can't understand how other are so blind.

I bet you love The Goonies and Rad too

I also had a Grasshopper I upgraded. The frame cracked after a huge jump so I melted a coat hanger into it for reinforcement. Never broke again.

 

[Doctorbass]

Isn't it funny how we all share the same experiences and it has lead us to ebikes? We've always know EV's rule and just can't understand how other are so blind.

I bet you love The Goonies and Rad too

I also had a Grasshopper I upgraded. The frame cracked after a huge jump so I melted a coat hanger into it for reinforcement. Never broke again.

lol.... The Goonies, Back to the future, Ghostbusters, Indiana jones, the 4th dimension, Real genius, Breakfast club... Ferris bueller day off.. The Innerspace, mad max!! the Manhattan Project (with the nuclear diy bomb science fair project!)

many of these movies was having BIG lasers, speakers, high voltage and RC cars...



Doc

 

[litespeed]

Brings back memories.....my first was R/C was a Bolink Digger which was a 6cell battery and motor...super cool for the times in the late 70's.

After that in the early 80's I got a Tamiya Sand Scorcher which was the baddest as car I had ever seen.

After I got out until I got married in late 80's early 90's and got a Traxxas Hawk which I turned into a Blue Eagle, Kyosho USA 1, Agitator Pan Car with a Ready Mr. M or L motor (I forget!) 65 mph 7 cell electric, MRC Thunder King (bigger than 8th scale!) and then kinda got bored when I got my last R/C car a Traxxas E-Maxx. I have always been 100% electric and never wanted more.

I've since switched to helicopters and a team pilot for Synergy helicopters.

Tom

P.S. I have everything still minus the Bolink Digger, my brothers got a hold of it after I left home.....nuff said.

 

[DAND214]

You guys make me laugh.
While you guys were playing with RC cars I was selling them! Started a Hobby shop in 83 made a lot of money on RC and lost a lot later.
Did my own battery testing and matching. For the shop and TOWER HOBBIOES
which eventually put a lot of shops out of business.
Rc cars was the biggest thing I had. Started a Rc car club, got a track from the park district. Boy that was a great time, money and fun. I didn't just sell them I raced with everyone else. Not many knew I was blind and when they kicked my ass I said, get you next week. Made a fair amount of money and lost it all when the Mail order took over.

I still have my Associated TC3. Brushed motor with 6 cell NiCads. Indoor carpet racing. Started with 12th scale. We went all over to race.
Every year a bunch of us would travel to Cleveland for a 4 day race.
I wasn't home on Thanksgiving, I was racing!! Every year we went it snowed, never missed, maybe not at home but it sure did somewhere on the way. One year we went it snowed so bad my buddy/driver had to turn his headlights off to see, it was snowing so bad.

Later in the season we would go to Grand Rapids for another race, That was usually pro bowl weekend. That was also usually a real snow storm. Boy were we stupid, 95mph in a blinding snow storm.

So Doc, you need any parts for a Vintage RC 10? I still have boxes of parts. Associated and Losi, boxes of pinion gears, all 1/8", not what they use today.

Yes RC was fun and you guys were kids my kids were in High school and College. It just shows, WE NEVER GROW UP!

Dan

 

[Dauntless]

I just like 'Childness.' I looked it up, never expecting it was a real word.

I had the brother working at a radio control store. So there was a cheap car that came in with a Corvette body, suddenly we had a bunch of them in the family. Another brother, a socalled adult, busted up his then came over to the house and took a bunch of parts off mine. Didn't succeed at fixing his but he ruined mine.

So on a nephew's birthday, I'm shooting as he gets ready to blow out the candles. He'd already opened the RC off road with tracks---uh, BUGGY and was playing with it, so the whole thing is caught on tape as he put it on the table next to the cake, (pointing at the cake) put the controller down with the light on, as his little sister picked up the controller and started playing it unnoticed by anyone or anything other than the recording I was making. As the buggy ran right into and over the cake and tore it all up. . . .

 

[Hillhater]

Ahhh ! Early RC cars.
Back in the '70's I Had some crap "Riko" 1/12 scale Porsche 959 that ran on C size alkaline ....
Then in 1980 bought one of the first Tamiya Sand Scorchers that were released at a trade show in London.
that was a real "scale" model with all metal suspension, shocks, etc.
Many , many, mods ..motor upgrades, high capacity cells , ESC ( remember the servo wiper 3 speed control ?), etc etc.
Raced it, wrecked it, rebuilt it, many times.....
...and I still have it !

 

[markz]

Old school is good, but I am into the scale model offroad RC's!

 

[Bison_69]

I used to have the Tamya "Hornet"
it was so fun just assembling it and go for test drive... such great moments.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QsIXzMRXLI
http://www.TamiyaBase.com

Here is a link for you guys interested nostalgic in Vintage Radio-Shack Catalogs...
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

Also Classic Popular Mechanics...
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/