The strange thing is I collect alot of things now which I didn´t like in the past. Not related to ESC only.
But they are a part of the history..
But they have to have a reason to collect them.
For sure there are items also which I had in the past and don´t want to have again ... for a reason.
Regarding ESC, I made my own ESC since 1978. Right for the first car, which actually was intended as a testbed for making an ESC for the early R/C electric flight model.
For this reason I choose a Mardave 1/12 because the aluminium chassis could act as a heatsink. The PCB board was mounted than at the area replacing the original MSC.
I remember the RC12 was available at the same time but I thought this car can´t be good because of the fibreglass chassis ...
The Mardave with the aluminium chassis should be better ...
A couple of weeks later I attended my first race. The ESC was working pretty good, but I wasn´t the champion driver i thought of. And the car was a nightmare comparing with the RC12 or BoLink car of other drivers.
Well my ESC was completely open frame, no heatshrink or anything.
The next one got a small aluminium case which I still might have, similar to the early CS ESC but a bit shorter length.
https://classicrc.wordpress.com/esc-electronic-speed-control/cs-electronic/car-speed-super/
All of my ESC´s later got the heatshrink.
Now I have a couple of vintage ESC´s in heatshrink but the majority wear a case.
And I can´t say I prefere the heatshrink ones because regarding the cased ones there are Demon 2, Delta, early Tekin Mospower, Victor, Corally, the first LRP etc.