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What was your first real RC experience, not necessarily your first car? Did you visit a shop and check out cars, did a friend give you a drive of his new car, did you see someone playing with a one in the park?


I used to chase the seagulls on the Santa Cruz wharf as a wee youngin' with a Nikko Turbo Panther and my dad had been thinking about getting me a better car.

One day at the Shoreline Amphitheatre there was a guy running a gas stadium truck (an early RC10GT I assume) in the parking lot. We stopped and my dad asked the guy if I could have a drive. I distinctly remember dad telling the guy "it's ok, he wont crash it". Reluctantly the guy handed the controller over as I must have been only 6 years old at the time. Needless to say the the gas truck was the first real rc car that I had ever driven........ and no I didn't crash it

Next Christmas there was a shiny new RC10 under the Christmas tree.

Cool story! I'm trying to be that kind of dad for my 7 year old son. He likes driving, but I'm trying to get him into more of the taking care of and at least minor repair aspect before I lay out the cash for his own vehicle...he's getting close I think.
My first real exposure to RC was in about '80, '81, in the parking lot of a local department store. My mother was inside shopping, and I stayed outside to watch a few guys run their electric RC's in the lot. One of them had some type of pan car (like I knew how to ID them way back then - and that thing was FAST), and he kept running it up to the automatic doors - they'd open, and he'd run it inside and come out the other doors. The other guys thought this was a hoot until the manager came out and bitched at them and they left.
The next year, I got my first RC for Christmas.

I think is was around the summer of '85, my family went to the beach in Washington state. There was this little hobby shop right near the water with a small track in front of it where you could rent a Tamiya grasshopper. My dad and I both raced one and I was hooked! I loved seeing all the parts hanging on the walls of the hobby shop and the owner showed me his work bench where he maintained the rental cars. I thought it was so awesome. I saved every cent I could and the next summer I bought a Grasshopper with a Kyosho Pulsar radio.

About a year after that my family went to the local parade. Before the parade, there was a guy racing his car around on the street in front of everyone. It was the fastest RC car I had ever seen! My dad and I went to talk to the guy and see what his car was. He said it was an RC10. And I knew I had to have one! The rest is history.

I was 16 and she was a 28 year old English teacher... Oh wait, I misread the topic. Sorry...

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:I was 16 and she was a 28 year old English teacher... Oh wait, I misread the topic. Sorry...

That was RC, not BD experience!

Optima / Cat / Bigbear

those were my first "real" rc experiences, my grandfather owned them and my earliest memories I can recall are those cars

my first RC Car was Jet Hopper, then an Ultima a few years later

I am enjoying these stories.
I began in 87 with a Nikko Mascot for Xmas. I still have it (in pieces) and have plans to "restore" it one day. I simply drove it. Everywhere and as often as possible. The rechargeable AAs and the charger would kill me, though, since I'd have to wait 12 hours for a full charge. I loved the "Turbo" on the controller. It made me feel like a rebel every time I used it. I wore out tires and a gearbox on that beast. For Xmas in 88 I got my Clodbuster. It took us a week to build it, and another week to finish the body. After my Dad and I each smashed it through the glass terrarium for my hermit crab, I got very good at driving it and I found all the best jumps in the neighborhood. Near the end of 89, but before Xmas, my Uncle came down to visit. He, my Dad and I went to the LHS. I don't remember anything leading up to it, or anything after it, but I remember it was a race day, Saturday. My Uncle brought a car for me to race. It was my cousin's Tamiya Falcon, converted to oval, with a late model style body, that was either white with pink polka dots or vice versa. I didn't care. It was glorious to race it! That hooked me, full line and sinker. That Xmas in 89 I got my Jrx2. "I wish there was a way to tell that you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them." -Andy Bernard

Some pretty cool stories so far...

matt1ptkn wrote: I loved the "Turbo" on the controller.

Mine had the turbo too. I absolutely loved the thing and drove the hell out of it as a kid.

of course I had a few of the forward straight/reverse turn cheapy rc cars/toys, they were always fun.

my dad had this old rc car (wish I still had it) it was a pantera or something, proportional steering control, took D batteries, the controller was a red box that had a steering wheel on it. i think forward and reverse were on a slide switch.

fast forward a few years, my cousin had a kyosho pegasus that was pretty much dumped in the box and not working. we used to stay over his house a bunch of times and vs versa, so I took it out of the box the one day and said 'hey, whats wrong with this?', it was soo cool with the lexan body and body clips and 6 cell SC battery! added fresh batteries and gave it a once over, and we took it out for a test drive, and I was hooked.

later that year or some time thereafter, my brother and I got brand new grasshoppers with full gear at christmas. from there it's kinda blurry with horse trades, and building my own stuff (material was cheap, rc parts were not). had in no particular order or fashion some hornet parts, a frog, various bits of a lunchbox, and finally an rc10.

Back in the early 80's, I watched some guy at a nearby mall doing stunts with a nicely detailed Wild Willy in front of the hobby shop. Thinking about it now, the stunts were probably pretty lame but I was hooked anyway. But the car itself... wow, expensive... but you had to put it together! Or how I thought about it (and still do), you were able to assemble it from a kit! Fantastic!

I never got one but it was the catalyst for my love of RC cars, Tamiya kits especially.

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:I was 16 and she was a 28 year old English teacher... Oh wait, I misread the topic. Sorry...

I was expecting a story about that time at band camp.....

Any kind of Rc experience?

I grew up with my Dad and Grandpa did planes, Glow/sail. so i have so many memories of being at the cliffs in Laguna beach Cali flying, being chased out by the police. Remember they would try top fly as close to the water down below ( i think this was over PCH to) a wave catching someones plane. Tustin Airbase flying every Sunday. (there are pictures of me in diapers at the flying field and with my pops planes. back in 77/78

First car one o can think of was going by a hobby shop with my pops and uncles. I can not tell you where or what, but want to say 79-82 era and was a parking lot race of 1/8th scale, (i think 1/12th electric also).

WE use to always go to the score shows (and downtown long beach used to have a AMA or so show every year. I remember my Uncle saying he was going ot ge the Wild Willy when it was released, (not the 2000 the original Wild Willy)

My Grandpa passed in 79, but we still have free flight planes he built in the 60's . My dad and uncles were not even allowed to buy a boxed kit for their first plane. The bought plans, and had to cut all their wood then build the plane. Then there next plane was allowed to be a kit of a box of pre_cut wood. Which today is still rare.

So I had an interesting introduction to RC...

I was probably around 11-12'ish and was watching TV and came across an episode of Punky Brewster where they were racing RC cars on a track and was instantly hooked. Begged my Dad to take me to a hobby shop to look at the cars and pleaded my case as to why I just had to have one. Needless to say I came home with nothing that day, but they did buy me a Monogram Lightning for my birthday that year. After many, many days and months of running the car and mostly waiting for the slow charger to charge my batteries while I consumed every RC magazine I could get my hands on, I asked for an RC10 for Christmas. Christmas '86 was good that year, probably the best Christmas I ever had.

The rest they say, is history

By the way the Internet is a magnificent thing, for those interested here is the episode of Punky Brewster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQs2he00cKs
[youtube]YQs2he00cKs[/youtube]

Our city had a small dirt track in an open dirt lot where year fairs would come into town. Big guy with sunglasses was running a Tamiya Egress at the racetrack (the only one of course). After talking and looking at his machine I was hooked, it looked way too cool.

10 minutes by bike, across from the Alpha Beta supermarket we had a standalone local hobby shop (when those were around). TQ10, RC10 and Tamiya cars on display shelf behind the counter. Parents bought me a Tamiya Vanquish which I built by myself, followed by an Egress. We need more hardware stores like Ace Hardware or Oshmans to have an RC section. Hobby shops set up like that seemed to be the LAST to go out of business in my area.

I might create a separate post on this, but any of you have success asking local fairgrounds for a plot of land for a temporary RC track?

Seeing Jerobee nitro cars race at car shows in the mid 70's, I wanted one so bad but were expensive in canada.