Ah good ol' Phil-o and Sophy.
Ever since I was a kid remote controlled vehicles grabbed my interest. I started on toys that had wires connecting the controller to the vehicle. My dad purposely bought those in order to force me to walk to try to get my exercise tolerance up. Mine was low as a kid due to a health issue. I hated when he bought those wired toys, but now I understand why he did it.
Then I moved up to the kind where you had forward and you had turning one direction in reverse. You had one button. Plus, you couldn't be more than a couple of feet away or you'd lose single on the AM radio. Do you guys remember those? As kids we sure had it rough! :lmao:
Eventually my father bought some used Tamiya Frogs from his brother for himself. That Christmas when I was in 2nd grade, I got a shiny, new Tamiya Hornet kit. My dad and I built that together and I have very fond memories there. I had built plastic models as a kid so I loved building this kit with him. It was a model that moved and one that I could play with. And then I drove that thing constantly and beat on it to no end. I still have it, but I haven't driven it since the 90's.
Then I got out of RC for years. That aformentioned health issue was fixed. I was a new person - shot out of a cannon. I went to college and got into bigger toys like four wheelers, motorcycles, sports and of course a little bit of partying and the ever so popular girls. Once my friends started getting tied down, which I had no desire to do, I found my way back to RC. I bought an RTR Jato 3.3 (hence the nickname) and that reignited my passion of RC. I went from a Jato 3.3 to a Revo 3.3 and some minis. I also bought an HPI Baja 5T and went racing 1/5th scale with a friend. What really ignited my passion was meeting a couple of cool guys on this site. They were getting into trailing with scalers and they were so into it that they started building a course at a local hobby shop. I stopped by, met them, and the rest is history. That night I went home and ordered an SCX10 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited kit and the required electronics. I built that and ran it a bunch and then I kept buying more scalers and that hasn't stopped.
I'm somewhere over 30 RCs into the hobby. A lot of them don't get used anymore, but I have a tough time parting with things especially when people don't like to pay fair prices. I'll keep them before I sell them at half price.
I think this hobby is the longest lasting and most addictive, for me, because it involves engineering (I'm a mechanical enginner by trade), building with your hands (building models and working on 1:1 cars with my father nurtured this), and then you can get out and test them out in the real world. Sort of like real cars, but much cheaper and much easier. And now 3D printing and the ability to design and 3D print my own parts and accessories added another fun factor.
I own RCs from 1/36th scale up to 1/5th scale. These days I mostly bash with AR60 based monter trucks and trail with any of my scalers, but I have raced 1/5th scale, 1/10th short course, 1/10th buggy, and I even dabbled in 1/10th Mudboss for a race.
It's a great hobby! :mrgreen:
My current interests are:
-Building a TF2
-Constantly modifying my Axial SMT10 Grave Digger
-Upgrading an AX10 Monster Deadbolt
-Always evolving Ascender
-Two Sawbacks that get a lot of use and not much love
-A newfound love of on-road because of my trailing friends
-Looking for a new kit to build
