What's the philosophy behind your R/C collection?

[TooOldForThis]

I'm interested to know what determines the size and contents of your R/C collection.

For example, my story: I'm in my mid 30's with some disposable income and I got back into R/C a couple years ago because of the great-looking scale vehicles that weren't as common when I left the hobby 5 years earlier. After that, I got a couple Tamiya re-releases for the sake of nostalgia. Fast-forward to today and I'm closing in on 10 vehicles and having a great time with it, but also looking at them on shelves and wondering why a full-grown man has so many toys, and where will it stop?! :lmao:

So the main philosophy I've settled on to control my collection is VARIETY. No more than one of the same car. One monster truck, one trail truck, one trophy truck, one drift car, etc. The idea is each vehicle should give a different experience (when building, driving, or both) and is therefore justifiable to own. It's not perfect because I'm already getting some overlap and it's easy to find loopholes in my own system. 8)

So what's your philosophy? Do you try to stay at a maximum number of vehicles? How do you decide what to buy and what to sell? Or do you just say "screw it, life is short" and swipe the credit card while R/Cs fill up every room in your house? :lmao:

 

[CREEPERBOB]

No philosophy here, just a hobby.
I like to do stuff, I grow exotic succulents in my greenhouse, enjoy big Harleys and dig my RC's. "thumbsup"
Bob

 

[OldNTired]

No master plan for me either. Other than don't get yelled at by the wife for spending too much money.
I started with the go fast trucks but after about 5 years I found that I'm drawn more toward crawling and scale trucks now. I like having multiple rigs of the same flavor so my friends who don't own RCs can still hang out and drive.

 

[Alexander_0_1]

I don’t have a...philosophy about my toys. I buy based on the terrain where my house is located, that alone limits what can be called my “collection”. I don’t mind overlapping. At one point I had 4 hpi savage x monster trucks (converted 3 to spare parts). Currently I have 15 running R/Cs, a few that aren’t running due to them being discontinued (5 to be exact), and 2 Traxxas R/Cs that deliberately leave off my list (brushless 1/16 revo, and a NIP 4x4 slash ultimate my mom bought me for my birthday) I’m not the biggest Traxxas fan.

 

[Cpyonker]

As a 15 year old with practically no disposable income and looking to buy my first car.
So I keep it to one car and try to sell it for more then I paid for it.


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[ThatJeeper2017]

I probably have the smallest collection with 5 rcs including a Wraith, Scx10, Scx10 II, Traxxas Slash, and Tamiya grasshopper(which is what got me into this) and I plan to get a TRX-4 and maybe build some sort of comp style crawler.


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[TooOldForThis]

I like having multiple rigs of the same flavor so my friends who don't own RCs can still hang out and drive.

Good point, I've been thinking about getting one for the purpose of "guest use". Something fun and durable and not too expensive.

As a 15 year old with practically no disposable income and looking to buy my first car.
So I keep it to one car and try to sell it for more then I paid for it.

I've been there. Back in the day I'd move the same tired set of electronics from one chassis to the next and rarely had more than one at the same time.

Good stuff guys, keep it coming "thumbsup"

 

[Nastyman211]

My philosophy... hmm. I guess it would be: “If it looks sick, get it and make it better. If it’s discontinued, find one and hunt for parts to make it sick.” Lol!!
I just like to break things apart and rebuild them, which I’m sure all of us do. I don’t have any of the same rigs, but I do enjoy building of the same type. If that makes sense.

-Cheers!!
NastyMan


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[OSRC]

I love this hobby, have for 25+ years strong. Something about these tiny cars and trucks just piques my interest. I love the engineering that goes into them, the ability to mod and customize, and ..well, I don't know- wish I could put it into words better than that.

As far as what drives my collection, anything that catches my eye really. Scale doesn't matter, genre doesn't matter. It's not uncommon just to buy something, build/restore it, and just put it on display somewhere and stare at it. Marveling at the design. Back in the nitro days, I was running all the time, now I get more out of the hobby building and restoring. The scale/crawler part came in when the TLT was first released, and I've stuck with it since. But I still like buggies, vintage, touring, and even still keep a few nitros around. Over the past few weeks for example:

• Picked up a Bigwig Re-re just to play with the rack and pinion steering. Very cool build.
• Rebuilt and modded a Kyosho Mantis EP as it's a very unique design
• Rebuilt 3 crawlers from the ground up into something different just because I like to build.
• Modded a Konghead into a trail rig just as it was something different.
• Been sourcing parts to rebuild a Tamiya Evo III I picked up super cheap. Tracking down the parts is 1/2 the fun.
• Started a little project to combine an Exo and Yeti into something that actually handles.
• Finally started finishing my TA/CC01 hybrid drift car that's been sitting here for ages
• Roamed around the backyard with my daughter's Kumamon buggy...380 power baby! Chased by my Wild One.

Never know what's going to be on the workbench on any given week....but I guarantee something will be on it.

 

[redemon]

I started in this hobby around 15 years ago and bought a used Emaxx and loaded it with aluminum parts. Had fun for a while.
Sold it to help build my show car at that time.

Around 2009 I bought a Mini Revo (miss that thing), and a Losi MRC, and some other mini stuff.
Sold all that to fund my Autocross project.

Black friday 2016 I bought the Deadbolt, Tower had it for a very low price.
Then it began. At one point I had like 12 trucks.
I have sold a bunch.
Built myself a class 2 truck and gave my other trucks to my daughter and step son.
Bought my other step son a ax10 to play around with.
Building a course at my house for local comps.
I have shifted my personal business from working on cars to selling and repairing R/C vehicles.
So its kinda taken over everything really. Lol. And im ok with that.

 

[ussprinceton2004]

for me, its all about being scale. The more scale it is, the better

 

[lonleycreeper]

I cannot afford to do it in full scale, so I do it in miniature.

I would love to own multiple trucks, in full scale, but $300-$400 is a lot more affordable than $50,000+

 

[JatoTheRipper]

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.

A little while after I bought my SCX10 I gave my dad a Dingo kit for Christmas. He built it, came crawling with me and he's been hooked pretty bad ever since. RC has brought us closer for sure because we trail together and discuss RC even more often. He upgraded the Dingo a lot over the years and he even bought a few more RCs. RC is such a great family hobby.

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

 

[tuanies]

I go with whatever I think is cool and lean towards scale vehicles.

Started with an SCX10, tried out a drift car and wasn't into it, then got an SCX10.2, Yeti, Arrma Nero, TRX-4 and the Gelande 2 1/18 is my latest addition. I keep 1/10 and larger for outside play and the small 1/18 for inside. But mostly, I enjoy building and modding.

 

[WHITE-TRASH]

Fun of course. I've owned easily 100 rigs in the last nearly 30 years in the hobby and that's the whole point of it, fun. I'm down to 2 running rigs right now and a few needing repair but what I have is pretty much top shelf performance not blingtanium shiny junk.

 

[magic_yeti]

My collection started with a re-release froggy, that i bought at a 'going out of business sale' at a local lhs. my wife send me to cause i need parts for my lanier u2 glider (birthday gift of the wife laying 10 year in the basement) to convert it to e-glider (still on going).:mrgreen:
Now i have incl. the old ones of my brother:
Tamiya Frog 2015 ed.
Axial Yeti (little monster)
AX10 scorpion (little betty - saved from the bay)
TRX-4 (Trex)
og Graupner Bigfoot (from the 80)
og Kyosho Buggy (also from the 80)

Most important to get a new one is the approval of my wife:mrgreen:
If i ever will sell one no clue, as well no idea what will be next one. i think finishing the started projects but who knows.
The new electronic possibilities hooked me up, and i like building and tinkering. a good balance to my job."thumbsup"

Besides i rebuild my old Graupner amateur plane (1.76 ccm gas engine) and try out a robocat race drone.

 

[2mtech]

My philosophy for the hobby is more the approach than the collection itself: Keep it fresh, interesting and fun!

I have a long (very long) life history of having the attention span of a goldfish...I get interested in something, talk to people, hit the boards or forums, buy the "thing" (drag car, motorcycle, Waverunner, metal detector), buy the tools and accessories (gotta kit up), go to the events, then lose interest six months or a year in and sell everything for half what I paid for it. Shameful.

I'm three years into RC now and my excitement and interest haven't even diminished. I have to have a project of some sort to work on almost every day. The wife is into it almost as much so every weekend when it's not 100 degrees we're in the woods or the mountains trailing and making YT videos. Fun with the kids and the grand kids. I can spend eight or ten hours building or modifying and not even notice the passage of time. It's really not that expensive, compared to other things I've been into (drag racing $$$), and it keeps me off the street.

My buying philosophy is simple: If it looks cool, I buy it. Build it, run it, if I don't like it I sell it and buy something else. I have eight rigs right now, seven of which are crawlers. It's my niche...but who knows what the next thing is? Semi, tank, motorcycle, plane? There can never be too many!

 

[Shinchu]

GREAT THREAD!

really mine is the same as OP. and a little of 2mtech above me :ror: i also have the attention span of - SQUIRREL!!!

what was i saying? oh, yeah...
so i also started off like Jato, wired toy dune buggy (red fox?) then tyco stuff was huge i had a turbo hopper, NITRO hopper?, and a fast traxx thing, even a hovercraft! i really miss seeing nice stuff from tyco at toys R us. that glass case had my nose prints all over it hahahaha
then in the 90's i stepped into the world of hobby grade when i got a blackfoot. :shock: might still have it in a box at my mom's somewhere...
if not i'd love another one.

so just like my other dozen or so hobbies, the saying "they're like tattoos, you cant just get ONE." holds very true for RC also.

i got into RC Drifting around 2007 (i have also drifted 1:1 so they relate) still have my drift rigs and recently dusted them off in the non crawler thread. still not running yet but i'll get there...

got into the off road genre due to my father in law randomly getting a yeti. i was blown away when he let me drive it, my first exposure to brushless and 3s lipo and 2.4ghz radio.
instantly proclaimed to mrs. shinchu: I NEED ONE OF THESE. :ror:
dipped into my 1:1 funds from selling my AE86 corolla GTS fully caged drift car, and now i have a used yeti RTR with upgrades i got from ebay. i have since upgraded it even further but now I'm at a cross road of sorts. not sure if i want to keep going with it and turn it into a scale RWD trophy truck, or just sell it to fund more scale trail trucks.

brings me to where I'm at with my ascender build.
its a tribute to my late father's old 79 ford truck. his wasn't 4wd or lifted or anything. but we took it on trails to get to camping spots so that's how I'm building it (ok functional liberties like 4wd and servo winch just to make it capable) but i want it as scale accurate as possible. camper shell loaded with firewood, sleeping bags, guns and a tent. you have probably seen the thread in the ascender section. moving along pretty good with tons of help from other ascender guys. its almost running just need a servo for 2 speed trans and waiting on slow boat for my radio.

so my "philosophy" is i guess to build scale stuff that i think is cool, either having owned a real 1:1 version or always wanting one.

next on the list is either a king of hammers style 70's chevy truck (not sure if ascender or something with leafs?)
or maybe get the drift cars running including a RWD conversion of my TT01, and...

[*]Finally started finishing my TA/CC01 hybrid drift car that's been sitting here for ages

:shock:
SHOW ME MORE!
i was planning to do a solid axle RWD AE86 build using a CC01 base!
or just copy a chassis plate from a RWD drifter (MST) and put a yota axle out back somehow.


so yeah, in closing, my philosophy is to just build whatever i think would be cool, sorta unique, even if i have to custom fab some stuff. that's what is fun for me. I've always been a tinkering kind of nerd. building custom lightsabers, customizing action figures, so RC is really right in the same area with electronics, plastic, metal, and paint.

moving into my new house soon, nice 3 car garage with plenty of room for an RC bench. after i settle in and i get some gift cards for the holidays... i think i should be able to churn out some pretty awesome stuff! "thumbsup"

oh and almost forgot my 9 y/o son is into RC now, big time. we got him a barrage and he LOVES IT! he cant wait for me to work on the drift cars, i think he will get my old associated TC3. i have plans to build a modular track on my back patio slab. and a backyard trail along the back fence elevated planter. "thumbsup"

 

[cartronicshn]

I have no plan or idea...:mrgreen:, just buy more rc cars and drones as $ allows for them, my first rc car i was 7 i think, it was a corded rc and i loved it, soon after i had a 57 chevy cox line car, and three wheeled bike, who can forget those .049 engines?8), then i mail order through Sears in Honduras an rc van, a sailplane also, when i turned 13 i bought my first real rc, a tamiya hornet, and i was hooked, i bought a few rc , kyosho ultima, turbo optima, blackfoot , og hilux , etc then i went to college in Miami back in 83, i went crazy when i bought my tamiya hilux :mrgreen:, i dropped out rc cars for a few and started flying rc planes in 1995, dropped out of that quickly, and returned in 2004 to rc and into crawling in 2006 full force, i have been lucky enough to keep in my stable the og hornet and hilux, i have 36 rc cars at the momento, plus a couple of drones, no planes at the moment, so i keep buying rc cars, who knows for how long......8)

 

[TooOldForThis]

What a great read! Its surprising how many of these posts I relate to. Especially:

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?

YES I REMEMBER THOSE! They were the worst, but somehow that didn't stop younger me from racking up some serious miles on them.

tyco stuff was huge i had a turbo hopper, NITRO hopper?, and a fast traxx thing, even a hovercraft! i really miss seeing nice stuff from tyco at toys R us. that glass case had my nose prints all over it hahahaha

YES! That Tyos R Us glass case is probably the #1 reason I'm in the hobby today. And I loved Tyco! Man, that's back when toy-grade R/C didn't have to mean terrible.

Very interesting to see I'm not the only one who came back to the hobby after leaving it for awhile. For me it was in my late 20's and I assumed I'd be done with it for good. I must have outgrown the hobby finally, I thought. Nope! After settling down in a relationship the interest came back in a big way. Now I'm here, wondering if my collection might be getting too big. It's crazy, but I'm glad I'm not the only one.