ElectricGuy007

The people on this forum that got me started was Sheograph, Lunchboxer, Eman77 and CustomTamiya'sforlife.
Im a Tamiya fanboy at heart but love to race loaclly with my Associated stuff.

K5YAC

Had several cheapies back in the early 80s… a couple were ok, most were junk. One in particular that I liked was a Radio Shack Audi, it was somewhat fast by department store standards, but it took like 8C batteries and could kill those in 15-20 minutes of driving. It also sat really low with minimal ground clearance, so there weren’t many places that I could drive it.

In 1985, my older brother bought a Tamiya Fox. It was by far the coolest RC car I had ever seen, and he had to BUILD it. Around that same time a friend of ours got a Tamiya Frog… that was it, my younger brother and I had to have one. I ended up getting a Tamiya Wild One with a Futaba Magnum Junior and he got the Tamiya Hornet. Both were lots of fun, but there were a couple of flaws with the Wild One that I felt could have made it really great instead of just, good. First, the hex drive axles… these things would round off and then the buggy wouldn’t go anywhere. I ordered extra sets of axles, but they all eventually rounded off, which sucked. The other was the old mechanical speed control… I know that all cars pretty much had these, but they apparently took a little more tuning and maintenance than I was able to offer because I had a hard time keeping mine adjusted just right… too lose and I was going nowhere, to tight… same story. The speed control contributed to its eventual demise as it stuck on one day at a pretty good distance away from me and before I could get to it the whole thing was in meltdown mode. Destroyed my battery, speed control and some wiring, at which point I didn’t feel like repairing it any more. I drove that car for a while and definitely learned a lot about RC cars during that time. After that I bought a Kyosho Untima… perhaps the best electric buggy I’ve ever driven. I upgraded to ball bearings, aftermarket chassis, high torque motor, several sets of tires, BEC, hi-cap battery and whatever else I could afford to do. It was a pretty hot little car, at least in my circle of friends. Unfortunately it was stolen a few years later.

It was around this time (1986 I believe) that my brothers and I got in to RC airplanes. My older brother’s first was a Balsa USA Swizzle Stik 40, mine was a Great planes PT-20 and my younger brother had a foam Cessna 172 of some sort. My brothers managed to learn to fly their airplanes while I promptly splintered mine into a million pieces. I did the same with the next couple of models, but finally approached my younger brother to help teach me what I was doing wrong. I finally learned to fly on a Great Planes Big Stik 40… what a great airplane… I’ve probably had a half-dozen of those over the years.

I kind of lost interest in RC cars as I had more interest in airplanes, and didn’t have the money to support both hobbies. From 1986 to date I’ve probably had 20-25 airplanes… several Big Stiks, Swizzle Stiks, Piper Cubs, Super Sportsters, DuraBats, AeroBats, a Global Raven, Hobbico Extra 300, etc. My current fleet consists of a Hangar 9 Arrow with a Thunder Tiger .46, a Balsa USA Swizzle Stik 40 with a Thunder Tiger .46, a Hangar 9 Ultra Stik with a Super Tiger G-90 and tuned pipe and a Great Planes Little Toni with an OS FS-Surpass .90… all driven with a mid-90s vintage Futaba 8UAF (8 super) radio.

A few years ago (2007 maybe) my younger brother decided that he would get an RC truck. A couple of friends were planning to do the same, so I chose to get a Traxxas T-Maxx with the 3.3 motor. My brother got the Traxxas Revo 3.3 and a Team Losi LSTII. These things were bas ass! We never had nitro cars when we were kids… couldn’t believe the speed and power from an out of the box RTR truck. Multi speed transmissions, brakes, reverse, wow! We drove them for a couple of months, adding a few hop up items (chassis reinforcement and skid plates), but the T-Maxx had a weak point in my opinion… the drive axles. I kept twisting them apart. One set I destroyed in less than one tank of fuel, and they weren’t exactly easy to replace. Not exactly hard, but inconvenient and a little time consuming. I don’t feel like I was overly hard on the truck… no more so than the others I was driving with. I looked at the Revo driveline and its drive axles were BEEF! I wonder why the T-Maxx wasn’t similar? For what its worth, we clocked my T-Maxx at 54mph using a Garmin eTrex Vista… my brother’s Revo did 52mph… take that Revo fans! I ultimately ended up selling my T-Maxx because I knew it would just sit as I didn’t feel like keeping drive axles on hand and having to replace them all the time.

Moving forward, I kind of hung up all of the RC hobbies in 2009 to take on a new project… building a real airplane in the experimental category. For those familiar or interested, I am building a Pietenpol Air Camper, which is a two-place wood and fabric airplane that was designed in 1929. Well, the last couple of years, my son (now 8 years old) has been wanting to fly RC. He has been flying on the simulator (Real Flight) for some time, so he appears to like and understand it. I was always of the opinion that he could fly when he learns to build them, but as he kept asking and asking, I thought… why would I discourage him from enjoying the hobby just because his skills aren’t ready for building yet? So, last year I bought him a HobbyZone Super Cub that he has actually learned to fly with. He still flies it… hand launches and lands all by himself. Good stuff. This year he is getting a HobbyZone Carbon Cub which has ailerons added. He has said that he wants to build something, but I still don’t think he’s ready to tackle a full blown airplane kit.

I’ve been thinking, what can he build that would be fun, educational and continue to build upon his interest in RC? Hey, a car! The pictures are clear and he can turn a screwdriver, so I’ll get him started on that and he’ll learn some mechanical and electrical principals. I chose to get him a Tamiya Fast Attach Vehicle, which he ought to love because he is all into Army stuff. He doesn’t have it as of this writing (a Christmas Present), but he will be shredding up the yard soon. As I recall, all of these RC hobbies are WAY more fun when you have someone else to play with, so I figured that I should get myself a car too! Although I like the looks of some of the higher end offerings, I didn’t want to make my son feel inferior or make him bored with the hobby by running circles around him, so I figured I ought to get something comparable. After a little research I discovered that they re-released the Wild One in 2012 with upgraded dogbone style drive axles and an ESC/BEC… yep, that’s the one! So I ordered one and got it built up the other day. It was just as I remembered. That pretty much covers my experience with RC… I breezed right through the airplane stuff since this thread is in the car section. A lot more can be told about my years of flying, but that is for another thread. If you would like to read my review/build notes on the Wild one, you can find that here… [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11325949/tm.htm[/link]

Thanks for reading!

Edit - I should have added that my son, while not ready to build a full RC airplane kit (IMO), he has been building model rockets for a couple of years. He does ok with them, but is still learning how critical straight fins and such are critical to stable flight. I took the same path when I was young... I started with rockets before RC and still do those once in a while too.

ElectricGuy007

Bought my first R/C back in 1988. Tamiya Blackfoot with the red chassis.

lunchie

i started out way back in 1989 with a tamiya falcon and a futaba Magnum sport controller with ESC.
I then bought a Tamiya Toyota Toms 1/12 on road car that was insanely fast back then with a technigold motor in it, but then my local club moved its on road track to a super slippery rollerskating ring and the foam tires were useless on it.

so then i bought a used Losi JRX2 short wheelbase with JRX Pro suspension. man that car was great. i still have it today but i cant find a body for it.

my futaba Magnum sport and ESC are still running to this day some 24 years later installed in my sons RERE lunchbox.

t9dragon

My Feedback: (11)

WOW..... I thought I was the only one that started out with a Tamiya Falcon. I got mine in 1985 or 1986...

VTEC_Inside

Always had a thing for RC cars.

Had both the red and black Turbo Hopper way back when, destroyed both, I think, either way long gone.

Last one was a Red Arrow from Radio Shack, stripped the living crap out of the steering servo, done....

That was ages ago. Always wanted a hobby car, finally got one last month.

I was really thinking nitro, but decided I'd be happy with electric given how far things have come since I last looked at hobby cars. I picked up a SC10 4x4 RTR (2s Brushless). I put the sway bars on it front/back, and the chassis brace. I hadn't even run it outside when I decided that I had to get my 12yr old something to 'play' with as well. Got him an ECX Torment.

I was floored when I first ran my SC10 outside. I know this is probably old hat for the regulars, but I giggled pretty hard the first time I cranked the throttle trim to max and gunned it. Little bugger squats right down on its ass and the tires let out a gentle howl as it tears out of the hole like no ones business. I don't think I'll be running it wide open regularly for a LONG time. Will probably run it limited to match the average top speed of the Torment, just so I don't turn my son off the hobby.

I was pretty impressed with the Torment as well. Biggest immediate difference was the acceleration from a standstill, and I figure it will top out at less than half the speed of the SC10, but my son is thrilled with it. Its certainly more car than I ever had. Probably just going to pick up a battery with a bit more capacity than the 1800mah NiMh it came with.

All in all we're both having a riot.

FuelCoupe

New here so first up hi to all, nice site with plenty of good info. 

poncharello420

Got into hobby grade R/C when a neighbor got a Losi JRX2 and gave me his old gold aluminum chassis RC10. I put a Stealth transmission in it and it was a decent car. Grew out of the hobby when high school started.

Around Christmas this year I picked up a cheap Radio Shack car for my dog to chase around but it was pathetic. My mom's friend was in town a few weeks back and she had her 13 year old son with her. We went out somewhere with a group of about 8 adults and and this poor kid didn't have anything to talk about so I was chatting with him and he brought up that he liked R/C cars. Told him I used to roll an RC10 and his eyes lit up and he just wouldn't stop talking for 20 minutes. Kid was a total nerd and his mom started getting mad because he kept going on and on about his car. I told his mom to be cool because the kid seemed smart and he should learn to tinker and keep focused on math because kids like him are extremely important to the future of this country. He explained LiPo battery technology and brushless motors to me and told me about the micro scale stuff and I ended up buy an RC18T2 shortly thereafter. My dog can't catch that thing!

The technology today is so advanced. The leaps and bounds are utterly amazing (my only complaint is my hands are a lot bigger now and the parts on that 18T2 are REALLY small). I remember when Traxxas came out and it was considered basically toy grade stuff - I'll probably never buy one but my heart sank when I went to the hobby shop and they had 5 million Traxxas parts and one little rack of Team Associated stuff - what the heck happened to Associated?

poncharello420

Great story - I was stunned the first time I pulled the throttle back on my first new car in over 20 years. I know just how you felt.

Sorry for going off topic, but have you considered R/C aircraft?Iused to have a Piper with a .049 Cox engine and I spent hours repairing that thing, but when I went to the hobby shop last week for the first time in like 20 years the guy working there showed me all the new electric RTF planes that are crash resistant because they're made of foam - definitely something I will want to do with my kid.

VTEC_Inside

Yeah, I was NOT prepared for what the SC10 did when I first pulled the trigger. I had tried a proper hobby car once before, and that was about 20 years ago now, a gold pan RC10 that belonged to a family friend.

I do have the 24" Protocol Helicopter you can get at Best Buy as well. All it seems to want to do is kill me though. I haven't even tried flying it in a long time.

I won't completely dismiss the idea of picking up a proper RC Heli or plane at some point, but for now I'm going to stay focused on the ground.

The RTR kits were a great deal to finally break into the hobby, but they do put me at the disadvantage of not understanding how the things went together in the first place. Had to adjust the pinion/spur spacing on my SC10 right out of the box, and had to pull apart the left rear suspension on the Torrent to get a couple rocks out from between the half shaft and lower arm so far... My comfort level has already gone up considerably, but I still have a little ways to go, particularly with the SC10, the Torment is a very simple vehicle by comparison.

I've got loads of ideas, just trying not to get ahead of myself. I see things like the 4PL and drool a bit, but....

lone_wheeler

I started in 1998 when my dad bought me a 2nd gen traxxas rustler kit 3701, futaba 2ER 2 stick radio, fast charger and 7.2v nicd pack. My fondest memories are building the kit from instructions in the evenings. I received upgrade parts for birthday presents, and bashed it through high school. I then dropped for the first two years of college, then started rebuilding for brushless, up to the current specs of the rustler in my garage.

I will admit I went through an aluminum phase, but now have it stripped down to just the upper chassis, steering, front bulkhead, and front knuckles.

My next project after college is to design a hovercraft that uses the magnum 272 transmission to turn the props, and the steering servo for directional fan control.

badboy2

My Feedback: (13)

i got my first rc when savage came out..i was helping my friend buy his rs4 .when the guy in the hobby shop dropped the savage while hes on a ladder prolly 6ft high.. dropped the sav on the floor and i cant forget how the sav fell like its nothing..a week after that i bought a terra crusher coz it was on sale but i cant get the sav out of my head so went back after a week and bought me 1!

ElectricGuy007

Bought an SC10 factory team, that didnt satify me so I bought a SC10 4wd. Now im satisfied.

Ironsidestarion

Lets see, in the early 80's my Dad bought me a radio shack little off road buggy ( peice of junk).I ran that thing to death. Then he bought me a Hornet and I started racing dirt oval against gold pan rc10's. I would finish in the top 5 most of the time against much older people ( I was around 10 ).

 Dad then got me a rc10 and a Bolink pan car and I started running carpet trioval, then got into offroad in the 90's and bought a Losi xx  buggy and loved off road. Offroad to me such a challange. The track constantly changing, rutting out, drying or over watered and the owners changing the layout. Just a constant challenge.

  I just bought a Losi 22 and getting back into the sport after being out of it for at least ten years. This brushless stuff is awsome.I'm a kit kinda guy but I bought a roller Losi 22 chasis to build.

  The Bolink I have Back in the 80's for a BD present dad got it painted 89 Monty Carlo #3 Dale Earnheart, stood in line for hours and got the windsheild signed by the Intimader himself. I haven't ran the car since.

  I'm going to get the Losi 22 going and start back racing. I'm also going to try and get a sport touring spec class started so I can race other drivers and not play the big motor, battery and tire game. I hope to talk people into a spec class.

poncharello420

Did they run the Monte Carlo in 1989 or was it the Lumina?Oh well, who cares - can you post a pick of the Bolink with the body on?Sounds awesome.

ejc34710

Got hooked at a very young age, in the mid to late 80s, playing with serveral different tyco and nikko rcs with my younger brother. I must've been around 7ish when my dad bought himself a Clod Buster when they first came out. It was so different than any rc i had ever seen. Soon after, he bought me my first "hobby grade" rc, it was called a beegle, a knockoff of a kyosho ultima i beleive. We started getting RCCA magazine every month back in the early 90s, was like pouring gas on a fire. I sold my beegle later on and got a target scotch lola indy car and a Team Losi XXT when they were first released. After that, i got a Parma Hemi Coupe (loved that car), xx cr Kinwald Edition, Traxxas Nitro Rustler (my first nitro), Tmaxx, and 2 HPI nitro rs4s, a racar, and a racer 2. Raced on-road for a couple years then decided to sell off all my rc stuff back around 2002. Couple years later, my dad decided to buy me an rc airplane for x-mas, i was around 21 years old. Got hooked again, started flying planes for a few years, then helis after that. Then, i started buying cars again. Im now 30 years old, and still hooked to pretty much everything you'd find in an RC store; cars, helis, planes, boats, model rocketry (lo and mid powered), scale model building (automotive only), and might start getting into slot cars as well.

JTANK78

Well mine just started last year... I started by going to my local indoor track and seeing them race, i decided that was for me because im an x mt biker and bmx guy and the jumps and speed made sence to me.... my first car was an sc 10 rs and i had it for about 5 months before i got my b 4.1.. bla bla bla im an addicted racer now. nuff said

y2blade

Ihave been intoRCsince School age (I’m now in my 30s), used to race 1/10 electric off-road at clubs years back with Tamiya Avante/boomerang/hotshot/hotshot2/Hornet etc. etc.

ElectricGuy007

Went an raced at Reo Raceway on the oval was a big mistake. A mod cant hook up on that oval unless you dope your tires.
I hate getting tire dope on my hands, and it smells pretty bad too.
I actually thought it was gonna be alot of fun and I was gonna be a contender at it. Turns out the drivers there are way above me.
That racing surface is too challenging for me. When your tire dope comes off your tires in 20-30 laps or so it gets slicker than a baby's butt.

I guess I can go back to Golfland and madisonville because I dont have much of a choice now. Nowhere else to race...

RustyUs

As far back as I can remember I was always into RC. I was about six years old, with plaid pants (70's), in the kitchen playing with a yellow van that turned when you would clap. Over the years, RC was a staple for my birthdays and Christmas gifts. I can't remember them all, but one of the last weird ones before I got a hobby grade RC was a Corvette attached to a controller by a 4 foot cord. You had to walk with the 'Vette to navigate through obstacles. 1984 was the year I finally talked my parents into getting me a expensive Tamyia Frog. I would spent countless hours in the Boscov's (Pennsylvania) toy department every Friday night studying the boxes of kits there (AYK Buffalos; Gators; Grasshoppers; Hornets; Associated RC10; Nikkos ?). I had saved up enough money; orded a good KO PROPO EX5 radio and MRC charger; along with a MRC Technigold RX540VZ modified motor from RCM magazine before parents got me the Frog.

Looking back now, I wish I pursued the RC10 instead of the Frog (my guess is the Tamyia box appealed to me more than the Associated box).

RustyUs

That Frog set everything in motion for me. My first race was with the Frog, and I remember it very well.

This guy had a track built in back yard; with him in his van (trackside) keeping track of laps on a Commador 64 (computer). My highly mod Frog (shocks leaked so I stuffed with cotton balls) was running with Hornets and Grasshoppers. Two hours later...guy that was running a crazed out Hornet...whips out an even bigger crazed out thing that blew my mind...he had a red fiberglass chassis RC10 with 7 cell pack and unknown modified motor. He brought it to show off his latest handy work. That RC10 was flying 3~4 feet high off the jumps that others were only getting 12" off the jumps.

Many mods done to it over a two year period...changed rear shocks to a system that had a hose connected to each shock (never really worked better than stock ones). Replaced front spring with shocks. Installed a self lubing transmission case...oil bottle connected with tube into gear case...didn't work too great. Installed spikes in rear tires to run on ice...ouch.

I beat the tar out of the Frog on 8 cells and that Technigold mod motor. The tranny finally gave up on me and I seen the Kyosho Optima with a great price. I sold the Frog to someone else to repair and upkeep.

RustyUs

I think Tower Hobbies was dumping their inventory of the Optima (to make room for new model) for a ridiculously low price. The money made from selling the Frog went straight to my Optima purchase. I painted that body with Rustoleum paint...blue with two white stripes down the center and red pinstripes outside the white paint. Now I remember painting my Frog body with brushes...white with florescent red instead of the now famous pink like the box.

That Optima gave me so many months of tinkering and modifying pleasure. The control that the Optima 4wd buggy gave to a person driving it was unreal. The extra set of tires pulling the buggy along a stone driveway or on a baseball diamond was a great feeling. 4wd was my new love.

I got the belt drive upgrade and the whole "gold" chassis upgrade as well. I never raced the 4wd ...just backyard/street bashing. I bolted on another one of Kyosho's cars shock's and gave the Optima another inch of ground clearance....converting it to a Optima Stadium/Monster Truck before they started making ST/Monster Truck kits.

The inspiration came from RCCA I do believe.



I stopped tinkering with RC in 1988 when I got my drivers license and was doing the "chasing of the girls thing" in my black '79 Chevy Nova. To pay for the upkeep of my Nova, I had to get a after school job at Mickey D's. My involvement with RC was put on the back burner until '91/'92 (I joined the USAF).

zackS30

Welllll since this thread just got revived...
I had the good fortune of staring with hobby grade RC cars(I was ~6-7), I got them from my dads good friend SGT Poole from the u.s army. He had the most glorious 2 door shelf unit that was ~7ft tall with 4 shelves, he showed it to me and said I could everyone of them! There was like ten in there!
There was 3 cars I took to very well the others I for some reason didn't like too much. There was a NASCAR car that was super fast(hence NASCAR) it was red and black in color. The other was a buggy with knobby tires it was a blast off road! The remote took like 6aa batts and beside with steering and throttle sticks it had trim dials I used to out the throttle at full speed and use the trim for steering to turn too, no ideas why I did that. The others was a hi/low gear monster truck it was powerful and could crawl(not too well though) and could switch gears on the back to go pretty fast. There was 2 boats, one was a fast and looked like one of those boats from that boat racing game thunder something? The other was a pretty cool scale yacht it was fairly slow. The other one I played with a lot was a fairly large hover craft, I used to wait for it to rain to play with the hover craft bcuz I liked how it hovered over the water that pooled in the back yard.
They were all electric so I remember having a fresh stick battery and then having to watch a couple vhs movies and then the batt would be good to go. All of those are long gone and I don't remember the names for them :/ they were stolen in our move from Texas to Indiana.
After those got stolen(I was like 8 or 9) when they got stolen I fell out of RC and the PlayStation had came out so I played tony hawk all day. As soon as zip zaps came out I found out for my birthday that my Grandmal and my mom and went to their local radio shack's and stood there for what they said was hours waiting as the truck arrived there to drop off brand new zip zaps. So I got 2 zip zaps one blue car and the other one was black I played with those all over my grandmals and moms house until xmods came out when my dad got me the f150 and corvette(well xmods were out for a little while bcuz I never had the gen1 xmods) I played with xmods since the street xmods came out. Like 2002? 2004? Idk. I now have 13 xmods the corvette is dead the f150 is still very much alive and as a matter fact, I've got like 200$ in my f150 and I got hooked with modding and upgrading bcuz of that xmod. I guess you could say that it was really xmods that started my addiction to RC cars. Over a few years and help from eBay I acquired all my xmods and after lots of modding and work to them I got tired of all the super small parts.
2011not only did I meet my wonderful wife I got her pregnant and we have a beautiful little girl. Anyways, 2011 I got a redcat tornado s30 nitro, we had a love hate thing going on, I'd love to drive it and try to tune it but it would hate me and not tune right, lol. 2012 I got the rs10 and crawled around with it. Towards the end of 2013 I stopped driving the tornado and rs10 bcuz I got an exo Terra and drove the hell out of it(still do) I then got a scx10 honcho a few months later. I sold the tornado and rs10 and got a Wraith with the money! *thumbs up*
Now I just got to get my 2 year old to love RC as much as I do now!
Rcing has been a major deal in my life. Kept me sane after break ups off drugs out of a lot of trouble but not all of it :/ and has proved to the best stress relief
Can't wait for the years of RC still to come with my family beside me! Well my daughter anyways. Wife could care less

zackS30

Welllll since this thread just got revived...
I had the good fortune of staring with hobby grade RC cars(I was ~6-7), I got them from my dads good friend SGT Poole from the u.s army. He had the most glorious 2 door shelf unit that was ~7ft tall with 4 shelves, he showed it to me and said I could everyone of them! There was like ten in there!
There was 3 cars I took to very well the others I for some reason didn't like too much. There was a NASCAR car that was super fast(hence NASCAR) it was red and black in color. The other was a buggy with knobby tires it was a blast off road! The remote took like 6aa batts and beside with steering and throttle sticks it had trim dials I used to out the throttle at full speed and use the trim for steering to turn too, no ideas why I did that. The others was a hi/low gear monster truck it was powerful and could crawl(not too well though) and could switch gears on the back to go pretty fast. There was 2 boats, one was a fast and looked like one of those boats from that boat racing game thunder something? The other was a pretty cool scale yacht it was fairly slow. The other one I played with a lot was a fairly large hover craft, I used to wait for it to rain to play with the hover craft bcuz I liked how it hovered over the water that pooled in the back yard.
They were all electric so I remember having a fresh stick battery and then having to watch a couple vhs movies and then the batt would be good to go. All of those are long gone and I don't remember the names for them :/ they were stolen in our move from Texas to Indiana.
After those got stolen(I was like 8 or 9) when they got stolen I fell out of RC and the PlayStation had came out so I played tony hawk all day. As soon as zip zaps came out I found out for my birthday that my Grandmal and my mom and went to their local radio shack's and stood there for what they said was hours waiting as the truck arrived there to drop off brand new zip zaps. So I got 2 zip zaps one blue car and the other one was black I played with those all over my grandmals and moms house until xmods came out when my dad got me the f150 and corvette(well xmods were out for a little while bcuz I never had the gen1 xmods) I played with xmods since the street xmods came out. Like 2002? 2004? Idk. I now have 13 xmods the corvette is dead the f150 is still very much alive and as a matter fact, I've got like 200$ in my f150 and I got hooked with modding and upgrading bcuz of that xmod. I guess you could say that it was really xmods that started my addiction to RC cars. Over a few years and help from eBay I acquired all my xmods and after lots of modding and work to them I got tired of all the super small parts.
2011not only did I meet my wonderful wife I got her pregnant and we have a beautiful little girl. Anyways, 2011 I got a redcat tornado s30 nitro, we had a love hate thing going on, I'd love to drive it and try to tune it but it would hate me and not tune right, lol. 2012 I got the rs10 and crawled around with it. Towards the end of 2013 I stopped driving the tornado and rs10 bcuz I got an exo Terra and drove the hell out of it(still do) I then got a scx10 honcho a few months later. I sold the tornado and rs10 and got a Wraith with the money! *thumbs up*
Now I just got to get my 2 year old to love RC as much as I do now!
Rcing has been a major deal in my life. Kept me sane after break ups off drugs out of a lot of trouble but not all of it :/ and has proved to the best stress relief
Can't wait for the years of RC still to come with my family beside me! Well my daughter anyways. Wife could care less

ProCroation

I'm new here (a few hours old account) but I don't mind sharing. I read some good stories here. Mine isn't so spectacular.

I started out with some random brand truck that used to sell at Wal Mart. I got it for Christmas one year when I was probably 11 or 12. It had optional 2wd or 4wd with the flip of a little white lever under the rear end. It wasn't very fast in 2wd but in 4wd it seemed stout to me compared to most of the other kids RC cars around me. It was fun in the dirt. Eventually it was 2wd only and then it just quit working.
Moved up a few years later at Christmas to a Buggy from radioshack. It was advertised as their fastest model at the time. Thanks mom and dad. It got ran over by a car when my friend was driving it and only slightly crushed the front tire. I drove it with a wobbly tire for another year. That was probably 1999 or so.

1999 till 2012 I was without RC.

In 2012 I had owned my own automotive repair shop for 4 years. My Cornwell Tools delivery driver showed up one day as an official supplier of RedCatRacing RC on the side. I laid eyes on the brushless Volcano EPX Pro one time and bought one. The detail got me. Ability to adjust turnbuckles, tie rods etc...my real life hobby of working on cars, my job...only fun sized. Felt like my first REAL RC. Wrecked it a hundred times and broke lots of stuff and made fun repairs. Lost interest (the power wasn't enough eventually). Sold it to a friend only to later find out I could have upgraded to Lipo. Never even knew what Lipo was in the RC world until after my truck was gone. It was 4x4 and I drove it strictly on pavement at my shop haha.

Spent 2012 till a month ago without RC again. Bought a Rustler VXL from a LHS after reading review after review about "Traxxas". Until Redcat came into my life I didn't even know the name Traxxas haha. So sad. I don't have many off road spots to bash so I got the rustler since there are tons of parking lots around here. I thought I would leave it stock and enjoy it forever. Now I'm constantly plotting what to change about it next. Just got anaconda tires, wheelie bar and a sense of confidence in my driving after about 4 weeks of driving nearly daily with it. I have plans to make some changes but I need to find the proper forum page to ask questions on first.