TOPIC:

The first step is admitting you have a problem..............

OK I guess I should get around to mentioning something about myself as I have been signed up for a few years but never contributed to the forum until lately……sorry about that.

I have been in and out of this passion a time or two and that was one of those times I thought I was back in, but noooo . I had got myself setup a bit and wanted to get back at it so to speak. I have been a member at the other big Tamiya site from earlier times but had never really felt at home there, I’m a bit cheap too, you see. To make it a bit shorter, I got excited , made a list , ordered some repo bodies I wanted ....... and when I went to order more of the excellent decals that we all enjoyed a few years back, I got a nice note back from the maker ( sorry can’t remember the chaps name right now) telling me of the recent cease and desist from Tamiya! I was shocked and pisst off too .

Shocked that our friends at Tamiya had turned on the most loyal customers and brand ambassadors they ever had! And pisst because I had already bought the bodies and had been excited to get building again . I made some comments and inquires at that other forum and received a warning about even asking. So I don't think I have posted there since.. I won’t go into details and my thoughts on the politics of it all but in the end I put the totes and boxes in a dark closet and moved on…….that’s why I didn’t make any posts here since I signed up years ago, so I promise to try harder this time…..again…..sorry

So about me…. I am a boring middle aged guy living in the middle of Ontario, Canada….is that enough??

My answer to this problem is to buy decal packs from the lhs and just livery with those. I'm pretty sure that johnyy retro can make decals but I read his tutorial and it seems like a huge pain in the badword. Tamiya club is possibly the worst elitist group of dudes ever. No love or support for them whatsoever...

I suggest buying repro decals from mciracing.ca/ while you still have the chance :)

perfect old willy

OK, I guess that's not enough,
I got into R/C and Tamiya back in early days 81’ or so, after a couple of bad Radio Shack experiences my father was frustrated with the lack of durability, I mean who doesn’t want to take an R/C dune buggy to the beach, it should survive that right Well a Radio Shack one won’t…
For Christmas that year my parents bought me a Futaba 5 channel radio set from a local shop ( major purchase back in those days, thanks Dad ) and gave it to me saying “ you can put this in anything” ....... So I tried, went the boat route first then cars caught my attention…….Somehow I still have that transmitter, its old, not worth a dollar but to me its priceless, or so the kids say ….
My first real Tamiya R/C was Wild Willy!! I had seen the adds in R/C Modeller magazine and wanted it so bad, saved all I could and with help from my folks he was mine! ! Talk about being spoiled on your first real kit build!!, the quality, the packaging, that huge box!! The back yard was OK for a while but soon I found others with like interests and that became a group. Lindsay R/C Racers…where are you now I wonder??
We had a dirt outdoor track for the summer and raced on an indoor double tennis court once a week in the winter, good times…good times….

Oh ya, I forgot to add...
Thanks for the decal heads up Jonny, I have been dealing with Nathan for awhile. His early stuff was a bit lacking but he keeps getting better and doing custom colours is fun too. His stuff is not as spot on as the old repros were but I think that might also be to help keep the lawyers at bay. This way they are not an exact copy...the font is different here and there or the size is a bit off and the sheets don't have the same layout etc. Little things but it is the best we have right now so I support him when I can. I have a list going in front of me right now......

So, Back to the story....Wild Willy is fun , lots of fun, but if you have ever tried racing one you quickly understand the limits. Yes a group of them is a riot , everybody wheelies away from the line and then see who drops his wheels first to make that first turn….yep lots of rolls and laughs, not very good racing though ……Got a used Rough Rider from the LHS and started building that up , mail order was the way back then, so much easier now with online shopping!
Better motor, wide front end kit, coil over shocks, etc, way better to race than Wild Willy, I could drive circles around the AYK guy but was no match for the guys with tricked Kyosho Scorpions that were showing up. Never mind when the RC10’s started showing up a year or so later. Also perhaps I am just not that good a driver . I had upgraded to a wheel radio by now too, after you try one you just can’t go back to 2 sticks!!…..But I think I always enjoyed tinkering and building more than racing. I had other cars too, a Frog, A Falcon (I still don’t know why ) I loved my hopped up Fox though, it was pretty fast for a Tamiya (sorry to say it, but it's true) and I did end up with an RC10 too . I understood why they won a lot, they were well thought out and tough, not as scale but very functional.
They were some fun times, great memories, golden time for 2wd buggies. I never was very serious; I am just not one of those hyper competitive people, just content to run with the club folks and in the back yard.
The 80’s moved on and so did I, About 88 or so I got interested in R/C aircraft and real ones too. Eventually I made a deal at the local hobby shop to trade and consign just about all my car stuff for aircraft stuff…what was I thinking !!!, all I saved was my old Rough Rider that was sporting a Parma 427 cobra body and f-150 wheels and tires by then and my trusty Futaba magnum jr radio ( still got it too! ), and a few bits and pieces that were mixed in with other stuff it turned out. Last new Tamiya I bought back then was a Clodbuster around 1990 just to drive around the yard, I lost interest in it fairly quick and it went for more aircraft stuff .
Time marches on and I worked in the family construction business for a bit then went back to school ( aircraft engineer ) served my apprenticeship, got seriously into vintage VW’s by the mid 90’s and then with a partner had a part time race shop business and campaigned some dragsters in southern Ontario and the north east USA. Got downsized from an aerospace company I was with in the mid 2000’s and shortly after, tired of the hub bub, decided to move north with my wife to the land of lakes and trees and get set up again…… Wheew……. It seems like someone else’s life now that I look back at it…..

Taking a step backwards now…..Its getting long I know…… but bear with me………

In my travels in the 90’s I would see things at swap meets and yard sales and hobby shops, I am a lifelong modeller and always looking. I never forgot my love of Tamiya R/C and still had my battered old rough rider, which would come out from time to time for a lap or 2. I started picking up other old Tamiya stuff when I found it, there was not a lot of interest back then. I found the internet and found Roby Buso…. anyone else remember Roby’s Old Tamiya Database website??? I contributed some of the decal scans and did some trading with Roby and others. I still have a NIB Cheetah body kit I traded with him for on my “to do” list for about 20 years now I guess
I use to love going into old hobby shops and finding NOS Tamiya parts still hanging on the wall! If it was something I recognized or was interested in I would buy them up. Now I wish I had bought them all, but at the time I was only interested in SRB and early on road car parts.
One of the most memorable was sometime around 1998 or so I remember going into a fairly tired looking old shop I was told about by a co-worker and finding some parts.

It was one of those places that unless you knew it was there and were looking you might just pass it by....... When I was checking out the old fellow remarked that I must like old Tamiya cars, I said something about trying to keep a couple going and he said to comeback and ask him about the other stuff he had in the basement …….So I did a few days later ( surprised I waited that long) and he brought out some old cardboard boxes that I proceeded to quickly sort through, ( I should have just made him an offer on the lot as I am sure the rest went in the bin at some point )….I picked out everything I recognized and wanted, put it in shopping bags and put the rest back in a box for him. We agreed on a price, it was fair for both of us I think and I headed home ....... I started sorting through the lot and much to my surprise there were 21 buggy bumpers!! All vintage grey ones in Tamiya bags!! I will search through my flies but I have a picture of them all lined up on my kitchen floor, 21 New bagged SRB front bumpers!! Probably more than Tamiya or anyone else had at that point….There was also about 8 or so rear cages, plus suspension arms, gear bags, lots of hardware sets for a variety of earlier stuff, quite a haul indeed! Unfortunately when I went back awhile later it was closed, then next time I was through it was cleared out, too bad it was a funky old shop. I was lucky to get there before it was gone.

I fear those places are gone for good now. It has been over 10 years since I last found anything vintage still out on a shelf. Now if you see any vintage cars no matter what shape they are in as soon as you inquire the guy at the store will start to tell you how rare and collectable it is and how much he thinks he could get for it on eBay, bla, bla, bla………….I just smile and nod and move on…….

Btw I'm gonna guess the comment about the decals was a long while back.... Tamiya club doesn't care if you speak of repro decals anymore as long as you don't advertise them or post links (through pm is no issue). But TC is a great site with a bunch of great people who are very helpful....heck I think about 90%of the people on here are regulars on there too.

Tamiya club is some cold elitist ish... it's absolutely ridiculous what they do to make you try and get in and then nobody ever answers you or you get confirmed into the help section but can't get your login for the normal section. This group is much more friendly and doesn't make you try and write an acceptance essay ...