Last Friday I saw a Kijiji post from a guy blowing out RC stuff that had been sitting in his garage for over 15 years. The pictures were fuzzy, and he wasn’t really sure what ran, what was broken, or even the model of one of the vehicles, but I was interested. He was asking $200… and after the weekend passed with no bites… I picked it up last Monday for $100.
What did I get? A lot of plastic parts layered with dirt, grease, cement dust and sawdust from his garage. But after cleaning things up after work this week, this is what I ended up with…
An Associated RC10 Graphite buggy: first sold in 1990. It was ready-to-run with a Futaba radio, “Magic Johnson” motor, and JR ESC. Even had 8 old nicads in the transmitter that still worked. Back when I was first into RC, this would have been one of the premium race buggies… now you may see people racing it in a vintage class, giving it to their kid to run into trees, or restored as a “shelf queen” back to original condition. I’m going to run it into trees 🙂
A Tamiya Bullhead, aka “Clodbuster with a different body” that also came out in 1990. Clodbusters used to be the biggest bashing monster truck you could buy… and they’ve remained so popular that the manufacturer re-released them in 2004 as the “Super Clodbuster”. This one came with a 2-stick Futaba radio, dual-steering-servos, upgraded “Monster Mash 2” motors… and the stock manual speed control (yuck!). The old speed control may suck, but this one was also-ready-to-run, coming with a second set of 8 nicad batteries in the transmitter.
A Novak DC peak charger, and a Hobbico AC/DC adjustable current charger (aka pour-current-into-it-for-X-minutes-or-it melts-the-battery charger). The two old 6-cell nicads are effectively dead. One ran the RC10 for about 3 minutes at a jogging pace, and the other let me drive the Clod from the living room to the bedroom, then died. I could buy NiMH replacements and maybe get some use out of the chargers… but my RC8 and Stampede already have Lipo batteries, so this whole setup may go in the garbage. (or, since my new Lipo batteries can’t be used in the RC10 or Clod, I may splurge for a single $20-$30 NiMH just to tie me over for now… it hurts to just look at them on the shelf when I know they can run 🙂 )
Finally, the odds-and-ends. The typical tackle box full of assorted RC parts, and an old Tamiya Hornet (1984) roller with its original box (no motor, speed control or radio). Plus a stack of extra tires for the RC10 and Hornet.
20 years ago I had a Hornet when I lived in Kenora, and it was considered a crappy car even back then. Still, because it has extra disposable tires… and because I’ll likely have some donor radio/motor/ESC parts after the Cold and RC10 get modern electrics… I think I’ll keep it around. Sometimes an old bouncy car doing donuts in the parking lot… burning off its $5 tires… is all you need to put a smile on your face 🙂
So, an excellent deal for $100, but I have to stop buying RC bits. I already have 2 runnable cars (RC8 and Stampede) and the RC10 and Clod will bring it to 4 (maybe 5 with the Hornet). I am but one man 🙂