I ran home and immediately informed my father of the intel I'd recon'd at the toy store. I told him the prices of the two components and he let me know that they were out of my budget. It seems at the age of 11, ones concept of what can actually be purchased for $130 is a bit, skewed. Best I can recall, the kit was probably $99.99 and the radio was $49.99. Dad let me know that the tax on a purchase of that amount was actually pretty high and that I was actually about $50 short. Dejected, once again, I went back outside to play with my friends and their new Christmas presents. Busy with work, another week had passed before my father had time look into getting a replacement for the broken toy. I again started speaking of my find at the toy store when my dad brought up an interesting idea. He reminded me that my birthday was just a few days away and that he could probably swing the money necessary to buy the items I'd found if I combined my Christmas proceeds with what he'd budgeted for my Birthday. What an amazing idea! Off we went to the toy store! I immediately ran over and grabbed a radio off the shelf. It was a 2 stock Futaba Attack, and it was glorious! The car kits were behind the counter so I pointed out the one I was interested in to the clerk. Wow, an RC vehicle that would require assembly! It was twice the size of the Super Turbo Hopper and the box it was in was gigantic. What a wonderful combo, a Futaba Attack and a Panda'monium kit!
Image of a Pandamonium that I sourced online
Anyways, now you know how I got into the hobby but not how any of it relates to the early Losi's. Fast forward to 1988 at my aunt's place once again. One thing caught my eye in regard to the JrX2, the pinion/spur cover. Yep, the spur cover lol. It wasnt the incredible looking wheels which are still my favorite wheels of all time, not the awesome shape of the body, or the cool tires, or the incredible speed this kids car was hitting, I was hooked on the gear cover. I promptly went out and bought my first issue of Radio Controlled Car Action. In there, I found adds for the JrX2 and started dreaming once again. Another year had passed and while all of my friends were rambling on about the RC10 and Ultima, I was smitten with the JrX2. That dream became a reality on January 10th 1990, when my mother told me to hop in the car. I new it had something to do with my birthday but I never would have guessed my wildest dreams that what I was wishing for the most, was about to come to a reality. I vividly remember daydreaming while we were driving that she was going to pull up to a hobby shop and purchase that car for me. Well, that is exactly what happened! Though it didnt go down quite how I'd expected.
At the time, we were living in Crestline, CA and the closest hobby shop that I was aware of was Outlaw Hobbies, in Highland. It was about a 30 minute drive from our home and we were heading in the right direction to get there. Sure enough, we pulled into the hobby shop but, we didnt go into the hobby shop. Ah, too good to be true, I knew it. They were racing off-road that night so we stood along the fence and watched the races for a while. It was only the second time I'd seen cars actually racing (the first was at the Ranch Pit Shop when we were living in Montclair a few years earlier). It was amazing to see what these cars were capable of doing. About 10 minutes went by when a man approached us and started talking with my mother and he had an interesting sized box in his hands. Turns out, another of my aunts worked with then Losi driver, Dennis Taylor. I dont really know how my mother actually knew which car I wanted but I have a feeling this all went down by sheer luck, and how lucky I was. He opened the box and handed it to me. Inside was a JrX2, it was beautiful. Even more beautiful, yep, there it was, the gear cover! I was literally speechless. I didnt know what to say and even if I did know, I wouldnt have been able to say it, I was truly in shock. Dennis had actually helped me out a few times in the years prior to this, I just didnt realize who he was. He gave me my first charger that I used with the Pandamonium (a B&M Juice Machine) along with some battery packs that actually go me up and running.
This wasnt just any JrX2 though, it was actually a prototype for the JrX Pro. It had the extended chassis, red bell cranks, the longer front shock tower and shocks, H arms, and what turned out to be the trickiest part, the ball bearing diff gear. I had a hell of a time finding a replacement for that; they didnt exist according to the people working at Busy Bee Hobbies! Once again, Dennis came to the rescue. So now, on to the point of this whole thread. I had originally set out to buy a JrX2 to restore as that is technically what my first "racer" was but, it was in reality a JrX Pro so I figured that is what I should start with. And here she is:
Now, I didnt have a KO radio at the time. In fact, I've never owned one but the Super Steering came with the car and I figured it's a cool piece to have none the less. I did however own a Novak T4 so that was a nice bonus. I have a thing for box art restorations so that is the direction I'll be going with this project. I'll update the thread as the restoration progresses and needless to say, I'm almost as excited now as I was so many years ago.
