Contemplating a big change in direction in the hobby

[markbt73]

This is just me rambling, don't feel compelled to read it... I'm thinking seriously about selling a lot of stuff. Like, half of my collection. Why? Because it has become just that: a collection. Over New Years, I cleaned up my hobby room, reorganized the display shelves, dusted off each car, played around with suspensions, spun wheels, and put them right back up on the shelf. Out of roughly twenty cars, there are only about five that regularly get driven, and several that haven't moved under their own power since I got them. Now, I know that's pretty common for a lot of you, but it's new for me, and I don't like it. I look up at that shelf, and I can't help thinking, "why do I have these?"

There are a couple other factors at play here, as well. One, I'm probably going to lose my best off-road driving spot. Our side yard, gravel and weeds in the summer and a mud bog in the winter, is now where I park my car, because the convertible is in the garage so I can work on it. We also keep talking about picking up a little travel trailer or small RV, which would need to be parked somewhere as well. When the weather breaks, I'm going to look into getting that whole area paved, which means my poor little halfhearted attempt at building a "track" will have to go. I'll have the driveway for on-roaders, and the woods for scale trail trucks, but the buggies will be homeless.

And two, about those scale trucks... last year, I treated myself to a Trailfinder 2, and I love it. It hasn't seen much run time yet, but come summer, it will. I've also been working on my first ground-up scratch build (build thread: http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75609), and I'm loving it. After a few false starts, it's finally starting to look like what I want, and the feeling of making something, not just building it or restoring it but actually MAKING it from raw materials, is so satisfying. I already have an idea for another build when this is done, and I'll need to fund it. And I've (almost) decided I'm willing to sell off half a dozen display pieces to build one more scaler.

So be on the lookout for a big sale thread soon-ish (and after that, a server-fund contribution to say thanks). And don't worry; I'm keeping ONE RC10. Maybe two.

[WillyThickfoot]

Your not alone in your thinking. I haven't turned a wheel in almost two years and am considering thinning the herd. Put the money towards something else. I would hold onto a few I'm sure but like you I am finding it bothers me to look at all that time and money invested and just not enjoying them anymore. People love their pool tables, hot tubs and saunas then the next thing you know your putting them on Craigslist. Seems all hobbies share the same fate.

Dave

[JK Racing]

I feel ya....I wouldnt build a car I didnt plan on racing...not just running, but taking to the track and flog the snot out of it...I did a quick count the other day, I have 10 cars ready to race, 7 of them stock buggies, 1 truck and 2 SC's. That doesnt include the 13 other cars in the process of building of collecting parts for a build. I stepped back and knocked myself in the head (I had a V8 moment). I cant race all these....

So now cars are getting radios stripped, cleaned up and put up for sale. I am NOT a collector, I am NOT a shelfer guy. Build it, race it with a big freakin' smile.

[WillyThickfoot]

Build it, race it with a big freakin' smile.

Can I get an Amen?

[DaveM]

Dave.

[RC10th]

I need to take a step back from RC as it's getting out of control and getting in the way of other things that I need to do. I've been collecting now for 23+ years and while it's in my blood it's something I wont give it up completely.

I've slowly been winding down on projects and turning everything into shelfers. Buying clear bodies for everything was a major task.

Luckily I see the light at the end of the tunnel and should be pretty right in about 3 months. I hope to have everything shelf ready and packed away except for one ongoing RC10 project and one period RC10GT runner.

[Lowgear]

If this thread is any indicator, it looks like I might be giving the old PayPal account a workout soon!


I think what you're feeling is natural. The older we get, the more life and priorities change. When I first started in the hobby, it was all about racing, bashing, and modifying. As things progressed over the years, it turned into building and collecting. I'm now satisfied with buying or building static R/C models that sit on display. Since moving out into the woods, I've been having a very strong desire to have a least one designated driver. So far I'm leaning towards a TXT-1 as my best all-around bet.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is you shouldn't beat yourself up over what you want out of the hobby. There isn't any right or wrong way to enjoy it as long as you still do. If you feel that changing the course will help you to keep enjoying it, then by all means change the course. Like the saying goes "variety is the spice of life."

[RC104ever]

It's interesting - I started out with the intentions of rebuilding my one RC10 gold pan and then collecting enough parts for one for my son.

That quickly escalated into several vehicles and they were all runners. I couldn't understand the attraction of having a 'shelfer' Sure, its pretty to look at but what fun is that? Now I've reconsidered and have two really nice 10T examples that I just couldn't bear to run they are so nice. So they will see only shelf duty. But I liked them so much I bought a runner

Hey things change, times change and you do what you need to do in order to keep going.

[mk-Zero]

For me, I have no interest in building a bunch of shelf queens, not saying that there's anything wrong with it, but I like to DRIVE my cars. Kind of the same way I see real cars, I would NEVER build a trailer queen, cars were meant to be DRIVEN. With the exception of my Hot Trick RC10, every car I have gets driven, some more than others, but all of them at least occationally. Only reason the Hot Trick buggy doesn't is because I've had it for over 25 years and it's got some rare crap on it, and because it would make a terrible runner anyway. If I wanted a bunch of cars to display, I'd just build plastic scale models, they're a hell of a lot cheaper!

Edit: On a side note, I've been getting really into quads recently, and just built my first (a 250 size fpv). So now my "RC time" is split between cars and quads.

[SMOKE-DOG]

I have the same conversation with myself every year. And every year I can't bring myself to sell anything else. The last few years I've sold some things and regret selling about half of it. The way I look at it now, most of my stuff is worth more to me than what I can get for it. I remember I used to be against shelf queens and wanted to run everything but now I find I build things and they sit on the shelf mostly. I don't mind, they will all eventually be run, and half the fun for me is building and painting.

[Coelacanth]

My situation was similar to RC104ever's; I initially only intended to restore my original Optima, but I had almost 2 more cars' worth of parts. After mostly finishing the resto, I offered the parts up for sale. Perhaps strangely, there was zero interest...and I point the blame at that moment for what happened next. I had all these parts and didn't want to sell them on eBay, so what to do? Well, I always wanted a proper on-road car, but certainly didn't have the budget to buy something new...and everything I saw at the hobby stores was craptastic plastic. So I built CYANide, and during that process I set the bar pretty high for myself; I didn't want to just toss some road tires and body mounts on an offroad buggy, I wanted to do it right, which meant re-engineering a lot more than I expected. I still had plenty of parts after that, and decided I'd build a bulletproof & beefed up modernized Optima, throwing everything at it that I could to address all the weak spots in the design.

By that time, I acquired a parts lot from flipwils11 (I think) that included almost all of a Turbo Optima Mid SE, but by then I already had three 4WD cars...and I was seeing some of the guys here like Mr. ED and Diggley custom-building cars by mixing & matching parts from various cars, which is one way to turn your existing parts into complete cars without spending much money, so what to do...I decided to challenge myself again and built OptiMutt as a mid-motored RWD car, something that was rarely seen in the vintage days, and not too common nowadays either.

By now, I was no longer really interested in building offroad buggies anymore, so I set my sights on pan cars as you can get some great deals on those on eBay. I have 2 pan car projects on the go.

I get bored doing the same thing over and over again, which I suppose has been the source of my motivation to change directions with this hobby. I don't know what I'd do if I had dozens and dozens of cars, and felt like I was retracing my steps over and over again...I'd probably get disinterested in the hobby too. I see that Mark, although having way more cars than I ever will, came to a similar conclusion and I understand why he's moving in a new direction with the Trailfinder 2. I doubt you'll ever give up the hobby entirely, it gets in your blood. Hell, most of us put away our cars in the 80's and dug them out again HOW many years later?? The hobby ALWAYS pulls you back, in one way or another!

[RC10Eh]

Times change and so do we . I can think of about 6 die hard vintage guys in Toronto alone that have moved on . Just the nature of the hobby . I've gone from 30 plus cars down to my favourite couple . My two cents is keep a couple favourites , help some friends with parts and go explore something different , we only live once ..........by the way , caught you on Mercer Lancia and good luck this year

[markbt73]

Yeah, I doubt I'll ever leave the hobby entirely. I've been a car guy as long as I can remember, and I went from Matchbox cars and Tonka trucks, to plastic models, to slot cars, to RC cars, to real cars, and then incorporated RC cars back in. And if I can find a little space and money, I'm considering incorporating slot cars back in (would love to have a little HO-scale track, and a few classic AFX and Tyco cars).

It's more like when I quit racing 15 years ago. I came home from the track in a bad mood after having a lousy night, realized it wasn't the first time, and it dawned on me that if you're in a bad mood after spending time on your hobby, you're probably doing it wrong. Not that the cars on my shelf put me in a bad mood; it's more like, "OK, I really wanted this, and now I have it... now what?" Kinda feels like, once again, maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[jwscab]

i think that's really any hobby....excellent view point 'I have what I want, now what?' I seem to have about a 3 yr cycle on stuff. full size cars, rc cars, video games, etc etc.

[marlo]

If this thread is any indicator, it looks like I might be giving the old PayPal account a workout soon!


I think what you're feeling is natural. The older we get, the more life and priorities change. When I first started in the hobby, it was all about racing, bashing, and modifying. As things progressed over the years, it turned into building and collecting. I'm now satisfied with buying or building static R/C models that sit on display. Since moving out into the woods, I've been having a very strong desire to have a least one designated driver. So far I'm leaning towards a TXT-1 as my best all-around bet.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is you shouldn't beat yourself up over what you want out of the hobby. There isn't any right or wrong way to enjoy it as long as you still do. If you feel that changing the course will help you to keep enjoying it, then by all means change the course. Like the saying goes "variety is the spice of life."

I think that was very well said..............