Hi From South America

[Bakauata]

Hi, I have long wanted an RC10, but they are rare in my part of the world and I had given up hope of ever finding one at a reasonable price. But, yesterday I visited a local hobby shop for some spares to restore my old Kyosho Stinger MKII and found they have a NIB RC10 CE (later, with black suspension arms), and a NIB RC10 Team (black pan and grey shocks white arms). I had no idea about all the versions of RC10s out there, but an excellent thread on this forum helped me get a a super clear picture in just a couple of hours.
Both kits have been assembled by the shop (which is a bummer to me) and one of the bodies has been painted. One of them has all vintage Futaba electronics in it also. I am not sure, but I think both should have Stealth transmissions in them, given the parts color combinations and approx years of manufacture. I will be checking that at the store later though.
Personally I would have loved to have (what I now understand to be) a Edinger or Cadillac version, or what I would have called "an original RC10" from when I bought my Stinger MKII as a kid.
I am thinking of buying both models from the shop and putting the white suspension arms on the RC10 CE (to make it all white plastic) and the black arms on the Team to make it all grey/black.
I have a couple of questions for everyone:
1) Are the suspension arms and parts interchangeable between these models?
2) Do you think I should try and get them to sell me the car kit alone, without the vintage electronics, for a price discount? Or do you think the full vintage electronics adds to the collectability/value? It has a mech speed control.
3) Given they are NIB, would it be criminal to actually run these cars? Are these models common enough to relax and juts use?

Sorry about the long winded first post, but I'm rather excited to be this close to buying an original RC10.
Thanks in advance.

PS: I will be posting about my Kyosho Stinger MKII restoration shortly in the Kyosho board.

[GoMachV]

1) yes, CE and Team share the same arms. The color variations were running changes to both.

2) that’s a personal preference, I prefer my kits that are built to have era correct pieces in them. There wouldn’t likely be much of a discount because they won’t have a use for an old outdated radio.

3) perfectly normal for some, sacrilegious to others. There are many different people with many different views on this. The cars were designed to be used, but they are getting tougher to find in mint condition. Collectors, in my opinion, are dying off. Literally. It’s my generation that had or wanted these as kids, and when we are done collecting the value will be gone. Our kids won’t want these old cars, they will want T-Maxx or whatever cars they grew up with. Now, that’s just my opinion. I don’t buy for value, I collect because I love kits and love building them. If the value dropped to nothing I would still be rich in the enjoyment of owning them.

[XLR8]

Hello and welcome to the forums.
To build upon what Jeff has already said, since you are thinking about buying both cars, maybe you could consider choosing one to use as a runner and keep the other for display and in pristine condition. Of course, you can always buy a vintage derelict beater RC10 on ebay for around a 100 bucks - then just drive the heck out of it worry free. Either way, it's your money and your choice.

[Bakauata]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went back to the shop today and examined the cars more closely. They actually had a few more lying around. One with no electronics for a little over half the price.
None are in perfect mint condition since they are built and people have pressed them down on the counter over the years and blemished the bottoms a little. So, that favors running them. They all have stealth transmissions.

Would you favor the Team versions with black pans, better shocks and all ball bearings, among other improvements, or the gold pan CE versions?

[GoMachV]

Yes, the team cars were always the better to have. The CE are more common but both are not rare.

[Bakauata]

Thanks. Shame they’re not gold!