Getting back into RC after ~30 years

[rknize]

Long time lurker here; finally joined. Like so many others, I'm getting back into RC after leaving the hobby in the 90's. I found some Tamiya rere kits for cheap around Xmas and picked-up a couple of Grasshopper II's for our two boys. A cheap Traxxas would probably have been a better idea, but I was feeling a bit nostalgic (I also picked up a Hornet kit for myself). Here they are before they saw much action:

Now they are pretty battered and bruised, but still working and a ton of fun.

After I graduated from various Tyco stuff as a kid, I ended up with a Hornet knock-off of some sort. I don't quite remember what it was (maybe a Rockbuster?), but it got beat and broken badly and I've not found any remnants of it. I picked up a Kyosho Turbo Raider Pro from Tower Hobbies in '92, which was an order of magnitude better in every way (except maybe the gearbox, which sounds like hot garbage). I put a hotter motor in it (16x2 Mega Motor) and beat on it pretty hard before it got wrecked and went into a box in my parents' attic. I do still have that and brought it back to life:

Raider parts are getting a bit scarce (I just broke a steering knuckle after putting that 16x2 back in there) and it will only get worse, so I have decided that I probably should get something else to play with.