Discussion - shelfer or runner

[scr8p]

this is gonna come off more like a rant since i'm in a bad mood..........................

usually, when posts come up in threads about how someone doesn't know why someone else has all of these cars and doesn't use them, they just let them sit on a shelf, i don't say anything. but lately, there have been a lot more of those comments, that i took notice to anyway, and it kinda irritates me.

where is it written that if i, or anyone else that has an rc car, they have to use it? please, show me. sorry if we offend you by gathering parts for a certain build for three years, putting it together, an not beating the piss out of it. heaven forbid. i have my "race" cars, i have "runners", and i have my "shelf queens". what's the problem with that?

i could understand someone making their "shelfer" comments to someone that has like 2 cars, and doesn't use either one. but i'd have to say that the vast majority of people on this forum have at least 10. do they have to use every one of them? answer = no.

ok, so let the beatings begin......................

[templeofspeed]

I have a need to preserve history. I appreciate having runners but I also see the need to, personally, keep an archive of cars/trucks in their pure form for future generations to appreciate. This might have something to do with the fact that I'm trying to create the all-knowing guide to the RC10/RC12...

I don't think scr8p is really ranting here.

[call-911]

There's nothing wrong with having something you want to keep nice and having others you feel comfortable scraping up a bit. Especially when the item is no longer in production. That's why my real car gets stored away winters and only has 5k miles on it and is a 2004. I like to keep my things nice!

[Halgar]

Some folks just can't see the world from any other perspective than their own. While we are talking about the very small world of R/C in this instance, IMHO it is this same inability to see other viewpoints that has put the entire world in the state it's in today. When one only sees things from their own perspective, this translates to intolerance and ignorance towards everyone else.

Back to the small world of R/C. IMHO, everyones tastes are different, their preference of vehicle and the manner in which they choose to run and display that vehicle. There is no "wrong" way to do R/C, the important thing is that you're doing what you enjoy and the R/C's are part of that fulfillment.

[aconsola]

There's nothing wrong with having something you want to keep nice and having others you feel comfortable scraping up a bit. Especially when the item is no longer in production. That's why my real car gets stored away winters and only has 5k miles on it and is a 2004. I like to keep my things nice!

I'm curious/nosey:R32?
I would love to have the drive that temple has to preserve cars with historical accuracy, but so far have not had the willpower to stick to an OEM only build. I do appreciate both sides of the shelfer/runner issue. I think that the only way to go is to have both. A pristine examples to adorn ones display area, and a few nice runners to "beat the piss out of."

I do also think that everyone (cough Jay cough) needs to actually drive something, just charge up one of those batteries and jump the heck out of some curbs, maybe find a pizza box and get some real air.

[trx450racer174]

For me it's more of a chidhood thing, my first real car was a rc10 in 1989 and i had it until i 1993 and sold it when i was a teenager and got out of rc cars, now some 14yrs later i am back into them with my son so it kinda represents my childhood of having a nice car, i have plenty of other rc cars to bash and having a nice shelf display.

[bscotti]

I agree with lots I'm reading. All that really matters is that YOU enjoy what you're doing with the time and money you burn on hobbies, be it R/C, 1:1 race cars, classic cars, whatever (I believe Eau Rouge says something like this often). I have some shelf only items, I also have some runners that I drive like an idiot.

[carloco8]

I'm with you guys, whether you want to shelf a beater, run a new box car or vice versa, to each his or her own. We all have our own reasons for what we make and build and shouldn't be negatively influenced from doing them.

[scr8p]

I don't think scr8p is really ranting here.

you should've seen what i originally had typed up. i really cleaned it up.

i know everyone has the right to express their own opinions. but do the "shelf queen" comments really need to be said? does the person saying it actually believe that the people with the shelfers don't have cars they use? i mean.......... come on.

a little common sense goes a long way................................

[RC Chick]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the shelf queens. I actually wish I had one brand spanking new one display. I don't but I do have a T2 that I powdercoated and added RPM parts to. So that will have to do for my shelf queen for now. I like to see all the cars you guys have that haven't been run. However I do like to see the old vintage ones run, just to say to someone I have an old RC10 that still works.

[templeofspeed]

Unless someone starts remaking original tires the vintage cars remain "historical artifacts". I'd love to run some of my 1/12th carpet cars but don't really find the need to source foam tire donuts and a tire truer...

[call-911]

I'm curious/nosey:R32?

Sorry for the brief hijack...

Nah, bigger and meaner sounding. It's looks aren't for everyone, but I love the overlap of being able to go out to dinner in it and then on the weekend flogging it around a track and hanging with more purpose built sportscars.


Back to the rant.

[badhoopty]

thats a pimp car keith...

i got way more shelf queens than runners. out of all my queens, i est 80% i would run. just dont have the money and time to equip them all.

for me its just what happens when you prefer to build more than you do to run. you end up with alot of rigs piled up on top of each other...

[purpletimbo]

Each to their own say I.
Look in my store and you will find upwards of a 100 RC all shapes and sizes, some beaters, some shelfers and some that are such one offs running them is out of the question, for fear of breaking an irreplacable part.


I enjoy heading down with the guys off a forum in the UK, on a fine weekend, taking the off road beasts, and claiming big air and bashing the life out of allsorts.


I also enjoy having a thing of unquestionable design beauty sitting on a shelf where I can see it.



Not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling inside when I remember the NIB 20 year old ones stored lovingly away, for the day when I have the right amount of time to dedicate to building them.

And let us not forget, that for me anyway, just the enjoyment of owning these things gives me enough to ensure I will never stop collecting.

[Eau Rouge]

I find it kind of funny, myself. The "runner" comments, that is.

For me, I haven't had an R/C car that wasn't a race car since 1985, so I would consider my cars either race cars or shelf cars. I own no cars from the 80s or 90s that I would consider race worthy so they are all historic museum pieces of my past. I don't race enough off road to intend to go out and flog these cars anywhere, and I wouldn't risk damaging parts that took months or even years to acquire.

Anyone who wants to make fun of me for owning and not "running" a ~$800 newRPS Yokomo SE or a ~$1300 Superior SRP1 in original condition, then so be it. I don't really pay much attention to that anyway.

We all collect, restore and own these vintage R/C items for different reasons. Some to play with and smash up in the streets, some to re-live a few enjoyable moments of their youth, some out of the idea that they can sell in the future to make a few bucks, some to preserve the history of this hobby for others to enjoy—and some do all of the previously mentioned!



Just as I'm free to say, "your obsession with Hot Trick and Sassy Chassis parts is moronic," [ ] anyone else is free to give grief to those of us who collect to remove these cars from the realm of being used. To each his own, I guess. We all view this hobby differently. Personally, I cringe at the thought of beating a car up on the streets, or worse.

What's that saying... "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."