RC Dork: The RC history Part 3

My first kit.

My love for RC went on the back burner for a few years. We moved to a new town, high school happened, music, computers and other things big kids do took up my free time. I lusted after the Tamiya kits the local hobby shop had on display for years, but I was never able to afford them as I blew all my money on CDs, concerts and beer.
But once I was old enough to start driving, I got an after school job and bought a car (my moms old car, which was actually cheaper than a Tamiya kit at the time). Well, the car didn't live long, so I borrowed money from my parents and bought a classic Mini Cooper. A car I had loved since I saw my kindergarten teacher drive one. I had a few more after school jobs to pay off my debt, and at one point, I had some money saved up and bought a Tamiya M-Chassis based Mini Cooper.
The idea was to make a replica of my real car, but little did I know about painting polycarbonate bodies. Free advice: Never paint an RC body with metallic red and back it with black to make it look darker. It will hardly look darker, just dirtier and it will highlight every single imperfection in the red paintjob. Even if my little kit didn't turn out like I wanted it to at all, my love for RC was alive and kicking again.

Over time, this little car was upgraded a few times. Full ball bearings, limited edition aluminium 4-spoke revolution wheels (the ones I wanted on my real car), a LRP Runner ESC, bigger capacity battery, better tires. It was so much fun to drive, almost as much as my 1:1 Mini. Unfortunately, it was the M03 chassis, and parts/hopup support was mediocre at best. So when I, once again, broke a few parts that would have been pretty expensive to replace, the little Mini was retired. I still have it though, in all its busted up glory. I'll add some pics once I dig it out from the attic.

RC Dork on the internet

I'm currently working on building a decent foundation for RC Dork. But, it shouldn't be long until I have everything up and running and will start posting better content. If everything goes as planned, you'll find reviews, build reports, mods, event reports, maybe some giveaways and my general RC related brain-farts here in the near future.

So, if you want to keep track of what I'm doing RC wise, follow me on Instagram, become my friend on Facebook or check out my YouTube channel.

And if you want me to review a RC product, please contact me via the form on the right side of this page.

RC Dork: The RC history Part 2

A small step up.

When I was a little older, Santa (well, his brother Sinterklaas, or actually my parents) brought me a Bandai Black Max, a (for those days) futuristic looking buggy. Still toy grade, still non-proportional steering, but this one actually had some speed and power to it.

Again, not mine, but one just like it. Picture courtesy of the internet.

Enough power to keep up with my the Nikko Turbo Panther that one of my friends had. And to make me break a steering knuckle in the first few weeks I had it. I was devastated, but my dad somehow managed to get a set of cast aluminium steering knuckles for it. This vehicle actually had a low and a high gear, but the high gear was pretty much useless, as the distance it took to get up to speed was just about as long as the range of the transmitter. Over time I broke off parts of the rear wing in some spectacular crashes and I wore down the tires to beyond slicks.
I can't really remember what happened to this car, so I assume that my parents threw out its worn down carcass at some point.

P.S. If you have one of these for sale, in decent working condition and for a reasonable price, drop me a message :)

RC Dork: The RC history Part 1

The introduction.

Hey there! How nice of you to visit my little corner of the web. As this is all new to me too, I'll start by introducing myself. And taking you along through the history of my RC hobby seems like a fun way to do that. Over the next few days I'll post a bit about my journey through RC every day.

My name is Pepijn (yeah, if you don't speak Dutch, don't bother trying to pronounce the :P ) and as you might have guessed by now, I'm from the Netherlands. And in various places on the internet, you can find me under the name RC Dork (or RCDork, or RCDork79). I've been into RC vehicles for most of my life although it has varied a bit how active I have been over the years as life tends to get in the way of things. I have played around with a quadcopter and some boats for a bit, but my first and true RC love has 4 wheels.

Not mine, but one just like it. Picture courtesy of the internet.

It all started out somewhere in the 80s of the 20th century, when I used my savings to buy a Nikko Big Horn toy grade RC. A funny little car, somewhat based off an early 80s Isuzu Big Horn/Trooper. It was a fixed axle rear wheel drive with approximately zero torque (carpets were a challenge), it had non-proportional steering and was pretty horrible to drive. But it had a working winch and with all its shortcomings it was a good way to learn how to drive an RC. I really loved the thing to death. And at some point, it actually died. At the time I wasn't really concerned with preserving childhood memories and my curiosity got the better of me, so I took it apart. It's gone now, but I think I may have the battery cover somewhere in a box in the attic.

P.S. If you have one of these for sale, in decent working condition and for a reasonable price, drop me a message :)

Heh... The RC Dork has a blog...

Hang on kids! Actual content will follow soon...