Around 1988 I got a Nikko Chipmunk as a gift (x-mas or b-day, can't remember) which was a small car that ran off of 4 AAs and went forwards, reverse, and turned left or right.

My big brother had the Tamiya Grasshopper which we all thought was super fast, and it was a big deal when we got him a set of ball bearings for the front wheels. He then got a RC10 Team car when they first came out. I got a Tyco Turbo Hopper that year for Christmas. At first I had the one that took 4 or 6 AAs in the car, and after about a week of using it the gears in the transmission stripped out. We sent it back to Tyco and they sent me a brand new 9.6v Turbo Hopper, I thought it was the coolest thing. Click here to see a pic of me opening my Turbo Hopper that X-mas.

My brother's Grasshopper got old, he ended up with a new, high-tech RC10 Team car one year, we were very impressed with how fast it was and how it handled. My uncle gave me his original RC10 which had ball bearings, a modified tranny, and the later wheels. It didn't have a body, and all the local body shop had was one for a JR2 which I was able to make fit. I painted it outlaw black and candy blue (with white underneath) I got a Futaba 2pbka radio system w/ ESC (same thing as my brother's RC10 had) for my birthday that year, and my own 1400mah battery pack. I had also dyed the nylon parts black. Click here for a pic of the RC10

I had a subscription to R/C Car action for the next 4 or 5 years as I got more and more into the hobby. I really wanted a stadium truck, and around 1992 I started to save my money to buy a Traxxas Hawk. I clipped out all the adds in RCCA, taped them to a piece of cardboard and highlighted who had them the cheepest (Around $82) I ended up buying a RC10 Team Truck the first month they were available. I LOVED it! It had full ball bearings, and the stealth tranny. I tried to dye all the nylon parts with RPM purple dye, but it all ended up a pinkish color. I had lunsford titanium turnbuckles and RPM HD tie rod ends, and RPM 5 star wheels for it. I used a Trinity Ruby 16-triple to power it.. still had the same 1400mah pack, and two Motor Man 1300mah packs. Once I ran the truck into a puddle and wasted the futaba ESC, so I got a Tekin forward only ESC. I got tired of not having reverse, and got a Novak 610-HRV for Christmas one year. I later sold it as a rolling chassis for clod parts. Click here for a pic of the RC10T

Around my 13th birthday I got a Tamiya Chevy 4x4. I never ran it with the stock motor, my 16t went in it from the start. It was the fastest thing I had, and would drive almost anywhere. The TA02 chassis was nice, but the high center of gravity made short work of the body and other parts of the truck. Running into a curb at full speed broke the chassi and front gearbox case. I eventually retired it. Around that time I really wanted to get into parking-lot racing so I picked up the Tamiya TAO2RS racing special chassis, it came with all the neat trick things you could get for a TA02 from Tamiya all in one box. It was very fast (for me) powered by a 14-double. The parking-lot racing thing turned out to be a flop, and I ended up putting all the truck parts on the RS chassis to make one "super chevy 4x4" I later sold it. Click here for a pic.

About that time my cousin gave me a 80% complete Clodbuster. I had never thought I would have one of the $225 monsters, but all it needed was servo linkage, some suspension arms and TLC to put it together. It had an aluminum tub chassis and Team Trinity clodbuster shocks. Over the next two years, this truck would consume a bunch of my extra money. I got a job at a deli when I was 16 and saved for 2 months to build my own ultimate clodbuster. It had a Clodzilla II LWB chassis kit, HD steering rod kit, cantilever suspension kit, full ball bearings, futaba high torque servo, trinity Midnight motors, a Tekin Titan ESC, home-made graphite radio tray, chrome clod wheels, Pro-Line giant-traction tires, and a Parma '57 chevy body. Click here for a pic of the build-up Notice the TAO2RS and retired Grasshopper. Click here for a pic of the final result I later sold the truck to buy a new top for my vw rabbit convertible.

Sometime during that year I stumbled across a R/C enthuiasts garage-sale dream. I landed a new Team Losi XX, Airtronics radio, Pro-tec digital peak charger, 1400mah battery pack, and a Tekin reversing ESC for $50. The owner of the car had gotten it for xmas that year as a RTR package, and had put the tranny together wrong (mixed up the diff bearing and output shaft bearing) and never got it to work right. It too me about 4 tear-downs to figure out the problem with the tranny, but after that it was smooth sailing. I loved the car. It handled great, and was pretty fast. I had a trinity midnight stock motor powering it, and I picked up 4 1500mah packs from trinity to race with. I took it to the local mall and practiced on the carpet oval, and just for fun... I entered in the novice pan-car class one night. I ended up with the first pace trophy, about 8 laps ahead after the 4 min main. I just did tight, consistand laps while the other 6 drivers piled up around every corner, not having learned throttle control yet. Later I would take the car down to Adams, MA and race it at the Megadrome speedway one night. There wasn't enough cars for a stock buggy class so I ran with the trucks. I won 3rd place by default, but it was still a blast. I was only a lap or two behind. I hadn't raced on a dirt track before that night. Here is a victory pic of the XX

In 2000 I decided I wanted to get into R/C planes and I ended up selling my charger, batteris, the xx, and the TA02RS chevy to fund the interest.

I bought myself an XTM X-factor 1/8th scale nitro monster truck for christmas, which was a bunch of fun but always seemed to break every time I drove it. I ended up selling it to buy parts for my Scirocco.

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