jheimb4897

iTrader: (1)

I was at HobbyTown USA in Frederick, MD last week standing in line to check out. In fron tof me there is this kid and his father sitting there with a broken TC3, a RTR TC3 (not to mention, the manual was still in the shrink wrap). I took a look at it from across the counter and saw what was wrong with it. The only thing wrong, was a broken shock tower. A part that takes 10 minutes to fix, tops. The kids father asked how much it would be to replace the part. $30 an hour. You could get your real car worked on for a little more than that! The owner even explained how it would only take him 5 minutes to replace the part and how it would take a week to get it back. But, he insisted on the owner taking the car and paying him $30 an hour plus parts to fix a freaking shock tower.

Now the part that bugs me about this is; where has the pride gone in today's youth? Have they no mechanical skills? I thought the fun in this hobby was to fix your own things and learn about your car and how it worked? When I was his age, I guess about 12, only 8 years ago, I couldn't stop taking things apart. Now if the boy has no mechanical inclinment, what about his father? I so badly wanted to be like 'kid, come back to the pits, I'll show you how to fix the part.' But I like the owner of the store, and with any hobby shop, they need all the business they can get.

This is one of the things that bothers me with RTR's. There's no pride in it. I remember my first kit and how excited I was when I put it together and got to see it run. There's pride in using your hands, and the satisfaction that I know we all get when we complete a new kit and go out and run it for the first time. You don't get that with a RTR.

I know you guys probably have a million stories about this kind of thing.

rezenclowd3

iTrader: (17)

Dang, that story actually bugs me. I got into this hobby while in college because I wanted to know how these little suckers worked, now I'm completely addicted. I work @ a school, and I see that many youth don't have the desire to learn how to work, or to fix things, as many feel that the parents will step in and help them. Human kind if given the chance will usually take the lazy way out, even if it hurts them in the end.

redbones

There's the primary problem with RTRs. Kids these days have little patience. They are spoiled with the ability to "reset" things aka: videogames. I bought my first RC when I was in 3rd grade. It was the sonic fighter (if anyone remebers). Built it myself, drove it, and fixed it. It was good enough for bashing, but got an RC10 couple years later for racing But Tamiya will always be my favorite company for building a kit. It is just so fun.

The whole excitement of watching the car come into creation is taken out with RTRs. Without experiencing that, you won't know how the parts came together, let alone replace it. It is a shame that the RC industry came to this, but I guess that is the way things go.

Desolas

iTrader: (2)

I work part time at a hobbyclown myself...and I must say, if anything will drive you from loving R/C the people who come into there will.

One, I am disgusted by any shop that charges by the hour to work on a R/C car ... either fix it for free, or don't fix it at all. The shop I work at does repair but it's up to the employees to do it on the side...one guy I work with has the audacity to charge $45 an hour..."because that's what my time is worth" he says. Another charges $25 an hour, which is still insane. I take work on the side now and then and I do it for free.

What's really amazing is the amount of people who do not want to work on their stuff. One story just recently, this local Navy guy comes in and says how he wants "a hobby" so he buys a Nitro Rustler. Days go by, he comes in because his wheel fell off and he wants us to put it back on - no joke - so I do it.

I end up putting on some other stuff as he breaks it, finally I tell the guy it's time to invest in a small tool kit. "I don't want to fix it" he says "just play with it." His idea of a "hobby" was just going out and playing with the R/C car, and wants nothing to do with fixing it. He's probably 25-28 years old.

It goes on like this all day long. People balk at spending $25 on a tool kit. Kids buy Axial AX10 kits and then come back wanting us to finish building them for them. People say stuff like "If I have to put it together it should be $100 cheaper!" When a Traxxas 4-tec breaks because some toolshed slammed it into a curb at 50 miles an hour they come in wanting the entire vehicle swapped out for a new one because "this one is defective..it broke."

We had a guy bring a Revo in that hit a railroad tie at full speed and tore pretty much the entire front end and most of the bottom out from under it...about $80 in parts, he opted to buy a Losi Muggy because the Revo "was obviously defective and a piece of crap for breaking so easy."

Many people buy a RTR, drive it into the ground, and quit "racing" because "R/C cars are such garbage." (I hear that a lot too..)

RTR has saved the market in many ways, it has also brought in it's share of problems. The same people that would never buy a R/C kit before are the ones that probably shouldn't buy a RTR now ... but they are pumping much needed cash into the industry and parts sales are huge.

There are exceptions of course. I have a few good customers who come in regularly and have progressed and become really proficient with working on their stuff, customizing, etc...and that's one of the few things that makes the job tolerable...

MOTHER FOCAR

this disease is not limited to just kids...full grown adults pay "pro's" to build them "race" cars. they have no clue what to do to make the car handle at each track,and complain when they aren't on pace with the real "pro's" guys who built there cars themselves and know what adjustments to make to stay in touch with the track. now these same guys are pointing fingers about special batteries and motors? lord knows it can't be there lack of talent on and off the track. microwaves ruined it for our once great hobby!

Francis M.

iTrader: (2)

If you charged the guy for fixing, he might have taken the initiative to learn how to fix the car. lol

Gotta agree on the RTR crowd. I remember putting my first kit together with those L type hex wrenches supplied in the kit. I even repaired my cars with those. lol that was a long time ago.....

kn7671

iTrader: (16)

Ok, I'm going to turn this political. The "No Child Left Behind" has fostered a lack of mechanical skills being instilled in children. Couple that with game consoles, and you have a lazy, non-mechanical, non-troubleshooting education system.

I agree that when I was in my youth, I took things apart and tinkered. I've liked working on RC Cars since I was about 10yrs old, progressing from the Radio Shack & Sears days to today.

My nephew has no desire either, I gave him an Associated RC18T about 2-years ago when he was 12. He drove it for about two months until he broke a shock and it has been sitting on the shelf ever since.

kn7671

iTrader: (16)

double

lifeguy

I have to add to this one...

I was 12 years old when I bought my first RC car, I remember spending many days hanging around the hobby shop, learning as much as I could.
What get's me is some of these kits come with DVD's Manuals and little tool kits.

This is not just happening in R/C it's everywhere with Kids, they are all spoiled and parents are part of the problem, they spend $$$ on kids because they can't spend quality time, I know if I ever have children I would take the time to help them work on their projects, no matter what they were.
People have lost one of the most important things. Family Values!!!!!!

Good news for future mechanics, plumbers, electricians or any sevice repair jobs in the future, these kids who will eventually grow into lazy adults will be calling the experts all of the time.

Grant

RaceAce701

iTrader: (87)

I myself work at at small shop and coultnt agree more

peopel just want 2 play with there toys and dont want 2 work on them

While on the subject of pride in your rc the thing that bugs me is when someone brings in a nitro car (Eather 2 get parts or to b fixed) it has 2 pounds of grime on it.

come on now please clean it


My first rc was a rtr rustler and within a week i had chage tires, changed springs, took the motor out a cleaned it and watever other work was needed 2 b done

im a decent racer also and i refuse 2 let anyone else do any work on my cars eaven my father i even paint my own bodies no matter how bad they turnout (Now that is full pride)

if someting happens to the car in the track i have no one 2 blame but myself

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

If someone wants to pay me $45 an hour to fix their car (2 hour minimum) send me a PM. Nevermind these jokers. Im here to help!

James35

iTrader: (1)

There is a lot of instant gratification and selection these days. Kids are used to instant-on games like Playstation, Nintendo, X-Box, etc.. They reset the game quickly, change the game quickly, change the TV channel, pop in a movie, and they get bored quickly. Very few kids have the patience for this hobby, and that is very sad to me.

Generally, kids have a lack of appreciation for what we have here in America. Parents aren't teaching their children to appreciate and take care of everything that they have. Most kids feel that the world owes them everything. When I was a teen, there were many other teens racing. Now, I bet the average age of racers has to be 40+ years old.

kn7671

iTrader: (16)

That's because the 30+ yr old crowd is the only ones that can afford an RC Hobby, and are pretty much the only ones left supporting the industry as a whole. My mom used to take me to races when I was 15, and most of the people I raced against were within 5-10 years of my age, so these are potentially the same people I grew up with racing.

As for parenting becoming a part of this, well both parents have to work too much these days just to pay bills, let alone spend quality time with their kids enjoying a hobby. It's much easier to keep the kids at home and by them an XBox, etc... and then their friends can play with them at no additional cost. That's why RTR is so big these days.

You know, if you think back before Associated, Tamiya, and Losi, the only real RC cars you could buy were Radio Shack and Sears prebuilt "RTR these days" RC cars. What changed is that once cars from Tamiya, Associated, etc... started selling well, the people that once bought "RTR's" from Radio Shack quit buying RTR's and began buying kits. Now we've all grown up, and 20-years later, the RC industry doesn't have as many new customers, so now the RC Industry is relying on what worked to begin with, RTR's.

There are several issues at hand with any hobby, and almost all hobbies come and go. Hobby's are trendy things that people want to take part in for one reason or another.

One problem is that many of us replying to this post race our RC Cars, but the fact is, and always has been, that most people run their RC Cars around their house/yard/street.

Cosmo

iTrader: (5)

I understand people needing to make money, and I understand not wanting to fix things for free.

Having said that, it would do much better for everyone involved if the store employee would say something like "I can fix it myself for $30 an hour, or for $10 an hour I'll let you watch me fix it, or if you buy the parts I'll show you how to fix it for free." If someone doesn't know how to fix something, that's one thing. If they don't want to know, or they know and just don't want to do it, that's another story.

Like many others, I love fixing my own vehicles. I pride myself in doing everything myself from building the kit to painting the body to driving it. I understand that looking at a bunch of parts in bags may be intimidating to some, so I understand the appeal of RTR's. But I do think it would be great if shops would push the idea of people fixing their own stuff, or even offering classes on simple maintenance techniques or something like that.

But, that's just my opinion...

Desolas

iTrader: (2)

Reading your guy's post brings up something else I forgot to mention too. You think being a R/C hobbyist is bad? Try modeling...I read their magazines and they have articles like "are we still relevant" and "how long will our hobby last."

We had someone around Christmas time return a model kit of an Apache helicopter because they could not get the main rotor "to do anything." They could not figure out how to glue it together, and when it was built it they were surprised that "it doesn't do anything." They were angry and frustrated that the "toy" they bought had to be assembled, and once assembled it wasn't a toy but a piece of plastic resembling a helicopter covered in glue fingerprints..

The whole idea of assembling a model, THEN having to paint it sounds like too much work to most people. Most people it seems, regardless of age, just come home from their daytime activity and sit down in front of the television...be it cable tv or xbox..

Stupid/lazy people breed stupid/lazy children.