Readers Respond: My First Hobby RC Car or Truck

Was your first hobby-grade RC a ready-to-run electric? Or did you take a different route such as building from scratch or going nitro? Tell us about the first hobby-grade RC car or truck you owned. Was it a good choice? Would you recommend that RC car or truck to beginners?

Tamiya Grasshopper

We have hobby cars/trucks all over the house but the only RCs that were really mine were all XMODs or toy-grade. But this evening I just finished building my first hobby RC -- the Tamiya Grasshopper. Plan to paint it next. I never built models as a kid so this was a totally different experience for me. And I only needed a tiny bit of help from Mike (RC Vehicles Guide) to get it running. I'll be putting up pictures here on the site before too long.

—Guest Jacci

g'ole rusty

i just got an electric rustler about 6 months ago, a couple of my friends had a stampede and a slash but i liked the look of the rustler the best

—Guest bri

Electric Stampede

My first and only r/c is a traxas stampede truck. I keep breaking it but I am learning alot by having to fix it all the time. I will probably get another electric truck in a few months.

—Guest Tomas

Selling Falcon

Hello I am selling my falcon it is in excelent shape I only ran it 20 times or so 15 years ago and lost interest took it off the shelf and decide to sell it how much do you think it is worth

—Guest joshjflores

Brushless RC18t

my first rc was a rc18t rtr it was pretty fun being that i broke it about every time a took it out. As soon as i got that little car i upgraded it with brushless for fun. after that i went thru 3 more esc's and then i had enough. I sold it and i'm now currently racing nitro.

—Guest doug

Tamiya Falcon

The Tamiya Falcon was my first Hobby level rc car. I luved that car, the speed & performace were amazing to me back then. 180 spins on wet pavement by going forward, then in reverse. Spinning wheels, & jumping curbs, then came the upgrades. Moon style Rims, money green VW Beetle body, custom body mounts. Let's not forget the Trinity Stock Monster horsepower motor & mechanical 3-step speed control, AHHHH! The good ole days!

—Guest MJinDC

Tamiya Grasshopper

My dad got me this Grasshopper for Christmas. I was more into model building but I thought the Grasshopper was pretty cool. It wasn't hard to put together with my plastic model experience. I punished this dune buggy regularly so I know from first hand experience that this thing is really tough and durable. Now that I'm older and that one is longgone I was happy to see that Tamiya has rereleased them. I'm definitely going to buy another one "for oldtime's sake" but I think any beginner would be happy with a Grasshopper. It was fast with the stock RS540 motor that came with it. I wonder how fast it would be with a brushless motor now?

—Guest David

Tamiya Wild Willy

(originally posted as a blog comment) Great Articles on RC, keep up the great job. My first RC was a Wild Willy, that was a great beginning into the hobby. I had a blast with that Jeep. No big problems at all with it until I got to the point were I could not get parts for it any more. That was a sad time in my older childhood life. And it wasn

—Guest Larry

Electric Traxxas Rustler

My friend had a nitro Rustler and I wanted an RC too. I liked the look of his but he talked me into getting the electric version since I never had a RC before. I like to take things apart so I end up needing my friends help putting it all back together sometimes but its still a good easy to use first RC. this was a few years ago and it still is fun to play with but I don't have alot of time to play with it alot so I think getting the electric one was a good idea for me. Having a friend who knows more about Rcs than I do is good too.

—Guest Shannon

Half-way Hobby: XMODS

My first "real" radio controlled car was an XMODS. Not quite like a hobby rc but more than a toy car too. Assembling the car made it seem fancier and more special than a toy off the shelf and since I never really drove an rc with any kind of speed or power before it helped me learn how to handle the controls and everything without risking tons of money. I think a car like this a good one for someone who isn't sure how much they are going to llike the rc hobby but want something that isn't just a little kid toy. This would probably be good for kids too if you arent sure if they are ready for a bigger rc.

—Guest Angel