[OptimaFan]

So, deep breath, here's my story when it comes to RC cars. Almost 30 years ago, I started out with RC boats. I love to see water in motion, and my mother has been on a ship for years during her childhood, so she probably passed the love for ships into my genes.

However, there was no suitable water to run the boats near my home, so I was always dependent on my father to drive me there, stay with me while I ran my boats, and then take me back. To be less dependent, I saved money for an RC car. That was the Marui Ninja, a pretty nice 4WD buggy. I liked this extra dimension of the RC hobby, and got another car, an Optima Mid. The Ninja was nice, the Mid was awesome, with full ball bearings, low slop, many metal parts, smooth drive train, loved running it.

Even managed to get 2 classmates from school involved in RC. One bought a Marui Hunter, which I wrenched on, as he was not interested in the technical aspect, he just wanted to run the car. I didn't mind, though it was a challenge to keep his car running, as he ran it to the car's limits.

The other classmate had a HotShot, but insisted upon building and doing maintenance himself. Sadly enough, he didn't have much talent for wrenching, and his car ran half to 2/3rd of the speed our cars were running, with similar stock motors. Het also had trouble with the plastic shock caps popping off. So he wasn't enjoying his car much, and I don't know what happened to it, after we graduated and lost sight of each other.

Some years later, my interests shifted, and I wasn't able to get my battery trouble (almost always empty too soon, not well charged, leaking cells) under control, so the RC hobby was shelved on the attic.

A few years ago, I noticed a local gas station was selling toy-grade micro helis at discount. I've always wanted to expand my RC activities to flight, but the risk of losing lots of time and money when a plane or heli would crash, held me back. But with these cheap helis, the risk was about zero, should such a small heli crash. These small helis performed above my expectations, and woke my love for RC again.

I took the cars and boats of the attic, and started restoring these to running condition. With the aid of eBay, some friends I met online, and the advance RC technology made since then, I am enjoying RC more like ever before.