Old Hobbies

The only toy in the entire apartment that the Rae and Josh (the kids we watched last night) were interested in was this Radio Controlled Ford Focus that my sister got me as kind of a gag gift for my birthday quite a while back. Usually it sits shelved, but the kids wanted a toy to play with.


This got me thinking about a hobby (R/C Cars) that I abandoned years ago because:
1) It was too damned expensive
2) I was still messing with "toy" stuff, and even THAT was expensive.

I dug this out. It's still only partially assembled. I had to re-solder the drive motor wires back to the main circuitboard and replace an SMT diode and resistor as well. And the car was practically broken down into the smallest units it can be broken down to.


This started life as a first-gen XMODS from radio shack. It's got an arsenal of unethical modifications and a bunch of stuff from AtomicMods added to it. Also, I have an entire car worth of spare chassis and electronic parts, at least 40 tires (it eats them up when you race), probably 5 extra sets of wheels, God-Knows-How-Many motors and... well, just a lot of stuff.

I will guarantee you that what you see in the picture cost me more than what I paid for my Diamondback Sorrento, The Goat. And I'll guarantee you that when you include all the stuff you don't see, I probably haven't spent as much on the Goat as I have on this car and all the stuff to go with it, total.

I am putting it back together for old-time's sake. I may zip it around a little bit, but I doubt I'm likely to put any more money into it for quite a while. I have several body styles to put on it. I don't think I've ever driven it with the Corvette body on. I'll probably throw some shiny wheels and new tires on, then let it sit with some of my other car models.

And an obligatory Kansas City Photo. The ice was treacherous this evening on the way home. Here's hoping the snow comes in that they promised us.