Jeff Hoy, American

I was hanging out at my local hobby shop yesterday, just shootin’ the breeze with some guys and looking for ways to spend money on my r/c addiction.  In walks a mother and her two kids, a boy of 10 years and a girl probably 3 or 4.  It seems the boy has taken an interest in r/c cars.  Not surprising considering the attention they’ve been getting the last few years, but what was surprising was that he really wanted a car he could build himself.  In an age where the entire r/c hobby is ready-to-run, instant gratification guaranteed, this boy, this 10 year old, hard working, handsome, genius of a boy, wanted to BUILD A KIT!

The family left the shop after the group of us talked their ears off about the hobby and offered way too many suggestions.  I, of course, suggested the Tamiya Baja King.  The boy left with tons of catalogs and the mom left with a crapload of stuff to look up on the internet, but otherwise they were empty handed.  I think we may have helped stoke the fire a bit though, and I’m sure the shop owner will see him back in the future.  If he was my boy, I’d be extremely proud of him.  He will be the future of the hobby.  Not some kid that gets a Rustler for Christmas, plays with it for two months, then throws it in the closet to collect dust.

After they left, the shop owner and I got to talking about the boy and it brought back some good memories for both of us about how we got started in the hobby, me about 15 years ago, him much longer.  One thing we both remembered fondly was building our first kits.  Back then you really didn’t have a choice but to build a kit.  RTR cars back then were few and far between and the ones that were out there were junk.  All the best cars were kits.

Even Team Losi’s race line has started to shun the kit.  They offer what they call “race rollers.”  Those are almost RTR cars and trucks that just require electronics to be installed and the body to be painted.  It’s a sad time when even racers aren’t able to build their own cars from the ground up.

Today’s event renewed my hope for the future of this hobby.  I was worried that r/c cars would turn into another old man hobby like model trains and r/c airplanes.  It made me realize that, yes, there are still kids out there that want to get their hands dirty before they have fun.  There are kids that want to learn everything there is to know about their car before they drive it.  They want to build it, they want to fix it, they want to upgrade it.  Kid, you rock.