The modelling hobby, so exciting and thrilling.
This hobby captivates many children when they walk past the duck pond with their parents on Sundays and see the adults driving beautiful boats on the water as if by magic, launching boats or putting out imaginary fires with water cannons.
It was the same for me.
On a Sunday walk with my parents at the time, I came across a few people with remote-controlled boats. At the time it was a rescue cruiser and a fire-fighting ship. I was so enthusiastic and kept nagging my parents ever since that day. They told me that ships weren't that great anyway, but aeroplanes would be something.
As I only had 2 choices, aeroplane or NOTHING, I naturally opted for aeroplanes. But the first model was a far cry from a remote-controlled model ... an aeroplane with a rubber motor :-(. My enthusiasm was very limited, but I thought it was better than nothing.
Dad and I then built the Graupner Piper out of balsa wood, with the child looking on while Dad, full of zest for action, glued the good piece together and I was allowed to do the menial work :). At some point, ‘my’ aeroplane was taken to a meadow for its maiden flight. The anticipation quickly disappeared when the glider ploughed headfirst into the ground on its first flight. My tears were probably so heartbreaking that mum and dad bought me my first boat. At least it could only sink.
I then sailed around in the pool at home with it and this incurable ‘modelling’ virus slowly but steadily penetrated me.
But seriously, the functions with forwards-backwards and left-right are massively modest, plus you have to drive the boat in circles quite alone. To the best of my knowledge, nobody in my neighbourhood had a boat to go round in circles with me.
So the enthusiasm disappeared quite quickly at the end of the summer.
My husband had a similar experience as a child. He also wanted a remote-controlled boat. Then, for Christmas, he received a box with a picture of a boat. His eyes sparkled, his heart raced ... but only for a moment, until the box was opened. A remote-controlled boat with a 2m cable and on the other side a kind of control unit with a play radius of one metre in the tub, as this cable, which weighed tonnes, naturally did not float on the surface.
To make matters worse, the family was in latent danger of falling ill with alcoholism due to the copious consumption of red wine in order to provide the boy with enough corks. The corks were expertly tied to the cable to keep this stupid cable afloat.
Dear parents ... read and learn ... when children talk about a remote-controlled boat or car, it really shouldn't be on a lead!
Yes, until ... until I saw flat track racers in a large car park for the first time. They were the ones with combustion engines, stank like hell and made a marvellous racket.
One of the men couldn't resist the girl with the big eyes and let me drive one of these.
It had happened, I had fallen in love. My parents were thrilled with the news and casually ignored my new-found interest.
The slaughter of my piggy bank at the time also brought the sobering realisation that you couldn't even get through the door of the toy shop with a few dollars.
Fortunately, I had a godfather, my plundered piggy bank and the extreme persuasiveness of my innocent face.
I bought my first RC car. A Graupner 2WD buggy, with an electric motor of course, the other was simply unaffordable and far too expensive, the box was yellow, it was ... too slow ... far too slow, at least in my mind. That's when it was born, the will to make everything better, to tune it.
I bought my first 8 min racing engine. That was really cool. After 8 minutes it was always over. But nothing could shake me, I bought 2 more batteries which were charged at an absolutely insane speed, it felt like a week, for a few minutes of happiness.
The e-drive era was then replaced by various combustion engines, 2 combustion boats came along but at some point the hobby disappeared from my life, partly because of time but also because there were no passengers.
A few years ago we saw a TRX4 Defender, I was thrilled and my husband also melted away and this disease, which actually seemed to be cured, broke through again and infected my husband with the same intensity.
Numerous crawlers, bashers and specialised modellers were joined by boats that can do more than just forward-backward and left-right.
This modelling virus is really incurable - but who wants that?
My husband and I now pursue this hobby quite extensively and are often out and about at weekends with friends who are also addicted to this hobby.