as a kid i was always interested in "remote controlled cars" and had everything from the ones with the wire that ran between the car and remote and the radio shack ones that would go straight forward and turn in reverse i went through quite a few of them then in 1986 i received a nikko thunderbolt for christmas or a birthday and i ran it until it died, i just so happened to know a guy that was the manager at Kay Bee toys in the local mall and one night while shopping with my brother we were talking to the guy and i noticed that they had a Tamiya Blackfoot kit that included the radio battery and charger and while admiring it way up on the top shelf he said they had just got it in and did i want to buy it? i said id love too but id have to save up for it (i was 16) and that i just had the thunderbolt die on me. he said to bring the thunderbolt back in and he would let me get a refund towards the blackfoot, so with the broken thunderbolt and some money i had i got my first Hobby grade R/C i built it and would run it all the time, i have owned/own many r/cs through the years and even a fair amount of blackfoots, i still have two of them in my collection now