Tamiya, Myself, and I.

Hello world and fellow dorks. I’m Christer. If you’re wondering, it’s not a typo. It’s in fact, Norwegian. However, I am not Norwegian. I’m currently going to school in Pomona and it constantly smells like horses. Please forgive all my grammatical and or technical errors… or whatever. I haven't written anything for a while.

Things that interest me include (but not limited to): huge robots, robot-killers, photochopping, cult classics, a solid pair of denim, good eats, women, and I also recently took up golf. I like to keep things basic, yet eccentric. Minimalism with a kick, I suppose.

Expect a wide array of random things from me and try not to take me so seriously.

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When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I had a friend named Koji. He always had the coolest toys and video games as they were all from Japan, and as we all know, Japan is always 2-3 years ahead of all baka gaijin.

One day after school, after making a stop at the ice cream man for the usual soda and chicarones, I headed over to his house to play Dragon Ball Z: Legends. When I walked into his garage he had this miniature oval racing track.

I found out that Tamiya produced these slot racing cars at a 1/32 scale that would run these tracks without a remote control, but just by motor and battery.

These things immediately grabbed my attention. The different car designs, tuning the cars for speed and stability, the science behind upgrading your own machine… it was all awesome to me. The size of your wheels, types of tires, motor, gear ratio, side rollers, ball bearings, and weights. All of that mattered in the design of your machine.

I remember going to the then Yaohan (now Mitsuwa), and getting my first machine, the Magnum Saber. It was one of the more basic cars and it came with a stock motor. Unfortunately, I used to run it on my parent’s carpet and not on a track. This resulted in the car crashing into the wall and snapping the chassis. My neighbor, however, ran his out in the front yard and went straight into the gutter.

For the next two years or so, I saved my lunch money periodically just so I can get a new machine and upgrade parts. Koji on the other hand, already had plenty of parts to upgrade with so his machines were a lot more stable than my own.

(Side guns courtesy of a Gundam Airmaster Burst)

Eventually, Koji moved to Canada and so did his race track. I had all these cars, their upgrade parts, and even a nice little racer’s box. Sometime in the near future I’d like to buy a track of my own (they have add-ons and upgrades for tracks too) and race these cars once more. If anyone out there wants to race and get smoked, get at me.