The Cover Girls of RC Magazines

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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So I was getting a bit nostalgic last night and started looking at RC planes and I have started buying some of the old kits I had as a kid. I want to build them again.

Most of them, I purchased in my early teens C.O.D. (remember that?) from RC Modeler Magazine (Remember That?)

I started looking up old issues of RC Modeler and quickly realized something I missed as a kid and in hindsight, I find really weird.

Some marketing guy back in the 70s-90s was like "We'll have girls pose on the cover with RC planes". Then I found this page.

What an odd juxtaposition. All these women (who are now in their 70s) oddly holding RC planes on the cover. As an adult in 2021, strikes me as super odd that this was the marketing gimmick back then.

https://flashbak.com/cover-girls-of-model-airplane-magazines-of-the-1960s-1990s-373222/
 
A. I got into R/C flying way to late.
B. Even when I did, I never noticed the girls.
 
Got the bug to build a model I flew back in the 1990s....48" span Sig Kobra. They still sell the kit!

This one will be an electric conversion.

Kobra.jpg
 
When I noticed girls

loved RC. Never had spare socks.
 
Considering the demographic, I bet the originals as found, were starched af.... :eek::D
 
As an adolescent at the time, I fondly remember the RCM cover girls of the 1970s. Yes, I noticed the airplanes and the girls. Now who remembers the small "good things come in many packages" Tatone ad (a small B&W ad) in every issue?
 
Hilarious. I especially liked the ones in long sleeve, floor length dresses lol. I can't decide if the editors were such nerds they didn't know what a sexy magazine cover looked like, or they didn't have the budget to get a model, so someones sister came over after church.
 
I actually like that, really cool.

Nowadays it will end up being 2 guys kissing with an RC, or something like that.
Give me a beautiful lady on the cover anytime.
 
This thread is worthless without a poll. Or is that pole?

RC Scale Modeler – February 1984 for the win!
 
Remember these as well.

I also recall and ad in them that ran for awhile for Team Associated (I think...RC cars) with a bikini-clad trophy gal that was...nice
 
Is it wrong to miss the good old days when women were just sex objects?

Just kidding!

My wife and I are on a mission to watch every James Bond movie. I have to admit that 75% of the movies are really kind of creepy, seeing them from today's perspective. At the time, it seemed perfectly normal - well, unless you were a woman...
 
my buddy and I built Associated RC-12s in the late 80's. That was some fun stuff. I still have it laying around. needs new batteries and a new body. Not sure where the controller ended up. Probably in a box somewhere in the garage or the hangar.
 
Lndwarrior said:
Is it wrong to miss the good old days when women were just sex objects?

Just kidding!

My wife and I are on a mission to watch every James Bond movie. I have to admit that 75% of the movies are really kind of creepy, seeing them from today's perspective. At the time, it seemed perfectly normal - well, unless you were a woman...
Click to expand...


I don't know any women that find them creepy. My GF is a huge fan, and so is her best friend.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
So I was getting a bit nostalgic last night and started looking at RC planes and I have started buying some of the old kits I had as a kid. I want to build them again.
Click to expand...

Wow, does that take me back, both types of the models. :D My Dad and I flew models of all sorts as I was growing up. He got his PPL but didn't fly anymore when the Eurocoupe got to $8/hour "rich man's hobby" o_O

We flew Free flight, U-control, indoor and eventually R/C starting circa 1975 but model flying has been my Dad's hobby since he was thirteen (1951!) and he kept a lot of magazines I grew up reading. Heck, his AMA # is 2264. He's 83 and still flies 2-3 times a week. He donated his massive magazine collection going back into the 50s to the AMA museum before they moved from Indiana to Florida a decade ago.

I still fool with park flyer electrics but look forward to getting back into larger stuff when I retire and have the time.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I don't recall seeing anything like that at the RC club meetings or flying field...
Click to expand...
We did have one girl who was regularly at the field and meetings. Her dad and mine were pretty good flying buddies. Other than that... I don’t remember any. Certainly none in bikinis.
 
My local RC club held a flyin way back in the late ‘80’s. Saw that there was a woman pilot in attendance. Thing is, “she” had had a field modification :eek:

Guess he/she was ahead of her/his time. Don’t think I’d want to have seen
Sh-im in a bikini on the cover of RCM!


Not that there’s anything wrong with that now.......:rolleyes:
 
Arnold said:
Sex sells. They were selling to your dad not you.
Click to expand...

Yep.

When all else fails,

sex sells.

Wish I had pictures of the trophy queens I met at race tracks.....but then again, that would be blackmail material....
 
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I remember those magazine covers well.

I'm just glad this isn't a "where are they now" thread. Those ladies would all be pushing walkers now
 
"you have a nasty habit of surviving!"
..
"you know what they say about the fittest"

I don't care what anyone says, Connery this, Connery that.. Roger Moore had the best lines
 
Wow does this bring back memories. Every so often I will run across an Byron Originals kit, and realize how old I am! Those were fun back in the day, I had a P-51, Sukhoi 26, and an F-16.
 
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In the early 50's dad bought every boy in our Boy Scout Troop 72 a line control airplane with a OK Cox .049 engine.
The kits were solid balsa wings and Hollow fuselage. Tail dragers of course , Looked much like a C 170
He was Chairman of the local school board so we got to fly them in the then new Highschool Gymnasium .
The school janitor soon found out the fuel spewing little cox engines softened up the floor finish and the occasional crash marred the floor. We were then sent to the old High school gym ( the Jr high- grade school) where the ceiling was much lower and the floor more expendable .
I still have my engine but alas the model has long since disappeared .
Still have my Foam Cub from the late 70's hanging in my office. It was RC and crashed multiple times till it was no longer deemed airworthy. 5 minute epoxy and nylon strapping tape repaired wings, fuselage and Tail assemblies to the end.
Still have the Futoba transmitter and servos . All obsolete frequencys now.
 
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