Percentage, scores out of 10, 1 to 5 stars, A to F grades, etc, we have lots of ways of rating something. Norway (home of Lars, who runs and mostly pays for Tamiyabase – and therefore the home of TB itself) though, since the early 1950s has had terningkast – a dice throw to indicate a score from 1 to 6.

	To be Avoided	...and/or it’ll do more harm than good. A pertinent example from the world of RC would be a “polycarbonate safe” paint remover that immediately melts your cars body shell.
	Of very limited value or use	RC example: really, really wanting Santa to bring you a proper, hobby grade RC car, but getting a no-brand “remote controlled” vehicle instead, one that either goes forward or reverses in a circle, depending on how many times you press the single button.
	Barely gets the job done	Going back to the paint remover example, this time it would work, but take a long time and involve a lot of effort, perhaps even causing some clouding and so limiting what colour you can repaint it.
	Almost there	… but doesn’t quite make it. Extending that hypothetical Santa scenario, imagine you’re old enough to know that it’s actually your parents/aunty/grandparents that pay for your gifts. Further imagine that you’d been dropping hints about a Monster Beetle kit since March, but you received the QD version instead.  It’s still a Tamiya, even a Monster Beetle, and you know you should be grateful – but it’s going to take a long time (possibly years in therapy ;)) to feel it. As a mental exercise, add all the numbers from 1 to 6 – the sum of the all the possible rolls of a standard D6. Divide the result by 6 – the number of sides. You should get 3.5 as the arithmetic mean. 4 is therefore an above average score, though it might not feel it.
	Almost perfect	… apart from one bum note. For example, I’ve bought really great value 6-channel stick radio sets that have a quality look and feel, and an enormous range of features – but those features can only be accessed by USB connection to a desktop PC or laptop, using a very clunky bit of software that you have to hunt down yourself. I consider this to be a very good if not excellent rating.
	Perfect and great value	Rarely achieved, because there’s high price on perfection. Let’s imagine a transmitter from a radio gear manufacturer with all the features you could possibly want, all easily accessible from a large screen on the front. Still not a 6, because it costs seven times what the example in 5, above, cost. It would be a different story if it were just twice or even three times the cost.

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Written by TB member Jonny Retro