If your loadout needs a pistol that reads like a joke without looking cheap, Remote Control on the TEC-9 is one of the easier Nuke skins to spot in a lineup. It landed 3 September 2018 with the FACEIT 2018 Ways to Watch update, sits in the 2018 Nuke Collection at Classified rarity, and was designed in-house by Valve—not a Workshop pick. That matters for collectors chasing map-themed sets and Major souvenir lines at the same time.

Where it comes from

Primary source is the 2018 Nuke Collection. You can also pull it from Nuke Souvenir packages tied to Majors including London 2018, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019, Stockholm 2021, Antwerp 2022, Rio 2022, Paris 2023, Copenhagen 2024, Shanghai 2024, Austin 2025, and Budapest 2025. More drop paths usually means supply and price breathe with tournament cycles and unboxing waves—when you compare listings on Steam or C5GAME, stick to the same wear tier or you are not really comparing the same skin.

Inspect checklist (wear 0.00–1.00)

Gunsmith finish: blue body with hand-painted colorful dial and switches. Valve’s line “Don’t touch that dial” is the whole vibe—a tiny control panel baked into the slide.

• Factory New / Minimal Wear: Best read on the dial and switch edges; blue stays clean enough that the gag stays obvious in inspect.
• Field-Tested: Often the budget sweet spot if the face still reads intact—check that colors did not muddy into the base blue.
• Well-Worn / Battle-Scarred: Expect a mostly blue slab with ghost lines; funny if you like abstract ruins, bad if you bought it for the panel joke.

Always inspect in-game before committing. Pattern placement matters more than float worship here—you care whether the dial and switches look complete, not a tenth of wear.

Shopping take

Buy if: You are building a Nuke-themed inventory, you want a Classified TEC-9 that actually gets comments, or you like pairing map lore + Major souvenir tags on one gun.

Skip or go cheap if: You need a flex skin that survives heavy wear—Battle-Scarred Remote Control is mostly blue with leftovers.

Price smart: Lock wear band, then scan C5GAME and Steam for the same exterior; souvenir vs non-souvenir listings can diverge hard after a Major.

Editor’s aside

Remote Control is doing two jobs at once: it matches the Nuke palette for set builders and carries a control-room punchline that still lands years later. For a secondary that you pull out between rifle rounds, a slightly worn copy with a crisp dial is usually enough—save the premium for pieces you stare at every spawn.