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cosworthwesty

Banzai hobby

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All the time, prices are great but shipping costs plenty.

You need to check prices including shipping from all your preferred vendors to see if its worth the purchase.

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Use them for little Drift car parts and some of the more unusual stuff. Incredibly cheap on most things and shipping on smaller items is good value although in-insured...

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I've used them for some stuff recently and they were very good. Their EMS rates to NZ are more than competitive with the HK vendors and their kits are generally cheaper. One thing to watch for is that the kits often don't contain a Tamiya ESC, (although some do) whereas almost everything from an overseas distributor will come with an ESC included.

I wouldn't say their communication is brilliant, but it's decent and helpful, and packaging was very good. They list accurate prices on their invoices on the outside of the packaging so you need to consider customs charges.

Will

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Good point, communication. They're obviously busy because they're a bit slow to respond (even taking into account the 9 hour time difference) but they get the job done eventually!

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I've found their communication to be well above par. There were quick to respond to questions, understood what I was after and helped source what I needed. My only gripe is that their shipping costs tend to be fairly high.

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The postage costs do seem a little high, but the kit I want is £30 cheaper than any other supplier I've found. The only thing that I'm worried about is the invoice on the outside of the packing, customs would pick that up I'm sure.

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Rcmart and Stella will put a low customs declaration if you ask. Banzai might do the same. RCMada will also oblige .

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I think it depends on what you are buying. Their postage seemed SUPER cheap on little stuff. Even a nicad battery pack was only $1.80 to ship regular uninsured mail.

But once you got up into body-set sized things and more, the price went up considerably. I think it's like $2x.xx to ship a body set.

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Shipping anything outside of japan is mega expensive. Hk post is cheap really..

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nah HK has jacked their rates up, nowadays

EMS from Japan could be cheaper than HK.

Some HK sellers are now bulkshipping to

neighbouring countries then post out from there.

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I highly recommend Banzai. I have done numerous orders from them and they are fantastic. In addition, if its not listed on their site, all you have to do is ask and they will contact Tamiya and have the part in within days.

Their are many parts that TamiyaUSA lists as discontinued, but Tamiya Japan may have left over stock. When in need of such parts, I always contact Banzai.

As great as Stella and RC Mart are, neither have been willing to go the extra mile for me with these requests.

The reason their prices are less expensive than HK stores is because they are in Japan. Its difficult for HK stores to compete with a store in the country of origin. Also their English is very good.

Most TC members live in the UK and EU. So I can not speak to Banzais shipping charges.

However for those of you thy live in the states, their shipping rates can not be beat either. If you are not in a rush and select SAL for shipping, you'll pay less than you would with Tower Hobbies. Keep in mind this is not insured, so it's to be used for small orders. Thus far I have found it to be super reliable and had no issues. In addition, if you pay with a US credit card (even as fundin source on PayPal) you will be provided with protection, (outside of paypals) should your package be lost. The SAL option is not available for high value items such as kits.

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Rcmart and Stella will put a low customs declaration if you ask. Banzai might do the same. RCMada will also oblige .

I emailed them this morning before I read this thread and they just got back to me within 2 hours which was good!!

"Thanks for your email and your inquiry.

We can certainly do this for you but PLEASE make sure to write this down at special comment section at check out.

For example,

Undervalue the invoice to JPY3,000 etc.

Hope this helps?

Thanks James.

Have a great weekend.

Kind regards

banzai Hobby"

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I highly recommend Banzai. I have done numerous orders from them and they are fantastic. In addition, if its not listed on their site, all you have to do is ask and they will contact Tamiya and have the part in within days.

Their are many parts that TamiyaUSA lists as discontinued, but Tamiya Japan may have left over stock. When in need of such parts, I always contact Banzai.

As great as Stella and RC Mart are, neither have been willing to go the extra mile for me with these requests.

The reason their prices are less expensive than HK stores is because they are in Japan. Its difficult for HK stores to compete with a store in the country of origin. Also their English is very good.

Most TC members live in the UK and EU. So I can not speak to Banzais shipping charges.

However for those of you thy live in the states, their shipping rates can not be beat either. If you are not in a rush and select SAL for shipping, you'll pay less than you would with Tower Hobbies. Keep in mind this is not insured, so it's to be used for small orders. Thus far I have found it to be super reliable and had no issues. In addition, if you pay with a US credit card (even as fundin source on PayPal) you will be provided with protection, (outside of paypals) should your package be lost. The SAL option is not available for high value items such as kits.

+1

I think they're excellent. Just make sure not to add small bits and parts if ordering a kit. Order the small bits separately.

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+1

I think they're excellent. Just make sure not to add small bits and parts if ordering a kit. Order the small bits separately.

Why not add small parts when ordering a kit surely it can not make much difference to the postage cost? my cart at Banzai is loaded with a DB01 kit and a few other parts.

Any vital parts/hop ups required when building a DB01?

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Why not add small parts when ordering a kit surely it can not make much difference to the postage cost? my cart at Banzai is loaded with a DB01 kit and a few other parts.

Any vital parts/hop ups required when building a DB01?

When I tried combining kit + small parts the shipping went up considerably. Don't remember the exact amount, but it pretty much killed the deal. The expensive and larger items is shipped by EMS, but smaller items can be sent by SAL at a fraction of the cost for EMS. It's much slower though and not insured.

When done adding items to your cart go to checkout to get the cost for shipping. It doesn't seem to update this cost in the cart itself. Fooled me a couple of times ;)

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When I tried combining kit + small parts the shipping went up considerably. Don't remember the exact amount, but it pretty much killed the deal. The expensive and larger items is shipped by EMS, but smaller items can be sent by SAL at a fraction of the cost for EMS. It's much slower though and not insured.

When done adding items to your cart go to checkout to get the cost for shipping. It doesn't seem to update this cost in the cart itself. Fooled me a couple of times ;)

That happened to me once with adding a set of m chassis wheels. I emailed them and they corrected the code for the item

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Yup, you gotta re-select the shipping each time you change the cart contents or it just stays the same.

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When I tried combining kit + small parts the shipping went up considerably. Don't remember the exact amount, but it pretty much killed the deal. The expensive and larger items is shipped by EMS, but smaller items can be sent by SAL at a fraction of the cost for EMS. It's much slower though and not insured.

When done adding items to your cart go to checkout to get the cost for shipping. It doesn't seem to update this cost in the cart itself. Fooled me a couple of times ;)

You might try sending them an email with the issue and they will probably come back with a sensible shipping cost.

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You might try sending them an email with the issue and they will probably come back with a sensible shipping cost.

Thanks, will try that next time (they are slow at responding though)

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