Jump to content

mobias

Members
  • Content Count

    701
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by mobias


  1. Hi,

    I am getting a small sum of cash from my wife to spend on anything I want and as it won't quite stretch to a 3 speed I am considering a rock crawler. Looking at Modelsport I have settled on a shortlist of a Axial SC10 (probably Dingo), Maverick Scout or a CR01. Does anyone run these and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

    Have £350 to spend if anyone wants to suggest anything else as an option.

    Cheers

    Clive

    Have you also considered a G-made R1? I got one last year and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Its a great all rounder. Its either a very capable crawler or an incredibly fast rock racer, you can have either set up very easily. Its definitely the most fun and versatile kit I've ever owned. For £350 you get get one plus a lot of hop-up options. Its very customisable. Here's a few of pics of mine in crawler, rock racer and sand buggy guises. As you can see its also quite a scale looking thing too once you have fun adding a few touches of your own.

    R13.jpg

    14.jpg09-1.jpg


  2. No, there is a very specific and good reason for why this is.

    The TamiyaUSA store is not intended to replace normal distribution channels.

    You are "supposed" to purchase Tamiya products from your local hobby store or from online stores like Tower Hobbies.

    Tamiya USA purposely sells kits near or at retail price in order to not compete with the regular distribution channels.

    There are very complicated selling agreements between TamiyaUSA, distributors (like Great Planes), online stores (like Tower Hobbies), and local hobby shops (like HobbyTown USA).

    There are rules that are designed to prevent competition between entities that are not supposed to compete, like TamiyaUSA competing with your local hobby shop or an online store.

    TamiyaUSA relies on those shops to make the bulk of the money for the company, so undercutting them would be, to put it bluntly, stupid. Biting the hand that feeds you and all that.

    So why do they bother selling at all? Surely they'd be better off just saying 'find your nearest hobbystore. Plenty of other companies do that. I'd be a pretty disgruntled customer if I bought from them only to realise every single other shop in the world is way cheaper.


  3. All fair points but mobias himself is on record as saying that RC4WD quality with regards to wear & tear leaves a lot to be desired.

    Yeah that's definitely true or at least it is in my experience and judging from what I've heard from others its seems to be a commonly held view. I haven't bought from them in a while mind you so they might have improved their game. Someone who's built one of their more recent kits might be able to have a view here. I suppose people might argue that RC4WD are a much smaller much more specialised company so have to charge more for what they produce where as a company like Tamiya can swallow up costs more and therefore should in theory be able to bring down prices. My view on it has always been isn't it better to charge less for something and sell more of them rather than charge a premium and sell to relatively select few. Why can't the Bruiser be a 100 quid less than it is and perhaps Tamiya would sell many more of them? I guess maybe they don't want to. They want to produce a relatively small number of them and sell them at a premium.

    My concern on this discussion would be that i get a little tired about justifying its (high-)price because we'll never get this for everybody sorted out.

    Why just can't we take it as it is,all this discussion wouldn't change a thing on it anyway...

    Tamiya was never meant to be cheap-and all those of us who expected the Bruiser to be cheap maybe are a little naive IMO (don't wanna offend anybody)

    Whilst all that is true I think people have a right to voice their view on something especially if they disagree with it. Despite what some people here think Tamiya aren't beyond criticism and if you feel you're being ripped off by them then you should be able to say so. You're totally right in saying it'll make diddly squat of difference but its still something worth discussing and venting your steam over where needed.

    I didn't think the Bruiser would be cheap at all but I do still think £750 (which seems to be about the average street price) is quite depressingly expensive. If you can indeed get one for nearer £500 then you've got yourself a bargain. Still a lot of dosh though and more than I would pay for something that's better suited to sitting on the shelf than is to running in my opinion.

    Another thing I've often wondered is how Tamiya can charge $1,239 on their own US store when they know fine well places like Tower are charging $799? Is that not in the realms of them ripping people off?


  4. How on earth can you say this when RC4WD's own Bruiser rip-off costs the same as the Tamiya real deal, yet it comes without even a body or motor???

    http://store.rc4wd.com/Bruiser-3-Speed-110...k-Kit_p_48.html

    I said 'probably' the worst offender Wandy, there are obviously other contenders, that's why I acknowledged it can be an expensive hobby generally. And I was talking about their entire range of high end RC vehicles, not just the Bruiser.


  5. This was exactly the same with the 2011 Avante. Lots of members stamped their feet in protest i remember, a futile effort to somehow 'serve Tamiya right', how dare they charge so much for this kit. It was pathetic especially when most of them then went out and bought one.

    Worked for me. I saved up enough for an Avante, decided it was a total rip off, bought a G-made R1 instead, discovered the joys of crawling and have never looked back. So thank you Tamiya your ridiculous over pricing and my own futile protest in not buying from you has made me enjoy the hobby even more!

    Anyway why is it pathetic for people to want value for money in this day and age of austerity? Tamiya sure don't provide it, though I do confess this can be an expensive hobby right across the board. Tamiya are probably the worst offender.


  6. The point is though that Tamiya probably could not give two hoots about that scene and who is dominating it. Certainly, the Bruiser re-re is not any serious attempt to stake a claim in it....nor the scale scene either. It just so happens that this is a particular release for the nostalgia enthusiasts that can be seen to be crossing the boundaries between the two scenes.

    I agree with most of that but they clearly care up to a point about the crawler market otherwise they wouldn't have released the CR-01 and kept on supporting it. Personally I do think we'll see more from them in that area too, its just a matter of when.


  7. But if people really want to compare a Bruiser with nowadays crawler trucks-let me say this:

    One thing is quite obvious: more and more crawler trucks are approaching the Bruisers appearance.Why every second crawler is based on a Toyota Hilux? Why are crawlers today getting scaler and scaler?

    In my opinion,it's the crawler scene that is entering Tamiya's business,not the other way round ;)

    I think there's some people here who are getting a little confused over the whole crawler scene and the difference between a crawler and a scale truck and a scale crawler. They're all part of the same world but they're not always the same thing. The Bruiser is a scale truck which you could also use for scale crawling if you wanted to. Its not a full out crawler and I don't think anyone is claiming its trying to be. The CR-01 is Tamiya's only stock foray into full blown crawling at this point.

    The scale scene is definitely taking off so yes I would say more and more trucks are looking scale but its still only a part of that world. The crawler scene was in a large part kicked off by Tamiya but its long since gone its own way and as a lot of us have pointed out on numerous occasions here its odd that Tamiya seem to want little to do with it. The scale truck market is a different story, obviously there they are much more involved but are in no way in dominance but they are undoubtedly a major player, particularly in the EU.

    My take on the crawler scene is that its quite North American centric and in the US in particular they like they're own home grown stuff, hence in part the success of Axial and RC4WD. Both those companies are making far more interesting kits than Tamiya too which obviously plays a large part in their success. They're both catering for and leading the market.


  8. . Obviously it is going to appeal to those who remember the original and want scale appearance, metal frame and the 3 speed gear box. The high price and the need for a 4 Ch radio means this truck has no competitors price or specification wise and is in a class all of its own, just above the High Lift class.

    Thats not the case at all though. As we discussed earlier in the thread there are a stack of very similar trucks on offer out there at near identical spec and price ( actually some of them are even more expensive) hence the fact that outside of Tamiya enthusiasts this re- release isn't really mustering much excitement.


  9. I'm pretty certain that chassis has been made by RC4WD for a while, if Tamiya had a copy right over the name Bruiser they would have done something about it by now.


  10. It may have been brought out too late to achieve the popularity that it would have a few years ago amongst the crawler enthusiasts but it's been brought back at exactly the right time to gain big sales from their target market. They really have not missed the boat at all.

    True, but the reality of the situation is that they know where the main demographic of those wealthy people will come from.

    But it hasn't been brought out at exactly the right time at all in their target market. Why is bringing out the most expensive re-re yet at a time of total economic downturn 'the right time? Surely the right time would have been in about 2007 when we all had more money, especially us Brits when it came to buying from the US, and when the kit would have had utterly free reign over the growing scale truck market. I can see that the Bruiser re-re is the culmination of the success of all the other re-re's but good timing it ain't.

    Also when it comes to wealth their main target market might as well be in the scale crawler market as it is in Tamiya collectors. The scale crawler guys spend serious money on their kits, you only have to look at the RC4WD website to see how much all these kits cost.


  11. I must have missed something here, most of the comments on those threads were hugely positive with the odd grumbling about the price compared to the Trailfinder 2.

    Like I say, any scale/crawler enthusiasts who think this has been brought back for them are kidding themselves. It is very telling that they are mystified as to why Tamiya did not put standard hexes on the axles and simply kept the original format.

    The comments are by and large positive it's just that there's not many of them especially, as Twinset alludes to, the amount of clamour there has been over the years for this kit. The fact is it's too late coming out to have the impact it might have had, especially at the price it is.

    Wandy I don't think anyone is kidding themselves about anything. Tamiya have brought out this kit to appeal to anyone wealthy enough to want to fork out for it, whether they be a hard core Tamiya enthusiast, a scale truck enthusiast or a mix of both.

    No the Bruiser isn't a crawler it's a scale truck. The scale truck area of the hobby and the crawler side of it are pretty much totally intertwined. If you're into one side of it you don't have to be into the other but a lot of people are.


  12. You could buy a HPI Baja 5B 2.0 RTR for £10 cheaper than that on Modelsport

    Colin.

    You could buy a lot of other RC car(s) for 729 quid. Much as I'm a huge devotee of the scale truck area of the hobby and much as i think the Bruiser is a beautiful looking kit its appeal in 2012 is ever so slightly lost on me, and that's perhaps in part to do with the price. Its quite telling that over on the RC crawler forums not that many people seem to be paying it much attention. A few people share my view that Tamiya are too late to the game with this re-re. Its just not going to have the impact on the scale market, outside of hardcore Tamiya enthusiasts, that it would have done a few years ago, certainly at the price it is.

    Anyway out of the scale enthusiasts that do end up forking out for it I'm really keen to see what mods people do on it. There's clearly a lot of potential with the newly tweaked chassis to do something interesting now that it works better.


  13. How would those two be more fun to run though?

    With that suspension kit you'd be looking at paying £400 all in for a Tundra so not that much cheaper. And as much as I like the look of the Trailfinder 2 it looks cheap compared to the Bruiser. Didn't you also say that RC4WD quality was poor?

    RC4WD sure ain't Tamiya but then again my opinion of Tamiya's quality isn't what it used to be either. Lots of scale enthusiasts run RC4WD trucks and generally seem to get on fine with them. My opinion of their universal shafts isn't good thats for sure.

    How would they be more fun to run? The four link Tundra for me would almost certainly be more fun to run. Its looks vs performance would be a really good balance, which for me personally is important. For slow speed crawling the four link set up would be articulate and compliant, you would see it easily do its job going over rough terrain, nice to see working in a scale truck. In third gear and at speed it would easily handle jumps and again would take what was thrown at it. I've never run a Bruiser but I have run a F-350 with 2.2's and jacked up suspension, so a pretty much similar set up. For slow speed crawling the suspension was almost entirely non existent, it might as well not be there. In third gear at speed my F-350 used to go through leaf springs all the time, they would just bend utterly out of shape even with the hardest set up, and I don't seriously misuse my vehicles. Maybe the 2012 Bruiser will be better engineered for it but I suspect it'll be the same story. Tamiya seem to have a habit with their trucks of over engineering certain parts and under engineering others. With the huge amount of motor combos available to people these days it not always a good mix.

    At the end of the day my pimped out F-350 looked a lot more fun to drive than it actually was, reading around others reports of driving the Bruiser it sounds like a similar story.

    A pimped out Tundra with four links plus shocks sure isn't cheap either, definitely agree there. Like I said though, probably much better performance


  14. Can you post up some photos of the Bruiser's competition? I'm not particularly familiar with the scale scene.

    Custom build yourself a rig from RC4WD and you'd have something pretty special http://store.rc4wd.com/Scale-Truck-Kit_c_7.html

    Probably the best looking custom rigs out there as far as I'm concerned is a Tundra pimped out with Junfac's 4 link conversion kit http://www.junfac.com/shop/index.php?main_...b41b068ff52ed6c


  15. I knew it would be quite shockingly expensive. Tamiya have long since stopped surprising me at what they get away with charging for things. I really don't want to rain on anyone here's parade because the Bruiser is a great looking beast of a truck and I can see why everyone is so excited to see it re-re'd finally but for me this isn't 2006 or 2007 anymore. There are loads of equally fantastic looking and perhaps more importantly fantastic performing scale looking trucks out there now for a lot less than what the Bruiser will end up costing, even via import. I doubt very much the Bruiser's performance will be that different to the F-350 therefore making it not even a particularly good runner for the money. Its a beautiful looking but insanely expensive shelf queen.


  16. I'm no expert on these but I think it's fair to say that is not a High Lift chassis. :blink:

    Although on the flip side I can't really make out any shiny metal from the photo either. :lol:

    From that blurry photo it looks more similar to the high lift chassis than it does the original one. I wonder if they've just beefed up the high lift chassis for it? Difficult to tell from those photos. It looks to me like it's got the black axles with the large silver diff gear cover of the high lift.

    Edit. Actually it's really to dark and blurry to tell what it is. Certainly can't see the high lifts raised gear box. Wonder if it's a whole new chassis incorporating elements from both old and new 3 speeds?


  17. Tamiya releasing the largest and inevitably the most expensive re-re yet at the darkest depths of total economic gloom and uncertainty probably isn't great timing. People will still buy it but perhaps not nearly as many as would have done had they brought it out in about 2007. Also the market to which the Bruiser is/was really popular, the scale truck market, now has a lot of similar-ish vehicles. Four or for or five years ago it would have sold better being in a less provided for market I think. There's a lot of really cool scale vehicles out or coming out soon all of which are battling for peoples hard earned money.


  18. Hands up who's going to have the money to afford this though lol? Certainly not me. Its a shame Tamiya have waited so long to re-re these high end kits. Had they done it a few years ago I might have got one. I suspect it'll be in the region of about 600 quid though I guess cheaper via the Bay.

    I'll settle for a Supershot.


  19. wow... this looks incredible at a very good price I think.

    I don't own anything by RC4WD but I thought the general understanding is that they make high quality parts. Should I be concerned about the quality of this kit?

    EDIT: Just performed a very disappointing search online about alleged RC4WD quality :D

    I understand that if you look hard enough, you'll find anything you want to read online, but I can't abide poor quality parts. I'd like to hold and feel this kit before I buy it!

    Their stuff looks great so for a shelf queen its fine, running it though is a different matter. I've heard people say their kits are ok but anything they make which is RTR or semi built should be entirely stripped down and built from scratch again before running. They have lots of metal parts and don't thread lock anything so things shake apart very easily upon first use. What annoys me about them is they seem to have very bad R&D. They'll release something it'll break easily and then they'll announce a new and improved version of it. Why release the duff version in the first place?


  20. Wow. That is definitely "scale" and looks rock solid.

    Looks rock solid but is made by RC4WD so isn't rock solid. I can definitely vouch for the nylon punnisher shafts it uses exploding in about the first five minutes of use.

×
×
  • Create New...