bindarrian

Even with Nike etc, if you manage to get an order in and pay you get your goods. To get a reservation in on the day that they're first mentioned, followed up by a paid for order and not get your goods is below par.

This must have happened to my 6th August order too, and verbal confirmation on 21st July! Considering how many are now on eBay, surely they are not being sold by the enthusiasts and collectors that ordered early? There has to be a better system for this. I ordered from Tamico too so I would have one to build and one to keep BNIB. Also ordered 47479 from them - had my reservation for the 934 confirmed and will be delivered with the Carbon Chassis. It seems so simple.

Sounds like a familiar theme. I received a similar message when I contacted them. My order was placed on 6th August (due to the fact that it was the first day I realised you could actually place an order), however I was in contact with them on 21st July and asked to be put on the list for one, which was confirmed! This was the first day it was mentioned on the Tamiyablog! I've spent thousands with them over the years and to say I'm a little disappointed is an understatement. If they were a little more open with your place in the queue it would make it a lot easier to decide whether to order elsewhere too. Considering my verbal order was confirmed the day this car was first mentioned I didn't consider for a moment that I wouldn't get one from them. Although, looking back to the Limited Edition P34...

Who knows with Tamiya. Initially it was a Limited run for Japan only, but since it's been extended to the rest of the world I presume it's a larger production run. How large is anyone's guess - I didn't acquire one on the previous release so I wasn't going to miss out this time.

...and now they're sold out.

Paid for my order at hobby search today, they're showing as in stock (although at a higher price) - now just the wait for delivery!

the option tyres are partial pin spikes and work quite well off road.

Fusion ship to the US and they ship VAT free too. there is a dropdown menu for airmail (£35). Email them for a better price.

Could you let us all know what the yen price on the box is if you can?

Admin on the tamiya blog says about $200 - hopefully Towers price is on the high side.

I put the 49400 body up against the GT2 from the TA02SW and the wheel arches match up pretty much exactly. Don't think there will be a problem with the wheelbase

I've noticed over the past week or so that some of the items I have in my eBay watch list from Stella and RCmart are now saying "does not ship to the UK". I contacted RCmart about this and they said use the website instead. I wonder if Tamiya has had a chat with other suppliers too? If so, someone really is stamping their feet! is this the end for cheap spares? Will it be eBay's Hobby Japan next?

It is pretty much the same for me. I only ever had bearings on my car. I pretty much gave up the hobby as replacement parts were almost impossible to source and astromically priced if you could find them. Overseas purchases, including eBay, have brought these parts down to a reasonable level so it sounds like we've all been filling our boots. If I couldn't get the hop-ups at the price international trade has brought then I probably wouldn't buy the models, or at least as many (I've bought a few in the last couple of years), for them to go on. However the final price is reached, local hobby stores generally charge too much for small parts. If that was my only option my interest in the hobby would probably fade again. I guess interest and subsequently sales in the brand are on the rise, no doubt at least in part to the availability of cheap spares, and the National Distributors/ Retailers want a share of that action - even though when it was left to them they nearly killed off the business over here before. Tamiya should be careful with how far they go with this as they could stifle the new business these prices have brought. And If I were Stella, RCmart et al I would be watching my back!

Member fastpietje has a body and stickers available in the classifieds. Probably not cheap but I searched last month and he has the only ones I could find.