Wandy

Wow....I can barely believe this but mine arrived today from Stella.....only TWO days since it was sent from Hong Kong. I think that is a record time for me buying from them. EMS Speedpost really WAS speedy. Check out the tracking history below.... Item tracking history Date Time Location Tracking event 19/12/2018 15:14 Newcastle Depot Delivered 19/12/2018 9:25 Newcastle Depot Out for delivery 19/12/2018 7:53 Newcastle Depot Prepared for delivery 19/12/2018 6:59 Newcastle Depot Received at delivery depot 19/12/2018 1:44 National Hub Sorted 18/12/2018 23:00 International Hub Arrived in the UK 17/12/2018 19:03 Delivery Agent -HONG KONG - PTT…+Delivery Agent - HONG KONG - PTT Despatched to the UK 17/12/2018 18:55 Delivery Agent -HONG KONG - PTT…+Delivery Agent - HONG KONG - PTT Prepared for despatch to the UK 17/12/2018 16:10 Delivery Agent -HONG KONG…+Delivery Agent - HONG KONG Collected

Mine is on the way from Stella. Probably won't receive it in time for Christmas but hey-ho. First re-release I have bought for about 18 months. It's not the 959/Blazer/Ford Ranger that I really, really want but it will do for now. My "Super" Astute will be getting "downgraded" into a standard Astute, with red paint, standard decals....since the Super Astute ones are awful and turn a beautiful buggy into an ugly one. Will also be fitting Hi-Caps and original black wheels but I do need to hunt down some original front tyres too.

2865 combined forum posts for those two compared to 135 for this forthcoming release suggests otherwise. This will be a fairly popular re-release but nowhere near the biggest when the dust has settled and we can make some comparisons.

Ok, so it won't ever completely die. But the hobby is shrinking as new generations of kids are simply not as interested in building model kits and playing with radio controlled models. Thankfully, our generation will keep the hobby going for a good while yet as we have disposable income that we are all prepared to splash around but when we are all gone the model building of cars, planes, boats etc as we currently know it will be consigned to history....unless of course we are on the dawn of an "anti-technology" uprising where future generations reject the ever-increasing march of computer & robot tech created simply for the sake of it, rather than it serving an actual purpose that benefits the human race. Seems to me that the smarter the tech we create then the dumber and less interesting we become as a civilisation.

Not particularly. These rather patronising comments didn't go unnoticed though... Because, like, only women & teenagers collect shoes don't they? Anyway, I'm happy to inform you that collecting shoes isn't sonething that only women & teenagers do. And the collecting of sneakers is definitely a hobby pursued by many people. And if you didn't know that before reading this thread then fair enough. You do now though.

Great news that we have got another re-release - and a pretty significant one too. Pleased to see that Tamiya haven't abandoned their re-relase programme and boy was this one needed as it has been dreadfully dull stuff from them for a couple of years now. I just wish that they had re-relased the standard Astute with it's superior colour, decals, wheels, tyres & box art. The Super Astute may be the better buggy technically but it's nowhere near as pretty as the standard kit. They should have just released the standard kit but with all of the hop-ups. Not to worry though as it is an easy fix. I will be painting mine red and sourcing some standard decals from MCI racing. Thankfully I also have a set of the lightweight black wheels in storage. This also means of course, that the coffee-can collection is finally complete. Only took them about 13 years. I'd say this is also enciuraging news for those wanting a Top Force Evo re-release.

It used to be only youngsters who were "sneakerheads" but the demographic has definitely changed over recent years, with your average collector being in the 28 to 45 year old age group. Stuff like Jordans & Air Max are rooted in the 1980s so it's pretty understandable that middle-aged collectors are becoming ever-more prominent.

If you are suggesting that it's only activities that involve building or creating something that can be classed as a hobby then there aren't many hobbies in this world. The fact that you look down your nose at sneaker collecting is irrelevant. It's a hobby which is part of a billion dollar industry that gets bigger with each passing year. I doubt that your average sneaker collector has even heard of Tamiya, let alone be aware that there are Tamiya hobbyists who go "RC Shopping" to buy kits that they will never actually build.

No offense, but you don't seem to understand the concept of what a hobby actually is. It's basically any regular activity that is done for one's personal enjoyment. And obtaining items to be added to a personal collection is definitely a hobby for a lot of people around the world. And while some sneaker collectors do buy the shoes for display purposes only most people do actually wear them. Even so though, displaying sneakers on a shelf is completely normal these days as some of the wildly creative designs make them wearable pieces of art. There are a multitude of items collected by people that were never intended simply for display purposes only when created. The list is endless. I would have thought Tamiya collectors, more than anyone, would understand the mentality of sneaker collecting. I mean we are talking about a bunch of people who buy RC kits and never ever have any intention of building them and build the kits but never have any intention of running them. And let's not get started on the "3 box rule".

You must have been living in a cave then. It dwarfs RC collecting in terms of size, money spent & popularity. RC is also a dying hobby whilst sneaker collecting just grows bigger each year. All forms of collecting look geeky to the outsider looking in. Whether it's RC, sneakers, model railways, stamps, coins, art....the list goes on. They are all obsessive in nature and those immersed in them care passionately about small details that the average joe on the street couldn't give two hoots about.

The two hobbies are incredibly similar. Enthusiasts congregate on dedicated forums and talk themselves into a frenzy about forthcoming releases. Retro releases are hugely popular and there is lots of dreamy-eyed reminiscing about days gone by. The main difference is the grotesque reselling that goes on and there is a distinct lack of community spirit. The whole scene is full of snakes and scammers and its skewed towards those who have various devices to gobble up all of the limited stuff. What's worse is that the manufacturers not only turn a blind eye to this, they actually want it to be like this as the crazy hype drives up the value of their brands. Cynical in the extreme.

Agree. The sneaker scene is absolutely monster-huge and Tamiya getting involved in it could really give them some new-found street credibility with the younger generations. Like I say, it's an unlikley prospect but one that would be worth looking into IMO.

As someone who is significantly into sneaker collecting, I am intrigued by this. As unlikely as it seems I would love Tamiya to do a collab with the likes of Nike & Adidas. The concept on the face of it seems quite absurd but I think some really interesting ideas could come out of it. As long as this Supreme Hornet gets a price point the same as the other Hornets I am interested in this. And I doubt that Tamiya would allow the buggy to be priced above the likes of their Watanabe & Metallic Special versions of the Hornet as they have a brand image to protect. This isn't sneaker collecting where anything goes. And even in the sneaker game, the kicks that end up on the resell market for hundreds & thousands of dollars still only start out with a modest retail price from the actual manufacturer.

Would make sense, getting maximum value out of the Optima chassis. Lets hope all of those gold bits and pieces are also re-released, including the Option House chassis parts.

Where is the Option House gold chassis kit though? Really thought we might have seen them bring that back.

Yeah Gord, I got into it around 5 years ago and have slowly fallen deeper down the rabbit hole, with the last couple of years being particularly intense. I was shocked recently when I totalled what I have spent in that time...just over £8K. ...which isn't too far off what I have spent on RC in nearly 15 years. Scary stuff....but I am calming down now and pretty much have ticked off my "wish list" now, with only a few stragglers left to track down. The parallels with Tamiya collecting are very noticeable. You have a community of obsessive enthusiasts who congregate on various dedicated forums who talk themselves into a frenzy about the whole collecting scene, and love talking about retro releases and reminiscing about days gone by. The Tamiya equivalent in sneakers is Nike, who completely dominate the scene, even if they dont necessarily make the best quality stuff. They are geniuses in marketing though and know how to appeal to the emotions of their followers. To be honest, although I always knew that Nike were a big company, I had no idea just how big they really are until recent years. They truly are monster-sized. One key difference between RC and sneaker collecting though is that the sneaker community is far less tightly knitted than that of RC, with many unscrupulous sharks, scammers and fraudsters in abundancy. The whole buying of limited edition releases is skewed in favour of opportunists who use software...known as "bots" to grab all of the stock, and then sell it for massively inflated prices on the resale market. And the likes of Nike and Adidas wont do a single thing to counteract it because they love the hype and publicity it brings to their brand.

Yeah it's absolutely crazy. Imagine Tamiya releasing a couple of must-have kits each month and you get the picture. Not only that though, imagine if Tamiya released these kits in such limited numbers that none of the genuine enthusiasts could get their hands on them and they all end up in the hands of touts/re-sellers who promptly stick them for sale on ebay for three times the original retail price......

Whatever you do, don't get into sneaker collecting. If you thought being a Tamiya enthusiast was expensive, addictive and habit forming.....well, it's a walk in the park compared to the sneaker scene.

I saw the Chiron on display today at my local Lego store. To be honest it's not as impressive looking in the flesh as the Porsche. If I buy it then it will be for the build experience more than anything.

Yeah I have the Porsche too but this is still a must have. I won't be paying £329 for it though. I'm sure it will be available for around the £250 mark at certain retailers by Xmas.

Well it is officially out in the wild now so I have updated the video.

Video of the forthcoming 42083 1:8 Bugatti Chiron. WANT.

I disagree with this. The demand from enthusiasts for the big-hitter/high cost re-releases must still be strong among the vintage RC community...otherwise Tamiya would not be re-re-releasing kits like the Avante 2011 & Egress. Re-releases are still obviously selling well but why Tamiya have not brought back the other two vintage 3-speeds yet is hard to fathom. After all, they created an all-new transmission for the Bruiser & Mountain Rider which could easily be shoehorned into the old Blazer/Hilux chassis with a bit of tinkering. Maybe they just don't want too many 3 speeds on the market at the same time?

The "Big Five" that would reignite the re-release scene are the #58028 Toyota Hilux, #58029 Blazing Blazer, #58059 Porsche 959, #58064 Toyota Celica and finally the #58027 Ford Ranger XLT. They have now been anticipated for many years but they are all starting to look increasingly unlikely as each year passes. After those key models you have the "second tier" of desireable re-releases. These would be the #58056 Falcon, #58062 Hotshot 2, #58080 Astute, #58081 King Cab, #58085 Avante 2001, #58086 Toyota Hilux & #58107 Top Force Evolution.

They need to bring something truly exciting back as the whole vintage & re-release scene is seriously dull at the moment, and has been for some time now. The last time I was truly stoked for a Tamiya re-release was probably with the Egress. That's now 5 years ago. There are still five or six vintage kits that could set this place on fire again like the old days if they were brought back. Make it happen, Mr Tamiya.