Is this just another rumour???

[Robert5000]

On 6/12/2022 at 8:32 AM, Andreas W said:

No Optima Mid for me this time. The only shop that actually stocks Kyosho here in Norway got 7 end of May. I though fine. Let's wait for the June paybill. Last Sunday they were all gone. I though it was weird, as the stock of other Kyosho reres hardly has changed since I bought the Tomahawk one year ago. I ordered a Hobbywing motor combo from them (for the yet to build Thunder Dragon) in the middle of May. This week I got an email from them saying that my order was cancelled because they have gone insolvent. I am glad that I always buy via Klarna, so you pay after deliverance. Nothing lost. 

 

Tamico will be the choice, when they get back in stock. Or maybe a Turbo Optima. The decition is hard. 

Yeah, funny how stock suddenly changed for a select few kits right before the paused business .. 

Tamico (stock permitting) will have the kit at your door for about $100 less, taxes and all, so you'll get your chance eventually. 

[moffman]

6 hours ago, Saito2 said:

It does look like a work of art with all the Option House gold included in the kit. Off hand question, does the Optima Mid body fit the rear motor Optima chassis? I have another project in mind...

It actually does that absolutely suprised me when I looked at them both I thought no chance the mid looks to short forgetting the bit on the back! I didn't press it on totally but you can see it clearly fits........every days a learning day

[WillyChang]

2 hours ago, moffman said:

It actually does

wow, thanks for trying!

That suggests a Optima/TurboOptima shell might fit over the Mid too 

[Saito2]

3 hours ago, moffman said:

t actually does that absolutely suprised me when I looked at them both I thought no chance the mid looks to short forgetting the bit on the back! I didn't press it on totally but you can see it clearly fits........every days a learning day

 

Awesome. Thanks very much!

[moffman]

1 hour ago, WillyChang said:

wow, thanks for trying!

That suggests a Optima/TurboOptima shell might fit over the Mid too 

Yeah Vice versa I suppose?

[tamiya3speed]

Just did my nightly check of US stock, Tower has finally put a date on the preorder and it is September!  My LHS ordered directly from Kyosho so hopefully it will be sooner but jeez, this isn’t fun anymore  

[Andreas W]

20 hours ago, moffman said:

I feel your pain the only little light I can give you is kyosho will undoubtedly churn the Optima mid out because of how well the first batch sold and if your not bothered about the free wing and decals (which you can get MCI decals and the black wing is a current item available) then I think more mids will be available sooner than you think especially from tamico they generally get them before anyone in Europe? You can't go wrong if you decide to get yourself a turbo optima and hand on heart out of the two the turbo optima is the better quality one to build 

I actually have bought MCI decals in custom colours for it already. Got them last week. Two sets of silver JC Racing Concepts wheels as well. Originally I was set on the Turbo Optima (actually already last summer, but it was too costy for my budget). Now I have until August) September to decide. 

[Saito2]

10 hours ago, tamiya3speed said:

Tower has finally put a date on the preorder and it is September!

Ugh, well, that's a kick to the gut .

Yeah, but September of which year? Do you trust it will be 2022? They might change it to '23 or '24 at this point. lol.

[razzar]

I went through the manual, and luckily all the turbo optima internals are the same, except the slip and middle gear, the shocks are the same, the arms, hubs, suspension shafts and drive shafts and knuckles and ball connectors are the same. I have all of these components in spares for my Optimas, so I just ordered all the plastic parts to piece together another optima mid, not sure if this helps anyone but you could piece together a complete optima mid, if you have spares or can find parts relatively cheap, nitro hobbies on ebay sells these parts as a complete assembly units relatively cheap. You could also built your dream spec optima mid by piecing it together using the hopups this way you don,t end up with extra parts hoping it up. Again I was a little lucky I had acquired some of these parts over the years so my parts mid will be relatively cheap, hope this helps.  

[Sprocket]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:47 AM, razzar said:

I went through the manual, and luckily all the turbo optima internals are the same, except the slip and middle gear, the shocks are the same, the arms, hubs, suspension shafts and drive shafts and knuckles and ball connectors are the same. I have all of these components in spares for my Optimas, so I just ordered all the plastic parts to piece together another optima mid, not sure if this helps anyone but you could piece together a complete optima mid, if you have spares or can find parts relatively cheap, nitro hobbies on ebay sells these parts as a complete assembly units relatively cheap. You could also built your dream spec optima mid by piecing it together using the hopups this way you don,t end up with extra parts hoping it up. Again I was a little lucky I had acquired some of these parts over the years so my parts mid will be relatively cheap, hope this helps.  

Whenever I receive my Mid, I’m going to have to make an extended list of shared parts. …whenever it finally arrives in the States

[Ferruz]

During these last months of waiting, I've been spending hours just thinking about what colour scheme to choose for my Mid (when, and IF, it shows up).

Box art? Turbo mid yellow awesome version? Custom colors? Glorious liveries from the past? That body could take it all.

I think I've finally narrowed it down to two possible choices: either a good old JPS livery, or box art, but with a Ferruz twist. Right now, I'm more inclined to go for the latter: that box art looks so good and is too iconic to be just swept aside, but I do appreciate some "identity" hence the mild twist, just to be able to tell it apart from other box arts...

On the other hand, I think the JPS livery would look out of control on the aforementioned Turbo Optima, with all the golden Option House parts included... (-realizing now maybe I should just get that one and leave the Mid alone).

 

Sorry fellas, just a random lunch break rant 😅

[Tamiyastef]

11 minutes ago, Ferruz said:

 I think the JPS livery would look out of control on the aforementioned Turbo Optima, 

Exactly my thought and why I ordered an extra body with my turbo Optima from the start. Have some MCI decals already in the iconic JPS livery. 

[Sprocket]

4 hours ago, Ferruz said:

During these last months of waiting, I've been spending hours just thinking about what colour scheme to choose for my Mid (when, and IF, it shows up).

Box art? Turbo mid yellow awesome version? Custom colors? Glorious liveries from the past? That body could take it all.

I think I've finally narrowed it down to two possible choices: either a good old JPS livery, or box art, but with a Ferruz twist. Right now, I'm more inclined to go for the latter: that box art looks so good and is too iconic to be just swept aside, but I do appreciate some "identity" hence the mild twist, just to be able to tell it apart from other box arts...

On the other hand, I think the JPS livery would look out of control on the aforementioned Turbo Optima, with all the golden Option House parts included... (-realizing now maybe I should just get that one and leave the Mid alone).

 

Sorry fellas, just a random lunch break rant 😅

Multiple bodies?

[Ferruz]

1 hour ago, Sprocket said:

Multiple bodies?

It sure is a solution, but it would also involve multiple wheels, tires, wings... I'll probably go for it eventually, but still for now I need to decide which color to do first

[WillyChang]

19 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Whenever I receive my Mid, I’m going to have to make an extended list of shared parts. …whenever it finally arrives in the States

Local stores here got the few kits even less parts. Usual retailers worldwide seem to have gotten a smattering of mid spares which have now mostly all soldout. 

Annoying as I won’t campaign a race car without a decent stash of parts already on hand. OT201HB might not restock until July.

We downunder in Melb Oz are all gearing up for big Vintage Bash race meet this October. 

[razzar]

good news for all you North American Mid fans, just got off the phone with the hobby shop and the Mids will be in next week on Wednesday at your hobby shops, maybe even earlier some places, I got my 2 already from Tamico, but another hobby shop I had inquired with gave me call to let me know and ask if I wanted to place an order, I should have have preordered from them as their customer service is a lot better then the one I preordered from. The hobby shop is Pinnacle Hobby in Markham Canada, what a nice set of guys, I did say no to the mid, but ordered a thundershot from them, please check with them as they have 2 kits not spoken for.

[tamiya3speed]

Great news @razzar!  Spoke with my LHS today, no word yet from him.  He has 3 on order and I have spoken for the first two.  No confirmation from Kyosho for him yet but we put the order in just as soon as news got out so he is hoping to get at least one from the first allotment.

[Mrowka]

I foolishly contacted AMain (US retailer) again today. 

They don't know if and when the Optima Mid or anything else from Kyosho will ship. 

This is getting old.

[moffman]

4 hours ago, Mrowka said:

I foolishly contacted AMain (US retailer) again today. 

They don't know if and when the Optima Mid or anything else from Kyosho will ship. 

This is getting old.

I don't know if this is any use to you or worth considering because of shipping etc but as it stands at the time I'm writing this a hobby shop called pbm racing in Nottingham (pbm racing.com) UK has 2 in stock £445 don't know what that is in$ 

[tamiya3speed]

5 hours ago, Mrowka said:

I foolishly contacted AMain (US retailer) again today. 

They don't know if and when the Optima Mid or anything else from Kyosho will ship. 

This is getting old.

I just don’t get it.  Some basic communication would go a long way here.  What is the point of a Facebook page/website, etc if you can’t communicate the most basic of availability data.  I really love the Kyosho rere kits but I have to agree that the total lack of information here is becoming frustrating.

[Mrowka]

17 hours ago, moffman said:

I don't know if this is any use to you or worth considering because of shipping etc but as it stands at the time I'm writing this a hobby shop called pbm racing in Nottingham (pbm racing.com) UK has 2 in stock £445 don't know what that is in$ 

That's around $545 USD at today's exchange. 

Thanks!

edit: I am actually going to find out if they will ship to the US and what it will cost.

edit 2: spoke to PBM. Helpful people, but shipping would be another $100 USD or so.

[tamiya3speed]

Well @razzar you are right!  Just heard from my lhs.  He talked with Kyosho today and should have his by middle of next week.  

[moffman]

6 hours ago, Mrowka said:

That's around $545 USD at today's exchange. 

Thanks!

edit: I am actually going to find out if they will ship to the US and what it will cost.

edit 2: spoke to PBM. Helpful people, but shipping would be another $100 USD or so.

That a shame! Worth a try though I know it was selling for £399uk (rrp was £430) so you could have probably swallowed £449 but then to add an extra £80ish ($100) to the equation is a bit heavy hopefully then you get sooner than later? I'm thinking they are going to arrive sooner than expected because I missed the first batch of turbo Optimas and I got told then it was going to be a bit of a wait for the next lot then about 6 weeks later a load turned up!

[razzar]

They have arrived in Canada, Pinnacle hobby had one kit left as of yesterday, was there to pick up my thunder shot and saw the mid kits there. 

[Ferruz]

Really? Well, then I'm calling my LHS guy first thing tomorrow.. if that's the case, he should have them soon, anyday now.