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Juggular

Is this an aging hobby?

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Interesting topic.

Lego went through a tough patch back at the start of the 00’s and had to turn their business model around to appeal to a new generation of children.

I would say that modelling/RC probably needs to do the same for future generations. There is a purple patch at the moment where lots of people are getting back into the hobby later in life thanks to having more time and disposable money. However, there will be an issue once that market ages and the younger generations don’t have the same desire for the product.

Tamiya needs some new licences to appeal to that younger generation at a price point to get them hooked but I would imagine they are not cheap to get nor easy to keep. 
 

Until that time I am going to keep having a blast in my garden with my cars and promote the hobby best I can. My Daughter is 5 and loves getting out in the garden with the RCs. She has even asked to build one with me! đŸ˜„đŸ‘đŸ»

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You’re right about Lego’s crisis but the problem for Tamiya is price and ease of access. I reckon a very basic ready to run bundle (including battery and radio gear) would be priced near the high-end and  “AFOL” Lego sets. Tamiya can’t match Lego for entry-level pathways or the variety of themes and licences available to suit so many audiences.

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Btw, there was a swiss user named @Oldie-schrauber who turned 29 some Days ago.

I was wondering about the Young age and clicked his Profile. He joined 10 Years ago at the Age of 19 :D

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1 hour ago, Misterp180 said:

Lego went through a tough patch back at the start of the 00’s and had to turn their business model around to appeal to a new generation of children.

nah ;) if they continued chasing kiddy market they’d be even worse off imho

instead they chanced upon the StarWars & HarryPotter licenses then it was kiddults started buying/building/hoarding...

Lotsa AFOLs lurk here too, I dare say :ph34r:

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7 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

probably controlled by a smartphone

Interesting, I’ve just built a Lego Technic Mercedes 4x4 truck that is just that. The truck has forward, reverse, steering and remote locking diffs. It’s pretty slow but is quite a good crawler. It uses Bluetooth so range is limited. I wouldn’t fancy controlling a race car or buggy with it but I’m sure it will improve.

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My main hobby for years as been RC Heli and Aircraft. The clubs I have used have all been mainly aged guys,no real youngsters. The ones that do come are there with dad or granddad and don't really want to be there. Most members at the clubs see the A/C side of RC being a dying hobby. I only dabble in cars so do not see any club use. I never see kids with rc cars in the park or street like when I was young. 

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13 minutes ago, Gazzalene said:

I never see kids with rc cars in the park or street like when I was young. 

They can still be found:

RC_01.jpg.16940aedd64b039387a0c7dfa5f34804.jpg

  

12 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

However, for them to really get into RC it would require their parents to spend some pretty decent money, and also commit the time to it which is another issue.

Kids will do what is available to them.  They have a lot more options now, and (unfortunately) smart phones are easier for parents, so thats what kids do.  I know people blame kids for not getting out, but its squarely on the parents.  A 10yo shouldn't be able to make decisions to lie on the couch on a smartphone all day, but its easier for their parents if they do.  Those kids who do that would love it if their parents picked up a ball and said "lets go outside and play".  Except parents of young kids can't afford a house with a backyard anymore...

Hear hear. You have to make an affort as a parent. Our kids love to be outdoors. Once they are out that is... When we give them the opportunity to grab their tablet they will take it.

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Are we talking r/c cars or Tamiya in particular? The market for r/c seems to be bifurcated. On the one hand, you can get r/c toys cheaper than ever, to the point where they are basically disposable. On the other hand, high-end racing buggies are more specialized and sophisticated than ever before, and racing is so competitive that the buggies seem basically the same. 

Tamiya, for better or worse, mostly seems to trade off nostalgia. 

Anyway,  my seven year old loves his buggy, but that's mostly because my wife runs our home like a maximum security children's prison. No TV, no computers, no video games, no smartphone, no tablet. Plenty of painstakingly curated books and educational games. No junk food, no sweets. All the free range broccoli they can eat. So he plays with his buggy and eats the broccoli because he doesn't know any better. 

The downside of this is that, rather than let Sony,  Samsung and Microsoft raise the kids the way normal people do, I get a child perched on my chest at 0530 AM, saying "Entertain me, Daddy!"

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5 hours ago, Busdriver said:

Interesting, I’ve just built a Lego Technic Mercedes 4x4 truck that is just that. The truck has forward, reverse, steering and remote locking diffs. It’s pretty slow but is quite a good crawler. It uses Bluetooth so range is limited. I wouldn’t fancy controlling a race car or buggy with it but I’m sure it will improve.

Lego have put me off buying some of their technic models by making them smartphone controlled. I don't own a smartphone, so that make's it a useless kit for me. Why they couldn't have just stuck with their old controllers...........

18 minutes ago, Mrowka said:

Anyway,  my seven year old loves his buggy, but that's mostly because my wife runs our home like a maximum security children's prison. No TV, no computers, no video games, no smartphone, no tablet. Plenty of painstakingly curated books and educational games. No junk food, no sweets. All the free range broccoli they can eat. So he doesn't know any better. 

The downside of this is that, rather than let Sony,  Samsung and Microsoft raise the kids the way normal people do, I get a child perched on my chest at 0530 AM, saying "Entertain me, Daddy!"

Your other half deserves a medal for that.  Because kids are only kids once, and nothing is more important than spending time with them when they are young, cause they grow up very fast. Enjoy it while it lasts :)

 

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1 hour ago, bavee said:

They can still be found:

RC_01.jpg.16940aedd64b039387a0c7dfa5f34804.jpg

Man I gotta say, those look like some well happy kids there!;)

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3 hours ago, Kol__ said:

Man I gotta say, those look like some well happy kids there!;)

Yeah, the one in the middle isn't our kid and I wouldn't put his face on the Internet without his parents knowing about it 😉.

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1 hour ago, bavee said:

Yeah, the one in the middle isn't our kid and I wouldn't put his face on the Internet without his parents knowing about it 😉.

lol... the happy faces give me an impression that they are all at the same age... except the kid in the middle have really really long arms and legs...

 

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18 minutes ago, Juggular said:

lol... the happy faces give me an impression that they are all at the same age... except the kid in the middle have really really long arms and legs...

 

Haha. They were 2, 11 and 4 last summer 😉.

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I tend to say you are right. But that most people in here are 40+, can also be due to younger people use the social medias more, and not a forum they to pay for to be part of.

But I guess RC is still alive, but more all the rtr’s than old Tamiya, at least for younger people.

I was heavily into skateboarding in the 80/90’s, and it suddenly died. Now it is back, more than ever. Maybe Tamiya can do the same.

Lately Tamiya has come out with new chassis’s, and not only all the old stuff. Maybe it can help kickstart the Tamiya interested for young people again, I really hope so.

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Wow - quite a lot in this one 

Firstly, if Tamiya do see RC as a lucrative, funeral it’s likely another 40 - 50 years before the kids who enjoyed their Worlds success in 2002+ finally push up daisies 

That would give their RC range a c. 100 year lifespan start to finish - so (at roughly halfway through) there’s ample time for opportunity ahead ? 

Secondly, I’ve built Tamiya kits with both my girls when they were 8 - 10 years old and they loved having fun with their kits for another 2 - 3 years afterward - so its not that RC doesn’t appeal to youngsters / its def down to what kids are encouraged to try 

Thirdly, my kids drifted away when 12 - 13 purely because there are so many other things competing for their time / interest these days - v few of which will end up ingrained in their nostalgia / so RC isn’t alone 

Anway - on my darker days I see Tamiya currently raking in money through lazy re re and commodity chassis hosting cheap / boring shells 

They then don’t compete in racing anymore - so there’s minimal / no innovation coming back into the mainstream kits 

Thats no doubt profitable for Mr T but hardly a recipe to tempt youngsters into anything more than a few, short years with Dad ? 

Especially when other RC marques are more robust bashers or far better competitors 

Can Tamiya do what Lego did and rebrand RC to another generation - yes, without question 

Movie tie ins, smartphone control, onboard cameras, racing your kits virtually etc could all do the equivalent - with other ideas just a question away 


The trouble is, Lego were forced to reinvent themselves because they otherwise faced insolvency / extinction 

It’s therefore ironic that our best way to preserve our hobby is arguably to force Tamiya into similar reflection - and stop filling their coffers buying current laziness 👍 

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I expect RC will continue just fine but it'll look completely different to many people.  Tether planes seem like the perfect example.  I'm sure it's fun, but I can just buy a drone and do way more with that for much less effort.

Fixing, tweaking, and improving kits is more for the older folks.  Modern buyers want to do things with their kits not necessarily to them.  RTRs significantly out-sell assembly kits.  A lot of people have rose-tinted glasses around this.  People who didn't really have a choice back in the day still buy things that fail or aren't good designs.  That's the hobby to them and there's nothing wrong with that.  Some people don't have an attachment to the vehicle, it's only the activity of using it they enjoy.

21 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Who would choose a slot car set over an RC car

I've been thinking about it.  :lol:

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FWIW,  I bought my little man a Tamiya buggy precisely *because* I wanted him to have the experience of building it and working on it.

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I think the group seems to be aging and the hobby will probably die. Not because it’s like the tether vehicle hobby or other older hobbies, but maybe perhaps due to the industry and larger share of the community. Every generation is unique and marketing an idea to each will always be different. What worked for Gen X+ may not work for Millennials or Gen Zs. And every generation becomes more complex. 

I always think the larger issue is that a majority of the companies’ (and maybe even visionaries’) mindset in the industry seem to age along with the same group (Gen X+) that has been buying into the hobby since the ‘80s/‘90s. Most companies have never truly evolved in the correct sense especially when it comes to improving accessibility or outreach for a wider and younger audience. Or even understanding the difference when it comes to how generations socializes or value shared experiences. I think the hobby now feels more niche and exclusive compared to how it was ages ago. And the industry has mostly been marketing to the same crowd over and over. Whether it’s due to inflexibility or complacency (or for any other range of reasons and I hope it’s not due to just being clueless). I know there’s still some interests with the younger generation because I’ve been asked about the hobby many times.

But I do see a few companies still focusing on that connection and with younger generations, like Tamiya (Japan/Asia market) and perhaps Axial. They both have community events where I’ve seen kids fully participate in. Access to the hobby experience is not like what it was before and these companies have gone out of their way to create these experiences. Tamiya in particular, aside from their products, have some really cool events and programs designed specifically for beginners and kids. They’ve got the RC school workshop, junior day, beginners circuit day, and beginners grand prix to name a few (https://www.tamiya.com/japan/rc/beginner/index.html) and in this video the kids are the stars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpuuPRF6m9s). Of course, I would like to hear firsthand from Japanese natives/enthusiasts what the hobby is like in that region. Maybe if the majority of the RC industry did something consistent on that level it would create new interests among the general public. I think even with all the new distractions, kids will always want to have shared experiences with friends and so the companies have to find innovative ways to capture that new market. Maybe the demise of the hobby will not be directly caused by an aging consumer, but by the lack of accessibility. Or lack of evolution or adaptability by the industry when it comes to bringing ideas and designing products primarily for the next gen of consumers.

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5 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Can Tamiya do what Lego did and rebrand RC to another generation - yes, without question 

 

Getting a little further off-topic but


Can Tamiya do what Lego did? Yes and no.

Yes, they can make themselves more appealing, more accessible and more relevant.

Maybe, maybe, they can create revenue like they’ve enjoyed in the past. 

But no they cannot follow anything like the growth Lego enjoy. At least not by selling something that resembles the kits they have ever had so far. 

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3 hours ago, GeeWings said:

Getting a little further off-topic but


Can Tamiya do what Lego did? Yes and no.

Yes, they can make themselves more appealing, more accessible and more relevant.

Maybe, maybe, they can create revenue like they’ve enjoyed in the past. 

But no they cannot follow anything like the growth Lego enjoy. At least not by selling something that resembles the kits they have ever had so far. 

Do not forget Tamiya is japanese, I dont think they can do what Lego did. I guess the mentality is just different. Japanese marketing vs European. How popular is lego in japan?

 

as for the age that appeal’s to this hobby, a lot of older people I have met in our rc club are really against tamiya, and are not recommending them. But that is a racing point of view, you cant race a TT02 or TB03, I know people on this forum have done it. But still how does a tb03 even worse tb04 compare to a Xray T1 not to mention the T4. It couldn’t be compared in my opinion.

 

on the other hand, I have been lately into crypto, and boy is that a mess over-there.

Young people investing, playing P2E video games
 idk but what do you all think about a hobby that brings passive income or RC cars that literally waste your money.

 

for me I got into this hobby at the age of 8-11, stopped for while and got back to it at the age of 26.

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8 hours ago, SuperChamp82 said:

Movie tie ins, smartphone control, onboard cameras, racing your kits virtually etc could all do the equivalent - with other ideas just a question away 


The trouble is, Lego were forced to reinvent themselves because they otherwise faced insolvency / extinction 

Yes, they could, but then they die to US :D

Lego did that and i hve no Fun at all with their "Kids Kits" (No simple Wheels, doors, roofs and Windows anymore, just 200 Bricks in differnt Forms and 34 different Colrs...) and no space for their expensive Kits that just do not appeal to me a lot anymore.

I Like some of their 18+ creators Sets.....

But i don`t like the Company anymore

 

3 hours ago, GeeWings said:

Can Tamiya do what Lego did? Yes and no.

Yes, they can make themselves more appealing, more accessible and more relevant.

Maybe, maybe, they can create revenue like they’ve enjoyed in the past. 

But no they cannot follow anything like the growth Lego enjoy. At least not by selling something that resembles the kits they have ever had so far. 

I think they have to promote a little more.....

They have to get their 2 Stars into Toyshops with some simple Kits or figures that parents and their kids get while they are shopping other Things, then they have to have some RTR Kits like the Grasshopper TamTech that are affordable. So they can get the Brand into the outside World.
I would love to see some tamiya stuff in the Toyshops and shoppingcentres, as long as they do their re releases and their new releases....   (but they are a little bit lazy tbh)

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24 minutes ago, whahooo said:

Yes, they could, but then they die to US :D

Lego did that and i hve no Fun at all with their "Kids Kits" (No simple Wheels, doors, roofs and Windows anymore, just 200 Bricks in differnt Forms and 34 different Colrs...) and no space for their expensive Kits that just do not appeal to me a lot anymore.

I Like some of their 18+ creators Sets.....

But i don`t like the Company anymore

 

I think they have to promote a little more.....

They have to get their 2 Stars into Toyshops with some simple Kits or figures that parents and their kids get while they are shopping other Things, then they have to have some RTR Kits like the Grasshopper TamTech that are affordable. So they can get the Brand into the outside World.
I would love to see some tamiya stuff in the Toyshops and shoppingcentres, as long as they do their re releases and their new releases....   (but they are a little bit lazy tbh)

But what they currently make won’t work in the mass market. Too niche, too expensive, too delicate and too complicated.

Tamiya could create interest with some cheap ready to run bundles. But they would have to be super cheap to compete again at the almost disposable toy grade stuff. Otherwise who would buy one for their kids even if they are branded Grasshopper or Boomerang?!

My friends wouldn’t buy their kids an RC car that cost more than everything else just because it says Tamiya on it. That name doesn’t mean anything to the masses and the mass market want stuff cheap,  Unless the brand is up-selling for you. But Tamiya doesn’t and, unlike Lego, it has only briefly done this and only at a niche level. 
 

Another big issue Tamiya have is that even their fans spend money elsewhere on the hobby . If I look at my last couple of builds I spent far more on third-party servos, motors, ESCs, radio gear and hop-ups than on the Tamiya kit itself. 

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As far as I can tell, in the race scene anyway, there's more and more people racing, with reserve lists at many meetings, mostly people who are now re joining , like most of us, finding the love of RC again.

Generally though, the young drivers at the club, are children of already RC racers, but there is some young blood that have joined.

Hobby wise, there's alot of young kids out there, that just don't know about the hobby/sport, I don't know if it's less exposure on TV or Cinema, no local model shops playing endless loops of tamiyas on the beach ,or just (like with my introduction to the Hornet in the mid 80's), there's not many people 'playing' with them in school playgrounds or playing fields!

 

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