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nintool

OK- I'm just gonna say it... FALCON Re re anytime soon???

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I know I'm new here and I'm probably about to be "that" guy playing my "Stairway to Heaven" solo by asking this, but seriously has anyone heard of a Re-Re that is actual fact - on a Falcon model? I've heard a couple RC YouTube guys mentioning it in videos in early 2021, but nothing since. If it came and went then ****!! I've had a ton of MRC-Tamiya's in the past but none captured my childhood more than the Falcon. Midnight Pumpkin was a close second, and i grabbed the black edition as soon as i could when it arrived, but man, I would love to revisit memory lane with a re released Falcon. Please fill me in on any info any of you might have about a re re...

Thanks!

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No Stairway! Sorry, old guitar shop joke. Honestly, it beats me why they haven't done it. Tamiya has been going through their back catalog of cars pretty heavily but stand outs like no Falcon or King Cab remain a mystery. I'm still waiting for the B2B Racing Sidecar and Road Wizard re-re....:D 

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28 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Tamiya has been going through their back catalog of cars pretty heavily but stand outs like no Falcon or King Cab remain a mystery.

Sometimes I think that in the mid-late 90's Tamiya built a robot.  Over the years spanning Y2K, Tamiya taught said robot how to roll a set of dice.  The numbers that the robot rolled, then somehow correlated to Tamiya's back catalog, and the rest of the re-release randomness is effectively history.  :lol:

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1 hour ago, bRIBEGuy said:

Sometimes I think that in the mid-late 90's Tamiya built a robot.  Over the years spanning Y2K, Tamiya taught said robot how to roll a set of dice.  The numbers that the robot rolled, then somehow correlated to Tamiya's back catalog, and the rest of the re-release randomness is effectively history.  :lol:

I completely accept this theory.:lol:

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I think I remember seeing the YouTube video where this got mentioned, and it was almost said with one of those "I have it from a very reliable source" authorities.  And I remember thinking at the time, if it was official, Tamiya would announce it publicly like all their other stuff.  I didn't always think like this, and I always loved the "I know someone inside Tamiya who said..." type threads, but there was a really good post on here a few years back about why those sorts of threads are never true (at least where Tamiya is concerned) and if one does turn out to be true, it's coincidence.

In short - I see no reason why the Falcon couldn't be re-released - some of the parts are already in production, and Tamiya have re-released other cars that share no parts with anything else (the Fox, for example).  And it 's right in that golden era where we've already had lots of re-releases.  But it hasn't happened yet, and whether or not it happens is really down to Tamiya, and when they've decided it's going to happen, we'll find out about it.

Or, if there genuinely was a leak, it could have been one of those missing numbers from @Mokei Kagaku's thread, as @bRIBEGuy pointed out.  Who knows, maybe Tamiya decided to pull the re-re because of the leak.  If so, maybe we'll get it later once the fuss has died down and they can conveniently say "leak?  what leak?  no, that was a rumour, we didn't even start tooling until after that leak, er, I mean rumour, got out"

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It might just be that the number of Falcons sold BITD isn’t enough to justify a rerelease. 
 

 

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Along the lines of what @Grumpy pants said, perhaps there is no Falcon interest in Japan. We have to remember Tamiya probably looks at interest/demand in their domestic market first. When the Fire Dragon returned the first time, it seemed rather odd to us outside of Japan as it wasn't particularly noteworthy to us. The Coro Coro connection likely made it more of a hit in Japan. Or we could start the old "they must have lost the molds" rumors again, lol:lol:

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22 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

I think I remember seeing the YouTube video where this got mentioned, and it was almost said with one of those "I have it from a very reliable source" authorities.  And I remember thinking at the time, if it was official, Tamiya would announce it publicly like all their other stuff.  I didn't always think like this, and I always loved the "I know someone inside Tamiya who said..." type threads, but there was a really good post on here a few years back about why those sorts of threads are never true (at least where Tamiya is concerned) and if one does turn out to be true, it's coincidence.

That video annoyed me quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, it occassionally happens that someone gets a bit of "early information" from a distributor or similar, but that video had a very noticeable undertone of bragging and that bragging gave an impression of being more important to the video creator than the information provided. His video simply didn't sound credible to me and as we know by now, it was very likely a lie for attention and "insider" credit.

There was a similar one here in the forum a couple of years ago, where a TC-member from South America claimed that he had learned directly from Tamiya that the Blazing Blazer was about to be re-released and something along the line that Tamiya Japan supplied him directly with kits and parts (for free?). Funny really, because the same person had in numerous previous posts complained and whined about how he was struggling like mad to get Tamiya products in his country and how he had to buy complete kits, anything he stumbled over and improvise to just get a few common parts. When he was called out on it, he left the forum.

Similarly with the "Kyosho insider" a couple of years ago.. He literally claimed that Kyosho's chief designer provided him with inside information many months or even years before the actual release and how they maintaned a close friendship. Absolutely great if it had been true! He then delivered "proof" when one of his multiple guesses finally and randomly coincided with reality and he literally spammed the forum with his bragging. He also left the forum and deleted all his posts, including many really good ones, after one of the admins and several others called him out.

I would absolutely love it if a Youtuber, TC-member or a contributor to any other site would actually be an insider and post information that was not supposed to leak (that early). Maybe not so good for the manufacturers, but from a selfish point of view, I would enjoy it very much. However, as a Tamiya fan, I've been eager to get information as early as possible for about 40 consecutive years by now. Not rarely at the cost of friends, family and girlfriends, I must admit. Back in the times before internet, it wasn't easy to get any information and I can still remember how my cousin and I were surprised to see the tiny illustration in the Subaru Brat manual depicting an Audi Quattro, which despite a lower item number, had not yet been announced. Similar with  the Blazing Blazer. The first information I found was a small drawn illustration and a short text in the 1982 RC Guide Book. 

I worked for a Tamiya distributor from 1983 to 2000 before emigrating to Germany. Before internet, Tamiya provided information about new items by fax and with small photos (on photo paper) 2 to 3 months before the actual release. Despite wanting information as early as possible and keeping my eyes constantly peeled, it not even once happened that we got any information any earlier. The closest I've been was when I was at the finals of the Tamiya RC European Championship in Kloten, Switzerland in 1996.  A couple of representatives from Tamiya Japan were there and distributor employees were invited to a meeting. Absolutely nothing was revealed, but they (casually) asked us for our opinion about a possible re-release of the Wild Willy. Not a single word about the actual possibility of a re-release or whether the hypothecical re-release would be a "true" re-release on the original chassis or something else. In other words, as "inside information" useless and virtually nothing. This "nothing" is the closest I've ever come to earning bragging rights as a source for "inside" Tamiya information :D, regardless of how hard I've tried for such a long time. 

I won't exclude the possibility that I have missed or forgotten some cases, but the only slightly exceptional case I can remember is the Comical Grasshopper. I don't remember if it was longer before official announcement or release than 2-3 months, but after the first information about the release of the Comical Grasshopper got known, a Japanese Twitter account posted a very poor, but obviously genuine photo of an illustration of the model. Based on the photo being taken at a much less than optimal angle and very hastily, it appeared to have been taken without permission. Of course, in theory that might have been intentional to give the impression of "unapproved leakage of inside information" for the sensational effect, but I consider that to be rather unlikely.

As a kind of conclusion (without claiming it to be "solid" or me being an authority in the field), I would say that no "inside" information is provided or "leaked" to anyone outside Tamiya Japan before 2-3 months before official announcement or actual release (not counting that it may take longer for a new release to reach certain export markets.) Also, without exception, none of the numerous cases of "inside" information about new releases during the existence of Tamiyaclub have materialized to actual releases. Not once. I would be happy to be proven wrong! :)

And as a final rant; as much as I would love any claim about "inside" information to be true,  people claiming to have "inside" information when they don't, turn me mad. On several occassions, at the verge of losing my temper, I'm embarrassed to admit, my reaction has mostly been rabid (I'm anything but proud of it). As fellow Tamiya enthusiasts, in my opinion we owe each other to provide information here in the forum and otherwise in an honest way. Yes, we are talking about "toy cars" and incorrect information isn't the end of the world, but when somebody claims a certain re-release to be in the pipeline when it's not (e.g. Falcon YT video), it immediately has an impact on the prices of the originals and original parts and thus the behaviour of many enthusiasts, which eventually leads to financial losses for individuals and disappointment for many of us when the "solid inside information" turns out to be a lie. No, most of us, including myself, are not in this hobby for the money, but it's still not nice for someone who had for instance Falcon front suspension arms or front bulkhead on eBay at the time the claim about the Falcon re-release was published and see the auctions end at unusually low high bids just because people expect re-release parts to be available soon. Similarly, for potential buyers that don't buy an original Falcon or original parts because they decide to wait for the re-release instead, missing good opportunities, realizing that it was nothing by a rumour/lie, surely wasn't cool. 

We can all do mistakes and happen to answer a question here in the forum incorrectly or share rumours that don't reflect reality. I expect as little as anyone else other people to be perfect, being massively flawed as I am myself. However, I expect fellow enthusiasts to have the best intentions when they share information rather than doing it for the illusion of being an "insider". Also, adult people should be capable of and commited to pointing it out when information they provide aren't solid facts, but rumours, (educated) guesses, fantasies, wishful thinking, jokes or whatever.

As for re-release of the Falcon, the actual topic of this thread, my impression is that nobody knows anything. Other members have posted their good arguments earlier in this thread why or why not a re-release is likely. Personally, as the re-release hasn't happened during the 22+ years of (RC) re-releases from Tamiya, I consider a re-release of the Falcon to be somewhat unlikely. Also, the technical flaws of the model and apparent low popularity in the domestic market contribute to my opinion. However, Tamiya has surprised us by "can and will never be re-released"-models being re-released in the past (e.g. Bruiser, Sand Scorcher, Rough Rider, Super Champ and others), so I guess we should never say never and I should better shut up! :P

 

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I'd be more likely to buy one if they created "look-alike" Falcon body style on a DT-02 chassis.  

There was the Neo Falcon (58401) - But the body style was too much Gundam style.   (That is nothing to do with Psy, BTW).

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I bet at some point all of the rere that we want will be released but at that point will we care or even notice? Ive restored my Astute, and Monster racer I want reres but itll be meh. Ive got (3) Holy Grails that I wanted : Bruiser, Egress, and EVO. Im only still in he game becasue of my kid, once he's older and doesnt care Ill be out and Tamiya will miss out. And theres alot like me. 

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On 7/10/2022 at 6:36 AM, Mokei Kagaku said:

That video annoyed me quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, it occassionally happens that someone gets a bit of "early information" from a distributor or similar, but that video had a very noticeable undertone of bragging and that bragging gave an impression of being more important to the video creator than the information provided. His video simply didn't sound credible to me and as we know by now, it was very likely a lie for attention and "insider" credit.

There was a similar one here in the forum a couple of years ago, where a TC-member from South America claimed that he had learned directly from Tamiya that the Blazing Blazer was about to be re-released and something along the line that Tamiya Japan supplied him directly with kits and parts (for free?). Funny really, because the same person had in numerous previous posts complained and whined about how he was struggling like mad to get Tamiya products in his country and how he had to buy complete kits, anything he stumbled over and improvise to just get a few common parts. When he was called out on it, he left the forum.

Similarly with the "Kyosho insider" a couple of years ago.. He literally claimed that Kyosho's chief designer provided him with inside information many months or even years before the actual release and how they maintaned a close friendship. Absolutely great if it had been true! He then delivered "proof" when one of his multiple guesses finally and randomly coincided with reality and he literally spammed the forum with his bragging. He also left the forum and deleted all his posts, including many really good ones, after one of the admins and several others called him out.

I would absolutely love it if a Youtuber, TC-member or a contributor to any other site would actually be an insider and post information that was not supposed to leak (that early). Maybe not so good for the manufacturers, but from a selfish point of view, I would enjoy it very much. However, as a Tamiya fan, I've been eager to get information as early as possible for about 40 consecutive years by now. Not rarely at the cost of friends, family and girlfriends, I must admit. Back in the times before internet, it wasn't easy to get any information and I can still remember how my cousin and I were surprised to see the tiny illustration in the Subaru Brat manual depicting an Audi Quattro, which despite a lower item number, had not yet been announced. Similar with  the Blazing Blazer. The first information I found was a small drawn illustration and a short text in the 1982 RC Guide Book. 

I worked for a Tamiya distributor from 1983 to 2000 before emigrating to Germany. Before internet, Tamiya provided information about new items by fax and with small photos (on photo paper) 2 to 3 months before the actual release. Despite wanting information as early as possible and keeping my eyes constantly peeled, it not even once happened that we got any information any earlier. The closest I've been was when I was at the finals of the Tamiya RC European Championship in Kloten, Switzerland in 1996.  A couple of representatives from Tamiya Japan were there and distributor employees were invited to a meeting. Absolutely nothing was revealed, but they (casually) asked us for our opinion about a possible re-release of the Wild Willy. Not a single word about the actual possibility of a re-release or whether the hypothecical re-release would be a "true" re-release on the original chassis or something else. In other words, as "inside information" useless and virtually nothing. This "nothing" is the closest I've ever come to earning bragging rights as a source for "inside" Tamiya information :D, regardless of how hard I've tried for such a long time. 

I won't exclude the possibility that I have missed or forgotten some cases, but the only slightly exceptional case I can remember is the Comical Grasshopper. I don't remember if it was longer before official announcement or release than 2-3 months, but after the first information about the release of the Comical Grasshopper got known, a Japanese Twitter account posted a very poor, but obviously genuine photo of an illustration of the model. Based on the photo being taken at a much less than optimal angle and very hastily, it appeared to have been taken without permission. Of course, in theory that might have been intentional to give the impression of "unapproved leakage of inside information" for the sensational effect, but I consider that to be rather unlikely.

As a kind of conclusion (without claiming it to be "solid" or me being an authority in the field), I would say that no "inside" information is provided or "leaked" to anyone outside Tamiya Japan before 2-3 months before official announcement or actual release (not counting that it may take longer for a new release to reach certain export markets.) Also, without exception, none of the numerous cases of "inside" information about new releases during the existence of Tamiyaclub have materialized to actual releases. Not once. I would be happy to be proven wrong! :)

And as a final rant; as much as I would love any claim about "inside" information to be true,  people claiming to have "inside" information when they don't, turn me mad. On several occassions, at the verge of losing my temper, I'm embarrassed to admit, my reaction has mostly been rabid (I'm anything but proud of it). As fellow Tamiya enthusiasts, in my opinion we owe each other to provide information here in the forum and otherwise in an honest way. Yes, we are talking about "toy cars" and incorrect information isn't the end of the world, but when somebody claims a certain re-release to be in the pipeline when it's not (e.g. Falcon YT video), it immediately has an impact on the prices of the originals and original parts and thus the behaviour of many enthusiasts, which eventually leads to financial losses for individuals and disappointment for many of us when the "solid inside information" turns out to be a lie. No, most of us, including myself, are not in this hobby for the money, but it's still not nice for someone who had for instance Falcon front suspension arms or front bulkhead on eBay at the time the claim about the Falcon re-release was published and see the auctions end at unusually low high bids just because people expect re-release parts to be available soon. Similarly, for potential buyers that don't buy an original Falcon or original parts because they decide to wait for the re-release instead, missing good opportunities, realizing that it was nothing by a rumour/lie, surely wasn't cool. 

We can all do mistakes and happen to answer a question here in the forum incorrectly or share rumours that don't reflect reality. I expect as little as anyone else other people to be perfect, being massively flawed as I am myself. However, I expect fellow enthusiasts to have the best intentions when they share information rather than doing it for the illusion of being an "insider". Also, adult people should be capable of and commited to pointing it out when information they provide aren't solid facts, but rumours, (educated) guesses, fantasies, wishful thinking, jokes or whatever.

As for re-release of the Falcon, the actual topic of this thread, my impression is that nobody knows anything. Other members have posted their good arguments earlier in this thread why or why not a re-release is likely. Personally, as the re-release hasn't happened during the 22+ years of (RC) re-releases from Tamiya, I consider a re-release of the Falcon to be somewhat unlikely. Also, the technical flaws of the model and apparent low popularity in the domestic market contribute to my opinion. However, Tamiya has surprised us by "can and will never be re-released"-models being re-released in the past (e.g. Bruiser, Sand Scorcher, Rough Rider, Super Champ and others), so I guess we should never say never and I should better shut up! :P

 

Good post. I would be prepared to bet money (and I don't gamble) on news of new releases from Tamiya still being delivered by Fax. The country is odd that way. They never ditched the technology.
Yeah, also Japan is a country  where rules are very much there to be obeyed, it's not much in the nature of Japanese people to break rules, hence early inside info from leaks are very unlikely there.
I do keep mentioning it but I did live in Japan for a few years on and off. Japanese companies are a certain way, and as far as I can tell, Tamiya is a very Japanese company.

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On 7/9/2022 at 8:56 AM, Grumpy pants said:

It might just be that the number of Falcons sold BITD isn’t enough to justify a rerelease. 
 

 

And that was what i was thinking, or the fragility of the original model having to be re-worked to be more reliable too. I would imagine this came down to the bean-counters for sure.

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@Mokei Kagaku, yeah I'm glad I'm not the only person to take a particular hate to those trying to get noticed on false pretense. This was a huge "let-down"" having it not come to pass, although, hopefully Tamiya will see that there is such a desire to have this and many other dare i say "iconic" models reproduced. I know there's a decent amount of hate for the Falcon, it wasn't the most robust or stable kit available, but it was attainable for the new or early Kit builder to get and offered a better than average experience with a couple upgrades. I had the Trinity Monster power motor, and eventually the Silver Can Black Magic motor with some Foam tires and SCR batteries that allowed me to run with the big boys of Nitro and make them look silly. All in all, I think most of us would rather build a falcon than a grasshopper, but to each his own, and honestly I can't blame them for choosing the Grasshopper over Falcon by shear sales numbers alone. 

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Not sure if anyone else was restoring/ buying a Falcon around the time that video was released. But prices in Falcon's dropped considerably after that came out. And they still remain fairly low. I guess no one wants to be the person who pays top dollar for a re re to come along. 

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My only thought is that there's still no Hotshot II re-release, that would be a lot easier to do than a falcon re-re, and prices of OG Hotshot II in good condition seem to be quite strong, so it must have been popular BITD. Just my 2 cents, but I suspect we'd see a HSII or Super Sabre re-re before a falcon re-re.

 

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1 hour ago, MadInventor said:

but I suspect we'd see a HSII or Super Sabre re-re before a falcon re-re.

Strangely (to us, anyway) there's a lot of vehicles Tamiya could quickly whip up with little effort. The Mud Blaster, Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star and even Terra Conqueror wouldn't be hard at this point along with the HSII and Super Sabre. What goes on at Tamiya...the world may never know.

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39 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Strangely (to us, anyway) there's a lot of vehicles Tamiya could quickly whip up with little effort. The Mud Blaster, Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star and even Terra Conqueror wouldn't be hard at this point along with the HSII and Super Sabre. What goes on at Tamiya...the world may never know.

Perhaps they just don't like money .....:lol:

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11 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Strangely (to us, anyway) there's a lot of vehicles Tamiya could quickly whip up with little effort. The Mud Blaster, Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star and even Terra Conqueror wouldn't be hard at this point along with the HSII and Super Sabre. What goes on at Tamiya...the world may never know.

I would do terrible things to obtain a HSII.  Ended up getting a HS just to have something close, but the HSII is the one I really want...  :P

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On 7/8/2022 at 6:10 PM, nintool said:

I know I'm new here and I'm probably about to be "that" guy playing my "Stairway to Heaven" solo by asking this, but seriously has anyone heard of a Re-Re that is actual fact - on a Falcon model? I've heard a couple RC YouTube guys mentioning it in videos in early 2021, but nothing since. If it came and went then ****!! I've had a ton of MRC-Tamiya's in the past but none captured my childhood more than the Falcon. Midnight Pumpkin was a close second, and i grabbed the black edition as soon as i could when it arrived, but man, I would love to revisit memory lane with a re released Falcon. Please fill me in on any info any of you might have about a re re...

Thanks!

MRC?

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8 minutes ago, slimleeroy said:

MRC?

Model Rectifier Corporation. This was Tamiya's US importer before the days of Tamiya USA.

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Sorry falcon fans:unsure: but I was never a fan of the falcon:ph34r: please don't hate me? Let me explain!

When it was released I was coming to the end of my young school hall/gym local club racing and suddenly this appeared and a young boy who use to turn up every Friday night at the club who didn't have a rc buggy as he had a paper round and was saving his round money for his rc buggy this young guy without fail turned up every week with only his old bike and plenty of enthusiasm!. Anyway long story short after many many months he turned up with his newly acquired rc buggy fully built but only one battery and no quick charger (I give him another battery and let him use my charger) the buggy he went for was the falcon he was absolutely over the moon he was actually racing........first race of his falcon a little skirmish with other cars his chassis cracked ended his night and couldn't afford yet to repair it because he'd spent all his hard earned money on buy the falcon! That always sticks in my mind every time I see a falcon:( I never knew what happened to that young guy because a few weeks after I moved away because of a new job and basically new life! (I did give him my old boomerang which I'd been racing before I left because it was the end of that particular chapter in my life and I knew I wouldn't be using it anymore)

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On 7/9/2022 at 11:36 PM, Mokei Kagaku said:

That video annoyed me quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, it occassionally happens that someone gets a bit of "early information" from a distributor or similar, but that video had a very noticeable undertone of bragging and that bragging gave an impression of being more important to the video creator than the information provided. His video simply didn't sound credible to me and as we know by now, it was very likely a lie for attention and "insider" credit.

 

My mother's neighbour's nan's dog is next-door neighbours with someone who works in the Tamiya factory, and I've heard that the Falcon and the King Cab are being produced 100% legit. They haven't been able to ship them yet as they are arguing about naming rights with Nissan and the RSPB, but basically when that's sorted they'll get released as there's ten warehouses full of stock, but it's taking ages.

So yeah, if they get released in the next 1 - 5 years - you'll know who you heard it from.

No, don't thank me all at once.

 

 

 

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Restoring my original Falcon was a lot of $$$ and I welcome the ability to have OEM red wing decals again :)

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