Model Expo at Birmingham NEC

[Thunderbug]

So what are everyones impressions now that the event is over? I thought the displays were good but there wasn't enough sellers at he show IMO. I went on Saturday and found that by lunchtime, most of the good stuff had been sold already[] It's a pity that Tamiya didn't have any of their off-road stuff for the publics tryout (Not that I saw anyhow). I hope they took out driver insurance for the rally cars 'cause they were careening off the walls of their small track like a pinball. Nice to see the TNX and the Touareg on the display stand as well.

[TWINSET]

Yep, I thought the sellers missed a major oppurtunity there!

I was expecting something along the lines of the old Model Engineer exhibitions, especially after reading a few teasers in various mags, but it seemed a bit confused - you went from lathes to big rigs onto Draper tool stands.

The pricing of stuff that was for sale was a bit hit and miss too - The cost for a Losi Mini T went from £120 to £150 within 20 yards!

Still, next year's has to be better []

Loved the hovercrafts though, gotta get me one of them [8D]

[R D Trucking INC]

Hi all who attended the show, I missed you all at the Tamiya stand as got carried away with a deal on a Trailer and the time was gone, hope to catch you next year, I agree the sellers did miss out on a good show for selling, The trucks where not repucented very well as they could not be run due to all other ground vehicles taking the run time and crystal frequency’s up. But the guys who did show their trucks where great to talk to on my part for future shows and maybe a bit more of a truck area for next year. With some club guys going to show I hope. I did enjoy the Jet engines, 1/8 scale tanks and off course the truck display which I have pictures of to post on club.

[Wireless]

Claire and I went yesterday. Met up with Fury Dice as mentioned, Twinset and mate (whose name escapes me I'm afraid [:I] ), Moosey, Bugsy with Missus and Nephew. Also caught up with Daz and a chap whose name also escapes me (Stanley?)

The show was really good for it's first year. I guess they had to go for a jack of all trades, master of none approach given they only had one hall for stands. I can see why they did it - big risk being the inaugural event. I was pleased to see my LHS there (Antics) with a healthy stand. Stefan, the chap that runs my LHS also gave me a good discount on a Mini Cooper Racing kit, so well pleased with that (See my showroom). Shame about the weather for the outdoor stuff, but the AHA put on a good display of heli aeros. Most of the major distributors were there, but I was amazed that Ripmax didn't have a stand...! Indoor flying was quite good, demoing some of the products you could buy right there at the show. Some lovely models on display (anyone see the gorgeous turbine powered BAC Lightning...? [8D] )

Disappointed that there weren't more Tamiyas on display. Nice to see the XC Touareg and the Porsche GT thing. Both looked good. Shame there was no Gravel Hound, TT-01 M3 or TT-01 190 [V]. Would have been nice to have had a Super Clod on display too. Was good that they had the TNX though. They are ace [8D]

The Tamiya guys were running some trucks in a display area. Decided I must have a TLT-1 (even though theirs sounded like it was lunching it's gearboxes). They were also demoing a Knight Hauler with a/v, TXT-1, Super Clod and a twin detonantor type thing. Didn't see the latter running through.

Well worth a day out and the tenner entrance and would love to go next year. I expect the 2005 show will be a big improvement because they'll know what to expect from audiences (I completed a survey to help them [] )

Didn't see much of the outdoor racing bar some 1/8th on road on the way in and Marders on the way out.

Bought a couple of helis at good prices too (see showroom) so all in all a good day (skint now though)

[jozza]

I found the exhibition to be a bit of a disappointment to be honest. There weren't enough retailers of kit, I was hoping to see a good deal on a Super Clod, and was looking forward to seeing the Gravel Hound in the flesh, but the Gravel Hound wasn't even displayed on the Tamiya stand. There were exhibitors on the list on the website who weren't there at all as far as I could see. I was really looking forward to getting some good advice on using Faskolor paint from the Parma stand, but it wasn't there. Custom Colours seemed to be represented by a small poster on one of the distro stands (CML I think it was).

I really dislike the rip-off exhibition catering too. £2.80 each for a hot dog which I would value at about 50p (and that's being generous). Why do these exhibition halls always rip us off for poorly made food? I'm sure if they did good food at a better price, there would be more happy people. I dislike the UK way of fleecing a captive audience for food and drink.

On the plus side, the helicopter stunt flying was really impressive, and the indoor racing track was good, there were some very accomplished drivers there. I enjoyed watching the TXT, shame the Super Clod didn't get much of an outing though (I get the feeling the guy doing the driving didn't really like the Clod).

I doubt that I will go again next time (if there is a next time). I'm just glad that I had free tickets and free parking for the event []

[wldnas]

Well I decided to go fairly early on the saturday morning, with £300 in my pocket and high hopes of bagging a bargain or two [] but when I got there I found that the place was already half way to heaving and a struggled to fight my way through the crowds of ppl who were just mulling about with no particular purpose in mind.

I have actually seen that Tamiya display track before at a different show that I went to about 2 years ago, nothing much has changed apart from they had a few newer models on display but alas as so many ppl have pointed out there was no sign of the Gravel hound? still with em retailing for £53 Buy-it-now on Ebay at the moment it would probably be cheaper to buy them there even taking into account the shipping from Hong Kong [8)] I did get a close look at the Toureg on the stand which was kinda alright I suppose? but you would have throught that the Hobby Company would have had a factory outlet there selling off Ex-stock kits on the cheap at lesat? I was angling for a MIB Wild Dagger for less than £100 but no sign of them anywhere [xx(]

I did have a passing glance at the various tracks there were doing the running thought I wasn't really paying much attention to the racing as I was only there to buy stuff, but after doing 4-5 laps of the hall I had not seen a single car worth buying [V] I will admit to being slightly tempted by the Losi Mini-T for £120 and a MIB Baja Champ for £71 as well as looking at TLT-1 Rockbusters? but the prices they were asking for those were nowt short of scandelous []

Venom racing were on the list of exhibitors and I wanted to get one of their mini-monsters but they did not seem to be in attendence, anyway after a while I got bored and went home after only buying 2 copies of MaxBasher magazine from the little stand in the far corner, and after spending £6 for parking £10 for entrance fee and I dunno how much on petrol I can't really say that is was worth the effort of going [V]

still on the plus side I saved myself £300 to spend on other cars... like the Wild One I've just bought from Madbadjezza of Ebay []

[Dazmeister]

I spoke to my mate Colin on the Tamiya demo stand and they did have the Gravel Hound built for the show but did not take it with them[V] but I have just got mine from stella so it dont bother me[]

I bought some cells and masking sheets but that was about it oh and a coffee for £1.20 which the dozy bird gave me an extra £10 in my change so that makes up for the rip off parking fee !

Show was ok all in all and I do not regret going.

Daz

[fatboyslim]

Hmmm I really wanted to go but was working over the weekend!![]

But after reading these reviews it seems I didn't really miss out!![]

[WhiteVanMan]

Hi all. Yep, its me, Colin from the Tamiya stand at ModelExpo. Don't know where to start really... First up, the displays. Before the show I raided the Hobby Company showroom for as much new product as possible (luckilly no-one was looking...) some of the items had to come from Germany as they are not in the UK yet (VW Touraeg, 2 x 350Z, and before you ask, the Gravelhound was in the showroom, but it wasn't on the price list, so I didn't take it, sorry...). The Super Clodbuster was there, but on the display track. We ran it a couple of times but she was a bit erratic on the steering and I didn't have time to sort it out whilst on the stand. We had to run as much as possible so if a vehicle played up, it got left out. The Knight Hauler was our show stopper, when we stopped running it, everyone asked when is it coming out again..... The TXT-1 also went down well, but needs a bit of TLC as the balljoints all need replacing due to too much power and abuse (2 x 15x2 motors, twin ESC, twin battery packs etc etc.). We had alot of interest in the new Leopard tank, and even the Mini Cooper drew a few admiring glances. The Rockbuster was a let-down for us, due to a centre diff. problem, it kept slipping, and the gearmesh was terrible, I blame the person that built it in a rush....ah, that was me....opps...at least i'm honest, and I broke the Ferrari F1 car when I went too fast and hit one of the rocks, breaking the front wishbone and strengthener....

I wonder how many Tamiya r/c guide books will appear on ebay, we gave away 1400 of them...... hope you got at least 1 each.

Our public have-a-go cars survived well, a few wishbones, 2 chassis tubs, 3 motor guards (we use the TA-03F chassis, and yes, they were speed limited, you all can drive, but the general public can't....)and we got through 26 bodyshells, lol, they were given away on Sunday, ebay perhaps, doubt it, they were wrecked). Another area which I have noted is the lack of off-road try-outs. We couldn't do this as there is a massive frequency issue at this type of show. We secured the 6 solid frequencies for the entire duration of the show, bad idea, as some muppets bought r/c deals, then switched on their transmitters sending some of our cars haywire....splits next time. At least the public got a chance to drive a radio-controlled car on the Tamiya stand, if it wasn't for us, well, I didn't see any other form of public have-a-go, please correct me if i'm wrong.

I too was dissapointed in the retail side of things. Very limited on the Tamiya side, infact, I only saw 2 stands with Tamiya on them, and not that much either. This must be addressed for next year. If a shop cannot be bothered to sell Tamiya, then I'll open my own shop, then take it to Modelexpo and keep you guys happy. btw, no Wild Daggers left in stock, infact, there isn't any old stock really, it all gets sold to the shops, so its up to them really, sorry folks.

I could waffle on forever here, but my final thought for now is that I thought it was a Model Expo, not an r/c car expo.... still, great effort from all involved with the show, The BRCA did a cracking job with the racing, boy can those cars move...... I'd love to have a massive Tamiya stand there, and even try to incorperate a display of Tamiya r-c cars from yesteryear, heres dreaming. All I have to do now is convince them to spend the money.....wish me luck.

[jozza]

Hi Colin, it's good to hear the view from the exhibitors side of things. The TXT looked good, shame there wasn't a Gravel Hound to look at. I wondered about the frequency thing, with retailers selling goods it's bound to happen, particularly if someone new to the hobby has just bought some kit and doesn't realise that it would cause a problem turning on the radio [] (We get this sometimes at our club, newcomers who have a prob with their car taking it outside of the hall where we are racing, not understanding that the radio waves will still interfere with the cars racing indoors [V]. Perhaps it would be an idea to get 40meg frequencies next time?

Our club provided the display board for the BRCA track, and yep those cars do go! The 1/12th ones were extremely quick. Some of the skill of the top drivers is astounding..

If you were able to do a big Tamiya stand next time, that would be really good. With the driving side of things, perhaps it would be nice to let people have a go of the higher class cars if they show a BRCA card, to prove that they are at least capable of handling something faster. I would have been happy to have relieved you of driving duty on the TXT and Knight Hauler for 1/2 an hour []