Anyone started collecting this aswell??

[MiniManiac]

http://www.deagostini.co.uk/radiocontrolcar/

Its a weekly magazine over 45 weeks and every week you get a small amount of parts to build the car. Its expensive at £4.99 a week and i worked it out to come to about £225 overall.

My initial impressions is that its not so bad...Its simple, very simple but it looks durable and at the end of the day its not gona be a colleters item so i will be using it to absolutely bash about.

Just wondered if any of you guys are collecting it?

minimaniac

[sosidge]

I just think that anyone with any previous experience of RC (in fact anyone with any kind of technical competence) would get much more satisfaction out of a 4wd Tamiya deal for £160.

If it brings more people into the hobby (in a year's time!) then it's got to be a good thing though.

[madbad jezza]

aaaaarrrghhh!!!!!!!!!!![:0].....

be warned mate, this is not the first time those people have made a magazine like this - and it was a scam!. about this time last year, those people did the same thing. except this car wasn,t an electric car (of dubious manufactor), it was actually a glow engined kyosho (pure 10 chassis). i started to buy the mag - as did a mate at work. after 5 issues it stopped!. after a few weeks still nothing appeared in the shops, so i contacted the magazine people and asked what was happening. they said they are no longer doing it and have "pulled the plug". i was dissapointed to say the least!, but i managed to get my money back because i sold all the bits on ebay.

once bitten twice shy, i reckon. personally i,m not falling for that one again - not by that magazine anyway [)].

all i would suggest is, dont expect it to last the distance!.

cheers,

james.

[fatboyslim]

I'm collecting it!!

Only downside as said is it's gonna take 45 weeks to finish!!

So long as it goes the distance!!

Can't remember the glo-engine magazines though!!

[Jozza(2)]

No no no!! []

For the same (or probably less) money, get the new Tamiya Subaru and a cheap and cheerful radio, charger and nicads, and a year's sub to Tamiyaclub.com - much better value, and it will only take a short while to build and start using the car.

The only thing I can see in the mag's favour is that it's aimed at beginners, and not many of the R/C car mags available seem to cater for us newbies, but it's a lot of cash, and the risk that they might not complete it too.

My 10p worth

Joz

[terry.sc]

Once you have bought all the weekly parts you still have to buy the battery and charger. Makes it even more expensive. I was eyeing up the first issue though with thoughts of buying 4 copies- a full set of wheels and tyres for £8! I hope enough people keep buying it so it keeps going. I'll be waiting for the issue with the body on it for a fiver.[]

[madbad jezza]

mmmmmm........i bet you lot any money that it doesn,t get past issue 5![].

[MiniManiac]

cheers guys, but my point is that i cant afford to pay £160 stright up fot a tamiya subaru, and its the novelty factor, gives me something to look 4ward to each week. Yeh its expensive and theres a risk factor, but hey its worth a go.

[fatboyslim]

Errm I have already got a Tamiya Subaru and will be paying my Tamiyaclub subs just as soon as I get paid!!

On close inspection tho I would say the wheels WON'T fit Tamiya!!

but Yeah £5 for a Body shell!! Also R/C gear for about £20!! don't sound too bad!!

[Manuspain]

The reason that this kind of collection disapears is because it s only a market test, sold without any advertise on TV. It generally stop in nº4.

Collectibles are different from products in a hobbyshop for those reasons :

- comes everywhere, with or without hobbyshop near your house

- allows you to buy something (more expensive) but not wasting a lot of money in one time.

- There is a lot of work behind those collectibles, printing, planning, import....and the final product comes with an ilustrated magazine that shows you how to build it, and a customer service online or in a call center.

I don t buy them, except for one part specially, for exemple nº1, cheaper, and comes with a tire and a wheel, so i buy generally 4. []

I don t buy them also because part of my job is planning this kind a products.[]

Emmanuel - Manuspain

[Gates Mini Racing]

Ok these are good to a certain extent, a great project, but in terms of total cost these can be very, very explensive, like the real robots.... I wanted to buy a few mags for the wheels and was wondering if they were the tamiya style hex nut fittings? any ideas. And maybe the issue with the bodyshell...

[Manuspain]

Planeta agostini is my competitor, so don t know about the parts in each issue.

In each country the number of issues, parts in each, and even car manufacturer can change, so no idea in this case because we are talking about UK, i m from Spain.

Bye

Emmanuel - Manuspain -

[sosidge]

To be fair to deagostini, the series has been well advertised. I had no idea they did an IC version last year - to be fair, doing an IC car is much riskier where total beginners are concerned.

I had a look at the website, and although the car is 1/10th, it's dimensions are slightly off - the wheelbase is short for example - so any parts like bodies won't be worth getting. The car has a very Kyosho look about it, but it's not a regular production model - perhaps Kyosho have done a deal and are making it specially for this series.

[Gates Mini Racing]

I spose your right, shame about the shell, I would like tro have had ago at the IC car though [8D] that sounds pretty cool...

[mr_pushrod]

Apparently the chassis is by some obscure make using 10 year old technology so spares are going to be a git to find if you break it.

[wriggleandgiggle]

I got the first issue and had a look at the mag, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but the radio system shown looks to be like one of those radios that are fitted to the cheap electric planes... Cheap being the operative word.

I've got one of these radio's. I bought it for under a tenner and its 3 channel, but, the TX is awful. The body is a copy of an old acoms unit, but things like the sticks are very unprecise. I used it with an ESC and the throttle is so dodgy that the car never gets to neutral. Its either trying to go forwards, or the brakes are on and you have to 'center' it manually (wobble the stick) Not nice.

But, you could change the mechanism over I suppose and have a decent 3 channel radio.

I've also noticed that the car is 2wd. If you want a cheap 2wd buy a Fighter Buggy!

Just my 50p worth

[TWINSET]

quote:

---

Originally posted by madbad jezza

aaaaarrrghhh!!!!!!!!!!![:0].....

be warned mate, this is not the first time those people have made a magazine like this - and it was a scam!. about this time last year, those people did the same thing. except this car wasn,t an electric car (of dubious manufactor), it was actually a glow engined kyosho (pure 10 chassis). i started to buy the mag - as did a mate at work. after 5 issues it stopped!. after a few weeks still nothing appeared in the shops, so i contacted the magazine people and asked what was happening. they said they are no longer doing it and have "pulled the plug". i was dissapointed to say the least!, but i managed to get my money back because i sold all the bits on ebay.

once bitten twice shy, i reckon. personally i,m not falling for that one again - not by that magazine anyway [)].

all i would suggest is, dont expect it to last the distance!.

cheers,

james.

---

id="quote">id="quote">

I just been up to the Lake District, and they got a nitro version for sale up there - Nitro Racer or something.

Certainly looks like a 'K' chassis, but this issue just had the wheels included and an 'Astra' sticker.

[sosidge]

Well that's the Lakes for you - shops that time forgot!