Sand Scorcher - re-release?

[Gilberto the great 0]

I've searched through the forums and have seen some previous posts on the Sand Scorcher so am aware this may be digging up an old forum - but I can't help noticing that several Sand Scorchers have been appearing on ebay lately.  Is this just a coincidence or are owners selling now to get good prices pending a possible re-release (I would guess if and when re-released demand for the vintage ones would reduce and value fall).

Does anyone have any news on whether the Sand Scorcher is being released, or what models are tipped to be re-released over the next say 12 months?

Thanks[] 

[Big Al 1]

Oh no! Not this again!!! This topic comes up often and there was a little prank that was played on us a few months back about this! All I can say to this is we can only hope that this someday comes true!

Have ya noticed all of the Super Sabres on eBay too?? That was one kit that ya rarely saw on there and now all of the sudden there about 3 or 4 NIB kits on there!

 

-Al

[MikeT 0]

there was a little prank that was played on us a few months back about this! All I can say to this is we can only hope that this someday comes true!

Ouch, salt in the wound, don't remind me!

Yeah, all we can do is hope, hope that Mr.Tamiya is watching these forums.

But i have heard that Tamiya paid another company to make the SRB's under the Tamiya name, adn this is why Tamiya won't re-make them...

Who Knows?

[Gilberto the great 0]

Yeah, I've found it quite interesting that several models have recently found themselves re-released (Frog, Manta  Ray, Lunchbox etc etc).  It would be great to get into My Tamiyas head to see a list of planned re-releases.  I know its not a Tamiya but I would love the Kyosho Optima to be done.  My first rc car many years ago and when I look back all thouse years ago (Must be about 20 years now) its a big regret that I sold it.

Does anybody know of any pending possibilities for re-release?

[Badboy 94]

Isn´t it possible to e-mail Tamiya and request a re-release?

What if everybody here would "mailbombing" tamiya and demand

re-release of say SS and RR!!!

I would buy three of both!!!

=)

Badboy

[sunktothenutz 0]

What about a wild one, re release!!!!!

[minijosh 0]

Why buy a re release Wild One when you can buy my New Built Wild One?  hehe. Maybe they could make the tranny stronger for the WO and if they did the SS or any SRB they could make the motor into a normal 540 size hole.

[MikeT 0]

Yeah, Josh, i TOTALLY Agree about the motor hole!

How about a Scorcher Racer:

MIP Brass Gears

Nodis Geared Diff.

Ballraced

Twinset Alluminium Chassis ( We can dream )

CRP Axles

Coilovers at all 4 corners

Boxart Bumper

Alluminium Rear Cage

CRP Wheel Covers

Sand Blaster Tyres F and R

Cmon.. Who WOULD'NT BUY THAT!

[minijosh 0]

I see your game MikeT. How about a SRB-TRF or a SRB-R version. Come one Andy, hook us up with one.

[MikeT 0]

See, it'd catch on, honest

Yeah come on andy, give us a price quote for a TRF-SRB!

Mike

[DJTheo 2]

If you use the search you will see that this topic has been discussed several times before, general believe is that those metal kits (SRB/3 speeds) won't ever be re-released in their original (metal) form as production is much too expensive and our vintage fan market too small to make it profitable.

Cheers

[mud4fun 1696]

"and if they did the SS or any SRB they could make the motor into a normal 540 size hole."

The hole was for a standard 540 motor and still is, the problem was that it was designed specifically for the old silver cans that didn't have pretty labels stuck on the outside of the can. Any modern 540 sized motor will fit the SRB, I run a kyosho mag meyhem in my monster scorcher. I just had to remove the label from the outside of the can. There are well documented mods to allow mounting the motor by drilling new holes in the gearbox to allow longer motors to be fitted as well. The problem comes when you get none 540 sized cans classed as 540's such as the Technigold where the extremely thick casing means the motor is actually some 3mm+ larger in diameter than a stock 540 so it doesn't fit.

Having said that,the SRB is such a poor handling car any extra motor performance is going to be wasted, they struggle to corner under stock speeds......my monster scorcher corners pretty well but then it is running very wide WW2 tyres/wheels and heavily mnodified suspension....Tamiya would need to redesign the whole chassis to get better performace and what is the point of that - they have plenty of later plastic chassis designs that performed much better which is why the discontinued the SRB in the first place.

I can't see Tamiya ever re-releasing an SRB based vehicle. Plastic chassis are easily reproduced in moulds that Tamiya already has in storage. The SRB's however required lots of machining which is very labour intensive compared to injection moulding. The price would also be astronomical.

SRB's have a special memory to many 30+ year olds but they really wouldn't appeal to the vast majority of Tamiyas younger market. Also like me, those 30+ year olds are now getting older and getting past the stage of trying to recreate their childhood - instead they are moving towards spending their money on houses, wives, kids etc. If I wanted to buy a new radio controlled car now I would find it hard to justify to my wife that a re-released 30 old design costing thousands would be better to buy than modern buggy costing tens or hundreds. Especially if that money meant she wouldn't get her new kitchen or bathroom!!!!!!

 

[Japanscaledriver 14]

I read in a local paper here in Japan that Tamiya's plan for the next 12 months involved releasing a whole new range of interesting modern vehicles and that the last re-re would be the current batch, Frog, Top Force, Manta Ray and Thundershot. So don't hold your breath...

[DJTheo 2]

I would actually also preffer some modern interesting designs like a modern 3 speed, but don't believe that article and think unfortunately Tamiya will stay on the easy re-re choice of simple plastic kits, just look at the Midnight Pumpkin Chrome coming, thats actually also just a re-re, ok it wasn't discontinued for a long time but its a pre 58100 kit.

Cheers

[Japanscaledriver 14]

yeah, I guess we'll find out when we find out...

[MikeT 0]

**IF** Tamiya did release the SRB, i'd leave them NIB...

I've got my Scorcher now so i'm not fussed if they do a re-re or not ( sorry to be mean )

Mud4Fun: Yes, they would have to re-design the whole chassis again to make it handle like a LOSI XXX-B4, but the handling of the Scorcher is inversely proportional to the character, IMHO, if it were re-re'd it'd probably have NO Mech. Box, and plastic parts.. and IMHO this is boring, not like the " Propper " SRB's at all. And if it were released in such a profile ( plastic parts etc ) i would NOT buy one.

 

[terry.sc 16]

I really don't get this. Every reply to the "will they rerelease the

Scorcher" threads that pop up regularly point out how difficult it

would be to produce a metal replica and the problems of licensing the

body. Yet people stil come back with "yes, but they could still do it"[:^)]

If they made a plastic version of the same design it would handle the

same but be at a price we could afford. The price of a metal version

would put off most buyers. Would you prefer to pay £150 for a plastic

version or £300 for a metal rerelease? To illustrate how much more

expensive metal parts are you can buy a Top Force for the same price as

a Frog.

Badboy: Re mailbombing Tamiya. There was an online petition years ago

to try and get the Bruiser rereleased - that worked didn't it?

Mailbombing would just get you blocked from their mail servers, we all

hate spam don't we?

As Mud4fun says the market for a SRB rerelease is tiny, at least the

cars that have been rereleased so far (apart from the Group C cars

which just haven't sold) have a market as modern bashing buggies as

well as with collectors.

I suspect the buggy rereleases are more a marketing tool rather than

pandering to our desires. They have got the general R/C market

interested in Tamiya again and I would not be surprised if we see

TamtechGear versions of the Grasshopper, Hornet, Thundershot, Manta Ray

and Top Force as well as the Frog. I also expect to see a Rough Rider

rerelease, but only as a TamtechGear.

[tarznatz 0]

Terry.sc - i agree, a plastic version of the SRB would be more feasible and I suspect, a great seller. Don;t know why tamiya has not released another "version" of the srb yet, given the popularity of the sand buggy look alone.

 

[terry.sc 16]

Terry.sc - i agree, a plastic version of the

SRB would be more feasible and I suspect, a great seller. Don;t know

why tamiya has not released another "version" of the srb yet, given the

popularity of the sand buggy look alone.

Actually in the R/C car world in general they aren't popular at all.

T-maxx style monster trucks, 1/8th rallycross buggies and anything IC

is popular. In electrics the 1/18th scale trucks and buggies are most

popular.

Even amongst electric racers 2wd buggies are only slightly more popular

than the 4wd ones, but nowhere near as popular as touring cars and

1/12th scale.

[amigamad 0]

With the  re release of the frog how long will it be before tamiya decide to re release the brat i dont think there is to many changes and they have done a re release on the bodyset a while ago .

[fatboyslim 11]

What I don't get is why would a re-re scorcher be so 'expensive' for Tamiya to make??

When it was first released 27 years ago it only cost roughly £65!!(A FORTUNE for me at 10!!)

Tamiya obviously have a body mould (monster beetle,blitzer beetle),and wheel/tyre moulds(grasshopper) the metal parts were mainly cast so no machining involved there(except for the moulds) but allowing for the fact that machining costs are cheaper now than they were then due to cad/cam and cnc(no longer does it need 1 man to make 1 item just set the computer and away it goes)

The latest re-re's prices are pretty much the same as they were originally obviously they are a bit dearer but you have to allow for inflation

We'll all just have to wait and see what Tamiya decide(praying may help!!)

[terry.sc 16]

Tamiya obviously have a body mould (monster beetle,blitzer beetle)

The Scorcher moulding is diferent to the later versions. Rumour is

the original was modified for the later bodies, so it doesn't exist

anymore. Assuming Tamiya could persuade Volkswagen to licence the body

at a reasonable cost, the cost of machining a new mould would not be

cheap.

the metal parts were mainly cast so no machining involved there(except

for the moulds) but allowing for the fact that machining costs are

cheaper now than they were then due to cad/cam and cnc(no longer does

it need 1 man to make 1 item just set the computer and away it goes)

Metal casting is a different process to plastic moulding and I suspect

Tamiya don't have a foundry on site to make then anymore. They would

have to contract them out as the cost of setting themselves up to cast

them would be prohibitive. Regarding CAD/CAM you might not need a

machinist but you still need to pay for an operator and the machines

are a lot more expensive than manual operated machinery.

The latest re-re's prices are pretty much the same as they were

originally obviously they are a bit dearer but you have to allow for

inflation

The Frog, with a lot of metal parts, is the most expensive rerelease,

at twice the price of the original. The Top Force is the same price,

but the Manta Ray and Thundershot are considerably cheaper than the Frog even though

they are 4wd.

[Shodog 1835]

There is no question Tamiya could do it but to do it in its original form is just not cost effective. 

1.   The re-re’s don’t sell nearly as well as we think.  My LHS has had to same two Hornets on the shelf for ages. 

2.   The SRB was a poor performer in comparison to today’s and even most of yesterday’s buggies.

3.   Making a chassis from plastic will essentially net you a Blitzer Beetle.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

[Drewboyaus 0]

Regardless of whether they will re-release the scorcher or not (I don't really care either way as it holds no real memories for me),a lot of the products I sell are made from die cast metals, folded/machined metals and also quite a bit of injection moulded plastic.

We get nearly all of them manufactured by contractors in China, and they are all cheap to produce.  I see no reason why Tamiya would be concerned with contracting out the metal die casting process...most manufacturers in this part of the world have been doing it for decades and at rates that are outrageously cheap.  All you need to do is provide a specification for them to manufacture to and keep a tight reign on quality control.

So I think it would purely be a decision made by the Tamiya marketing department with little or no concern to the cost of producing the metal parts..

Cheers,

Drew.

[terry.sc 16]

So I think it would purely be a decision made by the Tamiya marketing department with little or no concern to the cost..

Anyone know of a valid marketing reason for Tamiya to go to the trouble

of rereleasing the Scorcher, apart from to make a few hundred TC

members happy? They would sell less of them than the other rerelease

buggies.