Kyosho Scorpion Re Release at Shizuoka Hobby Show !

[scootmike]

I thought about doing some out of Kydex, sent a guy "gomachv" on RC10Talk a JG Scorpion A Main bumper and a JG Scorpion front skid plate to cut copies for me, picked up the Kydex from Amazon and had it shipped to him, came out very nice, he does some good work.

Thought it would be cool to have matching roof plates, never followed up on it though

[markbt73]

Bring on the tomahawk so much fun to drive and with the re-re, not only will it be even more fun to drive, more people will be able to enjoy owning one of these fantastic cars.

Never ceases to amaze me how awesome this car looks after all this time. I hope they do the separate helmet for this driver too

That photo makes me think of "one that got away." Actually, two that got away.

Once when I was a kid, I went with my dad to a Sears outlet store, where they sold all the surplus and scratch/dent stuff. They had a Tomahawk and a Gallop kit, both Cox-labeled boxes, complete with Cox/Sanwa radios, for $89 each. The Gallop had water damage to the box and the Tomahawk box was all taped up and partially crushed, but they said it was complete. I begged, I pleaded, I cajoled, but all he said was: "You just got that monster truck." (Which was true; he had just gotten me a Blackfoot for my birthday.) As a 14 year old with no money and no transportation, I had no choice but to leave empty-handed.

[Raman36]

Here I'll make you feel better. Do you know what cox hobbies did with the left over Scorpions and parts? Landfill! Yep, somewhere out there they're buried under dirt.

[Champ85]

I wonder if it is possible to swap out the old skool friction rear wheel hubs for 12mm hex ones. Kind of surprised they went that way, actually.

[shenlonco]

I hate to break it to you guy's but the pricing on kyosho's site is always higher than you can buy there stuff in other shops!!

[Raman36]

AMAINHOBBIES is taking preorders at $219. They don't charge your card until it comes in. In the meantime i plan on seeing what rcmart and banzai will charge

[RichieRich]

I may order one when I can use a coupon.

[MAD RACER]

Wow it's well priced.

I will be getting a few no doubt.

[shenlonco]

Well tower won't be selling them so that's bummer!

[scootmike]

Wow can't imagine throwing all those Cox parts away, guess when they were done, that was it, get it out of here.

Liked to have come across that landfill! I bought out a hobby shop around 20 years ago, it was when MRC was dropped by Tamiya, everything the Midwest Distributor had was going for pennies on the dollar. I bought the leftovers that didn't sell. 2 and 1/2 truckloads. Can kick myself for selling all the Super Champ and Ranger XLT body sets.

[Raman36]

I know.. Tower should get Kyosho back.. They're foolish

[scootmike]

What was the deal with that anyway?

I still have old Tower catalogs with Kyosho in them.

[shenlonco]

something to do with the distributers they used and they don't distribute kyosho or something.

[Raman36]

Not sure.. They probably didn't see eye to eye with GreatPlanes the parent company. Then again Horizon doesn't carry Kyosho either. Maybe they like to deal directly with Hobby Shops

[Raman36]

Wow can't imagine throwing all those Cox parts away, guess when they were done, that was it, get it out of here.

Liked to have come across that landfill! I bought out a hobby shop around 20 years ago, it was when MRC was dropped by Tamiya, everything the Midwest Distributor had was going for pennies on the dollar. I bought the leftovers that didn't sell. 2 and 1/2 truckloads. Can kick myself for selling all the Super Champ and Ranger XLT body sets.

 

About a month ago a guy appeared on eBay selling old parts that he had purchased from cox. He basically had bought a crate which was headed to a landfill.

I quickly sent him my wish list and he came through with most of it at decent prices. The only item I paid a lot for was the tomahawk bag that contains the window netting, tailpipes.. Paid $40 I think.. Still not bad

[scootmike]

Yep,gascarman, sent him my list too, he came through with some great deals, got a few of the Tomahawk bags also.

He's been sitting on those parts for a few years, I talked to him several years ago and he wasn't in a hurry to go through them.

[Raman36]

Yep that's him... Nice guy.

[Champ85]

Yup, I got some parts from gascarman too. Very nice guy.

As for the deal with Tower and Kyosho, I think Kyosho made a decision to create their own USA distribution center (Kyosho America) rather than use Great Planes (Tower's parent) for importing into North America. When that happened, Tower stopped carrying Kyosho products. I don't know if it was a falling out between Great Planes and Kyosho, or if there were other financial/control reasons for opening their own importing company.

Also, back in the early late 1980's or early 1990's when MRC stopped being the USA importer of Tamiya products, Tower actually omitted all Tamiya products from its annual catalog one year. One year the catalog had multiple pages of "MRC/Tamiya" vehicles, the next year there were no Tamiya products at all, and the year after that they had pages of Tamiya products again (but no mention of MRC). I think this is when TamiyaUSA was created to handle the North American importing of Tamiya products, replacing MRC. I think there was some sort of falling out between MRC and Tamiya, but I don't know the details. I vaguely recall. but could be totally wrong, that MRC used to force hobby shops to buy spare parts in order to sell Tamiya kits, much to the dismay of the shop owners back in the 1980's heyday when R/C was booming largely due to Tamiya's popularity at the time. Money was tied up in inventory and lots of it did not sell. This is why there are still tons and tons of spare vintage MRC/Tamiya parts in those yellow and clear plastic bags on eBay. Maybe enough shops complained to Tamiya to get them to create TamiyaUSA and kick MRC to the curb. Again, I could be totally wrong about it all, but I am fairly certain it wasn't an amicable breakup. Looking at hobby shops today, however, you don't see much in terms of Tamiya spare parts. Certainly not like it was back when MRC was the Tamiya distributor. Of course there is the visible fact that Tamiya is not as popular as it used to be - Traxxas is now the king of hobby shops here in the USA. That's why eBay is by far the best place to get spare Tamiya parts. All of the US sellers of spare parts are breaking up kits, unlike jr-rc who actually buys spares directly from Tamiya in Japan, or the myriad of HK sellers that have easy access to parts from their local distributor. US customers can buy Tamiya spares directly from TamiyaUSA, or they can order from their local hobby shop (who orders from TamiyaUSA), but residents of other countries cannot. And TamiyaUSA prices are retail usually (at least on their website), which is much higher than normal making it not usually a good buy. Shops might get dealer pricing - I don't know. Luckily there is the internet and HK and Japan based sellers with decent prices, otherwise getting spares for our kits would be incredibly difficult or expensive.

[mongoose1983]

Fantastic. Now finally I'll be able to grab a set of those rear tires for the Super Champ

[scootmike]

Champ85

I think your are pretty much spot on, I remember when I bought all my parts, the owner of the shop made it pretty clear Tamiya dumped MRC and it was not to friendly

Also remember talking to a guy on the net who used to hit the dumpsters at MRC and take tons of parts after the split, seems MRC cleaned house afterwards.

The hobby shop bought the entire contents from the Midwest Dist that were in a warehouse, opened up a 2nd shop just to sell parts, I remember going for a week straight after work just looking at parts as they opened up new boxes. There were thousands and thousands of parts dumped on tables, still in boxes etc...parts from every major maker were included, CRP, Parma, Bolink, JG, AE, very little for Kyosho though. AAHH the good old days, wish I could go back.

About a year later, I went looking for a few old parts, the owner said I could go looking in the basement, that's where all the leftover parts were.

I went down found a few things, he comes down, tells me he needs to sell the lot, the landlord was needing the storage room back.

He gives me a price of $600, at the time that was a lot of money for me, I tell him I can't do it, he comes back with make an offer, I offer $300.

He accepts and asks when can you get it out of here? I say right now! Call my uncle he brings his truck, We packed his truck and mine cab high inside and out.

Bunggie cords everywhere holding everything together. My wife was tripping out when we got him with the loads. HA HA.

I started putting parts on ebay, back then no such thing as buy it nows, one of the first things i put on there was an Audi Quattro Rally body kit, I was flooded with emails, I had no idea it was rare, started the auction at $9.99, it ended at $354 I think, paid for all of it in 1 auction, crazy days.

Had tons of SRB parts, sold most of them before there was ever any talk about re re's.

All of this turned me into a collector, it's been fun!

.

[Sheriff]

I REALLY hope this is just the beginning of a Kyosho re-re line.

Optima Mid (standard Mid will do)

Original Optima

Ultima Pro

In that order please Mr Kyosho, no doubt you'll be reading this.

[shenlonco]

what about some older kyosho nitro models I loved the old kyosho Datsun step side truck I had when I was a kid!!

[Baja500]

The gascarman.. good seller!.. got most of my cox bandido parts from him.. i never had the chance to experiance with any kyosho buggies at all in the early 80's... Due to being young & just browsing the shops.. i car'nt wait maybe Stella may sell these..? Since kyosho have developed their metal parts again for the scorpion, who knows what kyosho will re-make.. we may see a series 1000 or 2000, landjump etc in the works in future for a re-re. Imagine that!!. I know im thinking to far ahead, but its nice to dream

[ralphee]

I REALLY hope this is just the beginning of a Kyosho re-re line.

Optima Mid (standard Mid will do)

Original Optima

Ultima Pro

In that order please Mr Kyosho, no doubt you'll be reading this.

Id love an Optima, i sold off my restore, but don't miss it, as i could never run it with what it cost me in the end, so it had to go as it was the least loved of my collection at the time, a re re, with its super cool looks and parts availability, yeah, id be up for that!

lee

[Raman36]

MRC was a disaster. Tamiya was smart to dump them and open up and office here in the early 90s.

Kyosho basically did the same and opened up their own offices. Yet Tamiya is presently sold at Tower and Kyosho has chosen not to. In fact Tamiya sells to both great plans and horizon, as well as direct to LHS.. Where as Kyosho is just direct.