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Percymon

How do they do it ?

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Open question, and I pretty well know all the answers, but you have to wonder how this is half the price of a Rising Fighter...

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__42975__Basher_BSR_BZ_222_1_10_2WD_Racing_Buggy_Kit_.html

Ok, yes its a clone, probably based loosely around a Durango DEX210 or similar design (hence the alloy chassis plate and mid/rear motor options) but when you think...

Rising Fighter uses a lot of chassis parts with other models so design/production costs are shared

Rising Fighter uses plastic pogo shocks

Rising Fighter is plastic bathtub chassis

etc etc etc

At this price I'm sorely tempted to just get one to compare to the DEX210 I built a few years ago - with spare 17x2 motors and servos in the spare box, I could build one of these and rag the backside off it for £40 incl a ESC.

Purely to see what its really like. I remember a build/race thread over on Oople 4-5 years ago with a seemingly too cheap to be true 2wd buggy, that whilst not Hobbyking (maybe it was Team C or similar, can't remember off the top of my head) it turned out to be surprisingly good in terms of quality and driveability.

Heck if it broke in two after 5 battery packs, you've still had a build experience and a bit of fun for £30 or so :lol@

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I bought the ARR for £35 yesterday (brushless setup and 2.4g receiver). Was going to buy a 2nd for parts but went instantly out of stock Think I was lucky to get mine. Paid more than that for just a brushless combo last year!

This is my FIRST ever modern buggy!

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Hope it works out for you - nothign to lose, you could throw the buggy away and keep the brushless and RX !

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Hope it works out for you - nothign to lose, you could throw the buggy away and keep the brushless and RX !

Thanks! Its crazy how they price these. This will be a pure fun runner! Wish I could have got a second for spares!

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Xmas 2014 my nephew tells me he has got me a pressie but its out of stock, he'll drop it over when it comes in.........july 2015 it has arrived and he popped it over shortly after, this version was the rtr 'kit' version which was approx. £50 ish at the time, straight away there was an issue with the included servo saver didn't fit any of my futaba type servos, I emailed and web chat with hobbyking explaining the situation. After getting nowhere I ordered another servo saver set for a couple of pounds and had the same issue, again I contacted hobbyking and explained there must be a manufacturing fault with the

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splines still can they check the stock at the warehouse? They offered to sell me a £20 servo, I said no because I have a hobbyking servo, could they not just double check their own servo with the parts their end? They still wernt clear what was wrong so they asked me to upload a youtube video to show them. After a couple of weeks waiting, just before Xmas they said they would check their warehouse stock and get back to me, I still waiting and its nearly march and i will try one more time before I give up, I have tried other Tamiya servo horns instead but because the hobbyking is a wierd shape I couldn't get them to fit so I would say 'caution' on what you buy and there after sales service isn't great either, stick with a rising fighter!!!!

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sorry but I'm typing on my phone and its gone a bit haywire, so I did the post in multiple parts

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I've been to Indonesia a few times to a manufacturing plant. The fully burdened labor cost was about $0.60 per hour per person, with the person actually earning around $0.30 - $0.40 an hour. This is approximately 1% or 2% of the labor cost of a unionized assembly line workforce in the USA (or UK I'm guessing). I was talking with their engineering and manufacturing people about optimizing our design for fewer fasteners, less material, fewer process steps, etc. to save labor costs, and they emphasized, "labor costs are not an issue."

So the first thing you have to do is consider there might only be $0.50 of labor cost in that finished product depending where it is built. Then look at the materials and realize you may not be getting the same grade of plastics as other mainstream brands. It might look like a higher-level buggy, but it could all be ABS instead of glass-filled nylon or carbon-reinforced nylon. The aluminum is probably not 6061 or 7075. The bearings might have a little extra slop in them. Compare it side-by-side with other buggies and you'll see the subtle differences in materials, design, and tolerances.

Also, you can be pretty sure this buggy is not exclusive to Hobby King. I'm sure you can find some company like Team C, Hong Nor, or WL Toys supplying these things to several brands. So the volume is aggregated across brands.

Maybe Hobby King is clearing these out, too. Inventory that's not turning frequently is not making returns, so sometimes it's better to slash the price, move the final lot, and free up the warehouse space to try a different product.

Consider too that companies in all sorts of industries have been accused of "dumping" in markets in the past. It wasn't that long ago some semiconductor companies were accused of dumping memory at low prices to force competition out of the market.

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