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What is going on at Tower Hobbies? They have no inventory.

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Their newest quarterly mini catalog thing didn't have any HPI stuff, but had the King Yellow in it. I'm hoping that points to their relationship with Tamiya still being ok.

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3 hours ago, Biz73 said:

Their newest quarterly mini catalog thing didn't have any HPI stuff, but had the King Yellow in it. I'm hoping that points to their relationship with Tamiya still being ok.

...or y'know, the document files were sent to the printers long before this latest development ;) 

 

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Could be, but the yearly catalog that came a month ago had an HPI section. I'm just holding out a little hope that they can work things out.

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I sent an email to Omni models.

 

Me: Hello, I've noticed that nearly everything that is Tamiya has not been in stock for a while now. It used to say Order Pending, then that went to Early January, and now says February. I am curious to know if you've stopped carrying Tamiya products? 

 

Their response: Our corporate company Hobbico, Inc. is in the process of working with Tamiya to replenish our stock. We should be receiving a large shipment from them around the 2nd week in February.

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The reality is that Hobbico is going through a lot of changes right now. We all know Hobbico is in trouble, and Tamiya USA being a vendor/supplier to Hobbico, they do not want to get stuck without being paid. As a business person, I had a client go through bankruptcy that owed my business money. By U.S. law they are allowed to pay you almost nothing once filed with the courts, and also by U.S law, you cannot deny them services or products. Really the only thing you can do at that point is delay products, and or services until certain guarantees can be made by the party going through the court system. I suspect this will only get worse if Hobbico cannot pay its vendors. But never say never, Hobbico is huge and more than likely will get things back up and running once they get rid of some debt, and product lines that do not sell well.

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4 hours ago, Hobbimaster said:

The reality is that Hobbico is going through a lot of changes right now. We all know Hobbico is in trouble, and Tamiya USA being a vendor/supplier to Hobbico, they do not want to get stuck without being paid. As a business person, I had a client go through bankruptcy that owed my business money. By U.S. law they are allowed to pay you almost nothing once filed with the courts, and also by U.S law, you cannot deny them services or products. Really the only thing you can do at that point is delay products, and or services until certain guarantees can be made by the party going through the court system. I suspect this will only get worse if Hobbico cannot pay its vendors. But never say never, Hobbico is huge and more than likely will get things back up and running once they get rid of some debt, and product lines that do not sell well.

Thats a tough one, I've been on both sides of the fence here in Australia, having been owed money by people who've then gone under and had a business liquidated myself. It definitely sucks being on either side. But overall I wish we'd have a chapter 11 type bankruptcy here in Australia, it would likely made a difference to us both ways. 

With the companies that we dealt with that were liquidated, there was only ever one winner and that was the liquidator, the charge huge fees and suck any remaining value out as profit for them. So if the company can still do business (and I would only ever continue to do business on a COD basis), to me that still better than that business shutting. 

The big question will be if Hobbico can generate cash to pay for supplies going forward. I would imagine they are not allowed to accrue any more debt, and so they will undoubtedly have to sell off some assets to survive. So really in the short term it will come down to how much cash they can raise and then how they stop the losses that were occurring.

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Tower has been sending me e-mails about writing reviews on items I have purchased recently. Today I got one asking if I could answer a customer question about the Konghead. What was that question, "I want to buy the Konghead. Do you ship to South Africa?" :lol: I want to keep supporting Tower, but they are getting desperate. I hope they can pull it off, but it's not looking real good from what I'm seeing.

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Besides Hobbico, are there any other suppliers in the US? It seems that the few US based websites that I know of all have no Tamiya inventory. 

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I have had a Tamiya kit (Black Edition Landfreeder) on pre/backorder since October.  I happened to be looking at my credit card activity just now and noticed a pending charge from Tower, so I checked my backorder status on Tower.  My kit has been shipped as of Feb 8.  So, yes, apparently they are getting some stock in.

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On 2/3/2018 at 10:26 AM, Kingfisher said:

I sent an email to Omni models.

 

Me: Hello, I've noticed that nearly everything that is Tamiya has not been in stock for a while now. It used to say Order Pending, then that went to Early January, and now says February. I am curious to know if you've stopped carrying Tamiya products? 

 

Their response: Our corporate company Hobbico, Inc. is in the process of working with Tamiya to replenish our stock. We should be receiving a large shipment from them around the 2nd week in February.

I just checked back at Omni, and just about everything Tamiya says End of March of Mid April. I guess that shipment from Hobbico never arrived. Tower and the other places don't have much either. Everything's listed as Backorder or Out of Stock still. 

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Tower got a shipment of tamiya kits about 2 weeks ago. Alot was restocked but nothing i want.  Lets see if they get more soon

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I saw on Big Squid RC that Horizon has bud for the Hobbico RC business.  Not sure if that is good or bad but it's something I guess.  Hopefully it doesn't change things for brands like Axial.

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Received this from Tower and Omnimodels:

 

Dear Valued Customer:
 

As you may be aware, Tower Hobbies' parent company, Hobbico, declared bankruptcy in January 2018 and has initiated a sale process.

We are excited to share with you that the RC brands and Tower Hobbies website that you have come to rely on over the years will continue. The Bankruptcy Court has approved the sale of Hobbico's RC business to Horizon Hobby, LLC. Horizon Hobby has been in business since 1985 and serves customers in the United States and around the World. Horizon Hobby also maintains a strong online presence and warmly welcomes Hobbico customers to its growing family. With this acquisition, Horizon Hobby looks to build upon Hobbico's great reputation for providing quality RC products to customers across the country. More information about Horizon Hobby can be found at https://www.HorizonHobby.com.

As part of the sale, Horizon Hobby is purchasing Tower Hobbies' customer databases. The Tower Hobbies Privacy Policy provides that the company will not share any personally identifiable information with any third party without your consent. Under this Privacy Policy, you have the right to opt-out of the sale and the transfer of your personal information to Horizon Hobby, and of receiving future e-mail or mail communications from Horizon Hobby.

  1. You may elect to opt out by any of the following methods:
     
    • Clicking the link at the bottom of this email message;
    • Sending an e-mail to Tower Hobbies' web master at info@towerhobbies.com with the information necessary for Hobbico to identify you in its database and process your opt-out election (such as your name, email address, street address and telephone number);
    • Calling the Tower Customer Service at 800-637-6050 or;
    • Mailing to the following address:

Tower Hobbies
PO Box 9078, Champaign, IL 61826

Please include in your letter the information necessary for Horizon Hobby to identify you in its database and process your opt-out election (such as your name, email address, street address and telephone number). Please note that opting out will remove your proof of purchase data required for warranty service.

If you opted in to receive promotional emails from Tower Hobbies, you may also receive promotional emails from Horizon Hobby unless you opt out of having your information conveyed to Horizon Hobby.

Your request to opt out must be received no later than April 6, 2018.

After the opt-out deadline, Horizon Hobby has offered to conduct a sweepstakes for Tower Hobbies customers who decline to opt-out as a thank you for your interest. We thank you for your past patronage and hope you will always continue to enjoy the RC hobby.

 

Sincerely,
Tower Hobbies

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[Threads Merged]

May be this is old news, but just today I received an email from Tower Hobbies saying that it's parent company Hobbico is being sold to Horizon Hobby. So the two largest R/C hobby distributors in the US are being combined into one. I have to say this is surprising to me. R/C is already a dwindling hobby (especially among youngsters). Hope this doesn't negatively impact the R/C landscape in the US.

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My wife received that email at 8 PM tonight (she bought a gift certificate for me in the past); that gave her a window of 4 hours to opt out.  I didn't get that email even though I've ordered countless items from them in the past; so I just copied the link from her email and modified it to point to my email.  I'll decide whether or not to give Horizon any information in the future.

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I think this will be good. I was worried Tower was going to go away. I rejoined the Tower Super Saver Club for another year so I hope the discounts are as good.  I wonder if the prices are going to be the same across the board at Tower/Omni/Horizon. 

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16 minutes ago, speedy_w_beans said:

My wife received that email at 8 PM tonight (she bought a gift certificate for me in the past); that gave her a window of 4 hours to opt out.  I didn't get that email even though I've ordered countless items from them in the past; so I just copied the link from her email and modified it to point to my email.  I'll decide whether or not to give Horizon any information in the future.

I didn't realize that they gave us less than 24 hours to opt out. Wow. Maybe someone forgot a 1 in front of that 6. 

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I've gotten things from Horizon Hobby. Our first Tamiya kit came from them. I have an online account there. Why should I consider opting out when the information they already have is the same info that Tower has?

 

Also, I got the email at 11:58PM last night. That gave me 2 minutes to opt out. :lol:

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Thanks to the moderator for merging my thread. Now I feel dumb for not even aware of Hobbico's bankruptcy news that have been surfacing since last year. :P

Anyway, I hope Tower survives. Their coupon codes have been a huge incentive for me. On some items you can also take advantage of the EasyPay option. I still have the Tamiya Lancia 037 kit backordered (fingers crossed hoping it will get filled).

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1 hour ago, Kingfisher said:

I've gotten things from Horizon Hobby. Our first Tamiya kit came from them. I have an online account there. Why should I consider opting out when the information they already have is the same info that Tower has?

 

Also, I got the email at 11:58PM last night. That gave me 2 minutes to opt out. :lol:

Your order history with Tower could be valuable to Horizon too. Personally I don't plan to opt-out. Nothing is secret in the internet. B)

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I got Tower's email yesterday afternoon, but Omni models sent one a day or 2 before. Tower didn't give people much time. I still plan to buy from Tower when I can, so I'm not worried about opting out, but it was annoying that they gave their customers so little time.

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I wonder if the current Tower operations will remain "as is" from the end customers' perspective (similar to Omni Models' sale to Tower), or will it disappear and be absorbed into Horizon's mail order business? As of now it appears Tower is still processing and shipping orders, but I noticed my last order took a few days longer than normal to ship. Also, I've been pondering if I should go ahead and order the stuff that have been on my "wish list" and take advantage of the coupon codes while I still can? My concern is that those club member savings might be gone once Horizon takes over.

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Interesting development.

Horizon pulled out of the UK as they were in bad shape financially.

That was only in 2017, so either they've turned things around to an unbelievable level or the banks are being very generous.

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I ordered some Robinson Racing pinions on Saturday, and they arrived today. It was only 3 pinions, so maybe it was fast because it was a small order.

For the moment they are still sending out coupon codes, and there is still a spot to submit them during checkout. We'll see if they stay that way long term. I doubt they will drop the Tower name because it is so well known.

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