Maplins on the ropes

[novicelad]

Not surprised over priced and under stocked, however did get a soldering iron for £9.99 the other day 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43223175

[Jason1145]

Yeah they never have anything I went in stock, I went in to get a Sonic Cleaner as it showed 4 in stock and low and behold.. they had none! They did used to do an interesting line in Horizon RTR cars though which always caught my eye.

[Tamiyabigstuff]

Always the same items on 'special offer' at fake discount prices, normal priced stock not competitive - would guess they could survive as an online seller only without the expensive bricks & mortar stores but they would need to improve the website a lot as it is pretty useless TBH. Maybe someone will try and rescue the business ?

Similar end to Tandy a few years ago. 

[KEV THE REV]

Pretty sure they used to sell Marui RC kits and spares back in the day

[nowinaminute]

They had a few "own brand" vehicles too. One was made by Bandai and called the "Road Winner" it was also sold as the MRC Road Winner.

Another one was the "Wild Cat" which was a variant of the Nikko F10 family and also sold as the Traxxas Cat.

They also had a clone of the Tamiya Fox called the Killer. I'm pretty sure that was sold under different names too.

They have been selling ECX stuff in recent years, keep an eye out for a cheap Ruckus or Torment on their ebay outlet!

[TurnipJF]

A real pity this one - our local branch was always willing to help identify odd components, suggest possible repairs, etc. I hope they manage to find a solution that allows them to keep trading. 

[StrokerBoy]

It ought to be a brilliant shop, but my local one never had what I went in for and frankly I won't miss it.

And Toys 'R Us have been sucking all the fun out of toys since 1985 too, so the same applies.

[Wooders28]

Loved maplin,  yes over priced by internet standards, but great service, and never had always helpful. 😥

 

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/dads-hold-candlelight-vigil-for-maplin-20180301145163

[Mad Ax]

I was chuffed to bits when they started opening more high street stores a decade or more ago, sadly they never quite got the market right.  It's been handy having one close to my work but I won't miss it if it goes - not just overpriced but astronomically overpriced sometimes.  However I did get a very good looking AMG Mercedes RTR for £15 in the January sale.  It's a terrible RTR car but it looks fantastic and it's 1:14 scale so it looks good parked up on the layout at the RC truck meets.