Oh Dear.... (Bruiser clone)

[njmlondon 570]

6 minutes ago, EddScott said:

Box wrench aside, I'm sure these things will be fine. I too ordered mine from Top Speed RC World.

I have to respectfully disagree. If the box wrench is clearly made out of soft metal and bent, what do you think the gears, drives, shafts etc are going to be like?

I guess we need one of the brave purchasers to get theirs out and running, ideally alongside a genuine vintage or re-re version.

[zakspeed 187]

Dont you worry as soon as mine arrives ill compare with my mounty and it will be run with anger. Volksrod has ordered one too so we are planning a good running session. Given that i managed to bend a front axle on my mounty im sure the tests will be sufficient  

[Sickpup 10]

Down to as low as £220 now so worth it just for the body shell and tyres let alone the rest of it.

As to the comments on quality can it be any worse than the original 3speeds?

I have a Toyota Hi Lux that had destroyed its rear hubs, bent axle cases, broke leaf springs, broke tabs off the battery box, worn steering and I suspect it has bent chassis rails and it wasn't even abused byt he previous owner. Remember, Tamiya didn't start out with the best quality regardless of our rose tinted glasses.

[tamiya_1971 615]

3 hours ago, njmlondon said:

I have to respectfully disagree. If the box wrench is clearly made out of soft metal and bent, what do you think the gears, drives, shafts etc are going to be like?

I guess we need one of the brave purchasers to get theirs out and running, ideally alongside a genuine vintage or re-re version.

Send me your Bruiser, I'm not building mine yet.

[nowinaminute 2815]

At least it's just the box wrench, the wheels on my Holiday buggy look liked warped vinyl records when they move and that was straight out of the box!

I'll reserve judgement about the rest of the vehicle until there's more first hand reports.

[racer1 117]

Currently own 1 original Brusier and a pair of re-re's.  I don't feel bad ordering one of these as a runner. 

As far as I'm concerned Tamiya priced these models well out of my range.  It was a stretch at $600 but $1000 is completely unattainable. 

I was in the basement last night looking at all of my unbuilt Tamiya kits and thinking to myself, well I hope that is enough to keep me busy as I'm not paying the new marked up prices. Basically Tamiya just lost a life long customer. 

 

[Sayer 742]

This may have been mentioned already, but if this copy is as good quality-wise as an original, doesn't it raise questions about Tamiya's pricing strategy?

[OCD 514]

3 minutes ago, Sayer said:

This may have been mentioned already, but if this copy is as good quality-wise as an original, doesn't it raise questions about Tamiya's pricing strategy?

How so?

Tamiya pays for design, engineering, marketing, warranties, and part service.

Who do think is going to absorb the costs of all of these vital components of business?

[RushRebel 98]

18 hours ago, racer1 said:

Currently own 1 original Brusier and a pair of re-re's.  I don't feel bad ordering one of these as a runner. 

As far as I'm concerned Tamiya priced these models well out of my range.  It was a stretch at $600 but $1000 is completely unattainable. 

I was in the basement last night looking at all of my unbuilt Tamiya kits and thinking to myself, well I hope that is enough to keep me busy as I'm not paying the new marked up prices. Basically Tamiya just lost a life long customer. 

 

I feel the same way. I've been a loyal customer for 30 years and have built most of the re-re kits (excluding the already overpriced- e.g. Bruiser, Avante). If Tamiya truly wanted to make their products seem higher quality and worth the money of other brands, perhaps they should join the rest of the rc world and include basics like bearings and oil shocks, instead of throwing an ESC in a kit with plastic bushings and friction shocks. No... they'd rather  jack-up prices on nostalgic kits. You know, the ones that the r&d and tooling costs associated with were paid for decades ago. If I can sell the WW2 I started to build and got bored with, I'm washing my hands of Tamiya until they come to their senses. 

 

Still not buying a Bruiser clone, no matter how tempting they are.

[Sayer 742]

5 hours ago, OCD said:

How so?

Tamiya pays for design, engineering, marketing, warranties, and part service.

Who do think is going to absorb the costs of all of these vital components of business?

I think I'm just irritated with Tamiya in general. I find that if I want something truly different and innovative, I either have to go elsewhere ore else go to great expense to build the models I wish they'd make. Tamiya's bread and butter seems to be releasing obsolete models at obscene prices to people looking at the brand through rose colored glasses. "OMG is that a basic CC01 filled with bushings and molex connectors un-updated save the shell (maybe)?" 

The idea that they have to cover costs of design and engineering would be easier to stomach if they weren't releasing decades old models or parts bin specials without the pricing to match. It is highly unlikely that they're still paying for the design outlay for the Bruiser or the CC01.

I'm over here hoarding Jugg2/TXT wheels, axels and gearboxes because of the connection I have to the brand. I've even got a NIB Egress sitting around waiting for me to have time to build, but if I were new to the hobby, I'd be hard pressed to choose that over a Vorza or a WR8 (both of which I have).  Why on Earth would you shell out for a Bruiser when both HPI and Traxxas have superior offerings in the trail truck market? If it's the Yota shell you're after, there's RC4wd. Tamiya is currently the BlackBerry to everyone else's Samsung and Apple.

Yes I'm still here and yes I'm very likely going to be purchasing and building a shortened Grand Hauler in the near future, but that's in large part because they're the only ones making that type of truck currently and because lack of interest at my LHS has it on sale (along with all the other 3spds) for $399CDN.

 

[ncpantherfan71 133]

Tamiya establishing a MAP (minimum advertised price)  does NOT add a single cent to their profit margins.  What it does is help the small brick and mortar shops who cannot compete with the big online retailers.   Tower Hobbies was selling the kits at approximately a 10-15% mark up for what they wholesale to individual shops.   For a small shop when overhead in included there was no profit in a kit at Tower prices.  There have been several posts about local hobby shops closing, and Tower,  Amazon, and overseas company's undercutting everyone is a lot of the reasons why. 

Tamiya USA priced items on their web site at retail to not compete with small shops and encourage people to buy locally.  I cannot tell you how many times people come in and look at our products,  ask a bunch of questions,  then say I can get it a couple dollars cheaper online and leave.   Then when they have their first problem they come to us frustrated and mad because their new truck is broken.  We always help get them back running if we can and I hope we are building a loyal customer.  But there are a few people who complain and expect us to rebuild the truck they got on Amazon, after kid ran into a light pole at 30 mph for no charge because it is under "warranty" because they are too lazy to fix it themselves.  Those are the ones I have to bite my tongue to not say,  "call Amazon and ask them for help".

Items can be sold for less than map,  but cannot be advertised or posted online lower.  We sell items to our repeat customers below map often.   

Sorry I went off on a rant there. 

[Saito2 6686]

45 minutes ago, ncpantherfan71 said:

Tamiya establishing a MAP (minimum advertised price)  does NOT add a single cent to their profit margins. 

So when the Bruiser jumps from $750 to over $1000 from Tamiya's MAP implementation, am I to understand Tamiya sees absolutely no profit from this drastic price increase?  All that extra money is going to the distributor or hobby shop? I'm sorry, but I haven't seen a Tamiya kit in a brick and motar hobby shop in a decade (that includes small independents or bigger ones like Hobbytown USA). Its all Traxxas and Axial with a smattering of Associated and HPI. In my area, nobody wants Tamiya. The cheaper re-releases sold here and there for novelty purposes, but that's it. I don't see how making the playing field level with Tower and such is going to induce shops to start carrying Tamiya. They didn't sell before and with the huge price hike, they won't sell now. 

[ncpantherfan71 133]

Tamiya will never be a mainstream rc brand,  but also remember rc is not their main line. People don't want to build a kit, the first question is always how fast, and most don't understand Tamiya quarkyness.   They sell tons more plastic models than rc,  and the map policy has a much larger impact on that side of their business.   

[ncpantherfan71 133]

I can not say 100% on the bruiser,  but my dancing ridder was the same price wholesale before and after the map change. 

If it wasn't for the plastic line,  Tamiya would not exist anymore.

Novak,  lrp,  hpi, and many,  many rc aircraft companies have gone under the last couple years. 

[Saito2 6686]

While Tamiya is likely the worlds largest producer on RC, I'm well aware they are first and foremost a plastic model company. RC is just one piece of their much large pie. The MAP isn't being well received in some of the static plastic model forums I've visited either. Most agree that while Tamiya's attention to detail and quality has always been great, the gap between them and their competitors in this field is becoming much narrower. From the few I spoke with the MAP has been the final push they needed to try other manufacturers' kits.

[Sayer 742]

On 6/16/2018 at 9:57 PM, Saito2 said:

While Tamiya is likely the worlds largest producer on RC, I'm well aware they are first and foremost a plastic model company. RC is just one piece of their much large pie. The MAP isn't being well received in some of the static plastic model forums I've visited either. Most agree that while Tamiya's attention to detail and quality has always been great, the gap between them and their competitors in this field is becoming much narrower. From the few I spoke with the MAP has been the final push they needed to try other manufacturers' kits.

This.

That is why I made the BlackBerry comparison. They ran things for a long time because they had the business market cornered and were offering a product no one else could match. But eventually competitors showed up with equivalent and superior offerings and they had their lunch eaten (while they continued to behave as though they still ran things)

Much ado is made about Tamiya's quality and attention to detail, but now that they're stamping out lexan shells like everyone else and filing the serial numbers off of previously licenced swiss cheesed abs bodies...on top of chassis that are decades out of date, the "but Tamiya is better quality!" Gap is narrower than ever.

Also, I've got 3 CC01s and 3(versions of) Juggernaut2. How many more versions of these nostalgic kits do they think enthusiasts are going to absorb before they exhaust the market of people who "always wanted an x" or "used to have an x as a kid" and want to relive those days? What then? I'm not going to buy another King Cab or another Boomerang and I'm certainly not picking up a Blackfoot re re (made the truck I wanted Tamiya to make myself). What are they doing to entice the new blood walking into the LHS for the first time or shopping online with no nostalgic attachment to the brand?

 

[Hibernaculum 933]

On 6/15/2018 at 9:52 PM, Sickpup said:

I have a Toyota Hi Lux that had destroyed its rear hubs, bent axle cases, broke leaf springs, broke tabs off the battery box, worn steering and I suspect it has bent chassis rails and it wasn't even abused byt he previous owner. Remember, Tamiya didn't start out with the best quality regardless of our rose tinted glasses.

 

Actually, Tamiya did start out with the best quality.

In 1981, the Tamiya Hilux was the first R/C scale model of a 4x4, with ultra realism in both body and chassis, and even remote gear-shifting. It was a phenomenal release. Amazing engineering and quality for its time. And still amazing today. Just like a classic 1:1 car from yesteryear.

No car will stand up to bashing. I find it impossible to believe that your Hilux has not been abused, with all that metal damage. Given that my 33 year old plastic Taiyo Jeep Renegade that I got when I was 7 has less damage. And still runs.

On 6/15/2018 at 9:52 PM, Sickpup said:

Q. As to the comments on quality can it be any worse than the original 3speeds?

A. Yes. It can.

H.

[Pintopower 1456]

So a colleague picked this up for me when he was in Hong Kong. He dropped by the supplier and snagged one  for next to nothing and I am going to do a review on it tonight. As someone who has had basically all of my consumer product designs stolen, I know that all you can do is keep moving forward and make new and better things. This is a shame to see but Tamiya hasn't made anything new and better in a couple decades in this market. Fact is, the RC4WD Trailfinder 2 Mojave is a rip off of the Bruiser too, the difference being that it is better in most ways. The problem with this thievery is that it has likely copied all the flaws and made something worse and taken money from Tamiya. Still, Tamiya needs to get on the ball, kill off the million year old CC01, pretend the High Lift never happened, stop with the constant RERE cars only and make a new product that will put all the nubes in their place. Tamiya created the scaler, the touring car, the short course truck, the stadium truck, and the buggy but now they make things like the dancing rider (i love it though) and the kong head (I also love that). I go to tons of scaler and crawler events all over California...know how many Tamiya cars I have seen in 3 years? My High lift. That is depressing and why I have bought a Traxxas Bronco. Cant wait forever. Sorry Tamiya, I love you but this is life. 

[Pintopower 1456]

Really bad news...this thing is not trash. Not even close. 

[zakspeed 187]

Well mine are currently sat in customs. Look forward to your review Pinto.....

[Swarm 242]

46 minutes ago, Pintopower said:

Really bad news...this thing is not trash. Not even close. 

LoL 😂

Damit - Now everybody will want one .

Ovbioulsy more testing is required -may I suggest a puddle of sulfuric acid 😳

[Pintopower 1456]

Just now, Swarm said:

LoL 😂

Damit - Now everybody will want one .

Ovbioulsy more testing is required -may I suggest a puddle of sulfuric acid 😳

All that might do is melt off the paint. Haha! I am hoping this makes Tamiya make a modern, GOOD, scaler. Something to compete with the TRX4. 

[nowinaminute 2815]

4 minutes ago, Pintopower said:

All that might do is melt off the paint. Haha! I am hoping this makes Tamiya make a modern, GOOD, scaler. Something to compete with the TRX4. 

Even if they made something on the same level as the FTX outback/ECX Barrage mk2 it would be a huge improvement.

[Pintopower 1456]

4 minutes ago, nowinaminute said:

Even if they made something on the same level as the FTX outback/ECX Barrage mk2 it would be a huge improvement.

That's the truth. 

[pininfarina 1009]

9 hours ago, Pintopower said:

Really bad news...this thing is not trash. Not even close. 

I just got one too... 

I also got the TRX4 Defender :-) 

And also i love Tamiya too!