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Will tamiya combat the Ultima 2019?

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What are your thoughts on whether or not tamiya will combat the re release of the Ultima with their own re release?  The 959 or falcon would make a dent in the formers sales

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Less than a year ago Kyosho was in serious financial trouble as a business in general and was being restructured. I doubt Tamiya are that worried. The Ultima will certainly bring in some extra revenue for Kyosho though.

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I suspect the rere markets isn't really limited. By that I mean for many people it isn't an either/or scenario, its a case of them buying the ones they want. So I doubt the Ultima release would dent Tamiya's sales if they have cars people want.

If you actually mean in the vintage racing scene then they already have with the Super Astute right?

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Would love to see a Vanquish! Can't see the Ultima being an issue for Tamiya. I'd imagine the Re Re market is mostly those who remember them as being unattainable as kids but are now in a position financially to purchase those that they want. You only have to look at the birthday announcements on the site to see all us 40+ year olds! As for Kyosho anything that brings in revenue is a winner, cash is king after all. I'd pre order an Optima Mid in heartbeat if they'd re release it. I do think long term Tamiya is much more secure however, look at the imaginative Dancing Rider or the Mini Lunchbox both cute as, fun to run and not so big that you can't whip them about indoors. These and the "Comical" series I think show a desire to catch the imagination of a future generation much like the Grasshopper, Hornet and Frog got a lot of us hooked! 

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Fair question but I'm not sure what Tamiya would be willing to bring to the table. The last time I remember, Kyosho brought out the Optima (a big surprise really, everyone seemed to think the Ultima would come first). Tamiya countered with the return of the Blackfoot. From what I recall, everyone was stunned at the quality of the Optima. It seemed like a big hit. The Blackfoot received a lot of complaints. It wasn't a surprise as we knew it would surely follow the Monster Beetle (much like the Sand Scorcher following the Buggy Champ/Rough Rider) and Tamiya did nothing about the drivetrain issues that earlier plagued the MB re-re. And then there was all the noise about the Blackfoot's different grill and lack of Ford branding. I have no idea about sales, but Kyosho seemed to come out on top in that one despite both vehicles being iconic.

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We've all got our own opinions about this subject and all interesting and valid👍my opinion for what it's worth is if I was a company that had a iconic back catalogue like tamiya has I would make it last as long as I could with a re-release programme that could be measured in years thus giving you a steady income by keeping the likes of me and countless others interested even though we all get inpatient on when our dream re-release will appear (Porsche 959/Toyota celica) with the correct decals "Rothmans" (very highly unlikely)

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Agree with @moffman 

Theres maybe a degree of well intentioned over enthusiasm here 😇

Tamiya don’t need to do anything beyond sticking to evolving strategy which - even though it may be boring and a little opportunistic for older hands - is clearly working well for them financially and in bringing new blood to the hobby 

In parallel it’s cleverly fuelling the fires with fresh interest in their back catalog ...

Fwiw I also agree with @Saito2 re the last time Tamiya went head to head with Kyosho in pure bread racing buggies - which didn’t end well for them 

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I will say that while the Optima was far better received than the Blackfoot by RC fans I have no idea about sales figures. From the US perspective, the Blackfoot probably sold better as it was very popular here, even with folks that weren't diehard RC enthusiast back in the day. I even remember people comparing the Optima re-release to the Egress re-release which was around at that time even though they were from different eras originally.

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There's nothing tamiya could release that would swap me over from buying an Ultima, it was my first race car, and one of the cars I wish I'd never sold (that and a the Mid!). 

Tamiya's (for me) have always been the ,scale model car, whilst kyosho, the scale model race car (reflected in the price!), so I don't believe tamiya need to react at all, they may need to react to the likes of Arrma or Traxxas rasing the bar to 100mph out the box cars, filling YouTube?

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I'd like another Thundershot re-release, a Top Force Evo, and although it's not vintage, another DB-01RRR or RR run and an XV01 Pro V2. Another run of the Wild One would be great, too. Not sure if these would be considered to be countering the Ultima, though.

I don't think that Tamiya has anything that would compete with the Ultima, anyway. The Scorpion was very different from the SRB; the Ultima was very different from the Fox, Madcap, and Astute. 

We really need  new mid-level buggies from Tamiya- not race cars, but something with better performance, durability, and appearance than the DT02/3 and TT02B. Maybe an M08 based 2WD and a TA07 based 4WD would do the trick. How about an M07 or FF04 based FWD buggy? 

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Tamiya never really had a direct analogue for the Ultima really, at least not initially.
I just don't see it being an issue for Tamiya.

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7 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

Tamiya never really had a direct analogue for the Ultima really, at least not initially.

Very true. I always found this an odd quirk in Tamiya's buggy development. The 4wd buggies got different models within a chassis group and then were continuously updated : Hot Shot series to Thundershot series to Avante series, etc. With 2wd, Tamiya essentially stopped at the Fox which came out around the Hot Shot era and pre-dates the Ultima. Not only did the Fox never receive any chassis mates, things went dead on their top-of-the-line 2wd front until the Astute. By that time, not only was there the RC10 and Ultima to contend with but also the JR-X2 and Top Cat.

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On 9/16/2019 at 6:48 AM, Avante2001R said:

They need the Dynastorm to be re released.

That would be make it a re re re. I wouldn't mind. I sold my Rere and wish I hadn't! 

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