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simalarion

The Best Online RC online Shop in these Covid Times

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Hi,

when i started this Hobby again recently the first favorite RC shop through Ebay was Rc  Mart, they seem pretty struck down by Covid 19 on Ebay and their online shop now have fare to expensive shippping to Norway (maybe not the case for other countries), TimeTunnel alse seem to be down.

I find new webshops all the times in this forum so i thougth you may could share with me you favorite RC shop at the moment.

For me it seems to be

For RC Cars.

1. Tamico Seems to me to be in very good shape, very good shipping prices on Kit to Norway.

For RC parts:

1. rcjaz or jazhobby on ebay.

2. HobbyKing Specially Servo - ESC - Battery

For Ball Bearings

1. RcBearings.com

Recently descovered PlazaJapan but i am not sure regarding their Vat(Tax) handling, through Norway it should be Ok as long as it is Marked at Toy and under 30 GBP, but that leaves a lot out. In the new Tax system in Norway sellers should remove Vat(tax) before sending it, Ebay does now and every German store ... 

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I buy most of my stuff online from MBModels as they are local to me and I can pick up easily. The stock is accurate as well, so I know if it is in stock.

For actually visiting a shop, I use Demon Models in Wakefield. Lyndon is super helpful and a right laff :)

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I'm down in New Zealand so it may vary, and this is assuming I cant get it locally, but...

Kits - rcmart and rcjaz have been good to me. Postage is obviously a concern and I always check both to see whats best. 

Parts - Amain, TQRCRacing, rcmart, rcjaz, fusionhobbies, timetunnelmodels, asiatees, landl models have all benn good. Most of my parts come from rcmart though, i usually save up and order loads of small things

Electronics- try banggood for servos. They sell JX and SPT servos which are great bang for buck. Also have cheap ESC and motors too. If you have flysky radio gear they sell rx too

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35 minutes ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I'm down in New Zealand so it may vary, and this is assuming I cant get it locally, but...

Kits - rcmart and rcjaz have been good to me. Postage is obviously a concern and I always check both to see whats best. 

Parts - Amain, TQRCRacing, rcmart, rcjaz, fusionhobbies, timetunnelmodels, asiatees, landl models have all benn good. Most of my parts come from rcmart though, i usually save up and order loads of small things

Electronics- try banggood for servos. They sell JX and SPT servos which are great bang for buck. Also have cheap ESC and motors too. If you have flysky radio gear they sell rx too

They have Norway section, need to check this out closer:

image.thumb.png.e6ab39a53c5dca5a0c451ea7e2f7af03.png

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I'm in England, so probably different, but here are my favourite suppliers:

https://dunksmodels.co.uk/ is my true Local Hobby Shop, literally 10 minutes walk away.  Surprisingly large Tamiya NIB stock for such a small shop and he also carries a lot of PS and TS paint.  During lockdown he personally delivered some PS paints to me.  Does mail order but IIRC not for paint (hence why he often has good stock!)

https://www.racecraftrc.co.uk/ is my good mate Adie the Vintage Racer, who opened a new store in the city of Bath literally a few weeks before Lockdown 1.0 :faceplam: - worldwide mail order, good Tamiya kit stock, great source for random vintage parts and he often has interesting projects in stock too.  Also stocks race wheels and tyres

https://rcbitz.com/ and https://greensmodels.co.uk/ for scaler and crawler stuff - great range of wheels and tyres and they even sell things like axle sets which are useful for building scalers from parts without having to chance the Chinese import stuff

https://www.astecmodels.co.uk/ is my other good mate Allan the Truck Man, sells tractor truck kits, trailers and mountains of parts, also Beier sound systems and associated goodness and a good source of help for wiring / electronics advice

Modelsport and Wheelspin are my favourite generic model shops.  Huge kit and parts stock, good websites, these days they even stock crawler wheels and tyres.  ESCs and servos generally from Modelsport as they sell Hobbywing and Alturn respectively, Wheelspin had a good range of budget brushed motors earlier this year.  I tend to buy all my pinions from Modelsport as their searching/categorisation features make it easy to find exactly what I want (I hate having to use generic search terms then missing stock items because people can't type product details into a database properly)

https://www.rccarshop.co.uk/ (MB Models) is my go-to for any race supplies if RaceCraft don't have stock - e.g. tyre warmers, race tyres, spur gears

On a whim I'll check Tamico's offer of the week and have got some cheap NIBs that way, also found them very cheap for new tractor truck kits.  Big stock of truck scale parts and trailers too.  Will probably fall off the list once Brexit is done

Fusion Hobbies for the Tamiyaclub discount, but their stock listing can be hit-and-miss and have had stuff on indefinite backorder before now.  Higher price items become more attractive due to the discount

https://www.servoshop.co.uk/ for Savox servos (especially the cheaper 0254s that I use in my vintage race cars)

Hobbyking is my go-to for generic servos / ESCs / brushless combos / LiPos / radios, especially if they have stock in the UK/EU warehouses as I avoid customs charges

Banggood for random radios and small parts, recently got some good cheap winch controllers and winch drums from there, bought one set of shocks on recommendation to find they are basically useless, I'm reluctant to start buying motors / ESCs / other electrics from here unless I already know the brand

RCmart / Asiatees for MST and 3Racing stuff, Asiatees recently have had faster delivery and better shipping prices than RCmart

 

Slightly off-topic, but for the last couple of years, every non-EU parcel coming to me has been caught by customs.  I don't resent the customs charge (we all have to pay tax) but I get upset by the £12 fee that most parcel handlers apply for handling the charge on my behalf.  I get that this makes sense in the older model where importing was largely done by big companies buying in bulk, but the domestic importing trend has been around for over a decade now and I'm sure it's time for this practice to change.  For that reason, I've been buying less and less from overseas.  Sadly some stuff is overseas only, which makes some things (like solid axle monster truck parts) expensive.

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1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

 

 

Slightly off-topic, but for the last couple of years, every non-EU parcel coming to me has been caught by customs.  I don't resent the customs charge (we all have to pay tax) but I get upset by the £12 fee that most parcel handlers apply for handling the charge on my behalf.  I get that this makes sense in the older model where importing was largely done by big companies buying in bulk, but the domestic importing trend has been around for over a decade now and I'm sure it's time for this practice to change.  For that reason, I've been buying less and less from overseas.  Sadly some stuff is overseas only, which makes some things (like solid axle monster truck parts) expensive.

Much changes the last years now in Norway regarding this, for a long time it was 250 kr + porto (20 GPB + shipping) that could go straight through custom, for a short time ago they changed to 350 inkl porto (30 GBP inkl shiping) an now it change do Vat on evertytthing but Toys under 30 GPB should go straight through custom, will be a pain in the *** when it dont, im thinking there will be very much hassel trying to get those money back (think you even need to fill out a form and send it in). 

For all prices over the mentioned there wil be Tax handeling and Vat on top off the price, for that reason i am looking for online shops that eiter remove VAt or has a deal with Norway so they include Vat and go straight throug custom like Ebay now does.

 

That said many RC stores have sent me RC kit (like TopForce) and just set Toy and valute 20 Dollar, straight through every time :)

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4 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

I'm in England, so probably different, but here are my favourite suppliers:

https://dunksmodels.co.uk/ is my true Local Hobby Shop, literally 10 minutes walk away.  Surprisingly large Tamiya NIB stock for such a small shop and he also carries a lot of PS and TS paint.  During lockdown he personally delivered some PS paints to me.  Does mail order but IIRC not for paint (hence why he often has good stock!)

 

Do you Local store have MadBull in stock?, not many do i think:

image.thumb.png.390024cfc06c1780a2d582c06874184b.png

And do they also have a lot of very Cool Road RC, my next kit will be Road RC Tamiya TT02. could also se a VERY pricy VQS at your local store.

I bet they know you by name on that store :)

 

Actually found kits i would buy right away in both yuour local store and RaceCraft RC, but as they do not have aragment where they either Remove VAt before sending it or have an agreement to pay vat to Norwegian cust0m so it go straight through custom i do not want to take the risk having Custom fee and Vat on top :(

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12 minutes ago, simalarion said:

Do you Local store have MadBull in stock?

According to the Tamiya Stock page, there is Availability = 1, which usually means there is one in stock.  It is the new LTD edition..  Given the pandemic I haven't been to the shop at all this year and don't have any plans to go, so I can't confirm that it is definitely in stock, but you could mail and ask him :)

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4 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

According to the Tamiya Stock page, there is Availability = 1, which usually means there is one in stock.  It is the new LTD edition..  Given the pandemic I haven't been to the shop at all this year and don't have any plans to go, so I can't confirm that it is definitely in stock, but you could mail and ask him :)

Thanks for the info, yes i wil e-mail them .. 

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whom ever has the item in stock.

These parts are getting hard to find in stock and back orders could be never anytime soon.

So in theory  Covid 19 has infected inanimate objects as well.:o

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I love https://www.modelsport.co.uk/

The website on my phone, is real easy to use, and search through, especailly if you're searching a differnet direction ,ie what 12mm hex wheels are available in the largest diameter etc (for speed runs)

A day or 2 delivery is the norm (in the UK anyway) and the price is usually competitive. 

All the boxes ticked for me.

 

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Is there a good place to go for Tamiya parts for the US market? Tamiya USA seems to not have the selection of M-Chassis kits, bodies and parts they used to when I was looking for stuff for my two.

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37 minutes ago, BJoe76 said:

Is there a good place to go for Tamiya parts for the US market? Tamiya USA seems to not have the selection of M-Chassis kits, bodies and parts they used to when I was looking for stuff for my two.

Most if the Tamiya stuff I have found in the US has been trying my luck between Tower, AMain and Horizon.  
I bought my M06 from my LHS , but it was actually ordered through horizon , and bought in store from them. 

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12 minutes ago, Dakratfink said:

Most if the Tamiya stuff I have found in the US has been trying my luck between Tower, AMain and Horizon.  
I bought my M06 from my LHS , but it was actually ordered through horizon , and bought in store from them. 

I ordered the Clod and Lb directly through Horizon, but I’m not having much luck for the M-Chassis cars on most places.

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Modelsport are always pretty reliable. As is Tony's Tamiya Parts.

Never had any issues with MB Models either.

Bought a couple of things lately from Racecraft RC and have to say the service has been fantastic. I bought my VQS from there because of a great price. Whilst chatting to Adie about the order I mentioned that my lad was after a kit to build himself but wasn't sure which. Adie made a couple of recommendations and when the VQS turned up he had included a bunch of Tamiya promotional stuff for him to look at.

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7 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I love https://www.modelsport.co.uk/

The website on my phone, is real easy to use, and search through, especailly if you're searching a differnet direction ,ie what 12mm hex wheels are available in the largest diameter etc (for speed runs)

A day or 2 delivery is the norm (in the UK anyway) and the price is usually competitive. 

All the boxes ticked for me.

 

Bad RC webshops for phones is a issue yes :) , the search engine on the Norwegian is for the most part horrible to.

edit: Webpage said it ships to other countries but when setting up account i can only choose UK regions ( or Britain)

 

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A new model shop has opened in October in hertfordshire (sc models) has all the brands we like! Tamiya, kyosho, schumacher etc and excellent selection of tamiya PS-TS paints everything RC actually! Obviously like all rc hobby shops at the moment stocks are subject to all the rubbish we are all suffering from at the moment? But we all need to support our hobby rc shops especially at the moment👍

Screenshot_20201224-104334_Samsung Internet.jpg

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Regarding Plaza Japan How on earth to you get a good overview over Tamiya Kit In stock?. I can not find them in the overview, the only way i found Tamiya kit is to manually search for them and then look at similar products. When lookin at search string it only says Home, like this:

image.png.f81af986edc55ad171b49a834a7d36b3.png So that does not help much either

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im new to buying rc stuff online. im shipping to Canada and i ordered an MST tire removal kit and a FD3S 1:10 body shell. i have purchased some thing from amazon already ie aluminum damper shocks, plastic or aluminum rims and aluminum brake rotors for the tire mounts.

im guessing RCmart is one of the better sites? what about euroRC? im aware that pandemic shipping delays are a thing now but its a matter of patience.

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1 hour ago, nel33 said:

im new to buying rc stuff online. im shipping to Canada and i ordered an MST tire removal kit and a FD3S 1:10 body shell. i have purchased some thing from amazon already ie aluminum damper shocks, plastic or aluminum rims and aluminum brake rotors for the tire mounts.

im guessing RCmart is one of the better sites? what about euroRC? im aware that pandemic shipping delays are a thing now but its a matter of patience.

Rc-Mart was one of the best actually, both in good prices and good shipping prices. But as stated in the first post all this changed now and at the moment (for me in Norway) Rc-Mart is expensive. But as you can see in this thread there are many good alternatives, and i am sure Rc-Mart will be back at some point....

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I've bought a few things from RC mart in last 12 months, mainly rare vintage stuff for my egress\avante2001 plus the yeah racing alloy hubs and CVD's. Prices were good and delivery was quick'ish (3-4 weeks mainly)

Most of my spend on RC in last 12 months went to modelsport because I generally only needed things like batteries, ESC's, servos, paint, tyres and wheels. I already had a good collection of buggies, just needed to modernise them. I also got my daughter's Terra Scorcher and my Schumacher Cougar from them.  Modelsport prices are good and delivery is very quick, typically only a day or two for most of my orders.

I have also bought a fair few parts from Tony's Tamiya Parts either directly or via eBay. Again, superb service and quick delivery.

 

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Yes,Tony’s Tamiya parts on Ebay i can recommend to, mostly for hop ups, screws and other small parts (also some Tools) 

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Probably difficult to compare, depending on where you live. I am in Denmark and have primarely used these:

Tamico.de

Modellbau-berlinski.de

Banzaihobby.com

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1 hour ago, simalarion said:

Rc-Mart was one of the best actually, both in good prices and good shipping prices. But as stated in the first post all this changed now and at the moment (for me in Norway) Rc-Mart is expensive. But as you can see in this thread there are many good alternatives, and i am sure Rc-Mart will be back at some point....

thank you for the reply, im rather wary about sites that i give my info to these days outside of Amazon. for some reason i put less trust in Ebay but that might be unfounded for the most part but its still on the good list should i order from there. i did end up paying an extra $15 for the aluminum oil dampers buy going through amazon than euroRC mostly due to potential shipping delays uncertainty. the secure sites these places use for secure transactions are new to me so im not that comfy trusting off the bat until i see or hear how well they protect private info.

i just got my aluminum brake rotors in for the TT02 and they look great. they are rather thin but the hex nut is good. i think i just shortened the overall wheel base width by 2mm.

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