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JeffSpicoli

Got the last Frog kit - Tamiya kit shortages.

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I was able to get my hands on the last Frog kit at a shop in Missouri today and I'm still in disbelief that the kit supply chain is still so choked off.   I am beginning to wonder what the reasons are.  Was Japan hit harder or just as hard as China by COVID 19?   One thing I've not heard a lot about in the last 15 months is how Japan faired.

I was kind of expecting the supply chains to pick up by now.

I am seeing some kits on eBay for reasonable amounts and others for high mark up.

I'm kicking around paint schemes in my head.

1.  Reverse Box art -  Pink  body with white bottom stripe.

2. Box art with pink paint splatter in the white portion of the body.

3. A "watermelon" scheme -  green main portion of the body, and pink stripe at the bottom.

Hope everyone is doing well, long time no talk.

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46 minutes ago, JeffSpicoli said:

I was able to get my hands on the last Frog kit at a shop in Missouri today and I'm still in disbelief that the kit supply chain is still so choked off.   I am beginning to wonder what the reasons are.  Was Japan hit harder or just as hard as China by COVID 19?   One thing I've not heard a lot about in the last 15 months is how Japan faired.

I was kind of expecting the supply chains to pick up by now.

Working in manufacturing, I can tell you the the supply chains are still a disaster from where I sit. Parts and raw materials are horribly backlogged or sometimes simply not available at all. The shipping container situation is a mess worldwide. Shippers are asking to be paid in full up front just to get your product on a container at all with no guarantee of delivery time. Prices on raw materials are way up too. I have tons of work, so there's plenty of demand for product. We theoretically could be doing 10 hour days for an undetermined time to simply meet demand (as well as be woefully understaffed as many don't want to work), but we'd run out of components that much quicker.

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I've been away from TC for about a year myself. 

Ironically, it was a reasonably priced Tamiya kit that might have brought me back half way.  XV-01 was out of stock for years.  The cheapest I could find was about $360 in late 2019.  Now it's available everywhere for $288.40.  If you use $35 Towerhobbies coupon, it's about $250!  I had to get it, even if I don't build it right away.  

The price reflects what's in stock and what's not.  Tamiya doesn't produce stuff continuously.  They run the factory to build X number of kits, and they are done.  In case of XV-01 Lancia Delta Integrale, they might have done a re-run in 10 years.  It's available, so it's cheap.  What's mostly sold out during the pandemic would be expensive until they do a re-run.  

On top of that, there are bottlenecks still.  Each shipping container used to cost as little as $1500 few years ago, now it's up to $3000.  Singapore might import motors, cardboards and plastics from China. In containers, paying double on the shipping.  Then they'd ship completed kits to US in shipping containers in double the shipping fee also.  What used to move easily from warehouse to warehouse costs more now.  

Covid in Japan doesn't seem as bad as US.  They have about 1/3rd population of USA. Their death toll is about 14,000.  If their death rate was as bad as USA (600,000), they'll have 200,000 deaths (because they are 1/3rd).  But 14,000 is not even a 10th of our deaths.  Their economy is sluggish for sure. But Japanese people love to wear masks even before the pandemic.  When they clean anything, they automatically wear masks. If they catch cold, they wear it so they wouldn't give it to others.  It's in their culture.  That helped a lot.  https://www.dw.com/en/how-japans-mask-culture-may-have-saved-lives-during-coronavirus/a-55321518  

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I bet Japanese people weren't going around licking stuff like Americans... lol. 

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I don't care if this lady lived or died. She can do what she likes IF her behavior concerns only herself. For all I know, this lady kissed her kids, and kids gave it to their teachers and some teachers had parents in the nursing home, etc. etc. Vicariously killing older folks is just not cool. 

Virus being invisible, some folks don't believe in the medical science. (Radio wave is invisible too, but I'm not going to assume that magic controls my RC cars)  No science in the 21st century is embarrassing... lol...  but I suppose we'll have flat-earthers even in the 30th century. (Smart humans calculated even the size of earth 2,200 years ago. Dumb humans still think it's flat, 2200 years later. This means the IQ disparity among humans is literally thousands of years apart! That's sobering.)  

Anyway, the shipping trouble is expected to last until early next year.  So if I see something I want to get, I'd grab it now.  (Good thing you did.)

 

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Update: 

So Mark Twain Hobbies cancelled my order without even a phone call or email and ignored all of my emails asking about my order.   Needless to say someone else got the kit I ordered because there was one in stock when I ordered, then they sold it to someone else, and now I'm SOL.

I had a lengthy discussion with them on the phone Saturday and they said the order was fraudulent  - to which I said, if that was the case or you had questions, why not answer my emails or call me?

Big thumbs down for them and will never patronize them again.  I've never seen such laziness in retail.   I worked in a professional camera shop in the early 2000s, if we thought the order was fraudulent we called the bank and asked to verify information - address/phone/name etc.

Totally ridiculous.   Now I can wait who knows how long for another chance to buy a Frog kit.    

 

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Are you in the States???  My LHS had one last time I was in there three weeks ago…

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On 7/5/2021 at 6:25 PM, Frog Jumper said:

Are you in the States???  My LHS had one last time I was in there three weeks ago…

Yep, Raleigh Durham NC.

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9 hours ago, JeffSpicoli said:

Yep, Raleigh Durham NC.

Legacy Hobby. Glenwood. 

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Update!  A shop in NJ is sending me one - Hopefully it shows up tomorrow!  Thanks guys for all the help - Much appreciated.  Once it gets here I’ll post some pics. Looking forward to a new buggy. 

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MIP Ball diff and Boca Ceramic Bearings ordered :D   

I really like Boca Bearings - they are super customer service friendly and helpful so I continue to go back to them for all my bearings.

 

Amazon has the ball diffs for $64.00 and they have 5 left if you're looking for one for a Beetle/BF/Frog/ORV 

On another note - it's Tamiya building weather outside:

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Raleigh+NC?canonicalCityId=76c7b5d51173e3ba13435aecfdc8f46e891ef412de8307e42f8b0923b48d48d9

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36 minutes ago, JeffSpicoli said:

Oh my look at these hop ups from eBay.

 

s-l1600.jpg

Ruh roh, going down the rabbit hole! :lol:

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Stoked. But not so stoked on the boxing - 2  big metal staples damaged the box art.  I love Tamiya’s boxes. 

CB861C64-5307-45A8-9A86-0B7835CA7C29.jpeg

F5E70461-6490-444F-BEF8-5F0493C6CC30.jpeg

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Stoked. But not so stoked on the boxing - 2  big metal staples damaged the box art.  I love Tamiya’s boxes. 

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Dove right in.  2 hours in.  Now we wait for the MIP diff to show up.  :-/   I could start painting….

BDF00576-7D9F-4CB3-8DC0-C9CC3A0F174A.jpeg

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Those shocks look like Buggy Champ/Sand Scorcher rere items, can't tell whether they are front or rears though - different lengths, rears are shorter.

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They look very similar to the CRP1601s, but with brass ends instead of the red plastic... 

You can use that hole on the steering knuckle holder if you run a 5/32" bit (and a needle file) through it.

Terry

 

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5 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

They look very similar to the CRP1601s, but with brass ends instead of the red plastic... 

You can use that hole on the steering knuckle holder if you run a 5/32" bit (and a needle file) through it.

Terry

 

You win man.

http://rcchopshop.com/crp/1601.html

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9 minutes ago, JeffSpicoli said:

I think I have a used set around here.  They aren't the greatest shocks (they suck).  You might (will definitely) have better luck using modern internal spring shocks???  Maybe something like this???  https://store.rc4wd.com/The-Ultimate-Scale-Shocks-60mm-Black_p_1366.html

I have an alloy front damper mount and use 50519s, but I'm not happy with the performance.  Mostly bc the bump-steer messes up any kind of dampering...

Keep looking around.  There are a lot of interesting and different front shock mods out there...

Check out this recent Frog I saw on Ebay.  Looks like Kyosho red shocks, and a home-made sway bar...

291427615_FrogFrontSwayBar.thumb.jpg.d1fcf4ec1e2dbacc00edce8fe51288ef.jpg

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35 minutes ago, Frog Jumper said:

I think I have a used set around here.  They aren't the greatest shocks (they suck).  You might (will definitely) have better luck using modern internal spring shocks???  Maybe something like this???  https://store.rc4wd.com/The-Ultimate-Scale-Shocks-60mm-Black_p_1366.html

I have an alloy front damper mount and use 50519s, but I'm not happy with the performance.  Mostly bc the bump-steer messes up any kind of dampering...

Keep looking around.  There are a lot of interesting and different front shock mods out there...

Check out this recent Frog I saw on Ebay.  Looks like Kyosho red shocks, and a home-made sway bar...

291427615_FrogFrontSwayBar.thumb.jpg.d1fcf4ec1e2dbacc00edce8fe51288ef.jpgspacer.png

Aesethically I like what the Blockhead Motors Frog has for a set up, it's clean, unassuming and looks like it works OK.   I'm wondering how he's got it attached at the top, where it looks like he has it mounted, is that cutout in the Tamiya tower or bulkhead - whatever you want to call that piece.   There's nowhere to drill another hole in that area.  I was wondering if those shocks here were from the Wild One front end.

Capture.PNG

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Oh yeah it’s gorgeous. Welcome to the fun that is tweaking the front end of the ORV!  Lol!

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I ended up at Legacy during my oil change at Fred Anderson - I wasn't planning on going but FA was taking their sweet time with my truck.

Man, Legacy is a PORN SHOP for Tamiya.  They literally had everything I could really want.   They had parts galore, the Tamiya tools, the Tamiya paints, everything - they will be my go to shop from now on, I don't know why I was wasting my time with that shop in Garner.

And yes they had a Frog still.   They also had the Scirocco I have been eyeing up, the Willy 2, a Lunchbox, etc.   The associated section was impressive too.

And of course a Walmart run for another Plano box for this kit.  And a little hint to what colors the Frog will be.

 

Photo Jul 09, 6 58 32 PM.jpg

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