What should Tamiya (RC) do/launch—if you worked for their development team?

[Busdriver 6209]

Perhaps we should reach out to Tamiya and offer them a free subscription to TamiyaClub!!

[Grumpy pants 4485]

A greater availability of spares and iron out some of the original flaws in Re Re’s. 

[SlideWRX 785]

In the US, 1:1 cars manufacturers (heck, any manufacturer of anything I think) are required to have parts available to support the warranty.  Other countries require part availability a certain number of years past the last date of manufacture.  The last time I talked about this with friends working at auto suppliers, they said they try to build parts for roughly 10-15 years support after the end of a model.  Obviously not another 10 years of full production; possibly not even 10 weeks. They factor in the average life of a car and the expected failure rate of the component and figure out how many extra they need.

The problem here with RC is that most parts don't fail due to something warranty related I think - It's more big rock/collision/big air related.  RC is more like enthusiasts trying to rebuild a 69 Camaro - Except we don't have any of the hundred manufacturers that have sprung up building reproduction parts.  Tamiya seems to have held onto the rights so they can re-release at their desire. Great for them, bad for spare parts availability.  At least 3D printing can produce most parts, if the model gets created.  I've even seen 3d printed gears for sale.

Anyway, part support would be a big deal for me.  Don't tell me you are discontinued on a chassis that had a release 5 years ago, but is still for sale new in box several places.

Tamiya's strength is definitely model appearance, and interesting looking buggies would be a priority for me. 

Commonization of parts across as many products as possible would be good, for cost of manufacturing and replacement part sourcing.

[mongoose1983 3335]

Farm tractors.

RC companies worldwide haven't done the math by now how much money ERTL makes with their oh-so-nice 1:16 scale models!

[Zealot 397]

Not really a development thing but what really infuriates me, and my I'm sure many others, is the artificial scarcity Tamiya create with their undersupply of in demand kits and parts.

[Blista 1519]

A few more PS paint color options.  A couple of shades of brown would help.

[Sprocket 52]

2 hours ago, Zealot said:

Not really a development thing but what really infuriates me, and my I'm sure many others, is the artificial scarcity Tamiya create with their undersupply of in demand kits and parts.

Is it really making them max profit? 
 

How much are they losing out from not selling parts at a crazy upcharge?

[Jonathon Gillham 4607]

The parts thing is frustrating. How will this be impacted by the EU new regs about the right to repair? Hopefully EU rules improve things globally!

[Mad Ax 9329]

2 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

The parts thing is frustrating. How will this be impacted by the EU new regs about the right to repair? Hopefully EU rules improve things globally!

Massive tangent / derail / rant collection here, but:

I worry about a possible cobra effect, whereby manufacturers simply discontinue non-essential stuff because it's not commercially viable to keep parts in production.  While this isn't a bad thing for things like washing machines* which we all need, it's terrible for toys, which we don't.  It's possible a lot of the cheaper brands will disappear or cut down their model range just to the big sellers.  Those brands who share platforms (Traxxas have been doing this for years) will have an advantage and it's possible others will jump on that bandwagon.  It's not really a bad thing for bashing, but I wonder if there will be a knock-on for companies who tweak their models every year to maintain the top spot in competition?  e.g. will Xray need to provide exact parts for a T4 2023-edition until 2033, or should they engineer their 2024, 2025, 2026 etc. cars so the parts are backwards compatible?  (I think broadly they do this anyway but at some point they'll want to re-engineer from the ground up).

I don't know how this will affect stuff ordered directly from Banggood, etc..?  I'm guessing any unofficial imports won't have to comply with the regs?

I also don't know if there are any exemptions granted to particular products / industries, or if this applies to all consumer goods.

*Rant: why does one manufacturer need to make 15 different models of washing machine?  Surely we all wash the same clothes?  OK, a small hotel or B&B might wash duvets more frequently than the average household and so need a bigger drum, or a one-bedroom flat may expect to have a lighter average load than a 5-bedroom home adjacent to a secondary school, but other than drum/load size, I can't see why there needs to be different washing machine models.  I've long held that this kind of product catalog isn't designed to offer a cheaper alternative to low-income or frugal buyers, but to justify a higher price tag on the "premium" models, because I can't believe there is any tangible difference in production cost.  I am wondering if it is also bad for the environment to make and store multiple different internal parts for machines that are nearly identical**

If engineers ran the economy, there'd be 3 models of washing machine.  They'd be called The Big One, The Small One, and The Normal*** One.  But they don't.  Marketing people run the economy, so we all have to have a model of washing machine that we feel is just right for us.  Possibly because we all feel deep down inside that a single washing machine suitable for everybody is just a little bit too communist.

**Also rant: my washing machine is made by Hoover.  I bought it from Curry's on a "special deal".  This model was exclusive**** to Curry's.

About a year into ownership, it stopped working.  The Hoover man came out and plugged it into his rugged laptop-in-a-flight-case***** to diagnose the fault.  Unable to get a reading from the device, he diagnosed a faulty mainboard.  He had spare mainboards in his van for most Hoover models, but not for this one, because it's exclusive to Curry's and is therefore very very slightly different to all other models.  Sure enough, I looked up the catalog online.  All the other models look near identical, the only difference being, the rotary program selector wheel on mine selects its programs in a different sequence.  He even plugged in one of the other boards to prove the point - the machine turned on and ran a program.  He could have left this board in place and I'd have had a working washing machine, but the program names printed on the front panel would have been wrong (we even joked we could cross them out with a Sharpie and write the new programs on).  Instead, he had to place a special order for the correct board and come back a week later to fix it, by which time half my clothes had got up and walked out on their own.  So this one model, which does pretty much the same job as the non-exclusive model and uses mostly the same internal parts, has a different mainboard and different images printed on the front panel.  The only tangible difference was that the mainboard for the other model had a couple of extra programs on it.  The point being, the essential internals of the machine were the same and were entirely capable of running the full suite of programs, but Hoover and Curry's had struck a deal whereby they could sell my model to me for less money because it had less programs.  But it did not cost them less to produce this model.  Actually it cost more, to make a new mainboard, to deliberately make a less-good model.  So either this product was deliberately being sold as a loss-leader, or they were selling this model so they could justify a higher selling price on another model with lower production costs.

***These are oldschool engineers who aren't woke enough to realise that 'normal' is a harmful, non-inclusive term.

****Another rant: Why?  Why do we need exclusive models?  It's not like I'm going to keep it NIB in the loft and sell it in 20 years on hooverclub.com as a rare limited edition.

*****Final rant: I'm not joking.  You could program the full suite of washing machine programs on an Arduino.  You could program it on a Z80.  You don't need a laptop to diagnose an Arduino and you don't need onboard diagnostics to tell you a motor, pump, heating element, or valve is faulty or that a belt has come off.  Basic engineering diagnostics with a multimeter and the old Mark 1 Eyeball will do that.  But you can't train an 18 year old fresh from college how to do that - you can, however, teach him how to plug in a laptop and read a fault code.

[SlideWRX 785]

9 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

*****Final rant: I'm not joking.  You could program the full suite of washing machine programs on an Arduino.  You could program it on a Z80.  You don't need a laptop to diagnose an Arduino and you don't need onboard diagnostics to tell you a motor, pump, heating element, or valve is faulty or that a belt has come off.  Basic engineering diagnostics with a multimeter and the old Mark 1 Eyeball will do that.  But you can't train an 18 year old fresh from college how to do that - you can, however, teach him how to plug in a laptop and read a fault code.

The next ridiculous thing is the more expensive models have more ways to wash the laundry.  more settings for different kinds of laundry.  Is anyone taking a class on how and when to use all the different settings because they paid more for a laundry machine? Heck No.  They hit normal wash like the rest of us.  if it didn't work, they bump it up a level next time.  Well, if it is apparent which setting means 'wash more'...  what is the difference between 'normal' and 'casual'?  what is the difference between 'bedding' and 'heavy duty'? Is there a real difference between 'rinse & spin' and 'quick wash'? 

[Busdriver 6209]

On 8/27/2021 at 5:26 AM, Blista said:

A few more PS paint color options.  A couple of shades of brown would help.

I think we need Olive drab !!!

[berman 5315]

On 8/27/2021 at 4:26 PM, Blista said:

A few more PS paint color options.  A couple of shades of brown would help.

Tekō Brown?

Night after the Tuis Brown?

Boil-up Brown?

[silvertriple 3558]

One thing they could do is approach the other manufacturer who did rc cars in the past and who don't anymore, and propose to reissue their models... I would love to see the Samurai and the Shogun reedited...

[matisse 1581]

This forum is dead now, I’m off to hooverclub.com

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Re-Release parts for models that are out of production. Even if its for a limited run of say 3-6 months but every 3-5years because I'm seriously bored of hunting for a TB02 chassis. And that will keep the idiots from driving prices through the roof on ebay and what not.

[Wongataa 42]

More modern 1:16 RC tanks is what is required.