BEANSluvzRC

Your preaching to the choir here. As a person working towards opening a track shop i have been trying to figure out what these shop owners are thinking. I'm in MD and we had one shop with the same excuse and one track that I FEEL shot it's self in the foot by restricting the type and class of rc's they ran . This left people with only the option of big name big $$ products.
Perpetuation of the hobby = More shops ,fun and wait for it............ MONEY!
I think i'll side with the long term approach instead of the big $CHA_CHING$ every now and then.
And why don't shops adopt Towers EASY PAY or lay a way .
If wamart starts selling Losi's and such LHS's are doomed

BEANSluvzRC

I can my own solid arms for my MINI8 and never broke another. I got the idea from my Tekno.

JimmytheHeater

Ok I did see one very strange thing that I don't like on this. A mixture of allen and philips head screws....UGH.

Also the jury is out on the front hinge pin brace...Plastic?

PetRock

Remembering that I just ordered one of these and a stack of spares... and that these are general answers and I'm more talking to the universe...

I think there's a minimum level of quality a LHS wants to sell: any lower and they're selling people 'a problem' that either sours them on the hobby... or it chews up lots of their time (they they aren't getting paid for) to help diagnose and repair issues. They need people to ask a couple quick questions, buy stuff, and leave. A customer that spends an hour at the counter making you help them with a problem with a cheap kit isn't worth the $20 you made on the kit.

Sell someone a Traxxas RTR and there's lots of help for them in forums and from the local RC community. If you're the only one selling BZ-222's then every customer problem comes back to only you. You don't grow the hobby by putting your hobby shop out of business.

A long-term approach has people using you to answer all their RC problems (because you're so accommodating)... then buying their stuff from the Internet. I think cheap HobbyKing/NitroRCX-class kits work as mail-order only because customers can't pin down the vendor for help in-person. If a LHS sold them they'd burn up so much time every day, and make so little per kit/part... that they couldn't make it up in volume.

Because people don't pay their bills... and a small shop doesn't sell a large enough volume to keep the deadbeats from putting them out of business.

In Canada we have Future Shop and Best Buy selling Traxxas: it's bringing a lot of new people to the hobby... and to the LHS's as they learn about all the other brands and aftermarket parts. If Walmart started to sell Losi it would be a great thing: it would mean Walmart had done the research to determine there is a market for hobby-grade RC... and they would sell in large enough volume to drive prices down.

Walmart making Losi kits a commodity would be the best thing possible for LHS's - imagine all the new people and $$$ pouring into the hobby! (Once they're hooked on RC their interests expand: and the LHS's are there to help them spend their cash on stuff that Walmart doesn't even stock!)

BEANSluvzRC

true on 1 i'm not saying just cheap but give the small wallets an opening to get into the hobbyand as a LHs owner giver yourself a better chance to be the one that gets that person into it . Not some cold or hot rather PC screen. A track that i attend has a 1/14 buggy that's 115 less than the mini8 and just as good. I ave both. Iv'e seen them sell more than shops with the M8.
MY point we should start to see more of these lower end items in LHS NOT most of the current chepos that arent worth the bread. And im tired of the parts support response when i still have to wait for them to order parts for the brands they carry. Yes i'd pay a lil more for the convenience of coming into you shop if you have something for me , I luv the LHS. i'd rather shop in store than online but my wallet speaks a different tune.

BEANSluvzRC

maybe on 2 true I have seen guys a HT USA spend 45 mins with a customer on a trax slash ( evan you da man).
could it not be better than watching my LHS owner complain be cause they sit there all day no new customers no sale , and the classic " i don't know how i'm going keep this place going" cry.
WAL mart please ! i'm glad the climate is better in canada. Here in the states walmart has caused markets to close left and right. The only survivors other big stores that buy as much as they do.
Do you think it would help if US brands made one or two lowcost modes?
How do you feel about what Helion is doing and others like them?

THANKS FOR THE ENGAGEMENT OF THOUGHTS. I have me looking at more angles now.

PetRock

I don't know about Helion... but most companies already sell low-cost models:

• Traxxas has LaTrax as their budget line.
• Associated has their "Qualifier Series" ProLite and Apex lines (Thunder Tiger models)
• Durango (Hobbico) sells ARRMA as their cheaper RTRs
• Losi (Horizion Hobby) has the ECX line

There are other companies (NitroRCX, Redcat, HobbyKing) that rebrand cars sold elsewhere (from BSD Racing, Himoto, HSP racing etc) that are helpnig to keep costs down... but usually you're giving up aftermarket support or durability.

I think there are lots of economical options in RC... but LHS's need to sell the mid-tier kits and higher to pay the bills. The cheapest cars will probably always be mail-order.

(I may be wrong on all of this - just some opinions )

Khan48

iTrader: (3)

Agreed. However, as i've re-entered the hobby I've learned there are A LOT of great, hobby-grade kits that are damn near half the price of losi and ae, and pennies compared to kyosho, x-ray.

Team C kits look great and the cheaper kits are around ~$100-$200. The 3racing Cactus kit i got is fantastic and that's ~$160 with wheels and tires. Durango has some kits around ~$160. All of them can win club races.

The above kits are what hobbyshops need to push. Hopefully the bz-222 can be added to the list if quality is good!

heretic

+1, major bummer. At 70$ as a real kit with a clear body, I would have bought one just for the hell of it.

PetRock

If you sit on the HK site the price drops to $85: you won't pay $15 dollars for a painted body and for most of the assembly to be done? How much is a practice day? A pair of tires? The food you'll munch on while you put your electrics in the roller?

jslider

iTrader: (10)

Same here I have looked at the 4wd buggy with the same thought, Iwonder if it would cost more in packaging than it is worth in reduced cost for assembly so that it is just not worth it for them to sell at a reduced cost. I myself would pay the same 90 for the unassembled with clear body as a " true kit "

heretic

It's not so much about saving money as being able to build it myself. If I bought one built I would have to take it apart and rebuild it- makes no sense. On top of that, some parts might well be messed up from a rushed build and the whole issue just ends up being a major PITA when a "kit" kit and a careful build could have saved time, maybe money and brought me satisfaction instead of frustration. Last but not least, you'll inevitably find some self-tapping screws in a pre-built car, and this means either settling for the revulsive phillips-head self-tapping screw or cross threading the plastic with a nice M3. NO THANKS. Furthermore, the paint job is not at all to my taste, I'm fond of one-color jobs, either all white or all fluoro yellow.

Jslider, I was also wondering if the cost of putting together a manual and plastic bags of parts wasn't greater than the cost of having the thing built. With a pre-built car it's also easier to QC the car for missing parts, I guess. That said, a real kit at 85$ wouldn't be that bad; a 15$ drop would just short circuit my "add-random-stuff-I don't-need-to-cart" failsafe ;-)

Kregger

iTrader: (2)

can anybody who has one see if a Durango body will fit?

PetRock

I think you're right: it's probably a mixture of things.

• Assembled kits take up less room and packaging than a stack of labelled parts bag (cheaper to ship)
• Real kits require real work on assembly instructions. RTR's can have a manual that says "Don't dunk it in your bathtub, and here's an exploded-parts-view with part numbers. KthxBYE!"
• Giving customers a chance to build something means you're allowing them to screw it up. Then contact you and complain or ask questions.
• Most people want immediate satisfaction from their new toys: you sell way more RTRs than kits anyways

Do I sense a sales opportunity here? Buy the rollers in bulk for $85 a pop, spend 5 minutes with an electric screwdriver on each, pour all the parts into a large ziploc... then sell the bag for $125 for "an authentic RC building experience"?

JimmytheHeater

Yes! Heck you could even take pictures and make an assembly manual as well. Oh and another thing, if you disassemble a RTR you could unbind the radio as well to give the rebinding process pleasure to the customer!


Ok all sarcasm aside I really can see both sides to the argument. I really like building kits. They are like mature legos. You get the satisfaction of knowing it was you who built it and it was done right. However I'm guessing that a prebuilt roller would outsell a true kit at least 10 to 1 if not more. They are a business, ya gotta produce what sells.