snoopyrc

iTrader: (2)

Particularly I find that Yokomo shells are $45 and up in the US. I know that a lot of them come with mirrors, exhaust and other details. I still cant see why those things should make it come in at nearly twice as much as an HPI, or Protoform shell. The Tamiya shells are very detailed and often come with mirrors and exhaust, but they can still usually be bought in the low thirty dollar range. So whats the deal? Is it the cost of shipping?

Mason

If they are authentic replications/licensed versions there's a fee that has to be paid to the trademark owner of the car design in question. This is why many years ago most body makers quit making the real deals.

Twism86

iTrader: (4)

Exactly. Your paying for the name of the real car it looks like.

Foxxrocket

They may also be vary detailed compared to some other shells. But like above, the company has to pay royalties.

Solara

iTrader: (17)

You can also check the conversion rate between yen and USD....when I purchased my TA05R from Japan 2.5 years ago, it was 118 yen = 1 USD...now...95 yen = 1 USD.

I still think TAMIYA bodies are the best RC bodies overall.

Foxxrocket

They'er worth every penny. All 4500 of them.

InspGadgt

This is a big part of the cost but there is also the cost of molding the bodies. Companies like Yokomo and Tamiya have some of the most complex shapes in bodies that require a multipiece mold and more powerful vaccuum. Most molds are made so that the body can be lifted straight off the mold. But wherever there is a body that curves inward like with bumpers then the body can not be lifted straight off of the mold. In those cases the mold is made in several pieces so that it can be taken apart to remove the body.

94eg!

iTrader: (17)

Tamiya bodies are the best I've ever worked with. Especially back in the day when the buggy bodies all had pre-punched shock-tower & body post holes. The vintage bodies are in the hundreds of dollars right now.

On a side note, I think Tamiya's price is a bit lower due to sheer volume. I'm sure they produce & sell WAY more body kits than other quality companies like Yokomo and ABC Hobbies...

Some of the ABC-Hobbies bodies sure look amazing as well, and they get pretty expensive too (as they have to be shipped from Asia). I really like all their light buckets and fine details. Gotta try one some day...

total3d

iTrader: (6)

i have a yokomo shell(came with the car-bd5), and i was looking to get the porsche gt3 cup car shell, since its looks perfect, and very similar to the real car:
http://www.kyosho.com/eng/products/r...uct_no_1=31369

then my local hobby store said it would cost $120AUD to get it to australia. i contacted kyosho, and they said $200aud...
tamiya have a similar body, but for $110aud. or i buy the whole car...

niznai

You are wasting your time trying to get one of the authorised importers to get anything for you. It will take a few months and that is if you're lucky.

Just go on ebay or RCmart and you'll get anything in three to five days or at worst two weeks (but this never happened to me) and for a decent price too with shipping and everything.

When I saw this thread and read someone was complaining about bodyshells costing 45 bucks I nearly laughed. You should come to Australia, mate and see what we pay here for bodyshells. And if you want to paint a nice shell, add to that masks, paint and all the hardware to cut and trim it and you're way past 100$ a shell.

That being said, a lot of posters above have explained correctly why some shells cost more than others and I agree, the main factor is quality. Quality of materials, quality of reproduction, stickers, accesories, etc.

One other cost is submitting a bodyshell to various authorities to declare it legal for certain competitions (IFMAR, ROAR, etc) which I know Protoform did in the past. Most companies decided to stuff these organisations and have their own competitions and rules, like Tamiya but then again not every company has Tamiya's funds. HPI came together with LRP and funded competitions in the past in Germany/Europe and that allowed them to sell the HPI kits with LRP electrics and make tehir own rules again about bodies, etc, and so on.

total3d

iTrader: (6)

niznai,
im in sydney, so i know what your talking about when it comes to body prices.
i think the original posted is referring to $45usd?

check out rchobbies, they have prepainted and non-painted bodies for pretty cheap. and tamiya paints are around $5 a can.

btw, i doubt i'll find that gt3 rsr body on ebay(one that looks that good anyway), its pretty rare. the current gt3 bodies available are shocking, looks like a deflated gt3...

my yokomo shell is apparently $100aud unpainted, and no decals!, and i only got told this after i hit something(luckily no damage). i immediately took it off and put a protoform body on!

niznai

Yeah, I know. Even so, the prices in the US are still better than ours (as you say in Oz an Yokomo shell is closer to 100AUD than 60-65AUD as the exchange rate would have you believe).

Look for the GT3 from Tamiya on ebay, that's where I got mine from.

Not sure what Yokomo shell you're looking for but they are supposed to come with stickers and everything. Try Hobby Habbit in SA for Yokomo shells, they're pretty good (and ship COD for you) though prices are as usually high compared to overseas.

snoopyrc

iTrader: (2)

Dont laugh its all relative. Even if you conisder $45 to be cheap (which I dont) its still twice as much as an HPI shell. The HPI shell still comes with a great decal sheet. Its still made on a complex mold with undercuts. They still have to pay license on most of their shells. So I dont see license, mold, or decals to be a good reason for one shell to be almost twice as much as a comparable shell from a competitor.

The Tamiya shells seem to be of a Higher quality than the Yokomo and yet they still come in cheaper.

If you look at the first post it says $45 and up. $45 is the cheapest I have ever seen a Yokomo shell. At the same time I have never seen an HPI over about $32.

niznai

Perhaps HPi shells are made in the US so there is no shipping cost (to them).

But about Yokomo shells, I think they're way better quality (in detail as well as material) than HPI shells. Where the HPI shells have only some vague detailing, the Yokomo are (atleast some) exquisite. My experience with HPi is one of the worst ever too, having bought two shells which shattered like glass on their first outing in mild crashes, so I never went back to buy their products.

And in Australia they're just as expensive as anything.

MKO3jzgte

iTrader: (14)

I personally love Yokomo shells,eventhough they are not cheap i still love them.Most of all my shells are Yokomo