To clairify for you, by stating 'passing judgement' in my previous post, I meant that in your statement:
"Hot Bodies came out with a "worlds edition" D4 after the intitial D4 release. Tamyia recently introduced a "worlds edition" 501x as well. And I believe that both of those companies offer the upgrade parts separately for those that already own the "standard" versions and dont want to purchase a new car. Every company does it, not just Kyosho"
You were "passing judgement" of Kyosho to these other companies. And to para-phrase what i heard was: It's not me it's the other guy.
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All of kyoshos problems stem from the Executive decisions at Kyosho Japan and trickle down from there. If kyosho wants to come out with their guns blazing, then they had better be doing everything better then the other guy. Their past PR reputation needs to be over come. They can not do it with just a bit of buffing. What they need to do is get some bondo and a bit of 150 grit and fix those dents. This needs to happen before all their work is thrwarted by an old dud they forgot to take out of their pistol. They have all the tools they just need a little TLC.