I walked into speedtech's store in san gabriel. Even though it is small, it is less "corporation" and more hobby shop. The person at the counter was helpful and even talked about rc drifting a bit. I'd rather drive 20-30min to speedtech rather than drive 5min to hobby people (on hawthorne) and waste 25min telling the ppl behind the counter "yes. Its a kee-yo-sho laaazzzeerrr".
I was actually interested in buying an RB-5 last weekend and ultimate hobbies was on the way to my friend's place so I stopped there. The guy I talked to behind the counter said that "Kyosho is probably gearing up for the release of the new 1/8th gas car (MP9) so they probably aren't shipping those out". What??
Umm they still do make the RB5 and they should still be shipping those... I just walked out with a bottle of #400 shock oil..