Tamiya discontinued items?

[rraeford]

I have to confess to not paying a whole lot of attention to Tamiya or Kyosho in the past year, but is it me or have Tamiya prices gone through the roof? I pulled out an M-05 Mine Cooper kit that I have been meaning to build for a while and thought about getting a second body for it. I was stunned at the prices for them! Also, I see from a bit of searching that this and many other kits are now unavailable. Does anyone know if this is COVID-related or just Tamiya trimming the line? Also, same question for Kyosho.

[GoMachV]

They jumped a couple years back now

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=43137

[rraeford]

No, I got that when it happened. What I’m talking about is a bit more recent and drastic and I think it’s due to supply constraints and difficulty in shipping. Getting stuff out of Japan used to cost less than $60 to $80! Maybe some of those container ships are holding massive Tamiya and Kyosho boxes.

[shodog]

Everything has gone up. People stuck at home have been paying crazy money for literally junk. The price of shipping and the devalued dollar against yen has driven up the overall price of new kits from japan.

[1300GT]

Yep, we have re-release Grasshoppers going for $300AUD here. Madness.

[Dadio]

Without wanting to sound unfeeling, this pandemic has been very tough on the market for established vintage RC collectors, my fear is that as the global health disaster comes to an end, the prices remain high. Will those whose interest was fleeting expect an investment return or hang onto their cars?

[coxbros1]

Gonna hang onto them here.

[TheDiamondOne]

Definitely not selling!

[rraeford]

I am amazed that even crappy RC10s are going for over $200. My question is will Tamiya and Kyosho be restocked or will they be discontinued? There doesn’t seem to be any information available about anything.

[TheDiamondOne]

Tamiya will keep at it, who knows with kyosho. They would all be stupid to stop, reres are the only thing selling like hotcakes.

[Coelacanth]

Tamiya will keep at it, who knows with kyosho. They would all be stupid to stop, reres are the only thing selling like hotcakes.

I'm not sure that's the case, at least with AE, Kyosho, Schumacher...it may seem like they're selling like ice on a hot day, but with such low production numbers, they're all essentially extreme limited edition production runs. They get snapped up quick because there's relatively few made. The manufacturers take a risk to re-release these, they don't know what the market response will be, so they only make a small number of them--a fraction compared to the number of modern models that are manufactured. The manufacturers also know their niche market is an ever-decreasing population as we all get older...most of the current generation of RC fans won't be interested in re-re's as they weren't even born when they were originally released, there's no sentimental value or connection to them. If they over-estimate the interest and over-produce a certain re-re model, it ends up being more loss than profit. If they do a production run and they all sell out--they probably calculated the interest just right, and made a profit.

Could they have made MORE profit by manufacturing more? Who knows...

[coxbros1]

Trust me....if Kyosho rereleased the Mid SE and actually had platinum shocks on it (which they wont) they could make a fortune!

[GoMachV]

The platinum shocks were not well liked back in the day so it would be extremely unlikely to see them return. I’m sure if Kyosho goes any further with rere’s (now that they have been bought out the second time in recent history) then the Turbo Ultima will likely show us what they have up their sleeves for a platinum replacement. I bet it’s the same gold threaded shocks they have now but in a platinum color.

[TheDiamondOne]

Platinums were the greatest shocks in history.

[Incredible_Serious]

Platinums were the greatest shocks in history.

You guys really gotta lay off Thumbs' famous 'shine....