Discuss...

[duckhead]

Let's discuss this latest post from Traxxas, err, Thunder Tiger

[Brendan2904]

[carloco8]

Oh no............

[GoMachV]

Lol. I think a lot of people are reading this wrong. AE probably isn't going after fan, as he is in a different country with different.... Er, no ... laws lol. They will be going after the distribution ("certain vendors") as those are who they can go after. Sucks, but understandable ... they did bring it on themselves but at the same time the parts are straight up copies. JC reengineers them like old school aftermarket parts and that is what will keep them away from danger.

[duckhead]

Agreed, and everyone was careful about using the name 'RC10' in vain, lol... Well, almost everyone... Sadly, I think RRP is the one that got Fan in hot water when they started calling the 'FanRC FR-01' an 'RC10':

[GoMachV]

Yeah can't do that! I got a nasty from Curtis (and totally understandable) over using their logo on a 1/2 size 12e I created and gifted to one of their ex team drivers. While never meant for production or sale, they have to protect their name.

[duckhead]

With a bit of luck this is just a scare tactic and quibble over the use of the name 'RC10' judging by the specificity in their public post. As you and other folks mentioned there really isn't much recourse on the international stage anyway, but they could stop the domestic "distributors" from distributing the kits possibly.

Personally, I think this is just another in a long list of poor form from "AE" regarding the vintage market and it's resurgence.

What really breaks my heart is a large part of me believes the ineptness and apprehesion in this market was on the "AE" side in California and not on Thunder Tiger's part. I believe this is why we saw executive leadership change, Shawn Ireland's departure, etc.

Then, after all that change, we now are seeing a scramble to catch up on what the likes of Tamiya, Kyosho, Schumacher, and even Yokomo have been giving us for years.

3rd parties have in some ways been forced to fill a market void left by AE since 2014. Yes, we can argue the failing of the World's Car sales, but that would involve having a real discussion about the half-assedness of that kit, heck, even the 2013 Classic kit was a bit crap...

[RC10th]

This is a slippery slope, understandable and unfortunate but as much as I've been an Associated customer for over 30 years their lack of the RC10/T market and parts availability I don't feel sorry for them. If Associated listened to customers in the first place Fan RC wouldn't have come to fruition.

I do think Fan RC could have made the parts look slightly different instead of near identical copies.

[scr8p]

Remember the lost rere molds?

Has Thunder Tiger BX parts, too.

Not sayin'........ just sayin'.

[Toaster]

It always kills me when a company stops supporting older…well anything…so market demand encourages a repo producer to step in, fill the void that has been left…only for the OEM to get all uppity and legally when they finally realize the demand was in fact quite real.

AE, if you had listened to the vintage hobbyists and stopped using the same old tired ‘lost moulds’ excuse, Fan or someone like him would have never sprung up. If you are encouraging us to buy OEM, then make the parts again.

[duckhead]

Let's see if this is the end of all the hubbub

[Brendan2904]

rrp-no-rc10.png


Let's see if this is the end of all the hubbub

I think Thunder Tiger just helped FanRC sell lots of FR01’s.

Seriously. When I emailed them last month about parts because stupid me slipped and broke a part on my 40th the response was this no but we attached a list of places to get parts from and FanRC was on the list. So I hope they are not going after FanRC and their US distributors.

[GoMachV]

I would absolutely love a screenshot of that email (with the personal info blocked out of course). That would go a long way in defending anyone that AE tries to pursue

[GoMachV]

I'm actually now wondering if the fan parts are not the target. I didn't realize Bezerk were using the AE logo (that they stole from AP brakes lol)

[jwscab]

Yeah I was thinking there were a couple of places that were adding the logo, ie, like the graphite chassis and the stamped nose plate. If that's the cause that makes total sense.

Otherwise, as soon as something shows up on a website as 'discontinued', that is the magic word. All bets are off at that point.