Intriguing ad in RC Car Action - RC10 re-release?

[justinspeed79]

I really hope that the numbers are just hype. I really want at least one of these, but don't have the $$$ for it right now. It just doesn't make sense that they would go through all the trouble to do this and then not make enough to at least fill all the initial orders and have a few left over.

[budhatrain]

I just called three places, Tower Amain and Rpphobby and all of them are still taking pre-orders. Rpp told me they ordered 200 and I was like 130 on the list. Rpphobby is still taking orders and they are guaranteed their number they said.

I could be wrong but in that interview, when he said that the total pre-order was sold out in the first week. That could be all the companies doing the pre-orders not necessarily the customer's actual purchase.

Just my thoughts...

[Brandon G]

Sorry Brandon, it wouldn't be profit to them because there needs to be delineation between gross and net income. Also the laws of supply and demand will affect the selling price and likely the gross profit due back to Associated.

Without getting too deep into the U.S. tax code on this one, I was just making a generalization on the dollar amounts. I have no idea how much THUNDER TIGER nets on each re-re RC10 kit after taxes, overhead, etc. What I'm saying is: why spend all the money to create mass production output capability when you know you have "X" number of PREPAID interested sales, and turn around an put such a small cap on it and sell it for only $250?

[Percymon]

well perhaps Associated could sell more kits, but they will make a heck of a lot more from the spares and if by limiting the kits it means increased parts sales (by those wanting a build new from parts at great expense) or buying $100 of parts to rebuild/keep vintage cars running then its not such a dumb move on their part.

I'm sure they've watched closely the Tamiya re-re numbers, probable sales volumes and internet forum traffic for years. Maybe they have done all the research they'll ever need on the subject over the last 5 years and always planned it for the 30th anniversary period.

As nostalgic as internet forum members are Associated will have done their marketing, their financials and set their business model - maybe they will be proved wrong, and only time will tell them that.

And you can forget the number of forum members here - typically less than 25% of forum members actually get beyond an initial post and only 10% are regular readers or posters.

[mikea96]

I wanna know how much longer until we see some pictures of this car

[Brandon G]

If parts sales for the aluminum tub rc10's are so profitable, why did they stop production of them in the first place? And then take all of the inventory they had left and sell it for pennies on the dollar at a factory clearance sale?

I'm not saying AE is dumb and hasn't done their research.
I don't see the now Taiwanese owned company doing all of this so that the old company can reminisce on an anniversary of a product they never made and not try and get as much as they can out of it.

I am not knocking the re-re, I have one on preorder. I'm just questioning the production cap.

[marlo]

Well they claim it's to keep a collector value,............. low numbers

[Wandy]

If parts sales for the aluminum tub rc10's are so profitable, why did they stop production of them in the first place? And then take all of the inventory they had left and sell it for pennies on the dollar at a factory clearance sale?

Probably because many of the old moulds were worn out and not usable. I don't know when they stopped production but I imagine it was before the re-release/vintage niche was properly started by Tamiya around 2004 so it may have seemed quite backward thinking at that time to continue to focus on old tech. Tamiya's re-release programme has shown that not only does the reintroduction of old models not damage the brand but it actually brings long lost customers back into the fold. I have no doubt the same will happen for AE with this re-release.

I still think the 2500 figure is about right and makes sense. If there is any overspill in pre-order demand they will cater for it, which is why they are being coy with the actual amount being made in the one and only production run.

[joeman37]

I decided to pop for a pre order from Tower today. I had two gift certificates from them from picking up a pair of Traxxas MJ's for my son and I. I added a new body for a Team car I bought off eBay a while back and used the $40 off a 250 or greater order.

Personally I am very excited about this. So excited I joined the forum here after lurking on and off for a long while. My first RC was a Kyosho Turbo Raider, but after that my love affair with Associated products began. After playing around with the Raider I found an RC10 in the local classifieds for pretty cheap. This was 1990 or so if I recall, it was still a 6 gear trans in the thing and it had a Novak T4 ESC and an old Futaba two stick radio. I mostly bashed around with the RC10. My next kit was an RC10L with the fiberglass chassis that was replaced with a graphite LTO chassis and I did a lot of oval racing with that car. I went back to Kyosho for my third kit and had a Lazer ZXR with my first mod motor and a T1x ESC. That thing was a rocketship. My last kit in those high school years was a first run RC10T and I loved that truck. Drove that probably more than any other RC I have ever owned. Still have it with the white parts and the skinny from tires.

This kit will take me back and allow me to do a build that I missed out on by a couple of years back in the day. I am really looking forward to it and I still have the parts from that first RC10 somewhere and I know the T4 is in a tackle box of parts and should still work. I am torn what to do, got with the T4 and a stock style motor (I think I still have an old Green Machine motor that was never used) or a cheap hobbywing 35a ESC with a mild brushless. Of course I have a FT B4.1 I built almost a year ago that still needs electronics and some track time too. I always seem to get to body paint and then cars sit waiting to be finished...

-Joe

[Taylorm]

Sorry Brandon, it wouldn't be profit to them because there needs to be delineation between gross and net income. Also the laws of supply and demand will affect the selling price and likely the gross profit due back to Associated.

The interview link worried me enough to contact Tower and I got a fast response back from their customer service stating that although I might very well get the quantity I ordered there have been instances in the past for high demand items where they only supplied 1 per customer until the supply was exhausted. Regardless of the quantity preordered!

.Crap..hope I get the 2 I ordered...... .......They should fill the orders first come ...first served...if you waited...you lose..........

[markbt73]

If they go the conversion kit route, I hereby put in my request for a Dual Sport.

[askbob]

I highly doubt the 'Limited' numbers being thrown around. 2-2500 or whatever worldwide is a flash in the pan. Hopefully everyone who wants one of these can get their hands on them. Looking forward to it myself. And yes, pics from AE by now would be nice.

[jaro]

I think when the interview says they have sold out, they mean they the manufacturer AE/TT have sold all stocks to the shops. This happens in other parts of the model industry where manufacturers announce a new model, be it a model train or a diecast model, the manufacturer has sold all there stock of that model to shops before they have even been released. They don't lose money on the tooling, as they can carry on releasing the same model in different liveries for many years to come, giving them a return on the initial and future costs.

You then find the shops have stocks of said items and dependant on their popularity, some items sell out very quickly, while others can sit on the shelf for a while. Usually something that is completely new will sell a lot quicker. I imagine most shops that have ordered their stocks will still have plenty for us to pre order. It has only been just over a week since its announcement, a lot of people in the know will have put their pre orders in, whilst others will do the same as they get to hear about it. Obviously the shop stock levels will reduce as we get nearer the release date and may well be mostly sold, I'm hoping not, it would be good to see the re-re on shop shelves for a few months, so it gives everyone a chance to buy one.

As to AE doing the first model as a limited run its makes perfect sense. In China all manufacturing of parts is fitted into a slot of that calender year and possibly only gets that one slot throughout the year. So if their was suddenly a shortage of say front wishbones, AE cant go to TT and say can you run us off another 500 sets. It doesn't work that way, to change over to another process just isn't cost effective for China, I'm sure their has been instances where a TT spare has been unavailable, then several months later an abundance of them hits the shops.

I imagine how ever many cars AE are releasing that they will have as many spares produced as well, perhaps more and if they are thinking ahead they may of had some different parts made for a future release of a slightly different version. AE have tested the water on the cars popularity by producing an amount that is cost effective to manufacture and to sell in a reasonably short period. AE have sold all that they have had produced and got their expected investment back for this batch, if the shops sell out of the available batch quickly then it was a sound investment by AE, if say 20% of the batch is sat on shop shelves for two years, then it would be a longer period before AE produced another batch.

As to the re-re been a limited release, AE can release as many models as they want from the same tooling. The initial limited model would be ex amount, of which they may put a sticker on the box, perhaps have artwork on the box or instruction manual cover to commemorate the anniversary, or may even stamp the set number of chassis's with individual numbers on the limited run, but I doubt this on the last one. AE/TT may well of planned towards the future on this and have had enough parts produced, which they sit on should demand nesitate a second run of the model but not as a limited edition. If sales of the Limited run sells out quickly in the shops and their is demand for more, what is to stop them putting together more kits from the available parts, they only have to do subtle changes, like change the artwork/no sticker on box, change a few parts, like wheels & tyres, no roll bar, plastic shock caps as examples and they have a different model to sell that isn't the same as the limited model, who knows they could even sell it with ballraces!! At the end of the day we all know we could make a copy of the limited re-re, but if you don't have the correct box then it is only a copy.

As to future releases I expect if sales warrant it, then we would probably get a CE, Team Car, Worlds, possibly a graphite and maybe a truck. I imagine AE/TT have a programme for say three to five years, where they will produce all the models they have planned and then it would come to an end, where I imagine after that initial period people will of had enough of them. Hopefully this time around though AE will keep the tooling, so the possible occasional release of more of the same could be produced should it be warranted.

As I say I think AE have got it right with this first model, they are producing enough to keep people happy without over supplying. If they produced 10,000 and they were sat on shop shelves for the next 10 years, then they would be sold at give away prices and shops wouldn't want to take the risk of stocking up on future versions of the models. If demand see's them fly off the shelves then retailers will be happy to purchase future versions. I also imagine any future releases will be done to the same numbers, as you can only sell so many RC10's whatever the model. Keep supply low, demand is high and you have a successful product, try it the other way around and people won't buy.

These are only my thoughts and others may have different ideas. So on to 2014 and AE's 50th anniversary, ideal time for a Stealth version

[GoMachV]

One thing to remember, the manufacturer and the shops as well make very little profit from the kit. The stores get up to 40% if they sell parts at street price, that's where they make the money. Same with the manufacturer. I think they are playing a game with the limited release and lots of parts- they know where the money is

[GoldRush]

I also feel that we haven't seen the last of the re re series from associated....lots of money invested to make it happen and they know the money that Tamiya makes with their re re line and with many kids that are now adults and have expendable income it makes sense to profit on the adults wanting that shiny toy they had when they were a kid. associated knows that there are a bunch of nutty people out there that are members of a web forum dedicated to that awesome gold buggy of theirs and keep them buggies alive and keep having fun with them...all this re re stuff does is makes it a little less painful to watch one hit the jumps by having a new one to play with. example...I had an original sand scorcher and wouldn't take it off the shelf to play with...got my hands on a re re and a railed the holy hell out of that little buggy and after I sold that one up I got another and then traded it away....vicious cycle of the hobby as we know. cant wait to see if I end up with one of these re re rc10 buggies...only question....squirrel it away for a rainy day or open it and have some fun with it...im leaning towards the 2nd option because we only live once.