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

[GoMachV]

Only if you want to relive the days of oval idlers and stripped teeth

[badhoopty]

so the new idlers are better than the black ones?

[GoMachV]

That's what we are told time will tell.
Now that parts are available, it will be easy to use lower drive gears with the outdrives cut off as idlers, works quite well

[badhoopty]

well.. i got a few 6gears around that i pilfer and cut up.

[JK Racing]

I will build a 6 gear and toss a 10.5 on it. With the way I drive mod 2wd buggy, if the tranny survives, they truly are better.

Dont hold your breath, I will have a very hard time pulling the stealth out to "test" a 6 gear.

[clm]

But that 6 gear is sooo sweet! You can pull the spur cover and one e clip and take out the diff

... Sipper? Pfft we don't need no steenkin.... drat melted another spur gear!

Chris

[joeman37]

Joe,

I think you and many others are forgetting that this may very well be a marketing ploy for Associated. Companies are constantly introducing products that are great sellers and pulling them from the shelf, all in an attempt to draw publicity and renew interests in other products. We do not know what the production costs are for this product and they may very well be losing money on every unit they sell (thus the small amount of cars). They outsourced the RC10 to China in order to mitigate their production costs. Sure, they could raise the price of the car, which truly is economics 101 supply and demand dictates value, but their goal was never to make money from this car. Instead, they wanted publicity and to make new hobbyist and older ones aware of their branding. I am sure they are aware that this may drive some customers away, but they probably believe that they will gain many more. Companies are about profits. I believe they have achieved their goal, as we are visiting Tower hobbies (perhaps many people are new to the hobby) and viewing all of their other products as a result.

Anyways, I have absolutely no insider knowledge, but this is an alternative theory to the theory that AE is completely incompetant and does not know how to sell their products for a profit.

But even the publicity doesn't look like it would affect anything else AE sells because the publicity is mostly self contained in a market they have already penetrated. If they were attempting to appeal to someone that got out of the hobby a while back and thought a classic RC10 would get them back only to discover they couldn't buy one I don't think it would be likely that same person would but a B4.2. I would think it would have been a better strategy to sell them a re-re and then hope they would drive it and find themselves wanting a modern buggy.

I am not saying they don't have a plan, I am saying whatever that plan is it doesn't make sense right now from a business standpoint. If it does not lead to something else the only thing I can think of is they saw a demand for replacement parts (the margin on parts is much higher than the margin on kits) and invested the money in new molds to satisfy a demand for parts. While they were at it they put together a limited run of kits as a reward to loyal customers. If they do not release another batch or a Team Car I don't know what else would have motivated this.

One thing is clear they did not find their equilibrium price because it sure looks like they could have had a retail of 300-350 and still sold out a limited run.

If they were not owned by Thundertiger I would be a lot more willing to buy the theory of they did it to celebrate the anniversaries coming up but being an arm of a large corporation now? I don't know if I can buy that theory.

I for one am very happy they did this and I have no doubt they have made profit on the kits but just wonder what else they have planned or what it will lead to or what they plan to get out of it. Maybe it is just the profit on spare parts.

-Joe

[badhoopty]

Joe,

I think you and many others are forgetting that this may very well be a marketing ploy for Associated. Companies are constantly introducing products that are great sellers and pulling them from the shelf, all in an attempt to draw publicity and renew interests in other products. We do not know what the production costs are for this product and they may very well be losing money on every unit they sell (thus the small amount of cars). They outsourced the RC10 to China in order to mitigate their production costs. Sure, they could raise the price of the car, which truly is economics 101 supply and demand dictates value, but their goal was never to make money from this car. Instead, they wanted publicity and to make new hobbyist and older ones aware of their branding. I am sure they are aware that this may drive some customers away, but they probably believe that they will gain many more. Companies are about profits. I believe they have achieved their goal, as we are visiting Tower hobbies (perhaps many people are new to the hobby) and viewing all of their other products as a result.

Anyways, I have absolutely no insider knowledge, but this is an alternative theory to the theory that AE is completely incompetant and does not know how to sell their products for a profit.

But even the publicity doesn't look like it would affect anything else AE sells because the publicity is mostly self contained in a market they have already penetrated. If they were attempting to appeal to someone that got out of the hobby a while back and thought a classic RC10 would get them back only to discover they couldn't buy one I don't think it would be likely that same person would but a B4.2. I would think it would have been a better strategy to sell them a re-re and then hope they would drive it and find themselves wanting a modern buggy.

I am not saying they don't have a plan, I am saying whatever that plan is it doesn't make sense right now from a business standpoint. If it does not lead to something else the only thing I can think of is they saw a demand for replacement parts (the margin on parts is much higher than the margin on kits) and invested the money in new molds to satisfy a demand for parts. While they were at it they put together a limited run of kits as a reward to loyal customers. If they do not release another batch or a Team Car I don't know what else would have motivated this.

One thing is clear they did not find their equilibrium price because it sure looks like they could have had a retail of 300-350 and still sold out a limited run.

If they were not owned by Thundertiger I would be a lot more willing to buy the theory of they did it to celebrate the anniversaries coming up but being an arm of a large corporation now? I don't know if I can buy that theory.

I for one am very happy they did this and I have no doubt they have made profit on the kits but just wonder what else they have planned or what it will lead to or what they plan to get out of it. Maybe it is just the profit on spare parts.

-Joe

it was a good move from an brand equity standpoint.
just seeing the box on the shelf at a hobby store will keep their heritage alive by reminding the community of where they came from kinda thing.

and the spare parts keep the guys that come here happy, and the guys that come here are the best brand ambassadors they could hope for.

[TheSpeedway]

Right Now Tower Hobbies says "In Stock"

[flipwils11]

says discontinued when I just checked

[joeman37]

it was a good move from an brand equity standpoint.
just seeing the box on the shelf at a hobby store will keep their heritage alive by reminding the community of where they came from kinda thing.

and the spare parts keep the guys that come here happy, and the guys that come here are the best brand ambassadors they could hope for.

But that is just it, with such a limited quantity will there actually be any sitting on the shelves? I agree with what you are saying but it would still make more sense if it wasn't a super limited run.

-Joe

[badhoopty]

it was a good move from an brand equity standpoint.
just seeing the box on the shelf at a hobby store will keep their heritage alive by reminding the community of where they came from kinda thing.

and the spare parts keep the guys that come here happy, and the guys that come here are the best brand ambassadors they could hope for.

But that is just it, with such a limited quantity will there actually be any sitting on the shelves? I agree with what you are saying but it would still make more sense if it wasn't a super limited run.

-Joe

maybe its not really the availability as much as it happened. you know?

what would be nice is if they had a plan of whats next, every year releasing another limited run kit or something.

could be they were testing out the waters to see what the reaction would be.

[joeman37]

maybe its not really the availability as much as it happened. you know?

what would be nice is if they had a plan of whats next, every year releasing another limited run kit or something.

could be they were testing out the waters to see what the reaction would be.

That is kind of my hang up right now. I wish I knew what else was in the pipeline! I would buy a Team car re-re and a RC10T re-re in a hearbeat...most of RC10 buggies I never had a chance to build new because I was into on road (RC10L) and stadium trucks (RC10T). I'd like to have the chance to build some more of the buggies from kit form.

-Joe

[rctenracer]

Playing around on the tower site . I added up some parts to total 250 bucks. Add another 100 and you have a buggy.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wto0149p

[SnoopMaxx]

Playing around on the tower site . I added up some parts to total 250 bucks. Add another 100 and you have a buggy.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wto0149p

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