The Chinese Invasion: We all know its here........

[scr8p]

actually, i'm scott's idol. but i digress...........

[Erich Reichert]

I'm a big proponent of buying US made products when given the option and my observation has been this... even what's "Made In The USA" is a lot of times made from components made overseas which, to me defeats the purpose a little bit. I also am a HUGE person on mom and pop businesses and will always choose one over a big corp store any day of the week. With both of those being said on some level I look at it as the US joining the global economy that has been dealing with each other for decades now. I will never understand our (sometimes completely unnecessary) insistence that we're so different and that we do things differently just for the sake of not doing it the same way. Sometimes, SOMETIMES, the best way to do something is the way everyone else does it... in business and otherwise in life. The state this country is in, to me, is indicator enough that we really have no business deciding our way is the better way than the rest of the worlds nor should be insist on the rest of the world doing things our way.

On the R/C side of things... for the MOST part r/c stuff has been made overseas since the 80's. The problems with quality that we're all discussing now aren't coming from just being made overseas as much as from corner after corner being trimmed in an effort to get the price down due to the INSANE amount of competition, both legitimate and illegitimate. A company like AE is honestly, from the little bit that I know, is run a very tight ship. While kits may cost 250-300 bucks, a LOT of that is in fact the cost. There really isn't very much mark up on kits at all. The cheaper plastics etc are a manufacturers response to having to remain competitive in a market that's completely over saturated. If you figure inflation... a T4 doesn't even cost what a RC10T did... they have about the same shelf price (I think my parents bought me my 10T brand new in 91 for about $280 if I remember correctly). When you factor in that costs are much higher, development and engineering are higher, marketing (having a race team like they do, and all the other bits that make up a company like AE) is higher , manuf all those molded parts as well as pretty much everything across the board I'm honestly amazed kits don't cost twice what they do with no radios.

Sooooo how do they fix the "problem"? The problem starts with the industry itself. It's become very stagnant and over populated. Bad times will weed out a lot of the people that were in this that shouldn't have been and really have no staying power. Second I think the way these manf. market things needs to change... let's be honest... magazine reviews are great and all but they don't reach nearly the amount of people in the r/c market... and the only other source of marketing is pretty much just word of mouth online and a handful of news sites. That could NEVER support an industry like this. They need a new way to show you products and stop insisting that the old way is still relevant and justifyable... just my two cents from a former magazine guy.

[N2Deep]

As far as Melvins Army goes, he will just throw at you what Noam Chomsky is saying...it's his idol.

1. You don't know me from Adam.

2. You are a moron and you're starting to annoy me. The rest of the world thinks 9/11 was a false flag operation? Where do you get your information from? I'm still waiting to hear what you thought about http://www.debunking911.com/ but I'd almost bet the farm you haven't even clicked on it yet. It's much easier to believe a fantasy than it is to look at facts.

3. Back to Noam Chomsky. If you knew the first thing about him, you'd probably notice three words he says frequently: "see for yourself". It's all right there.

1. So true. Even Cain came out from Adam.

2. It's a sad day when you have to resort to name calling. Your debunking website is your belief. I can't change your faith. Neither can you me. If you owned a farm....it would officially be mine...I did take a look at it and have studied it. The engineers who designed the world trade centers thought otherwise.

3. I admire Noam Chomsky. I have a book signed by the man. How some people perceive his thinking is totally different. Twisting of two material is called wick. Twisting the truth and lies is called wick, hence the term wicked.

[MelvinsArmy]

1. So true. Even Cain came out from Adam.

You have no idea my friend. The amount of restraint I'm showing right now is worthy of sainthood. You're gonna have to believe me on this.

[Erich Reichert]

I knwo Frank Masi went to RC Driver,

Frank was at Driver for couple years but left to become a CT State Police officer.

[Dirtdiver]

Thanks for letting us know about Frank's new job. I'll have to keep an issue of RC Driver in my car while travelling I-91 & I-84.