Mugen & models in motion
 

I have waited untill I have the facts and know it's true, but sadly models in motion has closed its doors, thus at the min there is no uk importer for Mugen, ninja, raceprep fuel etc:o.
Another large shop bites the dust:thumbdown:

I spoke to Ray Wilcox from MiM/RacePrep this morning, MiM has closed but RacePrep will still be trading & selling Mugen parts to other shops so customers are still able to get parts in the UK.

Still, it is sad times in the R/C industry, when 2 large shops close within 6 weeks, MiM had been trading for over 25 years.

Still get mugen parts:thumbsup:.(Diffrent from what i had heard) least there is still a bit of good news, for now.....

Are they selling off the parts the have in stock, or still ordering in from mugen? As from what I understand they took the decission to close, it was not made for them by bank etc etc

I have only got my info from people who are very very close to the shop...but not as close as ray. I have heard so many diffrent things this morning and I see no point in posting hearsay

Who's the other one?

Microtech Racing

:cry::thumbdown:, that's really sad, Microtech were always brilliant everytime I needed some bits for my B4.

I heard today from someone very involved in the shop that there will be no importer in the uk as Mugen want to do the european thing, as others have done:confused:

Lots of the MIM/Mugen team are selling there cars. so it dosnt look good :thumbdown:

Nick HIll was giving up due to school commitments
Jamie Armstrong gave up due to University
Sam Taylor was retiring

this was all decided months ago, and i have switched to Agama

So yes people are selling their cars but it has little to do with MiM closing

Yer, it's that time of year,people selling the old car looking at what to drive next season. but the current situation may discorage someone who was about to buy a mugen.
there are so many people driving mugen in the uk that we will not get left high and dry. but in my opinion from what I have been told shops will have to order parts from mugen germany as that is what japan are looking at:thumbdown:. Just with no major shop actualy holding a large stock of mugen parts in the uk this may not be a good thing

Raceprep is still going!!! don't panic spares are still available!! This is straight from Stewart, Raceprep has not closed!

Hmmm thats interesting.....I shall say no more, and sit back to see what happens:confused: who is going to run raceprep for starters, as i think this story is going to unfold...............

At this point as i said Raceprep is still going, causing mass hysteria between Mugen owners is not the way forward, Stewart for the time being is running Raceprep part time and Ray is running it full time, this has also been confirmed by Mark from MK Racing.
Mugen are in discussions with Stewart regarding Raceprep and the distribution however as i said at this current time Raceprep is still open.

sounds good then, get the shop to give them a ring and order some clutch parts up then, :thumbsup:

come on guys keep the gossip to a minimum rumours can be bad for whatever buisiness Raceprep has left, if as Glory says they are still running then tbh thats got to be a good thing, personally i think if mugen lets go of the uk importer it will kill its sales over here, who wants to wait for spares from germany all the time they arent that good with the post I know I deal with Graupner periodically and its painful sometimes waiting for the post to arrive.

Long live Raceprep :thumbsup:

Good - I like the raceprep fuel.

Hopefully MK will step in......

Guys,

I dont think you will ever struggle for Mugen spares tbh.

Look how many years Ted (Ted Longshaw) was supplying Mugen to shops & Raceprep are doing the same now as they have been for while.

I know we had moment while back when rumours started like this for the 1/8th Onroad guys as this was there biggest market years ago when Ted had the business. But it soon changed round & dist was ongoing just down to the fact of business relationship with the end consumer

It would be crazy for them to change it over the relationship between supplier & model shops have been built up over month & years from history.

I just hope it goes well for the future.

Mugen is always my second option if i decide to stop running Kyosho as the Mugen brand is so strong & produce some fantastic cars onroad & off

+1, who wants to deal with MSE and have Minimum order.

Big Mistake.......huge......

Missing order from MIM!
 

Hi, firstly sorry to go off topic somewhat but I'm looking for ANY way I can contact anyone to do with MIM!
I'm saddened to hear that they have closed the doors but I have an outstanding order for RC spares with them and I'm concened that they won't fulfill it.:cry:
I've emailed, phoned a hundred times and even tried to fax!
So if anyone has ANY contact details I'd be very grateful.

Don't have any but from previous dealings they only take for what they send paypal may be different though I'm sure Stewart will sort peeps out he is normally dependable but bear in mind he has just lost his business

What's worrying me is that I phoned the shop last Wednesday and was told that the order had been sent out. When I looked on the site my order status was "completed" but when I looked at the details for the order it gave details as "ordered 2 Sent 0" so it looks like nothings been sent out. I understand it could be a mix up or a delay in postage but I'd just like to talk to someone and get some sort of details.
I don't doubt that Stewart is an honest guy because I see that theres a message on the checkout part of the site explaining that they aren't taking new orders, but there must be more than just me who have orders in progress that will want to contact them.

I Know Glorykid speaks to stew send him a PM maybe he can sort an answer out for you, understand your concern though

best send order number and what it was as well

Have you tried the raceprep number?

Tbh I have tried raceprep on several occasions and yet to get an answer but I haven't got outstanding I just wanted to wish Stewart the best

Stewart from MiM sent this to another site..

I would like to relay a message to all our Models In Motion Customers. With regret we have had to put the company into liquidation, the recession has taken its toll, and having lost to many customers to sponorship deals.
Mugen have also decided that the import of Mugen products instead of coming with me to Logic RC, would now benifit from not having a UK supplier, but to deal with the shops direct from Germany. (must be sence in there decision somewhere!!)
Mugen parts will be available track side for a while, untill our stocks run down, hopefully by then some shops will be dealing with Germany.
I hope to remain helpfull to all my new Traxxas customers!!.
Best Regards Stewart Wilcox.

bad day for mugen UK tbh this now means shops will have to carry a full range of mugen spares instead of the Distributor, any out of stock items will mean a not so quick order from Germany and are they going to send individual items or will it be minimum order only time will tell i guess, may well look for a new ride hearing this news, :thumbdown:

Hmmm so sadly my information last week was right :cry:. not good, at all,I don't think in the current climate there will be many shops buying huge stocks of mugen parts to put on the shelf.

Aye it was, Stew did his best to try and keep Mugen. As i said he was waiting for a decision...

At the point of my last post he was negotiating with Mugen..

this is the bad part it means the burden is now on the shops to hold sufficient stock which Raceprep held before thats a lot of money to have sitting on the shelves for any shop.

Support your local shop
 

From what i have read in the above post we all need to support our local models shops as what has happened to MIM will happen again. I can't see any problem with buying from Germany,France distributers etc... alot of people buy parts direct from USA this is not supporting your local model shop. By saying it's no good to buy from Germany is not going to give your shop confidence in buying large amounts of stock. the more you buy from your shop the less cheaper crap they will buy, and invest more money into top racing products! So it's up to us all to support shops otherwise your all be paying a lot more in the long run.

I agree.

Support your local shop before thet all dissapear.

i disagree i buy where is cheapest and simple as that i dont have money to burn at the end of the day its the big companys that are killing this hobby take proline etc 40 quid for a set of buggy wheels and tires that will last 20 minutes final at a track like herts yes thats 2 pounds a minute an they may as well be binned truggy make that 60 quid
os speed engines 350 quid plus hotbodies servos 140 quid futaba brushless 130 quid pt 100 quid futaba 4pk 420 quid the list is endless if the big companys make there prices more realistic then people would by local and not have to buy that v spec or futaba 4pk from hk

i blame the rc companys ripping our eyes out and its killing the hobby and shops

Another that does not support shops, it's not the RC companies it's import duty and other taxes. all your doing is by-passing that. Wait till the new Customs law comes in set up for registered distributors in UK (not just for RC) They register their business and what they distribute i.e Tamiya or as you said OS and everything that comes to UK shores Via mail will have to have a disclaimer telling customs what is manufactures name and CE reg.
If it's name comes up i.e OS, Ripmax are the distributor it will be sent to them, they will add their mark up and contact you! If duties not paid it gets sent back. Your loss, you can still put "Gift" on it but it won't dodge the customs fee any more and you'll pay top dollar, which if it's from a Distributor it will be full retail as to not upset the shops. If you can't afford quality don't buy it Model shops have a cheaper option. If every one carries on like you then there will be no shops, no advice, no distributors and the Internet will charge what it wants because it can and will, then their make up will be 200% plus not 30% as it is at the moment!

so what your saying is eventually it will be cheaper to buy from uk model shops well like i said i get from where is cheapest so if that happens then ill buy from them until then....
eg. why pay 240 pound for a engine the that costs 150 from hk why buy the budget one in the uk instead

you must have loads of money but i dont and after my mortgage which takes up 2 weeks worth of my wage paid for all the bills and food etc for my family i dont have much if any left so i have to buy what i can as cheap as i can if that means byepassing the local model shops then im sorry but thats the way it is

if rc products wernt such a rip off to start with then there would be no problem

If you buy from HK and do not pay Duty you are breaking the law.
Thats one reason to buy from UK.
Another is for after sales support, if you buy from HK you will be lucky to get any help if you have a problem.

It is expensive racing model cars but then what hobby isnt now?

I understand the temptation of buying abroad but everyone needs to understand the consequences for our Hobby long term as without any shops to offer the help and advice especially for beginners (as i am sure most of us have had to get into RC). then numbers will eventually drop and the market will be forced to make price increases worldwide.

I just don't agree with the RC being a rip off comments. I run on a very very tight budget, 90% of my stuff is second hand. But if you look at what we the customer demand from a competative car these days the very best grade materials, the best workmanship and finish of parts, the instruction book has to be top notch all this from a small company normally and all for under £500:woot: remembering that in the big picture of life the number of units they will sell is small compaired to say a mass produced TV for... Hmmm £800+ or a PC or laptop at £300+ or a good camera£££. the number of people I hear moan about prices...then look at what they are wearing to go racing in 80quid trainers, £50+jeans etc:eh?:. RC in the uk is a tiny market place tbh I am amazed people make a living at shop level
BUT that said I still stand by a point I make. with NO uk importer with stock, it will make using your local shop hard, as if your budget is tight and you can't have boxes of new parts to hand you will have to be ordering parts monday afternoon at the latest to stand any chance of getting them! by the weekend and then if half the stuff turns up or the wrong stuff, well your weekend is screwed! I'm sorry but parts in france is just no good to support your LHS,parts from germany will be no better:yawn:.

I'm sorry but some people on here need to get real about the reasons things are cheaper abroad! I recently bought the new sanwa 2.4 system from hk. I paid FULL customs charges (quite rightly, I have no issue with that) + handling fee + paid Friday night arrived Monday. The grand total for that was @£300.

Who wants to tell me the exzes x will be £300 or less when for sale here, I doubt it somehow though hope I'm wrong!!

If you order more than @£150 ish of goods at hk prices (certainly Tamiya or electrics) odds are after all costs (shipping/customs etc) you'll pay less than here, it will arrive as quickly and you'll have paid your taxes! If you buy in big limps the deal gets better as the shipping doesn't go up much and you still only pay one handling fee!

It's all down to the shop on how they order from France or Germany, it will only take 2 days from Germany or France so what's the Problem, the same as HK. My point is if we all just buy from HK there will be no shops and no distributors.
DaveG good radio the best i have ever used, Ripmax would proberbly not bring it in anyway as they like to push the favoured brand of Futaba.
Fairplay if the Distributor will not bring it in but this again shows the confidence in the industry from a distributor that modellers are not supporting shops.
I dont know what you are going to do Dave about your Mugen parts but Kyosho parts are no problem if you go to the Racing shops and give the right part numbers to make sure you get the part. All i do to make sure i get my parts is ring Kyosho UK 01992 893339 if i'm not sure of part number i tell them they help tell me it's in stock and i order it from my shop, if the shop tells me it's not come in i know they have not ordered it yet or are fobbing me off for some reason. So it's down to your shop and not a distributor and your support. if they dont help you it's time to find another shop.

There will be no problem with Mugen parts in the UK.

I had an e-mail from MSE yesterday saying its all in hand, and that there are quite a few UK shops opening account with them.

From the e-mail and also the announcement on NB, Chris Boots will be dealing with shops.

Hear what your saying, but I try to support my lhs and they have always taken care of me and it's saved me £££. I have checked part No they ordered and they were correct, yet the wrong bits arrived, more than once, I have to say that Neil at FDL was very helpfull when I needed a part in a hurry,checked to see if my lhs had an order going through then told me to give them a ring at the shop, tell them to order it asap and it would be added to the order asap, but in that case my LHS was £15 cheeper than any other shop that listed the part mainly due to the fact that I have been dealing with them 14years:woot:.None of the parts problems I have had started in the uk, most were packing mistakes in france
What I am saying is that it is good to have a supply of parts on the shelf in the uk, that way when the shop rings they speak to someone who can say yes we have it, I will put it in a jiffy bag now,get it in the post should be with you tmro
This thred was not started to have a dig at Kyosho