Quote:
Originally Posted by frogger
Paul, so I guess if it's the world according to the Hudy's current investment then 1/10th scale off road has no future either 
The world is not defined by only Xray and HPI. The list of manufacturers that have released 1/18th and 1/16th scale cars/trucks/buggies in the last 12-18 months: Traxxas, Team Associated, LRP, Carisma, Losi, Duratrax, Exotek, Robitronic, etc. and that's not all, there are a few more coming this year! Time to come out of that cave buddy, the sun is out and summer is here.  |
Guys
you all have good points - but if you're getting insulting, then I will become nasty myself, so please watch it
This unfortunately is a recurring behavior when rc'ers feel their own favorite category/track/brand/younameit is "attacked".
You've missed the point regarding my xray comment - I'm saying that this is a company that is thriving on useless updates to make a living. The difference vs. 10th scale offroad is that they haven't gotten into the category, as opposed to 18th scale. If they had released a 10th scale offroad car and would have stopped updating it every 9mths, now THAT would have been a signal.
Regarding the microRS4 - it looks weird now as DTM is dying, but when it was launched there had never been a more popular class that EP DTM... back then it was offroad that was half-dead. Still, they haven't cracked it. BTW, if you can't think about any HPI product that was long-lived, think again: belt-driven original RS4 (Still lives on under the sprint name more or less), or Savage (now how's that for a long-lived dynasty?).
The world certainly isn't limited to HPI and xray - but there aren't that many global players either... in the quoted list of recent manuf'ers who have released smallscalers, there's mostly regional or niche players (carisma, duracrap, robi, exotec, even lrp...). This isn't enough firepower to drive a global program.
Remember: the original question was: "why no mini/micro worlds?". You can turn it around any way you like, but the fact is that there are no "big" smallscale competitions indeed... even though smallscales have been around since the Tamtech in '86 (or so), and tamiya sold craploads of them back then... Masami himself was doing tamtech demos back in the days, so it isn't like there wasn't a push from the right people. Every X years, some big manufacturer floods the market with a small scale car... Despite this, today, no "real" organised micro racing, at least not consistently across the globe. I'm trying to provide reasons why this isn't happening... If you keep saying "you're wrong you're wrong you blind fool" then you're simply denying reality. It hasn't happened for the past 25yrs during the heyday of the hobby, it won't happen now or during the close future.
Don't get me wrong: I'd love to see it happen as I think all modellers, regardless of the category, deserve their sanctioned racing. I just wouldn't bet on the fact that you'll have it anytime soon
Paul