HTUSA exclusive over?

[pedrocamp]

I see Kenon and Maj's are selling dNaNos in the States now. Hope this helps the popularity of the d's but if the HPIs are any good it might be hard to compete at the price.

[Chris Moore]

Well I dont know about the htu aggrement and I could'nt find a Maj's. But if the prices listed on the Kenon site are accurate I cannot see how htu would be affected, I can buy any of those cars for $50 or less each at my local htu. Plus I could'nt find the starter pack listed as being availible on the Kenon site without which the cars alone are useless.

What are the HPI's you speak of? Link?

[pedrocamp]

Agreed, Kenon prices are high! Maj's is a local HS in Saddlebrook, NJ. Don't know their prices but what is interesting is that the dNaNo is now available for puchase outside of Hobby Towns in the US. Outside of the US dNaNos have been available through independent retailers like Nanotrax. That said, my local HT store has done a good job promoting and setting up races with a good core group of guys.

The HPI is detailed on this site: http://tinyrc.com/forums/showthread....&highlight=hpi

[arch2b]

there could be any number of reasons on why or how these 2 shops are selling dnano's. given the crazy high price points, it is likely they may be importing them vs. purchasing via k. usa. this is just a guess based on their price point which would be logical if they had to import and make their profit margin on them.
as pointed out, i don't see how this challenges ht usa in any way as they are not close to being cost competitive.
one way we can tell where they are buying from is by when they get new models. nanotrax gets them at least a month before ht usa so if them about the same time we know they are importing them. curious as to how k usa would handle that scenario. it would be a shame to loose their k usa distribution and i'm sure k usa is willing to use this threat.

until some facts can be had, this is all speculation however.

anyone notice the rckenon prices dropped? i could have sworn they were over $200 last night.

[Jellis]

I was told by a hobbytown owner that kyosho opened up sales to 10 stores in the us other than ht

[arch2b]

well, then. that seems to settle that. could you get that list?

have to say, its both good news and bad if you think about the impact to ht usa. not that they didn't bring it on themselves (excluding those stores with very active programs) but it really makes it that much harder for them.

it's interesting to see the mark ups on these given what we know about k usa pricing. some are making a nice coin on some of these models, if they sell.

[pedrocamp]

You are right arch, Kenon had them listed for something like 229.00, now they are at 179.00. Still higher than my local HT. Hard to say what this will do for the market. I imagine though it might improve sales to the MiniZ fanatics who's shops might include these cars in their race schedules.

[Chris Moore]

Interesting indeed, I feel sorry for the htu owners that invested in this program tho. As Arch said most of the stores have done a poor job of marketing this but thay did have to shell out a good chunk of change to get the track and supply of cars/parts. I know that I have tried to help out my friend that owns my local htu by running my cars as much as possible. Everyone loves to see them run but balks at the $300 start-up cost. The really silly thing is thay then turn around and buy a $600 nitro basher becaues it can go 70mph+, go figure.

[arch2b]

this is good for the overall scale, bad for those HTU whom had the expensive buy in, sales restrictions (no online sales). this could result in a backlash where HT USA shops that were never really supportive will simply pack it up altogether. those few stores that are left that have invested interest, time and effort will have to continue to work hard to keep it going with the understanding that it doesn't necessarily result in gauranteed instore sales anymore. an upside is the profit margins for the dnano are likely to remain higher than the HPI RS32. this reminds me of the old days when you bought a mini-z from a Great Planes retailer or imported them and the eventual opening up of that market which we can all agree was a good thing for the mini-z scene.

i think we have a very good chance of seeing competing racing series develope as a result. could it be a coincidence that RCP is launching new track packaged directed specifically to these smaller scales? either way RCP, Realtracks and PortaTraks stand a good chance of picking up sales as clubs, individuals get into this more due to easier purchasing options and availability.

[arch2b]

can we get confirmation regarding the following;
1. carpet track, will this now be sold to new shops?
2. commercial version of the lap timer, will this be sold to new shops to allow racing on the website stats?

[MrNanoTrax]

racing 'online' is worthless because circuits around the world are NEVER the same so what's the point of comparing laptimes? our fastest lap time on F1R is 10.14secs but on your RCP its 5.8secs... what's the point of comparing that?

[arch2b]

to you maybe but we have had a very successful online howfastareyou racing series for mini-z for many years now. you are correct that even the exact same rcp layout in another location will not be exactly the same in terms of track conditions however the times are still very accurate and comparative. it's a proven concept with howfastareyou. dnano, once again, has barrowed from mini-z by doing a similar thing with the kyosho circuits. you have standardized tracks and layout form which to compare lap times with online stats.

this does not work for those that do not adopt the standard. never has and never will. it's obviously pointless for nanotrax however it's perfect for the ht usa kyosho circuits or individual clubs and or shops that adopt a standard track system.

there have always been detractors and always will be but it's fact that howfastareyou has proven popular and continues to be successful with competitors that span across the globe.

what is curious and why i asked is that if both the kyosho circuit and commercial timing system were opened to the public, the opportunity for registered circuits could expand greatly and more importantly, to clubs/shops that support it vs. being forced into it. if not, we will find a way to do it ourselves.

[Sinister_Y]

Just my 2 cents worth.

I looked into this with Kyosho USA and I could buy the track and system, however to be able to do the online thing would require a fee to be paid to HTUSA.

This is probably the case for South America as well since our regions fall outside of the HTUSA agreement.

As far as the non-HTUSA dNaNo USA retailers, I don't think that the whole system is available to them; just the cars and parts for resale.

[arch2b]

thats what i suspected.

yep, already well aware of the ht usa agreements/costs/strategies. it's almost as much a model for garnering more profits for those shops paying the huge buy in costs by selling track time, website registrations, etc. the whole acheivements model is based on the member putting in more and more laps which of course cost money thus make the store a profit. i've covered all this though in other threads so not going into too much detail here.

lets see how the first couple months go for all these other shops picking up stock inventory. i think you'll see within a quarter if they continue and or more shops jump into the pool.