04-17-2009, 06:48 PM
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TinyRC & Mini-zRacer Fan
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 2,593
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Hobby Town USA Distribution
could the kyosho rep please explain to me why not a single hobby town within 60 miles of me will carry the dnano? what good is a sole distribution system when few of the chains will carry them?
i called them all today and none plan to carry them or even know when they will be available which is very odd considering some stores in other states have had them for some time.
my zip is 20874.
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04-17-2009, 08:21 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Winston Salem, NC
Posts: 105
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I would also like to hear something "Official" from Kyosho on what the deal is with the dNaNo and its exlusivity to Hobbytown USA...
I thought that I finally saw an add for the dNaNo in the latest issue of RCCA, but it turns out that it was for the 2.4gHz Mini-Z...AArrgghhh...
Nobody is going to know anything about them if there is no advertising and the majority of the outlets that are supposed to support them either don't have any interest or are cluesless all together...???
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04-17-2009, 08:33 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 155
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Personally, I would not mind if Kyosho dumps this stuff and these become available for 1/2 price. I would buy 4 more.
__________________
dNano - Silver Carrera GT (04/09) => White Enzo (son's)
dNano - Murcielago Yellow (04/09)=> Green (mine)
dNano - Enzo Ferrari Red (04/10, daughter's)
dNano - Corvette (04/10).
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04-17-2009, 08:57 PM
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TinyRC & Mini-zRacer Fan
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 2,593
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i too find this to be slightly disturbing. ht usa has no mention of these on thier website at all. if it were not for a select few stores selling these over the phone, many of us would be s.o.l. it's evident that not even all ht usa even have a policy to sell over the phone or simply not even aware of it if there is. why will some sell out of state and not others?
i was told by the manassas va, ht usa that they will not even carry kyosho products.... i find that frustrating and at the same time makes you wonder about the quality of the relationship between kyosho and ht usa.
please, i have the money. help me find a reasonable way to give it to you.... you would not think that a customer would have to solicite a manufacturer to purchase thier product but here we are...
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04-17-2009, 10:30 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 46
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It is an odd strategy, but given the somewhat small following the Mini-Z has in the US compared to overseas I guess they thought they needed to do something. It just seems like the hobby stores that would be more likely to support the dNaNo are getting shutout however. The only place around here that would even know the term Mini-Z is an independant. They would probably do well with the dNaNo but they don't have any option.
Honestly I had never heard of the dNaNo until it was mentioned by a guy I race with that works at a local HT USA. I was shocked to find it had been out overseas for over a year now. The response to their attempts to draw interest has been minimal, that's putting it nicely.
I still haven't seen anything official about how long the exclusive deal is. I hope that Kyosho will consider making their startup packages more affordable to HT if they're going to continue the exclusivity. There is a strong chance that these things will die before they ever get a chance to catch on here. $250 startup is not a cheap pricetag for a micro and they really need to racing program to spur interest. Without tracks in the stores it just won't happen.
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04-18-2009, 10:21 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arch2b
i too find this to be slightly disturbing. ht usa has no mention of these on thier website at all. if it were not for a select few stores selling these over the phone, many of us would be s.o.l. it's evident that not even all ht usa even have a policy to sell over the phone or simply not even aware of it if there is. why will some sell out of state and not others?
i was told by the manassas va, ht usa that they will not even carry kyosho products.... i find that frustrating and at the same time makes you wonder about the quality of the relationship between kyosho and ht usa.
please, i have the money. help me find a reasonable way to give it to you.... you would not think that a customer would have to solicite a manufacturer to purchase thier product but here we are...
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Our local hobbytown is embracing the Dnano fully. I first was annoyed now I'm pleased. If you need a Dnano Ray let me know, I can just drive up the street 10 minutes and purchase one for you. they have a whole case full of them here with parts.
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04-18-2009, 11:04 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 155
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That's awesome! I thought about taking my dNano and showing it to my local HTUSA to see if they would be interested. One of the guys who work there full time races 1/10 touring car on carpet. But I don't know if he will dig it.
__________________
dNano - Silver Carrera GT (04/09) => White Enzo (son's)
dNano - Murcielago Yellow (04/09)=> Green (mine)
dNano - Enzo Ferrari Red (04/10, daughter's)
dNano - Corvette (04/10).
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04-18-2009, 11:13 AM
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TinyRC & Mini-zRacer Fan
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 2,593
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Action B
Our local hobbytown is embracing the Dnano fully. I first was annoyed now I'm pleased. If you need a Dnano Ray let me know, I can just drive up the street 10 minutes and purchase one for you. they have a whole case full of them here with parts.
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can you email me? i'd like to work something out.
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04-22-2009, 01:44 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Posts: 118
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arch2b
could the kyosho rep please explain to me why not a single hobby town within 60 miles of me will carry the dnano? what good is a sole distribution system when few of the chains will carry them?
i called them all today and none plan to carry them or even know when they will be available which is very odd considering some stores in other states have had them for some time.
my zip is 20874.
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The "deal" they supposedly inked with HTUSA (or so I have heard) is you either do full dNano and offer racing and all exclusively... or you get nothing. That means no tires, parts, nothing. While that may sound highly restrictive, the "word" I heard was a 75% adoption rate nationwide. Even though 3/4 US adoption is killer, there are huge gaps of land that have no HT. Does it mean that it is likely you may be 60+ miles away from a _participating_ HTUSA... absolutely. I can see a lot of them that may have no interest in offering full boat dNano support. The whole plan is to drive revenue TO the HT stores, not elsewhere.
What do I think Kyosho and HTUSA should do? Set up and offer parts and cars supplementally via HTUSA corporate web site and share the same percentage revenues across all HTs for their already agreed upon percentage. That way the exclusivity deals aren't broken and the incentive is not breached. It's a win/win for all involved.
Then again, WTF do I know
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04-22-2009, 10:35 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 155
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I have two HTUSA within 60 miles and neither of them carry dnano.
__________________
dNano - Silver Carrera GT (04/09) => White Enzo (son's)
dNano - Murcielago Yellow (04/09)=> Green (mine)
dNano - Enzo Ferrari Red (04/10, daughter's)
dNano - Corvette (04/10).
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04-22-2009, 04:22 PM
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TinyRC & Mini-zRacer Fan
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 2,593
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action b has a local shop but it's 3 hours from me and they will not do orders over the phone who would have thought that kyo would want to make it so difficult to purchase thier product.
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04-22-2009, 06:32 PM
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TinyRC & Mini-zRacer Fan
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 2,593
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i called my local store again for the heck of it. this time i got a manager who gave some insight. he explained ht's large distributor has dropped kyosho due to a lack of support. he said they can order directly from kyosho however they can not give any time estimate on any order from kyosho due to lack of support.
this is painting a very contradictory picture of the ht/kyosho relationship. most if not all the stores i talk to do not stock kyosho nor plan to carry the dnano. why then was the ht chain chosen?
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04-22-2009, 06:36 PM
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BIT PIMP
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,502
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arch2b
action b has a local shop but it's 3 hours from me and they will not do orders over the phone who would have thought that kyo would want to make it so difficult to purchase thier product.
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I knew it would turn out like this months ago. I said it once and i'll say it again. Kyosho has shot themselves in the foot with this whole dNaNo thing and if I didn't know any better, I'd say Kyosho has something against America.
I'm in the same boat. I called the Tampa htusa and they just told me straight up, NO. They're not interested in them at all.
Way to go Kyosho. Make your product exclusive to stores that aren't even interested in it...lmao
They've dropped the ball in so may ways, I just have to laugh. Especially knowing that Traxxas has just released their new 1/16 BL erevo. Not only is way more car and bang for the buck, but you won't have to meet some stranger in a dark alley four states way to purchase one.
On top of all that, it seems that they aren't even really all that. I see jdob is having steering issues with his $300 collectors item and other are reporting that the super duper techy transponder is peeling off the bottom. AWESOME
Annnnnnd, before nanotrax chimes in to tell me I have it all wrong, cause I'm an american in america and can't unsterstand, or grasp the complexity of these things. Save it, holmes. The proof is in the pudding. It's an overpriced product, with even worse marketing, PERIOD
silla
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04-22-2009, 07:18 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 155
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The price needs to come down. Seriously.
__________________
dNano - Silver Carrera GT (04/09) => White Enzo (son's)
dNano - Murcielago Yellow (04/09)=> Green (mine)
dNano - Enzo Ferrari Red (04/10, daughter's)
dNano - Corvette (04/10).
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04-22-2009, 11:10 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 207
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The fact that no major distributor handles Kyosho does not bode well ...if you noticed the major mail order Tower Hobbies also dropped the Kyosho line a few years back; that was surely a kick in the teeth for an already low NA market share.
It may not be strictly Kyosho's fault though ...the high Japanese Yen combined with different N. American buying habits (we tend to like things big), and the high price of the car, have created the perfect storm for their marketing manager.
Although dictating that a hobby store must put a track into valuable real estate has its merits with respect to bringing people into that store over ordering online, ultimately it's the hobby store that must want to do this; I'm sure many franchisees shied away because it's risky to give that much space to a product with questionable acceptance here in North America, let alone one that's selling at the same price as much larger hobby-class cars that are already widely accepted.
Closed distribution usually backfires faster than detuned Fiat in a Saskatchewan snowstorm. And these are already a tough enough sell at $200-300 US, without silly restrictions on how they can be sold. Open up the distribution; lower the price before they get cloned or grey-marketed anyway, and simply get kids and adults racing at a reasonable price. There, I've made my marketing peace.
In spite of the hard distribution issues, the idea of micro-sized hobby-class racing has a definite market niche with so much potential – many have tried to do the Internet ranking and lap timing before but have failed. Kyosho has all the all the tools to make it work and addressed every complaint we had on the well-loved Epoch. Longer run times, questionable quality, scale detail and lap timing were all things we wanted to address with the Epoch's successor.
I only hope I’m wrong about the distribution …I really want this to work.
Last edited by lornecherry; 04-22-2009 at 11:12 PM.
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