1. Paco Raap - December 7th, 2006 at 07:50

Hi,

Although it looks dramaticly the real story is there are less numbers manufacturers as described in your article that however in editorial point of view is written very nicely. thumbs up for that.

From my information:
Hong Nor makes the X1CR as manufacturer under its own name and is distibuted in USA as Jammin/OFNA.
For those concernend OFNA is nothing more then a distributor who labels cars to their own brand name.
Hong Nor is a so called OEM manufacturer.

Same can be said for the Laro Diablo 5. If I am not mistaken this car is made in far east. Is sold in Italy as Laro Diablo 5 and in the USA as TEAM VERTEX. If I am not mistaken the orginal manufactuer is Himoto.

Same for the Nanda car.
In England as Schumacher and USA as Power Racing.

Some Large ONROAD manufacturers are alredy having a good market in their own disipline they will not take the jump.

Remember that only the backyard bashers and rtr market is important for a manufacturer if they have done their home work correctly.
We as PRO drivers only cost them money! ;-)

Regards and keep up the good work.

Paco Raap

2. Sangkei - December 7th, 2006 at 09:26

I agree with Paco..the RTR is a huge market which many can’t ignore.

I remember many years ago……GAS cars cost a bomb to start compared with EP……..now it is cheaper to run compared with EP or Gas on road…..

Why it is winning according to my opinion….it jumps, crash, durable, sounds wicked, cheap to maintain, runs under all kind of conditions….rain or shine….plus the advantage of fuel and go.

Nowadays, everyone wants one…..including kids….that’s is why they are all coming in to have a share of the pie.

All this brings lots of innovations to buggies and most important of all….PRICE………..getting cheaper to buy as each day goes by.

As Paco said……good drivers don’t comes cheap or free. That’s true….if there’s aren’t marketing who’s the hell gonna buy it.

You know human beings ( consumer )…..they may be a bad driver….but owning a WINNING car is all that matters to them.

3. Anders - December 7th, 2006 at 11:24

In Denmark where i drive 1/8 off-road, it is almost impossible to locate a spot where you can create a on-road track, but it is much more easy to locate a spot for a off-road track (and cheaper). This has helped the off-road market to grow in Denmark, and there are many new and small clubs all around the country that slowly grows to become a regular club – and over time some of these might even get a on-road track!?

Anderds

4. Eoghain - December 7th, 2006 at 11:54

Good point Paco, i was aware of a lot of branded OEM cars but its difficult to know which is which but of course despite the cars being similar or even just the same its still yet another choice for the customer. Perhaps its only hurting the bigger players in the market because people have more choice? Thanks for the comments.

Sangkei, i think you hit the nail on the head with regards the popularity of the class, it is great fun and you can go anywhere with them. And its funny but true that they are now the entry level car for a lot of people. Regarding innovation, apart from stronger materials and with the exception of Piktor and Losi and a handful of others, the technology in these cars has been pretty static for a while. In my opinion the OEM cars don’t really add to the innovation pool as all they seem to make is very basic copies of more successful cars.

Anders, this is true as you point out, its a very good thing in starting up clubs because of their go anywhere characteristics and so the barrier to entry for a club to start up is much smaller than that of gas on road for example.

Thanks for your input guys

5. JQ - December 7th, 2006 at 12:38

you forgot Tamiya. They havent joined the party

6. Eoghain - December 7th, 2006 at 12:55

Thanks JQ, updated and added Tamiya

7. Bart - December 7th, 2006 at 14:06

Nice one! The only car I ‘miss’ is the Specter from Carson that took the European ‘B’ title this year!

8. Paco Raap - December 7th, 2006 at 15:22

Specter from Carson is made by an other Far east OEM manufacturer. Carson originated in Germany is nothing more then an European version of OFNA! ;-)

For what it is worth.

You go to a modelshop and buy as new bie what they adivse or what the you thinks is a freeking, bad ass car.
Brand addiction or quality is not importatn for that kind of customer as they have no knowledge yet what is going on.

This is what I mean what is important for a manufacturer for producing RTR’s as much as possible and becoming more important as the market grows due to lower prices.

The hard core race market only consist of people knowing every inch of the hobby spending less as possible!!!
You are one too otherwise you would not be reading this or are you a new bie?

Keep on racing and smiling.

Paco

9. Joe - December 7th, 2006 at 15:42

I say what’s the point??? How many of these companies are qualified or have qualified staff to design and build a better buggy than say a mugen or xray? The buggy market is easy to get into. Look at losi… they took a standard design, changed things around so it looked different and now everyone has to have it. It’s our own fault fellas!

10. Dominick - December 7th, 2006 at 15:50

YOu missed another new entry into the market,
http://www.team-speedline.com

11. JQ - December 7th, 2006 at 19:43

What I dont understand is why so many of these new companies just copy a current car without doing anything new or original. Nothing to make them stand out. Whats the poing of that????
BTW, euros B was won with a Crono

12. Bart - December 7th, 2006 at 21:32

Sorry guys, already thought it was a bit strange… The Specter got his EC B junior(!) title…. But as all buggys are the same he could just as well have won the B… No, just kidding! By the way, thanks Paco, didn’t knew that from Carson, really thaught they made there own ‘things’.

13. Paco Raap - December 7th, 2006 at 21:43

JQ,

I am with you.
To many things in my head to make a whole different buggy.
But who listens to me? :-)
No problem Bart.
Knowledge is power and power is……..
Dont mind.
Just quit programming CTSS and made some time to look here.

Paco

14. Bart_Banaan - December 7th, 2006 at 21:47

Since the Kyosho Burns of the end of the 80′s the whole concept of a 1:8th nitro offroad buggy has reached a sort of ‘end form’. Now the innovations are minimal, and the design and looks of a 1:8th buggy is pretty standard, short: the look al the same, and the use all simular techniques. So it is easy to compete in a shop for any brand, since the only thing really different between all brands is the color, espaccially in the RTR market. It is easy to copy a concept (most chinese OEM offroads -like the Caster- are direct copies of the Mugen MBX) anr these ‘copies’ are easy to market, since no costumer will see the difference between the buggies. So since they are easy (cheap) to develop and easy to sell, many brands like to bring a buggy in order to earn some extra revenues..

As for your editorial: GREAT, nice story! keep up the good work!
But Schumacher has for many years a Buggy in their programm: the Shumacher Swift! And Serpent has build a 1:8 buggy in the past; the Cobra in de mid 80′s.

15. Eoghain - December 7th, 2006 at 23:54

Hi Guys thanks for all your comments, good debate here. Bart, yes i know about the Serpent buggy but i was only mentioning the current state of play. What you say is very true and a point i missed, the cars have reached an ‘end form’. What is needed for true innovation is rule changes, dont know what but it would stir it up in the design dept.

Kind of like in F1, in the first year of a major rule change the car manufactuers have to adapt and the cars appear different, but as the rule is in place longer the cars start to look the same.

16. Eoghain - December 8th, 2006 at 00:03

I have updated the list to 31 by adding the Carson and the Speedline.

17. Alex Kyoshosan - December 8th, 2006 at 01:48

Hi Eoghain. Great Article! You forgot Team Associated that is about to unveal his new car at the Neo-Invitational 2006. Another secret is that Serpent is also developing a Buggy! :-)

18. Unknown - December 8th, 2006 at 05:40

it don’t matter if there are 1000 different buggy out there. the big brand still dominate as they are well know and have better team driver. leave other smaller brand in the state of no support by hobby shop. hence they will die out soon or later and forcing the consumer to purchase the top brand. the richer get rich, poor get poorer

19. jfc_tech - December 8th, 2006 at 10:10

Great article!
To answer the topic.. i think everyone agrees that is is flooded. The other manufacturer really took the risk just to have slight small pie of this out this very popular 1/8 scale market. When u have the money, hey go ahead. Get the current top drivers out from their current brand. Give them more, double, if not triple what’re getting now. Hey, the higher the risk, the higher the income. Thats basic financial management. but oops. we’re talking about RC here. Oh well. same case. money does talk.

20. Eoghain - December 8th, 2006 at 10:35

Hi Alex, i mention that Team Associated with release a buggy but i didnt realize that they would so soon. I’m sure we will see pictures of it soon.

21. Bart_Banaan - December 8th, 2006 at 12:23

But as for the discussion; the market is not flooded by far! As for ‘real’ 1/1 cars have many different brand, models and types, which are all one to one compareable with each other. The basis is the same: four wheels, a steeringwheel and an engine. Still the one custumer buy’s an Opel and the other a Ford the third an Alfa Romeo. The consumer asks for more choice and the (smart) producers give the consumer what they want: the consumer can choose from many brand, models and types! So as long as the consumer market asks for more, the producers and shops will give them more!

22. john andreas - December 9th, 2006 at 01:48

The real story is

That the chinese market will always win .in price ,but you concider what will happen when a western influence jumps into china with quality control and top quality materials and top quality factories he or she can trust and manufacturers a top quality buggy at half the price of taiwan and europe .

all i can say is god help taiwan and europe if this happens .and from what i have been reading it seems companies like himoto racing ,cobra and nanda are nearly there with there western influence.

like they say you can only trust 1% of factories in china and if you have that 1% your there .

23. Sangkei - December 9th, 2006 at 05:55

Reputated brands will not jump into China 100% cause those guys in China are real suckers. Businesses in the world knows how they conduct business.

Like 1:1 VW cars……..those chinese imitate the the parts and sell them at 1/2 the price.

My guess….Himoto, Cobra and Nanda will be wiped out in the near future…..the chinese will launch a new buggy in the market using their expertise and their money…LOL…CH 1….LOL and don’t know what hit them.

Then will the chinese survive….YES….same product…1/2 the price…with full upgrade….ceramics bearings…to offer…and they will cause Taiwan a big chunk of their market.

Reputated Kyosho, Mugen, Xray, Crono and etc will not be affected as they are the higher end which most drivers or season drivers will prefer. The RTR however will suffer a drop though…

24. derek foong - December 13th, 2006 at 14:45

good & satisfied