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Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits I just went to RPP. You can't apply codes to the SCX-10 II kit. Both "BF16" and "NV30" codes are invalid. If you go to their Coupon Codes section, it says "Excludes some Axial and Traxxas items". |
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Hate to mention it,but RPP gets them from GreatPlains /Hobbico / Tower. Glad you do support RPP ! I love both Hang up and Drive |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits If you buy an Axial product, you are still giving Tower/Hobbico business, as they own the Axial brand. The same goes for Vaterra/Horizon Hobby. |
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I understand it's all owned my great planes / hobbico but still profits from Mark ups go to rpp vs tower |
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My original kit has axial frames, shock mounts and axle cases left, my Rtr a little more and my third has axial hardened gears and skid only. The more a look back the more I realize I can build a better truck out of aftermarket parts. So really all this did was give me a nudge toward not buying a rtr/kit again. my business doesn't impact their sales in the grand scheme of it. I'm going to give the smaller companies more consideration when building my next scaler, which is now in the works. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits ^^^ Anyone compared the Hot Racing hardened helical-cut Axial gearsets to the factory versions? They are also available in Std, UD, and OD for OCP AR60 housing sizes. The only difference is they use a M3x2.5x11mm screw pin instead of the stock 3x3. And there are more custom skids out these days than before - although I can't seem to find a Delrin one for the RR10. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits I have the Hot Racing helical diff gears on my Wraith. I bought them back when the Axial ones were significantly more expensive than the Hot Racing ones. They work fine, I've had them for years and I've had no problems. Regarding skids: I'm still using the stock center skid, saw no reason to change it, but I have DMG steel diff skids front and rear, and the amount of scraping on them is unreal. I have no doubt aluminum skids or bare plastic axles would've needed replacing by now. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits Since we are now off topic with the last 2 posts I'll chime in with my Tower experiences this weekend. I am not in the market right now for a Axial rig and I'll never own another Traxxas. With that said, I had a ton of items in my TH shopping cart of non Axial goods. I came back to this thread a few times and disliked the responses TH was giving. So, I spent nearly 10 Ben Frank's on Black Friday Xmas presents but not $1 went to Tower. I understand their hands are tied so to speak but I simply chose to go elsewhere to support other like RPP, circle etc who in the long run support us better. Just my .02 |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits You guys crack me up.. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits I guess I was somewhat off topic, but I was just thinking what non-Axial parts could be subbed for commonly used factory parts: I keep hearing about a tummy-tuck specific RR10 skid, and finally, I found it - at RC Addict. Nice piece, and also available for Wraith tranny conversions either forward or rearward-facing... 3D printed, any color ya want. I ain't necessarily against buying from Tower, but only going to get Axial kits there if there's no other less-expensive option. And I have bought at least half a dozen vehicles from them in the past, including my current Bomber. Started with Tower when I ordered a RC10 GT after getting my Traxxas Rustler from my LHS and wanting to try Nitro... and bought several Tamiyas there and tons of parts. Most of my vehicles prior have been from a hobby shop that I physically went to, including a T-Maxx 1st gen from a 2.5hr drive away because they had the only ones in Texas in stock when the first generation came out. I did make another Tower order the other day for upgrades and materials, should be here any day. I just don't make the money to pay higher prices for the kits and then upgrade them, too! Now I'm ordering from RPP, CKRC, and vendors (either small hobby shops or direct from mfg) directly or through eBay and Amazon. No big deal. I am actually enjoying the hunt for best prices. |
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It's honestly not worth getting into, because I know I won't be changing any ones mind. But, I have worked in and run retail locations for a long time. And recently decided to look into opening a hobby shop. That idea quickly faded when I found out what you need to do to get decent prices from those suppliers. Add in tower being able to under cut you 100% of the time and it was a short lived dream knowing I had about a 7% chance of surviving the first year. Hell I've looked at the SMT at a local shop who matches towers advertised price (before coupon) and then turned around and bought from tower, because why wouldn't I? But at the same time, companies have a right to put policies in place to protect their vendors and their pricing. Am I happy about it? Probably not. Do I understand it? Absolutely. And I will continue to purchase things from places that earn my business. I just might have to buy a little less, but maybe from someplace more local now. I know it's hard to think big picture on anything, and sure I loved saving 70 bucks on a kit or RTR vehicle. But I've also lost almost all the local places to visit now and am having to mail order supplies and such. That is a colossal PITA. It's also a marketing and markup thing. I have worked in hobby shops before, there isn't that much room in a kit/RTR.. all the money is in the parts. Places like Tower and RPP take a hit hoping they earned your business to make the money back on the parts. By all means, you guys can have your own opinions, but just know there is a lot more going into those policies than what's on the surface. And the $10 a hour call center employee you are contacting, probably isn't privileged with that info. That was an awful lot of words for not getting into it huh? |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits Also my last thought for you to consider.. picture one vehicle. Let's pick the axial scx10.2 How many do you think are sold to individuals through tower. And how many do you think are sold to hobby shops all over the country/ world. I bet the hobby shops buy more, and from that logic who's the worse one to have mad? A few people because they can't use a coupon. Or the main buyers because they can't compete with their supplier? I would be willing to bet great planes takes a hit every time a shop closes, you loose that part of the business and guess what? Prices go up or the products disappear. It's not just about taking away your coupon. .. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits Quite accurate and fair..... I still love tower, and my LHS .... I want to keep both. We actually have a national chain opening next week here, a bit exciting as they carry crawler stuff, but that's less business for our local long time LHS Hang up and Drive |
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I don't have a local LHS that offers competitive prices or friendly services so I choose to support online merchants. Axial/HobbiCo/Tower are the same company and they have complete control of the pricing of their products. They just saw what Traxxas did and they followed. Is it their right to do that? Absolutely! But as customers, is it our right to tell them we don't like it? Absolutely! Capitalism is great that way. "thumbsup" |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits I want to know how much the CEO makes a year? My bet is its well in excess of what I deserves to be. I bet that hobbico execs saw what traxxas was doin and immediately thought, we should do this too and "I will make more money and stock options for better performance" I hate this attitude of modern CEO's and company boards who put their income above all else, then they think about share holders, but never think about the end consumer with the exception of how to get them to spend even more money. There comes a time when this BS comes to an end and I hope I get to see it.. The CEO's run to company into bankruptcy just to pad their own nest...hell look at what Ron Johnson did to JC Penny...trying to make it into an apple type of store...the guy is out of touch with the consumers...period. No CEO deserves in excess of a half million dollars a year, plus stock options for millions more, to just head a company. I know that is simplifying it but it still is way too much money. Hell the president of the US only gets 400,000 a year and he has waaaaay more responsibilities he has to do. Dont even get me started on althletes!!! |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits Minimum pricing (MAP) has become a common thing in consumer staples of all types and sectors. We as consumers can voice our opinions to Tower, Axial, Hobbico, Omin, etc all we want. Fact is these companies know when they do these pricing changes there will be a percentage of upset consumers and they have all sorts of models/spreadsheets/data showing what is acceptable to still turn a certain profit. The only way they truly feel the pain is to vote with your dollars and go to another brand not associated with them. As long as people have to buy that latest and greatest model from axial and they line up waiting with open wallets to grab one as soon as its in stock, all is well in their world. You take your money to "brand X" and they start seeing an abundance of inventory, they take notice. GoPro is a prime example of this. Its that simple folks, we can gripe about our coupons and how the pricing sucks but how many people will be lining up for the new scx-10III the next time around? My bet its just as many or more even those of us that are irritated with Tower or Axial. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits Honestly I still like Tower because I can buy everything I think I might need and then return what I don't need, or parts that look like they won't meet my standards, no-questions-asked. That saves me a lot of waiting for additional shipments. |
Re: Tower Hobbies No Coupons on Axial Kits I worked at a local LHS for a short time myself, tried to be as helpful as possible - this was before Axial existed. All we dealt with was Associated, Losi, and some Traxxas - even they weren't huge yet - just had the first gen Bandit/Rustler/Stampede available. I had to move on to make enough to eat! I've seen many examples of companies taking a different tack once they get bigger. I worked for D_E_(double-hockey sticks) Computers back when it was special build-to-order only, you had to pick your exact configuration and then wait for it to be built and shipped to you. No retail sales outlets had them. They were built with quality as the prime concern, and were known as the Lexus (at the time the luxury/quality/reliability king) of computers. Then, they started selling more and more, to where we would have end-of-quarter pushes to meet numbers where our quality control team (of which I was a member) would be told to stop training and policing the manufacturing line and simply join in and get them built as fast as possible. Their reputation quickly began to suffer as end users received less reliable systems, and soon after that the company did the first layoffs of permanent employees in their history. I will only build my own desktop PCs since then, and I only have a laptop because I do the occasional freelance tech support job at someone's house and bring it with me. I used to buy Doc Martens from the only place in Austin that sold them, a tiny converted house downtown that was called Atomic City - they sold punk rock t-shirts, inflatable Godzillas, Anime toys, and the like as well. The guy that owned it was one of the first guys I knew that was tattooed from his neck to the wrists and he was called Prince. Middle-aged guy, very down-to-earth. He would have the craziest special edition Docs in patterns that were really cool - and everyone went there. Then Doc Martens got huge and stopped giving him the same prices because they were selling to every bland big-box clothing chain in town. He quit selling them and switched to even better shoes like Fluevogs for style & comfort and Gripfasts for the punks. Much earlier than that - after I got out of the Marines I got a job at a small discount mall a ways outside of Austin proper. It had really boring little shops in it - but when I was there helping my mother carry out some large flower pots (yeah, that kind of place!) I saw they were opening a music store soon, so I applied. It was owned by this guy who wasn't even old enough to drink - he was given the cash by his great aunt to invest or something, and he got a bartender friend that would let him drink at his bar to be the manager. I was hired on the spot and helped set the store up - this was in the days when we had records in big bins in the center and the walls were floor to 6 feet up nothing but cassettes. I remember when we got the first CDs in, it was just a couple dozen titles - classics like Santana and Pink Floyd. Anyway - we weren't doing well because unlike the other stores we were NOT selling at a discount. People were getting their music elsewhere. I got the idea to ask the owner if I could have a corner of the shop and order in skateboard stuff (cause I was a huge skater at the time) and he said to go ahead and order enough to build a dozen. He said we'd see how it would go from there and I just told all the skater rats that lived nearby about it and their parents were so happy they didn't have to drive all the way into downtown for this stuff I sold all of it by the end of the first weekend. Turned the back 3rd of the store into a proper skate shop and had ramps built by myself, the skaters, and their dads over a couple weekends and held monthly contests out in the far corner of the parking lot. I went on to another job because the manager was an idiot and the owner was clueless - and they got some Cali transplant to take over and he was never nice to the younger kids or the parents - was too cool for any of that and since it had been what was bringing in the money because music wasn't selling at their desired prices they ended up closing shortly thereafter. Someone I used to be a very close friend and coworker of decided to open her own music store many years later and because Target, Kmart, Walmart, Borders, and Barnes and Noble all were selling tons of music by then she couldn't get low enough prices to be competitive. I worked there for a couple years and it was terrible watching her dreams spiral into a nightmare. At least she had regular income to fall back on from investments. Last I heard she works at Apple, pretty high up. Point is, I know from experience (also worked at a big local VHS rental shop that went under because you could rent at grocery stores by then, and for BookStop that got absorbed by Barnes & Noble and shuttered) that you can easily make all kinds of mistakes with a business. I won't work retail anymore - no way. Way too old for that drama and low pay, even when I was the manager or asst. mgr at a few of the places. However, my LHS is a big chain that carries kits and RTRs only of crawlers (no parts) and while they will order me something, I'd rather order it myself, find a better deal, and not have to worry about them even knowing what I'm talking about. I do better research than they do as to what's available and compatible. I have many more vendors to choose from. I don't have to drive there to pick it up, or worry if they put it on the shelf or misplaced it before I get there. Every time I do go in there for something non-crawler specific, I search all over the store because nothing is on the right hooks. I see stuff on the wall behind the counters and can't even browse it because it's too far away. Screw that. The internet IS the future for specialty items. I can see how the LHS stays open, because kids drag their parents there and they just buy them an RTR and come back for replacement parts. The store is mostly Traxxas, and I know that is because they sell like crazy. I had my fun with Traxxas, too - but they don't make anything that appeals to me anymore except the Slash and I've already had one. Tower isn't actually what a scaler or crawler enthusiast would refer to as a specialty retailer. They have lots of hop-ups for vehicles that run on groomed tracks, paved surfaces, and pure bashers. They do have a lot of support equipment. I will buy from them again. But - unless they get products in the future that change my mind, at a price that I CAN'T beat elsewhere, then no kits or RTRs from them. Damn - that was long-winded. You'd think this was politics. Anyways - Tower certainly doesn't need the likes of us grumblers buying complete vehicles from them to survive. They have plenty of business already. |
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the local store never completed the renovations. there are huge areas where they just left the bare concrete and the overhead structure was never put back in. All you see it bare steel structure, and rough concrete floor with a half assed attempt to mitigate the tripping hazard it created. Walmart decided years ago to stop carrying a locally made ice cream in favor of stocking their own Great Value brand of crap Ice milk...then they decided that the 5 ft Christmas tree they always had allowed the local salvation army to place in the store was not allowed anymore. I asked the store manager where the tree was and he said that it took up valuable floor space and was no longer going to be there. I said, well, I am no longer going to be here either, if you cant support the local manufacturers and the local charities, then I will never again support your company. I know many of you probably think so what... I didn't make any difference to the manager and my dollars exiting their store didn't hurt them in the least. I for one would like to think that the manager had at least a fleeting thought as to why I felt this way. Never the less, one of these days enough of us will vote with our dollars and they will feel the impact, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day they will. As for my thoughts on the impact I had...I felt I made a difference and I can sleep at night very well knowing I made my feelings known and it gives me great pleasure to know that the companies who act this way will never get another dollar of my money. the local Ice cream maker came very close to going under as Walmart was their biggest customer, but I am pleased to say they picked up a fair amount of local business when the story ran about Walmart, and they stayed open and actually expanded slightly. I like to think that enough of us had made our feelings known and helped them stay in business. So on that note, as I stated before, I wont buy any axial kits, rtr, or even parts from tower hobbies, hobbico or what have you, that also goes for traxxas. I will support the after market vendors or buy used parts through the classifieds. Maybe it wont make any difference, but I am betting it will..I spent an average of between 2,000 to 2,500 a year for the last few years on this hobby between new vehicles and parts from tower and other companies with tower getting 90% of that money. I wont be doing that anymore. |
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