Tamiya don't like Mod Clods!

[netsmithuk]

I was talking to the official UK Distributor of Tamiya goods the other day and the topic moved onto Mod Clods (basically by me trying to scam a bunch of free spares[;)] ) and the main man there was saying that Tamiya absolutely hated the whole Mod Clod scene, seeing it as a bastardization of the Tamiya brand - one of the reasons they never helped it along by selling just gear box sets as spares. I'd normally just dismiss this as a bit of idle chit chat but the man I was talking knows Mr Tamiya well enough to have bought him a 1:1 F1 race for a birthday present a few years back!!

I find it a bit odd because on the other hand they actively encourage people to mess around with static models, reshaping the people adding new bits etc.

I guess at the end of the day, who cares?


Discuss.

Chris

[CrawlinForLife]

I don't see that as being completely true. I mean do you think the Clod would have been around as long as it has if everyone kept them box stock?

[bulletproofcustoms]

Originally Posted by CrawlinForLife

I don't see that as being completely true. I mean do you think the Clod would have been around as long as it has if everyone kept them box stock?

lol no shiznik...I personally think stock clods look like crap...and most LHS dnt even carry any parts for them..

LOL I guess I would be pissed off also if ppl only wanted to destroy my product just to salvage a couple of good parts off it and trash the rest....dats funny though...

who cares what they think

[netsmithuk]

I think its true enough (apart from be as close to 'from the horses mouth' as it could be) its not hard to see that Tamiya have never encouraged it in any way shape or form other than their limited cosmetic 'hop-ups'. They also entered teams and sponsored events in just about every other form of RC racing - but not crawling. They are just very very posessive about their brand. I guess they see these models being identified as Tamiya clodbusters but infact the only bit they had a hand in is the gear case.

The Clods had a long run, but so have others like the Pumpkin - both as bad as each other for anything serious. But then again its easy to think the whole world thinks like us - ie you see a clod and you mod it. Fact is of the hundreds of thousands sold by far the majority will be built and ran stock, then stuffed into the bottom of a wardrobe once the owner hits puberty.

The mod clod crawler market seems big from the inside but from the outside world its almost negligiable to the main manufaturers - loads of stock owners don't know it even exists. I know a few companies make quite a nice living from it like ESP, thundertech etc but these are small fry compared to companies like Tamiya.

Still I always liked being a member of a select club

Chris

[Jam1sstang]

Who cares what they think ! Does your SUV/TRUCK manufacturer complain about people modifying there vehicles. No, they make more parts for them to appeal to the market.
A stock CLOD is cool for a while, but it can't compare to any of the new Monster trucks on the market today, and so it is modified.

[netsmithuk]

Absolutely - was just raising it as a interesting bit of gossip

Like I said a the beginning it doesn't really make any difference. No ones trying to argue that the stock clod is comparable runner to the mod ones.

Its interesting though that most people still call them "mod clods" even though there are next to no parts left from the original clod apart from the gear cases. Never did quite understand that but thats a different debate

[Distressed]

well if this is true then everyone should not say that their crawler is a "clod based crawler" just say it is a custom made crawler. Then they can't complain about degrading their product.

[TerribleOne]

Well modding trucks is just progression in general...i remember when the juggy came out and some guy just took the axles and made a ladder frame with canti's a some how tamiya saw it and bought the design and now that is the txt....and even if it is a modded clod ..its still says Clod Buster on the knuckles..

[DirkDigler]

This is very hard to believe.
I really doubt that anyone at Tamiya, passionately hates the modification of any of their products. If this person is so high on the food chain, I really doubt that he gives a rats ass about what people do to their products after they buy them. All he should care about is IF they are buying them.

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by WannaBeDigler

All he should care about is IF they are buying them.

DING DING DING!

Shit, I'd think they'd LOVE us buying all their trucks.

Although I don't find it hard to believe they have issues with it, after all... why haven't they just sold extra gear boxes? Then again, if I owned a shop and people just wanted one part of a package, but the entire package was cheap enough that 3/4 of the people still bought them.... I probably wouldn't sell just axles either.

[badtodabone]

Hey Terrible that guy is Kevin Hetmanski from rc car action.

[Highmark]

Tamiya Japan is a wierd ass company, from everything I've read on the forums they do indeed hate mod clods in any way shap or form. But Tamiya America has sponsered/competed in the NRCTPA worlds a few times with juggs and clods so go figure. I think Tamiya Japan doesnt really take notice of whats going on the market, in fact it took the guy who designed the TLT-1 something like a year to get them to give the go-ahead to even build a prototype in the heat of the "miny" truck market 8O

[gooba]

hey guys there was an article in caraction bout a year ago about 3 guys FROM TAMIYA were sent to the worlds BY TAMIYA with mod clods to compete. i know its not crawling but they were mod clods in competition.

[Oz Bruiser]

Originally Posted by Hulksta

Last time an xr10 was there two losi's made 1st n 2nd

Lol. I havent seen the new rig in action yet, but ill have to admit after seeing Jakesy XR vid on RCC, his XR looking very Dialled in mate

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

[cartronicshn]

Dude, i have no idea how you managed to get your post crossed over onto this 8 year old thread

[DickyT]

Originally Posted by cartronicshn

Dude, i have no idea how you managed to get your post crossed over onto this 8 year old thread

In an unrelated section too

[EeePee]

Alcohol related, no doubt.

Or, silly Australians.

Probably the latter.

[701 Technique]

Yeah so how about them mod clods heh?