Hobbico files for Bankrupcy

[chris15005]

Long term, I expect Arrma to be around. Short term (thru this summer?) I don't expect to see much change either. But that middle ground I worry about. After the CH11 really gets going, and for the first year of "NewCo", I worry we go get stuck like HPI folks the last year or two. With that in mind, I bought a small pile of spares from Ebay....

As an added bonus, now I have enough Kraton spares to wide-mod my Tyhon. hehehehehe....

Is Arrma part of Hobbico i thought i read they were based in the UK ?

 

[ssmiljanic]

Has anyone tried contacting Arrma/Hobbico customer support? Are all operations suspended, meaning is it smart to buy up spares if they will be in short supply? Certainly would hold off buying a Hobbico product in the near future.

 

[slick2500]

Guys calm down Arrma is not going anywhere. As long as Ripmax doesn't buy out Hobbico everything should be okay. It might be a little shaky here for awhile but I do not foresee any of the bigger Hobbico brands going anyplace.

 

[RC_Kiwi]

Well this kinda sucks, just got back into RC after an extended break (almost 8 years) and my first kit is an Outcast..... been a fun 3 weeks, I will be super disappointed if Arrma goes under.

 

[digitaldude80]

So, what’s the scoop on ARRMA? Or Hobbico in general? When I do have inside info, I post about it. Now sometimes it is thickly veiled, but I try to word it so that other people in the know actually get it. The info I have at the moment is that this does not effect ARRMA as much because of how they are setup in Europe. From what we have been told, ARRMA does not fall under the Chapter 11. I don’t know how this works, I’m not a big business guy, I don’t get a lot of that stuff, don’t quote me as some defense, but this is what I was told. I think a lot of this was a shock to many people over there, and they are still trying to figure things out. This does not mean Hobbico is closing shop. They still exist, they still have products to sell, and everyone there is still working. We do not have much other info than that. I’m sure over the next few weeks we will learn a lot more.

source:
http://www.bigsquidrc.com/ask-cubby-one-question-one-answer/

 

[Unusual RC]

No worries for at least the Arrma brand! They are situated in Europe, so they still exist and continue their operation.

But it is not going well in the RC business.

 

[EndUser]

Do you have any recommendations regarding sourcing Arrma parts in the short-term? Tower Hobbies has always been a reliable source for me (if things weren't out of stock or on back order), but I'm reluctant to use them now that they're in this mess. Are there any other online hobby stores that have a wide selection of Arrma parts like Tower?

Regards,

EndUser

 

[slick2500]

eBay, Amazon, amain hobbies, jennys rc

 

[Jerry-rigged]

eBay, Amazon, amain hobbies, jennys rc

This.

I made a big JRC / Lumidave parts buy the day the news broke. I still have some diff cases in my cart with Dave, I should really hit the buy button.

 

[WoodiE]

While this is bad news for the hobby, the largest company in the hobby filing for bankrupcy, this doesn't mean the RC world is coming to an end. The doors at Hobbico are still open and the people at Hobbico are still coming in and going to work. I have no doubt things are going to change, they have to - that's pretty much the whole point of a chapter 11 bankrupcy.

I certainly don't see their highly popular brands like Axial going anywhere, at most sold off to another company, but certainly not closing down. Arrma doesn't seem to be effected as the company is based in UK. Even still Arrma has become such a popular brand, if we pretended they where in the USA - I still don't believe they'd close - at the most be sold off.

At this point while many people, blogs, and other sites will tell you they have some inside information - I would recommend people to just relax and wait and see. Things are still way to early and a chapter 11 doesn't play out overnight.

I'm hoping Hobbico can get their debts in order, learn from this, and become better ran than in the past.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Arrma doesn't seem to be effected as the company is based in UK. Even still Arrma has become such a popular brand, if we pretended they where in the USA - I still don't believe they'd close - at the most be sold off...

I don't know a lot about bankruptcy, but I have seen the above mentioned by several people. Does it really matter that Arrma Durango Ltd is based in the UK, when they are wholly owned by the USA company undergoing bankruptcy? Seems to me (layman) that AD Ltd., is just another line item in the "assets" column, where the asset is located should not really matter.

 

[MyZuC]

Regardless if Hobbico survives or Arrma gets bought out, history has proven a period of slow to no parts production, ie HPI. Bankruptcy process for companies can take a while to play out and during this period the supply chain organization(which normally has the highest overhead cost) almost always slows down as finance restructuring takes place. The parts on backorder now, regardless top seller status (arrma/axial), IMHO will be slow to fill while they are working out their financial strategy going forward.

 

[Steve]

While this is bad news for the hobby, the largest company in the hobby filing for bankrupcy, this doesn't mean the RC world is coming to an end. The doors at Hobbico are still open and the people at Hobbico are still coming in and going to work. I have no doubt things are going to change, they have to - that's pretty much the whole point of a chapter 11 bankrupcy.

I certainly don't see their highly popular brands like Axial going anywhere, at most sold off to another company, but certainly not closing down. Arrma doesn't seem to be effected as the company is based in UK. Even still Arrma has become such a popular brand, if we pretended they where in the USA - I still don't believe they'd close - at the most be sold off.

At this point while many people, blogs, and other sites will tell you they have some inside information - I would recommend people to just relax and wait and see. Things are still way to early and a chapter 11 doesn't play out overnight.

I'm hoping Hobbico can get their debts in order, learn from this, and become better ran than in the past.

Nicely said Woodie!
I'm not holding back one bit on ordering from Tower or parts for my Arrmas!
And still thinking of getting that 4X4 Granite!

 

[slick2500]

Regardless if Hobbico survives or Arrma gets bought out, history has proven a period of slow to no parts production, ie HPI. Bankruptcy process for companies can take a while to play out and during this period the supply chain organization(which normally has the highest overhead cost) almost always slows down as finance restructuring takes place. The parts on backorder now, regardless top seller status (arrma/axial), IMHO will be slow to fill while they are working out their financial strategy going forward.

Hpi got bought out by Ripmax which is from my understanding and the little bit of reading I did on them a terrible company.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

So, for the past week, lots of people (and myself) have been saying "Tower may go away, but Arrma/Axial will get bought and stick around" But the more I think on it, the more I wonder, Who?

Who can pick them up and keep them a top level brand? Would Amain/hobbytown or another big retail chain want to take that on, knowing the pressure from China vendors? Ripmax, I feel, would be out - they are still trying to come to terms with their new HPI baby. Thundertiger? or another bigger china brand? maybe, but just for prophet off the current line, I don't see any new models coming out.

I hear Traxxas and Horizon throw out a lot - but Traxxas - I could see them wanting Axial, (they only have a very few scalers) but I think they would like to see Arrma burn. As for HH - Arrma and Axial are direct competition to their Losi and Vaterra brands, so I don't see that happening. Who else is out there? Other than someone that decides they want to jump into the hobby with a big pile of cash.

 

[slick2500]

I don't see Tower Hobbies going away.
I see brands like Dromida and Duratrax going the way of the dodo though.

As far as who picks them up, maybe they can split off into their own companies and distribute their own stuff like Hoboa does. Or combine into a new company idk.

4 hour and 35 min drive to the closest Hobby Town

 

[Steve]

I suspect most of us at AF just roll, with a few who also float or fly.
I was doing a lot of floating when taking monthly trips to San Diego to check in on Pop, filling some time jumping waves by the beach with a Feilun Ft009.
To the point, it appears from Hobbico's website, a large part of their business is the fly part of RC.
About a year and half more ago, read they were struggling because their fly division wasn't have the sales as projected from a longer than normal snow season in the Snowbelt.
There's gotta be a bunch of fly-RCers, who similar to us, who are just as concerned over this.
Since every little bit helps, I would encourage us to go to Tower before AMain, Amazon or eBay.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

For as long as I have been in the hobby (30+ years) every hobby shop I have been to that did not have a track, was mostly a flyer shop. My local shop just went OOB, they were 50/50. My next closest local shop is about 80/20, flyer/ground.

 

[slick2500]

My lhs is a mix of everything, trains, models, model rockets, boats, planes, arts and crafts, kites ect. And the guy who owns the hobby shop also owns a store that sells just board games. Apparently we have enough people in Rapid City SD that play board games that we have an entire store dedicated to board games.

 

[Jlolley]

The thing I notice is there is a lot of stuff from all brands out of stock.

I continue to order from them and really wish them the best