Kraton Kraton parts?

[EAGLELITE]

What’s with Tower? I’m looking for parts for my kraton,,,,,95% of the parts are all on back order. It must be a real slow boat from somewhere,,,

 

[Black Label Society]

i don't think its tower, i think its hobbico. the lawsuit and bankruptcy has them in a holding pattern i believe....

 

[jrwalte]

Parts are out just about everywhere. Tower says they'll get mostly back to normal in April.

VortexHobbies still had decent stock a couple weeks ago.

 

[RCROD]

Tower was showing many parts to be in stock by mid to late February, and that is now past. No matter what is going on in the courts, Hobbico, or Arrma must at least try to stock some more parts in the hobby stores. If parts are available, Arrma will sell a lot more vehicles, as many possible buyers are probably sitting on the sidelines waiting...

 

[jrwalte]

if vendors are unwilling to give arrma a credit line to provide the parts and they have to pay up front cash instead because of what is going on, that would greatly impact arrma's ability to get parts to their customers. Not saying this is what is happening, but it could be.

 

[RCROD]

if vendors are unwilling to give arrma a credit line to provide the parts and they have to pay up front cash instead because of what is going on, that would greatly impact arrma's ability to get parts to their customers. Not saying this is what is happening, but it could be.

jrwalte, good point. If this is the case, it would definitely have a huge impact on parts availability.

 

[RCROD]

This is what I just received back from Hobbico regarding Arrma's parts availability.

I actually do not have a lot of information. the biggest points f information
are the facts that Arrma's mother company is going through Chapter 11, the sale
of the company, so the banks have a financial bind on what we can get imported.
You have to remember Hobbico, and all its subsidiaries, is just a North
American distributor so if they don't have the funding from the banks to pay
for things to be imported, or support from the manufacturers, then it restricts
our ability to support customers like yourself.

I hope you find this information helpful.

 

[Mongoose]

Pfff, it doesn't friggin matter if they DO finally get parts in. The amount they get probably won't be enough to last more than 2 weeks tops before they are out of stock again and then have to wait another month.

A.) People are going to buy more than usual to stock up.

B.) Tons of people will be ordering because they have had to wait. For example, say they sell 100 of something a month on average, now that everyone has had to wait 2 or 3 months now that number goes up to 200-300 off the bat because the flow is screwed up which will cause things to go out of stock with a quickness.

I want some friggin backflip tires man and I know that if I don't know exactly when they hit the site then I miss them. It's aggravating. It's not Arrmas fault, it's the gready exec's of Hobbico.

 

[EAGLELITE]

Pfff, it doesn't friggin matter if they DO finally get parts in. The amount they get probably won't be enough to last more than 2 weeks tops before they are out of stock again and then have to wait another month.

A.) People are going to buy more than usual to stock up.

B.) Tons of people will be ordering because they have had to wait. For example, say they sell 100 of something a month on average, now that everyone has had to wait 2 or 3 months now that number goes up to 200-300 off the bat because the flow is screwed up which will cause things to go out of stock with a quickness.

I want some friggin backflip tires man and I know that if I don't know exactly when they hit the site then I miss them. It's aggravating. It's not Arrmas fault, it's the gready exec's of Hobbico.

 

[EAGLELITE]

I’m getting kind of leary about armma lately.just wondering if they go out of business or sell to someone that will scrimp on quality,,,,,if that’s the case,,I’ll change to someone else that doesn’t have the problems they do. You never know in this business....

 

[Megasty]

To tell the truth, Arrma cars are only here because of Hobbico. Arrma is UK based & sold out of the UK for years with their Team Durango race line & 1/10 cars. Being brought over to the states by Hobbico as a distributor allowed Arrma to grow and shift their Team Durango designs over to the basher 1/8 cars we have today. Due to Hobbico's BS, Arrma has shifted all their faculties to the Arrma lineup which has caused a great strain on the company. Arrma's UK headquarters only had to deal with worldwide distribution which is a fraction of what Hobbico provided stateside. Now Arrma has to do everything until Hobbico figures out what they want to do.

Just understand that Arrma has only depended on Hobbico stateside. Hobbico has never assisted Arrma in any kind of functionality outside of North America.

This has affected not only parts, but car production as a whole. Car availability is down which also means the car breakers which some of us have depended on for cheaper part bundles are running out of cars to part. Most other RC companies always had trouble with parts due to not being in-line with large distributors. Hobbico want to preserve as much of this main RC chain as they can but they are running out of options. We have definitely had it good until now because of Hobbico. Even car & parts distribution in the UK has always been slow & costly & that's Arrma home turf. Everyone I have interacted with outside of this country views our past situation as a RC golden time. The fact that we even have other outlets for parts such as eBay & 3rd parties is still worlds over what is available in the rest of the world. Hell, even Traxxas is have parts & demand issues with some of the recent vehicles they released. We just have to survive this storm. The entire hobby is hurting right now because of Hobbico & we just have to deal with it.

 

[jrwalte]

Hobbico isn't just the distributor for Arrma, though. They own them.

It's right at the bottom of Arrma's webpage " 2018 ARRMA Durango Ltd. A subsidiary of Hobbico, Inc."

But I'm sure someone will buy Arrma. They are successful enough to have interested buyers. An auction is coming up Mar 26th, according to local paper where Hobbico is.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-03-13/hobbico-hopes-find-buyer-auction-set-march-26.html

 

[Megasty]

Hobbico isn't just the distributor for Arrma, though. They own them.

It's right at the bottom of Arrma's webpage " 2018 ARRMA Durango Ltd. A subsidiary of Hobbico, Inc."

But I'm sure someone will buy Arrma. They are successful enough to have interested buyers. An auction is coming up Mar 26th, according to local paper where Hobbico is.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-03-13/hobbico-hopes-find-buyer-auction-set-march-26.html

It's not that simple. I have enough inside information I cannot disclose to know how much stake Hobbico has in Arrma. In simple terms it's naming rights under the brand but that does not come to full ownership. Arrma conducts business as a separate entity outside of Hobbico corporate influence but all business transactions and interests are under the name of Hobbico. Hobbico did this to avoid the ridiculous taxes required with an American company acquiring a UK based company. This is also why Arrma still conducts all business outside of the US themselves. Hobbico's new owners will have a considerable mess on their hands when dealing with the majority of Hobbico's brands.

As a side note, the Hobbico bankruptcy is how Arrma basically enacted a stay on the Traxxas lawsuit (w/o actually filing for bankruptcy themselves), which is still in effect.

 

[Mongoose]

I just came from LHS and one of the guys said Hobbico was just bought out but he didn't know who bought them. Anyone heard this?

 

[Megasty]

I just came from LHS and one of the guys said Hobbico was just bought out but he didn't know who bought them. Anyone heard this?

There's no "who". It's more like a group that bought out certain sections that will more than likely still have to function as a whole. All I know is that it's more than 100 buyers

 

[Black Label Society]

im starting to question buying the Kraton....this doesn't sound good one bit.

 

[Megasty]

im starting to question buying the Kraton....this doesn't sound good one bit.

Regardless of the situation, as soon as you drive it those questions will fly away as fast as the truck

 

[RCROD]

I agree with Megasty. I knew the problems with Hobbico, etc, but still bought two new Arrma's; a V3 Talion & V3 Kraton. I definitely don't regret it, as I'm having a blast with both. Just pin it (full throttle) & never look back...

 

[Glenngaucigrech]

Im Im watching this thread like a a lonely old lady behind a curtain .. (nothing to say but ears wide open) hope it gets solved soon as im im starting to regret my v3 kraton purchase ..

 

[Mongoose]

Why are you regretting it? Parts won't be an issue...I was worried until I talked to my LHS guys...things will pick up. They way they put it is it all hinges on the Chinese New Year...everything shuts down for a month, then once they are back to work it takes another month to get goods moving through production at a normal level. Then we have 2-3 weeks for shipping over the water. Hang in there. Arrma isn't going anywhere. It's like retiring a NFL MVP Rookie of the Year after his first season....just doesn't make sense to do it. Arrma is on top right now, they have cracked the armor of a giant, Traxxas, so much so that now Traxxas is rethinking their whole line. Look at the new Revo 2.0. For years they spit out subpar RC's for top $ knowing they will need replacement parts. They basically invented the current RTR business plan and they made money hand over fist for years until good 'ole Arrma comes along with their BLX line and completely knocked their feet out from under them. If it weren't for Arrma I highly doubt we would have an updated Revo. If it weren't for Arrma I doubt Traxxas would be buying up patents, they weren't threatened by any other player until now. So yeah, rich people, investors can easily see that and know that it's not time to retire this MVP yet.