Talking of Hobby Centre, did they close down the store in Mall of the Emirates or is it being revamped?

i think he will be interested if he see you guys playing, hope he can support Dubdrift lets pray for that...

Thats great news Andy! I think hes the right person to talk to, lucky you had a chat with him, I was there as well last week and I saw a few items for the mini, youre right sometimes they have something to offer, and I guess they still have a lot of old stock parts for tamiya, problem is you have to give them the part no. and the stuff they have on display is difficult to see, I spent an hour staring at the parts hanging on the wall just to see what parts I could buy, plus the people there are too lazy to find parts for you if you dont have the part no. I hope they have a better setup in their upcoming shop.

The Mall of the Emirates shop is closed, and I didn't ask if it was re-opening, but I seriously doubt it. I expect that the rents are pretty high in these stores and to have 2 of them open may not make commercial sense.

I also expect that prices will be fairly high in comparison to what you will find on the net, but as I explained to him yesterday, people will always be prepared to pay the extra (within reason) to be able to 'touch and feel' what they are buying. If they do their research I expect that he would be able to keep costs down by avoiding buying parts that will not sell, and this is where we could be a valuable resource to him by giving feedback and wish-lists..

Tamiya corp is not an easy company to deal with, and I have heard this through many sources, both locally and internationally, one of the problems is the minimum order quantities they impose on their disti's. Factor the cost of shipping in small deliveries and shop rentals and suddenly prices are silly. So, if we help the hobby shops, they will be able to plan their materials better and we get a better supply and MARGINALLY better prices than what we see at the moment..

We also need to consider that a lot of the shops cater for NITRO, planes, heli's and a lot of other hobbies....especially the people who dont want hobby-grade products....just toys! So we make up a small community compared to whats happening out there...but we could still be a valuable resource.

I dont want to step on JJ Drift shop toes, but you can all be very sure that if we support the shops, they will see the benefit of helping us.

I mentioned our website, but did not point him to it YET. I will however invite him to join us on a Saturday to see what we do. I hope, that he is supportive, but we should keep mention of JJ activities to a minimum, ultimately this is COMPETITION to him...so lets be smart about this, right
If we do get them involved, perhaps JJshop could be done via a mailing list? Again, not trying to disrupt the supply and demand amongst us that is being well catered for within our group (well done to the guys for taking the initiative) but the laws of the land here are a little different to what we are all used to, if you get my drift. (I have waited so long to use that phrase on this site....DRIFT! get it?) LOL

no OBJECTIONS there andy. i would love to support LHS here in Dubai but since obtaining parts there are either high or out of stock, Jon and I came up with JJ shop. If this pushes through, and prices are reasonable plus the availability of parts, then i dont see any reason to continue JJ shop. i can even help Hobby Centre with there parts through RCMART as I have a good relationship with them :geek:

i agree with papi ian

we will recognize them if they will recognize us also

Agreed,

It is very much a TWO-WAY STREET in this regard. We all know that HC setup the track at Creek Park, and I believe they over-estimated how much useage they would get out of it. I know that the main requirement from the Parks Board was to attract people and create a fun, family environment. The demise if the track was probably due to lack of management and promotion but all of these take money. What we do know is that HC were prepared to invest.
If they were to invest again, they would likely want to do some research on how to go about it and manage it. We can help with the research, and we can help with organising events, what we cannot do is raise and manage the financial part.....thats their department.

As mentioned before, it is a supply and demand thing, if they can supply what we want, it will be mutually beneficial. I think the idea of getting supplies from RCmart would be good for them, for small/er orders, and perhaps through arrangement with RCmart, any kickbacks could come the way of JJ and Dubdrift....and it would all be 'above board' from a legal perspective....

Let's see what happens. I think next week I will extend an invitation (on behalf of Dubdrift) to come and see what we are doing.

This weekend though....LETS RACE, RIDE and RAFFLE!!

whaddyathink?

i guess i will be visiting dubai mall on the 1st of december, i sure hope they would be true to their words about having a lot of tamiya parts. when i say parts its those hopups we keep ordering over the net and not just spares. when that time comes that is when i think we wont be doin online orders, except for those really hard to find parts of course.

it would be good to see HC interested in supporting a small group like ours, were nothing compared to the number of current nitro guys that already supports HC. maybe one reason thats why the track at creekpark got bulldozed.. most of the customers are in the desert lol

really hoping they would get back in supporting on-road rc and the very best thing i could think of right now is a permanent track.. indoors or outdoors, it doesnt really matter, what matters is we can freely enjoy our hobby without having worries of getting kicked out again by the dubai municipality

btw are we ready to do the raffle?

Hey Jay, youre itching for a touring car i suppose, would you like to buy my winning ticket?

RECKRACING wrote:

Hey Jay, youre itching for a touring car i suppose, would you like to buy my winning ticket?

yup just getting ready for the HC touring track lol
no need for your ticket, the winning tickets with me

so what chassi you have in mind? you should get another driftcar and use your EVO on the GT.

so the TB02 will de the drifter and the EVO will be the GT car right?

lets not talk about me getting the tb02.. it might jinx my ticket lol
i want a belt driven chassis for the GTmayhem

dont worry I'l sell it to you after the draw lol!

@ jay... just buy benjie's 03F :geek:

jebolution wrote:

@ jay... just buy benjie's 03F :geek:

already asked him but his not selling it, he said he will back soon

The new shop is open, I was there last night after the cinema....there are NO new Tamiya kits, all the displays are from the MOE shop and the Airport Rd shop....and no parts are on display..

Looks like Baja and nitro trucks are the order of the day....


Nothing to see here....please disperse the crowds.....nothing to see here...LOL

so sad to hear. . . . . .

Yep....I certainly dont expect to undermine the owners business plans, but my own thoughts on it would be different. The hobby requires less 'grandeur' than being placed in the biggest, shiniest mall in Dubai....I reckon that rent money would have been much better spent on a small facility that has an on-road and off-road track, a small shop that does repairs and spares..as well as a small budget to run/maintain.....

Oh well, each to his own as they say... :-)

maybe they have plans on making a track on the roofdeck parking..
in manila theres one like this.. hobby shop at the malls groundfloor and a race track on the roofdeck

wake up jay!!! lol

altimeters wrote:

maybe they have plans on making a track on the roofdeck parking..
in manila theres one like this.. hobby shop at the malls groundfloor and a race track on the roofdeck

wake up jay!!! lol

i think its still there ....... parksquare ........ whoooopeeeee

cathurga wrote:

The new shop is open, I was there last night after the cinema....there are NO new Tamiya kits, all the displays are from the MOE shop and the Airport Rd shop....and no parts are on display..

Looks like Baja and nitro trucks are the order of the day....


Nothing to see here....please disperse the crowds.....nothing to see here...LOL

Finally, I dont believe it....

Not surprising that they dont have anything new......

They stocked up on baja's and nitro cause its the quick and easy way too make money.....i wonder if they actually have parts for the bajas and nitros....

i wonder too,

after the baja dune festival, i need a whole new front suspension arrangement, i broke mine after a BIG 10 meter drop heheh

wow thats as high as a three storey building man! lol
hope you get your replacement asap bro

@HC maybe ill visit the new hobby center when they get their new shipments..
and i hope there are some for EP kits atleast hehe