The Chinese, Helping Or Hurting The Hobby???

[Westy]

foamies ... take a fair beating ... and you can glue them all back together

On the heli side .... I agree with Lee ..... research and you will get a decent heli ..... Tarot make decent clone helis they even make a decent DFC Head for the 450 too..... Also KDS to a reasonable job too with thier later stuff .... the earlier models of KDS are complete junk! .... try and get a heli with a metal Quality Head.

 

[murankar]

Hate to say this but my entire head is plastic and metal. What's crazy is alsaadi can tear the hell out of my kit without issues.

After seeing him fly the protos mini I was hooked. It feels awesome knowing I have a top notch kit in my small collection.

 

[RandyDSok]

Anyone saying that balsa can't be easily repaired... doesn't know what they are talking about. If you crash either a balsa or a foamy, both will sustain damage and I don't have any more trouble fixing the balsa than I would have had if the model had been foam.

 

[Tony]

I agree with Randy. If you crash balsa, the pieces break, and like foam, will only go back together one way. And with some thin CA, it will be stronger than it was before you crashed.

 

[treff]

I think we all have to face the facts. We live in a small world and it's getting smaller by the day. We have a global economy. That means stuff made in down town Frisco to down town Wangdong province to where ever is sold on a ever increasing market place on every street corner of the globe. You are going to get some rubbish. Wether that rubbish comes from China, Wales, USA or any other country on this planet. There will always be someone trying for the quick buck. The trick in this hobby as in life is to spot the crap before you hand over you hard earned. When we are caught and everyone is at sometime is to move on, put it down to the rich tapestry of life............then.................go down to the field and fly the bejesus out of what ever your using.........enjoy..........life is to short to look back.

 

[Lee]

Well said Treff.

 

[Slobberdog]

Here here Lee, well said Treff

 

[joeosborn]

Ok, now for the new guys .02. I currently own two planes made in China. Both electric, both foam. Why did I get them? I wanted them and they were cheap "er.... Inexpensive" That's the bottom line. I wanted to get in to the hobby, and see if I had the actual ability in order to pursue this further. Yes, I am looking in to building a foam model of my own first because I enjoy doing that and later on I do want to get in to a nice Balsa kit with a glow engine. But that will come in time I am sure.

The one thing that I see and have seen no matter what it is that I have dealt with, be it cars, Motorcycles, firearms or what have you. Every country has their craftsmen, and every country has their swindlers. That is just human nature. I agree with what Treff said. being someone like me that has little to no experience, I am sure that if I haven't already been taken on some of my purchases, it will more than likely happen soon. All you can do is hope and pray that you make the right choices and move on.

 

[Tony]

Nicely put Joe!

When I started this thread, I was seriously pissed off at the quality of china. I almost had my eye taken out from a tail blade that flew off right at me. That got me thinking as to if China and the knockoff's were actually helping the hobby. I mean, people buy them, build them, fly them, they break, and they are right back in the same boat. This is the reason for this thread.

I do realize that there is no way that China is going to go away any time soon without action from the US government putting import restrictions on that country. Would I like to see China start to make better quality "clones"? Hell yes I would. I hate seeing members come here with cuts from flying parts and being scared that something else is going to happen. But we just have to face the fact that this is how the hobby is growing and it's growing fast because of it.

Because of this, I have rethought the way I run this forum and also the way that I'm going to do my videos. I have a video series directed straight towards what this thread talks about. I should have the first of the videos up this weekend if all goes well.

 

[RC nut]

hi guys,
I know that some of us have experience with Hobby King and other on-line sites for RC hobby toys and parts.
I have bought airplanes from them from their Durafly line. Their foamy planes aren't too bad. I have bought stuff from other sites like HK. I have recently started learning about helis and have bought some Walkera helis and they are a good learning fixed pitch heli for me.
To agree with what was said earlier, it is "buyer beware". Try to find out what you are buying. I learned "the hard way" about the different Chinese hobby parts and toys.

 

[xokia]

While I don't like HK products and wont buy them I do think they help the industry. The rest of the manufacturers are price fixing with MAP pricing. So really the only competition to drive down prices is these chinese companies that produce their own parts. Just my .02

 

[murankar]

I have noticed a trend lately that's just amazing. Hobby king is now offering TSA kits. Now I don't know if this is good, bad or both. Xheli has I think discontinued selling EXI kits but now are offering more align kits. This too I don't know if it is good or bad.

Just based on these two cases I see a trend. So what's this going to mean for the HK kits? Are the knock offs going by the way side or is the market dictating for more quality stuff. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

 

[utrinquep]

We would not shop in China nor clones would exist if big brand kits and electronics were priced reasonably. All R&D and intellectual property arguments are not convincing. There are more and more open source projects e.g. Open TX firmware MUCH better than fancy radio software solutions.

Lets leave those aspects for lawyers. Consumers share which products are waste of money and which are good quality. Price is important. Big brands also produce in China and Asia e.g. Horizon Hobby, SAB, Gaui, etc.

 

[treff]

I have two 450 helicopter from HK the pro version 2. They are both still flying after serious crashes. What I usually do is replace the parts with Align but in saying that I have also brought parts direct from
China and have been surprised on occasion that some of the parts are in fact better than the named ones. On the other hand I have brought parts that a totally rubbish. I recently sent for a spare set
of carbon frame sides from China. They were £1.50 postage paid and were infact better quality than the ones from Align costing vastly more. China does make well engineered things, most stuff from
washing machines to vibrators and every other thing under the sun have some if not all components made there. It is now a fact of life. They even lend our governments vast amounts of money so that we the consumer can go
out and buy their goods. It's big business on a vast scales, wether it is destroying our hobby, I'm not sure but it does allow hundreds if not thousands of folk to have a go who would not normally
have the bucks too if they had to buy top of the range helicopters. This is a very expensive hobby. You only have to look at some of the clips on Youtube it gives many people in different parts of the world with different background
a chance to enjoy the thrill of flight. Many would not be able to if it were not for the low cost of products from China. Cheers

 

[murankar]

Open source is doing a lot for this hobby. There are now 3 major projects out there right now that I know of: 1) TH9X/TH9XR 2)Tiranus and 3) I cant remember the name but I saw it in the AMA magazine which is a complete radion from the ground up.

As for the prices there are many ways around the sticker shock if you were to avoid China and still get name brand. Plenty of forum sales, eBay and other outlets for personal sales. Gaba got most of his fleet used. His whippy, vibe and a couple 450 pros (T-rex), he was crowned the deal king for a reason.

We shop in China for RC gear for a couple reasons 1) we dont want to hunt deal with used 2) prices of new are more lucrative up front 3)usually the really good stuff is out of stock or not going on sale any time soon.

I limit what I buy from hobby king and even though I would love to get a cheap 250 I would rather buy a used Align 250.

 

[Graham Lawrie]

I was asked recently when returning something if there were batteries in the parcel. I am also hearing that they are getting stricter with what is being sent out of China?

 

[ARM_Coder]

Nowadays I have only Compass helis, but in the beginning I had some cheapo clones (Storm 450 & HK450) so I cannot condemn the Chinese helis. At least in the beginning, they make the hobby affordable for those who aren't certain whether they will proceed in the hobby.

Pro level helis are too intimidating to the newbies, because of their price and performance. The cheapo Chinese helis fill an important gap IMO.

In time, those who progress in the hobby will pick brand helis and leave the clones behind.

Cheers!

 

[Derek]

Nowadays I have only Compass helis, but in the beginning I had some cheapo clones (Storm 450 & HK450) so I cannot condemn the Chinese helis. At least in the beginning, they make the hobby affordable for those who aren't certain whether they will proceed in the hobby.

Pro level helis are too intimidating to the newbies, because of their price and performance. The cheapo Chinese helis fill an important gap IMO.

In time, those who progress in the hobby will pick brand helis and leave the clones behind.

Cheers!

I think there is some "absolute" truth in what you said! Well done!

My cousin has recently expressed an interest in flying with me (planes). He came to me the other day and said that he had gone to the LHS and priced motors, esc, batteries, servos, etc. He told me that there was no way that he was going to pay those prices. I told him about several of the other "online" places that I order parts from. I even showed him some of the prices from the online stores and it helped to settle him down, lol.

For a beginner, or a scratch build fanatic (like myself), the Chinese/Japanese parts are just awesome because they are inexpensive and they work (most of the time). I've heard horror stories from friends, some from RCH, that they have had bad experiences with parts not working, damaged parts, missing parts and that is really very unfortunate. I'm going to continue to order these parts because, for my budget, they work.

Now, with my Align helicopters....I want Align parts (with the exception of my 450, which does have a Hobby King motor).

 

[Lee]

I buy all my "REAL" helis from Hong Kong. My Compass Warp and my Goblin 570 with all there electrics came from RC711 and Flying Hobby.
They arrived at my house in one week. Didn't get charged any customs duty.
I ordered my cyclic servos for my Goblin from the USA.
Thats was on the 22nd March. They arrived in Spain on the 31st March.
They charged me $121 in taxes and I STILL haven't received them. Today is the 1st of May.
They did say that they left the customs warehouse yesterday. But today being a holiday means I won't get them until next Monday.

 

[Tony]

Holy crap, today is May 1... ugh.