Why have 1:64th scale RC cars died?

[LexusFman]

I just don't get it. I know Radioshack's ZipZaps started to loose sales but I think that has to deal more with the fact that they sold them in RadioShack and not the fact that people lost interest. They really had a good thing going for them. They were like Hot Wheels where you could collect many different cars, they had upgrades, ect. vs a Bit clone where they only have a few cars with almost no collectors value what so ever and no upgrades sold. I don't really think it's the car that stopped selling, it's the idea. The whole semi-hobby grade thing with upgrades and such. In my opinion if a brand such as Hot Wheels made realistic 1:64th scale r/c cars they would sell just as well as zipzaps used to. Also I have a question. Why haven't any Hobby grade companies made any 1:64th scale R/C cars?

[frizzen]

These never really grew up past TOY stage. It was handled as a bit of a fad: Bit Char-G came out, Digi-Q, ZZ; then every company in china that could reverse engineer started up. Most people only ran across the shitty clones and it turned them off, making the market slowly die.
But, what's available in stores now is what was our state of the art bit a couple years ago. The q-steer buggy / truck is our dirty bit. The proportional control stuff we had hit the market badly and in general faded away for a while.

The only ones that could have tried to take the 1/64 somewhere better, all got screwed out of being GOOD for a few cents price difference electronics. (ok, I think there was a maru puchi thing that was supposed to be good, but not available in USA and obscene price) What was available the hobby guys thumbed their noses at, because it wasn't as full featured as the 1/10 scale stuff, most didn't have awesome upgrade parts; even though our trucks were smaller than their wheel.

The ZZ-SE could have been the thing, if they had a few tweaks to the electronics (that one of our guys figured out and was selling the mod)
The Silverlit rally cars could have been the thing, if they put good pots and better fets in them.
A production TTTT would totally own everything and give the scale and crawler guys what they need, maybe not the speed freaks though. Downside is they ARE proper fully equipped RC cars and cost as much, and you build it yourself.

The Kyosho D-Nano seems to be the next upcoming Hobby grade heavy-hitter, at 1/43 scale and rather much money.
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Big is over 1/8, 1/10 - 1/12 is standard, Mini is 1/16 - 1/18 scale, Micro is 1/24 - 1/36, Nano is 1/43.... What are we?

[Namuna]

When a "hobby" grade 1:64th scale vehicle can be massed produced and sold in the sub $50US range, then I think we'll see this scale pick up some steam.

I refer to the Losi Micro-T as evidence. No one thought anything smaller than 1/24th would be taken seriously or go mainstream. But Losi came out with the Micro-T and the thing hit all the right nerves; Full propo, lots of hobby-grade upgrade options, true to scale (not some clunky looking turd that has to hide all the electronics in an overlay large shell) and a pricepoint that was inviting even to folks that don't usually get into hobby-grade.

The DNano at the 1:43rd scale is aesthetically and technically mind-blowing, but the pricepoint is so kick-to-the-balls high that only true fanatics get into them.

So, I'd say we're still some years away before hobby-grade radios shrink (in size and cost) to the level that the 1:64th scale finally sees its' heyday.

[PimpFloyd]

I recently snagged an HPI RS32 - their 1/32 scale offering. 2.4Ghz. Pretty nice looking body (only one at the moment, Calsonic GTR) and the chassis and electronics are very nice for the $105 buck price point.

I hoping this product takes off...time will tell. A few on the web have modded them with scalxtric 1/32 slot car bodies.

PF

[Murdoch]

man, i was hoping something would come along that was more hobby friendly in the sub 1/24 scale.

one of these days, i'll get back into the swing of things.