Wow! Has anyone noticed the latest price hikes by Horizon Hobby?

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WickedFog

WickedFog

Starter of too many projects
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Terre Haute, IN
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
  2. Crawling
  3. Scale Builder
Arrma Granite and Typhon 3S BLX - $50 increase from $319 to $369.
SCX24 - $15 increase in all models
SCX10 II Raw Builders Kit - $40 increase from $199 to $239
Losi Grave Digger - $50 increase from $599 to $649

I am sure there are lots more I have not been following.

I have even seen part's prices increased by a lot. I buy a lot from Horizon through Tower Hobbies, but that is coming to a swift end. They have just about cornered the RC market and that lets them jack the prices up to wherever they want. I am sending them an email stating my displeasure in their tactics. I suggest everyone does the same, as these price hikes are absurd.
 
WickedFog said:
Arrma Granite and Typhon 3S BLX - $50 increase from $319 to $369.
SCX24 - $15 increase in all models
SCX10 II Raw Builders Kit - $40 increase from $199 to $239
Losi Grave Digger - $50 increase from $599 to $649

I am sure there are lots more I have not been following.

I have even seen part's prices increased by a lot. I buy a lot from Horizon through Tower Hobbies, but that is coming to a swift end. They have just about cornered the RC market and that lets them jack the prices up to wherever they want. I am sending them an email stating my displeasure in their tactics. I suggest everyone does the same, as these price hikes are absurd.
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Greedy money hunger corporate. That's all they care about. And like you said they tiered to buy out all there comps rites.
I usually go with
Rcplanet
Rcsuperstore
Amain
Hobbytown
Dollarhobbyz
Then a few on ebay
jrc
Stomerhobbies
VGracing
I really don't like Horizon or tower to be honest
 
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Doom! said:
Sign of the times, every body wants to squeeze every drop of blood out of that stone.
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Well, I really hope it backfires on them. I know I for one I just cleared about $1000 worth of items out of my wishlist there.
 
That is part of why I decided on my Associated Enduro Crawlers. I felt like the bang for the buck was a better value. To be fair a lot of the companies Horizon has gathered into their house, were on their last legs, and would have been gone all together. If Horizon were to fail it would leave a huge gap in the market, and these days, I'm not sure how many independent companies could survive. I do feel like horizon is getting pricey for the quality of what they sell.
 
Doom! said:
That is part of why I decided on my Associated Enduro Crawlers. I felt like the bang for the buck was a better value. To be fair a lot of the companies Horizon has gathered into their house, were on their last legs, and would have been gone all together. If Horizon were to fail it would leave a huge gap in the market, and these days, I'm not sure how many independent companies could survive. I do feel like horizon is getting pricey for the quality of what they sell.
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Yeah, they did pull some companies out of the hole. And I can understand price increases. But 10-20% across the board is just nuts imo.
 
I agree. The price hikes are getting crazy.
SCX10 iii JLU Kit: $369.99 to $399.99
SCX10 iii JLU RTR: (don't remember the price maybe $499.99) to $539.99
SCX10 iii Gladiator RTR: $519.99 to $559.99
And the thing is, the 10.iii was just introduced last year, and the price they were asking was already kind of high (but at least justifiable to some point). Now, it's gone astray, and they're just encouraging more companies to raise their prices.

As for their quality and service, I've found it's definitely not as good as you would expect. My Granite 4x4 came with a clicking rear diff, and I had to wait 6 months just to receive a $30 part. The drivetrain on my 10ii is also not very smooth (the helical gears, especially front diff binds pretty bad). You would expect the drivetrain to be smoother since it's an aging platform and they would have made improvements, but I guess it is what it is.

Edit: How many "well-known" independent companies are still running?
I can only think of Traxxas, Tekno, Kyosho, Tamiya, Redcat, HPI... that's all I can think of, and I'm not sure if they are all independent, but I think they are.

Also, I don't see why Horizon priced the 10 ii kit at $240. The only reasons I would see anyone get the 10 ii over the Enduro kit (before the price raise) are it's cheaper and has tons of aftermarket support. After the price rise, it's now the same price as the Enduro Kit, which has much better shocks, better quality plastics, better suspension links, tuneable overdrive, smoother drivetrain, and the aftermarket for it isn't bad either. I think that just marks the end of the 10 ii...
 
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TurboChargedHonda said:
Edit: How many "well-known" independent companies are still running?
I can only think of Traxxas, Tekno, Kyosho, Tamiya, Redcat, HPI... that's all I can think of, and I'm not sure if they are all independent, but I think they are.
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Traxxas I am sure are doing fine. Kyosho just sold for a 2nd time earlier this year to a toy company that specializes in those really ridiculous action figures/dolls. Tamiya still sells overpriced toys for the most part, and Tamiya fanboys are eating them up. HPI doesn't have near as much to offer as they used to, so they seem to be on a downward spiral.

Redcat is another company that seems to be getting better all the time. Then there is RC4WD and Vanquish. I don't think any of these guys are losing any steam. WLToys is another popular one for entry level stuff, and they have been getting better, but their prices have been reflecting that as well.

The fact that Kyosho is getting ready to deliver the new USA-1 pretty soon tells me the new company's mission statement to revamp production may just be taking a little time to get things back on track. They have been out of stock on all of the Legendary series for a few months now, amoung other kits. The Lengenday cars sell out as fast as they can make them, which I assume is because the quality of them is ridiculously insane. As soon as they come back in stock, Horizon won't see another purchase from me until I collect the whole set, or they run out of inventory 😁
 
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Knowing that everything is imported, and the political scene being on edge right now, shipping is ridiculous, labor shortages don't help either, with the raise in minimum wage comes price hikes across the board, just to keep things going.

Companies like Horizon who are basically distributers, must cut where they can. I don't like it any more than anyone else, but it is what it is. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the larger scale vehicles get phased out, just due to shipping costs, if you can fit twice as much smaller product in the shipping container, then why not. just my random thoughts, but it is every hobby and industry feeling the crunch, and prices will reflect that.
 
WickedFog said:
Arrma Granite and Typhon 3S BLX - $50 increase from $319 to $369.
SCX24 - $15 increase in all models
SCX10 II Raw Builders Kit - $40 increase from $199 to $239
Losi Grave Digger - $50 increase from $599 to $649

I am sure there are lots more I have not been following.

I have even seen part's prices increased by a lot. I buy a lot from Horizon through Tower Hobbies, but that is coming to a swift end. They have just about cornered the RC market and that lets them jack the prices up to wherever they want. I am sending them an email stating my displeasure in their tactics. I suggest everyone does the same, as these price hikes are absurd.
Click to expand...
Wow, I'm glad I got my SCX10 kit when I did.
 
Inflation is happening across the bored mostly driven by the governments reckless spending and all the stupid covid restrictions on businesses making them fail and incentivizing people not to work. We aint seen the last of this type of stuff.
 
Tunedpipe said:
Wow, I'm glad I got my SCX10 kit when I did.
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Yeah, I grabbed the SCX24 C10 and went back a couple hours later to grab another when I noticed the price jump. Looked around the web and they went up on every site I found them on. So, I guess Horizon lost a sale from me already. I bought some stuff for my diorama instead.
 
I looked at several rigs today in two different hobby shops but I haven't been shopping for them so I didn't notice a price raise.
 
I try to avoid Horizon brands, not for any other reason than supporting the smaller independent companies. I do buy brands that Horizon sells, but not directly from them and not brands they own. I’d buy a Mugen or Xray or Kyosho before a Losi, Futaba or Sanwa over Spektrum. A monopoly is never a good thing, buy other brands and support other sellers to keep the playing field level.
 
Tunedpipe said:
I looked at several rigs today in two different hobby shops but I haven't been shopping for them so I didn't notice a price raise.
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This probably hasn't trickled down to the mom and pop shops yet. A lot of this will hopefully resolve itself through supply and demand.
 
Horizon is about quantity not quality. So they try to buy the competition. That's basically selling the same product or RC. Or get the rites to them. And when they do that product once it sells out it out no more. Or if they can make it cheaper. Then No more parts from that company. Just what they have in stock till its out. And that's how they are taken over. By forcing people to by thier product because they bought the other company and got rid or sold all the parts. To that RC. Then Your left to buy what they have. Here buy this one we have it will work or you can buy this RC we have..horribly sad. Because alot of people are losing jobs over the buyouts. And the other side is we as the consumer lose out on parts and kits that we need/want or love to have. From the small company that was bought out. You will end up with a broken Rc. With no parts to fix it with.. Stick with the independent companies manufacture. And family owned business.they actually care about what they sell and who they sell too.. Because a greedy corporation doesn't need any more money. They just want it for them self and share holders. And definitely don't care about us.. just look up horizon customers complaints. And its also easier to ask who horizon doesn't own or have rites too. Then who does horizon own. It's horrible
 
TurboChargedHonda said:
This isn't really related to the topic of this thread, but is anyone else also getting Horizon ads on YouTube? The only RC ads I've seen are from Horizon (and Spektrum).
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My browser blocks ads so I couldn't say. 🤣
 
Doom! said:
My browser blocks ads so I couldn't say. 🤣
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I think he is referring to the video ads thst play on monetized videos. Your ad blocker won't block those.

And yeah, I get them as well.
 
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