Anyone into R/C?

"Hobbico, Inc. Files Petition for Chapter 11 Relief and Pursues Sale of Company Seeks Protection from Creditors to Restructure and Attract New Capital Investment; Operations Continue Throughout Bankruptcy Process"

"By filing for Chapter 11, Hobbico is seeking protection from its creditors in order to allow for an orderly finalization and implementation of its restructuring plan. This approach allows the Company to continue to operate the business throughout the bankruptcy process. Hobbico intends to use the bankruptcy filing and possible sale of the business to reduce debt, restructure liabilities, attract new capital investment and position the company for future growth. The filing and potential sale also aim to preserve Hobbico’s industry-leading business, including allowing the Company to invest in new products and continue supporting all of its customers and extended business network."

Taken right off their website. It might not be as bad as we think....hopefully

 

its over 100 million in debt

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/traxxas-stampede-2wd-vxl-brushless-200-obo.527998/ I Have this for sale if anyone is interested

 

That seems like an absurd amount of debt to me.

 

Did some racing this weekend. TQ'd and won.

 

Nice, didn't know if you were still racing or not. I've not ran any of surface stuff in ages, still fly fairly often.

 

I wish we had a race scene.

 

I actually haven't raced in about 2-3 years lol but my friend/race announcer passed away last year so we decided to hold a memorial race for him in December. We had about 120 entries show up and I was the one running the show. I used to announce/run the race program. A while back but I had forgotten how the system worked. I basically relearned on the job for the biggest race I've ever ran lol.

After the race was over a bunch of people expressed interest in starting the program back up. So I'm trying to do at least once a month until I can teach someone else the system so we can have a more consistent program.

With that being said I raced for the first time back during that memorial race and I setup another race day this passed Saturday. It's a little hard running the program and racing but luckily I have someone that can hit the start button for us lol.

 

Ironically, the club here runs a memorial race for the founder. He owned the local Hobby Town and died in an actual plane crash. They were doing slow formation fly by's for a camera crew. It's the tracks' biggest event every year!

 

Yeah this was definitely the biggest race we've independently hosted here. It was hectic but at the end of the day it was super fun and we raised a lot of money for my friends family almost $3k

 

Nice! I have no idea of the monies raised. A friend of mine actually sets up and runs concessions, grilling burgers, dogs and selling chips and drinks and donates every cent of proceeds to the fund.

 

First, everyone needs to agree that their plan, such as it is, has a reasonable chance at success. Creditors want to see a plan from the company that pays them back in the least amount of time. Employees want to get paid, and I'm sure they'd like to see their ESOP money back too. Expect to see cost cutting, layoffs, a reduction in new product development and with the amount of debt the company has, I doubt you'll see any real growth anytime soon.

The way I interpret the press release, they will end up selling parts of the company to make it smaller. There will likely be management changes and I'd bet layoffs. I don't see this at all like the puppies and unicorns thing they want it to be.

 

They’ve been there for quite some time now. Rolled the SCX10ii with new axles and it was OK. The Bomber is a SASed Yeti. The SMT is basically an AX10 with trailing arms. Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that so many parts are interchangeable but their development isn’t too much. Just rearranged parts bin diving. The Yeti Jr was a flop. Cool concept though. The Yeti XL flopped, too. Now they’ve lost the scx10(ii) axle molds or whatever and have released a new axle for the re-release of the Honcho. Aside from the Vanguard stuff all the electronics are pretty much junk, too. I think the shear amount of liscensed stuff along with the developments of the Yeti XL and Jr is what did them in.

I can picture a board meeting with a large table and 8-10 flat brimmed Van Wilder’s taking bong rips for an hour.

Honestly, if they stuck with just kits for a while they could likely pull this off.

 

Bring back the xr10, improve the scx, kill off the yeti and maybe even the bomber.

The scx is a great platform, just needs some improvements. Major issue with Axial, nothing is really acceptible out of the box, everything thing needs some sort of upgrade or modification right away.

Arrma just needs some better painters and wheel designers.

 

If anybody has a Proline Wrangler Rubicon body for a yeti layin around, let me know.

 

I don't feel like you can have an 'industry-leading business' if you fail to run it. Should be interesting to see how this filing plays out. Still running my nearly stock(except for aesthetics) SCX Deadbolt

 

I received the new trail honcho on Monday, with a Proline SR5 pickup cab and RC4WD sliders. Also have Proline 1.9 Krawlers and Locked Up Trail Ready beadlocks that will go on soon.

 

they did a fine job on the honco 2, nice score

 

I think they had a vision and that was world dominance. See a company, buy it even though they hadn't absorbed the last one-or they just never figured out how do mergers and acquisitions-it's tricky never mind the industry, as a whole, is growing only about 2% per year.

When I read about the bankruptcy, it made me wonder how much of the "lost the molds/fire" story was true (vs "you haven't paid for the last one"),

Idk. I re-read that press release and nothing in it was awe inspiring...

 

I didn't like the thought of a shorter wheelbase, so I did a little cutting. Still think it turned out well, aside from the fact that I am crap with a paint can...