OPTIMA MID '87 WC Worlds Spec Ltd Ed.

[XLR8]

Not a FB member but someone on another mb has posted this link.

https://www.facebook.com/KyoshoAmerica/

It's a clever marketing concept: meet your supplier's initial MOQ's then, to ensure you liquidate your entire inventory, announce the product months ahead of the rollout and label it "limited edition".

The downside lies with the consumer. Unless you order early and are willing to endure the wait and uncertainties associated with "pre-order", you will never lay your hands on it. Of course, there will always be those ebay scalpers who are ready to take your money.

The car looks great and includes some nice features but no thank you.

[HS-YZ250]

Not a FB member but someone on another mb has posted this link.

https://www.facebook.com/KyoshoAmerica/

It's a clever marketing concept: meet your supplier's initial MOQ's then, to ensure you liquidate your entire inventory, announce the product months ahead of the rollout and label it "limited edition".

The downside lies with the consumer. Unless you order early and are willing to endure the wait and uncertainties associated with "pre-order", you will never lay your hands on it. Of course, there will always be those ebay scalpers who are ready to take your money.

The car looks great and includes some nice features but no thank you.

I was thinking the current optima mid sales were slowing down because I thought there was a price cut, and I was sort of toying with the idea of getting one to further delay all my vintage projects.

I imagine they have a lot invested in those plastic molds and it's not too much in tooling to re-spin the rest of the hardware.

Just wish I hadn't gone and bought new gold re-re shocks before this came out. At least I can add fancy gold shock shafts (maybe).

[scoobyrs25]

I love it. I already reserved one. It will be my third new Mid. I built the first as a Turbo Optima Mid, the second as a full custom carbon LWB and I'm excited for this one. Hate all ya like. It's beautiful.

[cyberfox]

I don't really like this one, but now this body is re-released, I hope Kyosho will make an Optima Pro re-re, maybe the next year, as I hope they will make an Ultima Pro XL re-re based on the parts used for the J.J. edition

[XLR8]

Not a FB member but someone on another mb has posted this link.

https://www.facebook.com/KyoshoAmerica/

It's a clever marketing concept: meet your supplier's initial MOQ's then, to ensure you liquidate your entire inventory, announce the product months ahead of the rollout and label it "limited edition".

The downside lies with the consumer. Unless you order early and are willing to endure the wait and uncertainties associated with "pre-order", you will never lay your hands on it. Of course, there will always be those ebay scalpers who are ready to take your money.

The car looks great and includes some nice features but no thank you.

I was thinking the current optima mid sales were slowing down because I thought there was a price cut, and I was sort of toying with the idea of getting one to further delay all my vintage projects.

I imagine they have a lot invested in those plastic molds and it's not too much in tooling to re-spin the rest of the hardware.

Just wish I hadn't gone and bought new gold re-re shocks before this came out. At least I can add fancy gold shock shafts (maybe).

I was hoping you were right about the price cut but I just checked Amain and Liquid and they still have the Mid re-re listed at $389.99 - so the price is the same. They also have stock on hand. You're probably right about the sales slow-down. The Mid has been available for a while so most who wanted one have them now.

The Mid uses only a few new plastic parts that are exclusive to that car and the price is high so it's possible that Kyosho have fully recovered their tooling investment - maybe within the first couple production lots.

[XLR8]

I love it. I already reserved one. It will be my third new Mid. I built the first as a Turbo Optima Mid, the second as a full custom carbon LWB and I'm excited for this one. Hate all ya like. It's beautiful.

Congratulations, I hope you are able to buy it.
I like the car, my issue is with Kyosho's marketing strategy.
I really wish they would re-re the rest of the Mid family (those that we're familiar with) and end this "limited" nonsense.

[HS-YZ250]

I was hoping you were right about the price cut but I just checked Amain and Liquid and they still have the Mid re-re listed at $389.99 - so the price is the same. They also have stock on hand. You're probably right about the sales slow-down. The Mid has been available for a while so most who wanted one have them now.

The Mid uses only a few new plastic parts that are exclusive to that car and the price is high so it's possible that Kyosho have fully recovered their tooling investment - maybe within the first couple production lots.

I was thinking about it after I posted and it might have been a labor day or summer sale I saw.

Molds can get expensive. I've not been involved in buying any in a while, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sunk a few hundred thousand into them. There's tooling for the metal parts as well, though stamping dies aren't nearly as much. And then there's setup and machine time for each run.

The carbon plates wouldn't have much in the way of tooling, but the piece price for routing would be up there.

And then there's the engineering time to develop the parts.

Last electro-mechanical project I was on cost a few million when it was all said and done. Just throwing out guesses, but a re-spin might be around a quarter of that?

[scoobyrs25]

Kyosho has been pretty on point with their vintage releases. This one is a special for the 60th anniversary. I think it's pretty special to acknowledge Akira for his design that we all love. They already showed a LWB car in marketing material for one of their shows. It's totally coming.

[XLR8]

Kyosho has been pretty on point with their vintage releases. This one is a special for the 60th anniversary. I think it's pretty special to acknowledge Akira for his design that we all love. They already showed a LWB car in marketing material for one of their shows. It's totally coming.

I hope you're right.
I reckon Kyosho could re-release the TO or SE very easily using mostly shelf parts. Those models added stabilizers, turn buckles, swing shafts and ball diffs -- except, of course, the SE had Platinums and it's uncertain if Kyosho will make those again.
However, if they decide to skip the low hanging fruit and go directly to LWB, that's okay with me.

[scoobyrs25]

I could see them just doing silver ano on the current gold style shocks.

[Chewbacca]

470 € for the pre order here in Germany

But looking at the carbon and aluminum parts I guess that price is to be expected.

[XLR8]

I agree that it's expensive but is probably a bargain when one considers the optional cf and aluminum parts that are included with the kit.
I was curious about weight; if the weight savings from a cf chassis will offset the weight increase from all the added aluminum parts.
Here's what Kyosho says:

Optima Mid re-re: "Weight approx1,600g(with 7.2V4000 LiPo)"
Worlds Spec Ltd Ed: "Weight: 1550g(Without electronics)"

So, assuming both cars were weighed using the same battery, that's about a 50g (1.76 oz) weight reduction -- about 3% of the cars original weight.
Since most of the weight reduction comes from the bottom chassis plate, the car's CG will be raised slightly.

I doubt any of this matters since most of the Worlds Spec cars produced will set on the shelf and never see a track.

[stickboy007]

It's a lot of money for a poor man's Lazer with less tunability, but then again, OG vintage 4wd buggy prices are mostly insane now. Still a nice chassis, though, and there were several Optima Mids at VONATs this year. Probably your best bet for a vintage 4wd buggy that's fast, durable, and has parts available. I would probably get one if I weren't already swimming in Lazers, CATs, and YZ10s.

[HS-YZ250]

Is there a pre-order link anywhere? I want to look at the form and tell myself I don't need this.

It's a lot of money for a poor man's Lazer with less tunability, but then again, OG vintage 4wd buggy prices are mostly insane now. Still a nice chassis, though, and there were several Optima Mids at VONATs this year. Probably your best bet for a vintage 4wd buggy that's fast, durable, and has parts available. I would probably get one if I weren't already swimming in Lazers, CATs, and YZ10s.

I figure getting vintage anything, whether original or Rere, is more about re-living the "good ole' days" than anything else. I've talked about my Lazers with a 20-something acquaintance that wondered why all cars aren't just carbon, and I got to talk about the cycles of RC Car chassis going plastic->metal->carbon->plastic->back to metal. Lol!

[XLR8]

Is there a pre-order link anywhere? I want to look at the form and tell myself I don't need this.

It's a lot of money for a poor man's Lazer with less tunability, but then again, OG vintage 4wd buggy prices are mostly insane now. Still a nice chassis, though, and there were several Optima Mids at VONATs this year. Probably your best bet for a vintage 4wd buggy that's fast, durable, and has parts available. I would probably get one if I weren't already swimming in Lazers, CATs, and YZ10s.

I figure getting vintage anything, whether original or Rere, is more about re-living the "good ole' days" than anything else. I've talked about my Lazers with a 20-something acquaintance that wondered why all cars aren't just carbon, and I got to talk about the cycles of RC Car chassis going plastic->metal->carbon->plastic->back to metal. Lol!

The only listing I've found so far is with Tamico in Germany: "Item expected to be available from: end of December (pre-order possible)".

https://tamico.de/Kyosho-30643-Optima-Mid-Worlds-Spec-Buggy-60-Jahre-Kyosho-Limited-Bausatz

I raced CATs bitd (SWB then XLS) then went on an extended hiatus from RC so I missed the whole Lazer era. I very much enjoyed beating the Mids and Yokes but I still appreciated their design and engineering. Today, I have three CATs and five Mids so I guess that says something.
Anyway, from what I've seen, the Lazer is superior in every way to the original Mid but I never developed that "good ole' days" connection to them.