[Inside_Info]

QUOTE (Rail Racer @ 6 Feb 2004, 10:51 AM)Any toy company who put out a model so out of shape as this would rightly get a right going over in the model press.
I don't agree... look at a large percentage of vacform shells available, people buy those and they make Fly and Scaley models look like the work of a true master craftsman!!!!

Sorry, this was my 1st thought when I read this and I thought i had to put it in writing just to set the cat among the pigeons....

Before anyone jumps down my throat, there are some very good vacforms available and I won't tar everyone with the same brush....

Incidentally I go into Gaugemaster regularly and am generally impressed with all the products they sell, trains (by far their biggest market) and cars... There is however one brand that to be honest I wouldn't stock if I were them and it IS a slotcar... no names, but my opinion (and of other customers I have spoken to) of their appearance (I have never owned/run one) is that they are very poor and are by far outclassed by many of the scratchbuilt cars seen on this forum... this is a shame, because much of their range is unusual, and if they were decent models would (I think) sell very well...

Nevertheless, product reviews are to be found that relate to almost everything we buy (ever come across 'Which?' magazine?) from, cars to washing machines to mortgages to CD's to toys.... and anyone who says they have NEVER been influenced by one is probably either a liar or dead!

 

[Tropi]

QUOTE PS how many people read only one review on any particular car? I usually check half a dozen different sites and get as much info as possible before parting with the hard-earned. Or am I just tight
You are tight!
But not JUST tight - intelligent too. If you can find the extra info, absolutely go for it. The more points of view, the better one can make one's mind up - unless driven round the twist in confusion of course!

QUOTE just to set the cat among the pigeons
Hard to tell which are which recently!!!

 

[astro]

Aaron made an interesting point about the expert/fact quality of criticisms (and compliments i guess), although one of the posts that started this all did seem to have expert measurements to back it up, but anyway...

But surely the whole point of this forum is for us to pool our EXPERIENCE, which leads to opinions. It is brilliant when a genuine expert, be it on electronics, vacu-forming, or whatever, gives us the 'facts' (though lets face it, in all areas of expertise, the experts debate what the facts and correct ways are just as much as us).

Anyone who uses the forum quickly finds that there are differing opinions on any issue, and learns to take anything said with a pinch of salt. And if you do have an opinion about a good or bad quality, or method of tuning, its great to hear other peoples opinions and experiences.

It should be clear that to some of us, scale and proportion DOES matter, and we are interested in what others with similar priorities think. Some people seem to get annoyed when we express our observations or discontentments, My only suggestion is that the moderators set up a new board called 'SCALE ISSUES' or some such, so that we can talk about this stuff, and people who are offended by our attraction and interest to the hobby can easily bypass such threads.

But I would implore Aaron to pass on to Fly that there are a number of people to whom it DOES matter whether the shape is right, even though that is not his or everyones opinion

Right I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO had enough of this topic, I hope I can leave it at that now!

 

[Intergrali]

the more the merrier as once was thought at deeside raceway

rr3.9 this only needs one word - Viper

anyway, I will say what i think, if it's bad its bad if its good its good, but if everyone said everything is good, whats the point? why do reviews? why have a message board? pointless

carry on boys!

Rob.
p.s I wouldnt have anyone's opinion put me off anything, I want to experience it first hand, so I do

 

[jonny s]

The only negative point concerning the NSCC that I could find outlined a poor response and lack of reviews forthcoming, during a certain time frame. That has been accepted and admitted and that`s that put to bed. If you run an outfit you have to do it properly. At a certain stage the NSCC did not perform but that period is past. Move on and I believe we here can learn from that experience too.

 

[TSRF]

I love me FLY Ferrari Daytona even if it is off quite a bit and does not quite look right and that its driver is hugging an invisible barrel of Beaujolais-nouveau. I sleep with mine every night now and have told the wife to go sleep on the couch for gawd sake. It is obviously only a TOY, so why should anyone care if the damn hood is nearly a foot too short in scale and the car nearly a foot too wide. It's obviously built for tiny little short fat Italian drivers, isnt' it?

Now I gather that jony and gaugemaster will be happy now, and that we all can go back to enjoy our cars, I mean toys?

Jeeez.

 

[jonny s]

I`m always happy mate, got a great life playing with my toys full time nowadays.

 

[Oilslick]

It amazes me how each forum seems to have it's own "Forum Facists" that want to stiffle debate on issues because they think it is bashing.

They think in their esteemed opinion that the only criticism allowed is Constructive Criticism. What a load of rubbish! If somebody wants to have a moan about a particular car etc let them do it, if you don't agree with their opinion then just don't read their post or thread.

Why should members have to qualify every criticism of the Fly Daytona's scale with a qualification that "well faults aside, it does pretty good laptimes."?

Stop trying to protect companies who owe no allegence to yourselves, when they "Drop the Ball" on a particular product and produce something lot's of people find fault with!

 

[jonny s]

Don`t think people want to stifle any comments but think that we should have some kind of standard here? After all It`s about mutual respect and you stand a better chance of a manufacturer listening if you approach them from a position of strength,i.e. they believe we are being helpful and not just `bashing`. The outcome of the Daytona discussions produced a balanced review, well worth reading and has set for me a standard to follow.

 

[astro]

I am not at all convinced it was a balanced or fair review, I think RR had to stifle a lot of his opinions for diplomacy's sake and fear of retribution. The car is either really brilliant, or else RR has written a review looking on the bright side, not unlike those you find on e-shops that wish to sell the car whilst giving some semblance of balance. I could be wrong, only RR knows for sure. It was still an interesting piece of writing, whatever.

 

[jonny s]

To be straight with you I`m ok with most of that. There are so many different views posted here it`s obvious we will never get agreement so that style suits me and I can find the rest out for myself. Have bought one so and now just want to get it running better non mag. So far it does exactly what Fly said it would on he box and I reckon it`s a great car.The CSL is even better!

 

[Guest]

Astro,
In the end Richard wrote most of it as I don't think I could have been as objective as I should as a writer. I have to be fair the sample car really did have a great finish and performed really well but this does not GUARANTEE other FLY Daytonas will be the same.

RR.

P.S. Richard writes a lot of my articles with me so it is not unusual.

 

[Gringo Hairpiece]

QUOTE (Rail Racer @ 8 Feb 2004, 06:30 PM)Astro,
In the end Richard wrote most of it as I don't think I could have been as objective as I should as a writer. I have to be fair the sample car really did have a great finish and performed really well but this does not GUARANTEE other FLY Daytonas will be the same.

RR.

P.S. Richard writes a lot of my articles with me so it is not unusual.
SO what you are saying is that your the Barbara Cartland of the forum, claiming credit for other peoples work.

Shame on you

 

[Guest]

****** Hairpiece, I really enjoy working with other poeple when writing Dennis worked with me on the Pegaso review, Doug worked with on the Corvette one and Richard on the Daytona one.

This why I enjoy do them so much and the book was written with the help of a whole list of poeple a lot of which are on the Forum "Built With Passion" really belong to all the people who help make it possible. Richard and I wrote all the race reports in together.

What I have found is because I am VERY opinionated person I need a co-writer to tone this down.

As what I wanted was a history of and not my views on what happened and it has worked very well.

RR

 

[550rs]

I don't care how Rail Racer does it as long as he keeps it up. I love articles that add historical perspective to the model being discussed. Same goes for Mr Pea and others when they take us on strolls down memory lane.

PS RR, my wife asks if you could just stop inferring your Slot Classic collection is getting bigger please.

 

[David Lawson]

I love all this stuff from people with vested interests, axes to grind and any other cliche I can think of.

This whole thread is about public opinion and you can not expect it to conform to any "standard" other than common decency.

Any commercial enterprise will listen to public opinion and look at their sales figures and will react accordingly - they will probably ignore ill considered rants but they will take on board any other reaction, good or bad, to their products and this will influence their future products.

This is not an emotive subject to them, they are big boys and will not take offence, they are only concerned with running their companies profitably.

David

 

[Guest]

550rs

I was going to email how well the the Slot Classic CJ13 I had for Christmas turned out It sooooooo nice I may well review it even though I bought it.

Best wishes,

RR

 

[550rs]

You tease, RR. First you mention the MK II Jag then the ENASA that we emailed about last year.
Wife furiously looking for the forum "block sender" function to apply to all future RR posts.

 

[peter]

QUOTE (David Lawson @ 8 Feb 2004, 10:02 PM)Any commercial enterprise will listen to public opinion and look at their sales figures and will react accordingly - they will probably ignore ill considered rants but they will take on board any other reaction, good or bad, to their products and this will influence their future products.

This is not an emotive subject to them, they are big boys and will not take offence, they are only concerned with running their companies profitably.

David
mmm - I am not so sure about it - Yes theoretically you are right - but in practice - I think 'slightly' overgeneralizing? My experience brings forward examples that look rather differently. Big boys or not - some will behave irrationally on occasion. Let us not confuse what companies 'ought' to do (or what they say that they do) with what they actually practice. There are many rather good reasons to why companies go under from time to time... and sometimes they are just lucky to survive... Also pride and arrogance is not isolated to ignorant punters like me...

regards
//peter

PS - to paraphrase one: I do not believe in conspiracy theory - but I do believe in cock-up theory!

 

[550rs]

Good points, Peter.

One other related point is if you add up all the registered members of the popular forums boards, what % of the market do we represent? Given that many members are on most boards, we might add up to somewhere between 10-20% of a typical Limited edition run.
Is that proportion of target buyers worth listening to ?
If so, why are most of the major manufacturers so quiet ?
Forums like this would be Marketing Person heaven in any other industry yet we hear little and are asked even less. Those exceptions seem to understand this is a perfect avenue to build brand loyalty and solicit product improvement feedback.
For comparison, imagine if Microsoft built RTR slot cars - just for the marketing interaction comparison, okay ?