Tower Hobbies Opinion ?

Furp

Has anyone bought from tower hobbies, and what is your opinion on them.

I am in the market for a Traxxas T-Maxx or Revo and there prices look great even taking the inevitable vat and import duty here into account.

RonO

There prices are good, but they have so many restrictions on what they will ship i.e. they won't ship anything big overseas.

Pacifico

How much would the Revo be inc Vat etc?

Also check out modelsport.co.uk more expensive but no vat. Ive ordered from them in the past they are excellent

coolwings

I admire your confidence in not breaking parts, you will be a looooong way from spares & backup when you do....;)
We don't drive these things gently at all, yeeee haaaa style is more like it.

What is the local scene regarding local availability of model car spares? That should affect your choice of make quite a lot. Especially if it is a first RC model.

Furp

I've only seen the T-maxx on sale here in one place and it was €800+ I haven't seen the Revo yet, parts should not be that hard to get here or from the UK mail order or even from USA cheaper and most likely you would not have to pay vat on small parts as they would slip through the system. I checked with Tower Hobbies before and they said they would ship the T-Maxx to Ireland.

The pricing of the T-Maxx and Revo are as follows with my estimations of vat and duty.

Traxxas T-Max www.traxxas.com
$364.99 www.towerhobbies.com
-$30.00 discount
+$36.49 International Surface Shipping or $59.74 Airmail
$371.48 Total Dollars

€287.18 Euro Conversion @ Current Exchange rate of 1 to 0.77
+€60.00 Add 21% VAT
+€15.00* *A Duty Fee Estimated from previous imports.

€362 Total Price to Pay

This seems like a good deal to me, now the only other things I would need to buy locally a battery pack for the starter and glow plug heater, batteries for the transmitter, fuel, and some spare parts possibly just do a second order or bundle in spare glow plugs etc with this order. The thing is it might be worth spending the extra $30 on the airmail option.

Ok so lets see if I wanted the Revo.

Traxxas Revo www.traxxas.com
$469.99 http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXGZD9**&P=0
-$40.00 Discount
+$36.49 International Surface Shipping or $59.74 for Airmail.
$466.48 Total Dollars

€361 Euro Conversion @ Current Exchange rate of 1 to 0.77
+€76 + 21% VAT
+€15 A Duty Fee Estimated from previous imports

€452 Total Euro Price.

Now the Revo is more expensive but it is a newer design and from all the research I've done I'd like one but the T-Maxx has cheaper spares and lots more hop-ups at the moment because it ahs been around longer.

coolwings

Furp wrote:

I've only seen the T-maxx on sale here in one place and it was €800+ .......and they said they would ship the T-Maxx to Ireland....QUOTE]
Ouch!
That's pretty severe...
You can get monster trucks in Dublin for 400 less than that, not so fancy as a T-Maxx I'll grant you, but half the cost.

Fobia

I think so long as you can get the spare parts (not that you'll need'em!) in the UK then you'll be ok with either of the planes.

Though I've never actually bought anything from them myself tower hobbies are quite reputable and I havent heard any bad stories about them, I think you'll be alright in that regard.

Be sure to post pics of it in action if you buy one of them!

Fobia.

SLIM19198

I recieved my T-Maxx from tower hobbies about 2 weeks ago, only had to wait 6 weeks (to the day) for the shipping!

Nice and reasonable, but the wait will turn off most people.

Modelsport on the other hand have the product to your door in 2~3 days! (but look at the cost)

Now I have a spanky new T-Maxx just waiting to be broken in (need more hours in the day me thinks)

Any one else down around cork with off roaders?

Dan_B

Slim, on the towerhobbies site it says they do no ship to Ireland.
How did you manage to swing this?

SLIM19198

Tower hobbies ship worldwide!

Some of their packages are too big to ship outside of USA, but they shipped a T-MAXX to me no worries.

Where did you see that on their site?

Dan_B

Wow, they must have just updated the list recently.
Yesterday under the list of countries they do not ship to most of western eurpe was in their. Now it's just Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other mad places.

Cool!!!!

2 Espressi

Dan_B wrote:

Wow, they must have just updated the list recently.
Yesterday under the list of countries they do not ship to most of western eurpe was in their. Now it's just Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other mad places.
Cool!!!!

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, I've ordered form Tower loads of times, they can ship parts / Spares in a couple of days. I 've ordered and received stuff in the same week.
The T-maxx works out fairly cheap considrering, I know that tower won't ship some of the bigger (e.g. Losi LST ) Monster Trucks, and they can't ship HPI stuff to UK / Irl anymore either, due to some agreement with HPI Europe.

I was thinking of getting an E-MAxx in the new year, will probably to through Tower again.

SLIM19198

2 expressi, where do you drive your RC's?

Is there any tracks/clubs down south that you know of?

2 Espressi

I ususally run mine in the empty car park in front of the new retail prak in Little Island. It's just after the KFC.
There was a regular meet in sundays in the priamry school carpark in mayfield, but I never made it up there (i'm in Glanmire/Riverstown)
The only track I know of is Jim Halpins in Listowel, Co. Kerry, but there's little activity there now.

SLIM19198

I am only up the road from you (northside of cork city), I found the best place so far to be Curraheen dog track overflow car park.... only used 3 nights a week, open car park, no obstructions, flat, size is about the same as a football field,.

They also have like the same in gravel (second car park being constructed???)

I have 2 T-Maxx's, one old, one new(new one aint even broke in yet), i also have a cen (TR4?) street car, has hit a lot of steps in its time

Be nice to meet up for a bash some time!

2 Espressi

Cool!, I'm waiting on a battery charger to arrive, I've been using a variable power supply to charge the batteries but I bought a decent charger a couple of weeks ago on ebay, and I'm waiting for it to get here.

I hear the words 'T-Maxx' and 'bash' in the same sentence, and I fear for the survival of everything else!

gb_ie

I have ordered a good few bits from tower hobbies, biggest been Savage 25 last February and just last month a Team Associated NTC3. Tower hobbies won't ship any HPI products any more, which is a real bummer as they work out really cheap and there parts shipping is really quick. So this time I got the ntc3 they still ship all the parts and with the rate of exchange between the dollar and euro its great. With regard to the Savage 25 I got they were looking for the guts of 800 euro in Dublin, it would work out a little cheaper from UK but not a lot. The savage ended up costing me (including shipping and VAT which had to be paid on delivery) not more than about 400 euro getting it from Tower Hobbies. If you want anymore info drop me a line at gb_ie@yahoo.com

regards
Graham - Galway

Plug

I ordered a T maxx from Tower Hobbies on 21st December and was processed and shipped by usps international air on the same day.
They said that it would get over here between 10 and 30 days. Do ya know if their are hidden charges like vat or import duty and if so about how much extra would it cost. Also do they come to your door to deliver it and what if your not their.
THANKS

PLUG______kILKENNY

coolwings

gb_ie wrote:

they were looking for the guts of 800 euro in Dublin, it would work out a little cheaper from UK but not a lot.

You didn't do your research very well. Who was looking for €800?
I saw monster trucks for sale in a Dublin hobby shop for under € 390 the full outfit last month.
That was before the sales got started too...it's probably less by now.

There are ripoff merchants in Ireland but there are also some very good hobby shops.
I know that these long standing shops even export to US modellers.
They also have the spare parts you need right here, the same hour you need them.

Start here... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=199335

poache

hey guys when u order in from america you will have to pay import duty of 21% i think...i've seen someone else post some info on this forum before...if u want to avoid this u can simply order from within the e.u.....i got my nitro on road rtr car in from germany....really cheap ,within the week delivery,no extra charges,20 eu for the complete p&p...try www.mbs-modellbaushop.com for cheap on road nitro's..

Plug

Did u ever buy any thing from tower hobbies. I ordered a t maxx about 20 days ago, they said it would arrive 10 to 30 days it still hasent arrived yet.
What if your not there when it comes do they leave a letter telling u were to collect it.

DARREN_____KILKENNY

SLIM19198

Last time I ordered (about 3 months ago) It arrived exactly 30 days to the day after I ordered it.

HTH

Plug

I just got a postcard from GLS Ireland for a customs clearance.
I phoned them and they said it will be here tomorrow or monday, hopefully tomorrow.
One more thing can you get spare parts for traxxas here i heard you could get them in Dublin but the the prices are bull****.

DARREN_____KILKENNY

Pacifico

Plug wrote:

One more thing can you get spare parts for traxxas here i heard you could get them in Dublin but the the prices are bull****.

DARREN_____KILKENNY

You can but tbh it's a waste of time. Really expesive and they'll have to order them Link

I've used www.modelsport.co.uk a few times and they are excellent. Delivery is a bit expesive but you will have the parts in 2 days

Plug

Do you know how much the glowplugs in planet fun for the t maxx are. I think there too ashamed to show the prices, all it shows is €call for prices. There hardly more than a fiver, are they?

DARREN______KLIKENNY

boyracer

my son bought a nitro car from tower hobbies through his uncle who lives in boston,who shipped to ireland by normal post which cost 43 dollars,it took 5 days to get here and was not stopped by customs because it was marked as a gift with no commercial value.
we would like to find out about clubs or racing venues in the dublin/wicklow area,

SLIM19198

I rang them once about turnbuckles for the T-MAXX (about 10 euro max), they quoted me something like 38 euro + P&P

Needless to say, I didnt buy from them!

Plug wrote:

Do you know how much the glowplugs in planet fun for the t maxx are. I think there too ashamed to show the prices, all it shows is €call for prices. There hardly more than a fiver, are they?

DARREN______KLIKENNY

Dan_B

Plug,
€6 for a glowplug in boystoyz if that's any good to ya!

Boyracer,
I think there is a club in Lucan, seen an add for it somewhere.
If you ring the outdoor hobbie shop in Leixlip they could tell you for sure.