I have posted a message in my build log but to those that haven't read it - some interesting news I got from HPI in reply to a moaning e-mail I sent about lack of availability of parts, in particular replacements for 'glass' differentials
Most of the message was regurgitated copy paste from the message posted Here by ELWOOD.
However in response to my diff problems or lack of availability they said:
The sintered differential parts you enquired about, we have had several batches of stock but are currently sold out. More are expected in the next few weeks.
The Machined Bulletproof differentials are an item that was affected by the factory closure in Taiwan. It has taken us much longer than we would have liked, but we have found an alternative supplier that can provide these at a quality we expect from a HPI Racing product. A large batch is due to hit the warehouse in August.
We hopefully also have a new third option on the way for the Crown gear and Pinion that came about from our extensive search for alternatives, these we will be looking to announce shortly.
Potential new Bevel & Crowns? Sounds good to me!
Full reply below - warning LONG MESSAGE!! Lots of info here and pretty positive for HPI's future
FULL MESSAGE:
Thank you for contacting HPI Racing. Thank you for your patience. We apologise for the delay in replying.
HPI Racing as a brand has gone through some major changes since Vestergaard took over and we would like to outline below what they were and our challenges moving forward.
All our work is with the aim of making HPI Racing a sustainable and reliable business with the focus on the long term future of the brand and its customers. Detailing everything going on right now is impossible but the main things are:
The rebuilding process is very different from the previous times the HPI Racing brand has changed ownership. It is a completely new start up. No systems, staff or internal logistics were transferred in the sale which has meant that HPI Racing, as a company and as a brand, is truly rebuilding from the ground up. Over the last 9-10 months HPI Racing and Vestergaard have worked hand in hand to start that rebuilding process.
Existing inventory and body production machinery in the UK has been transferred to Vestergaard Groups extensive distribution warehouse in Viborg, Denmark. The Vestergaard Group will handle all logistics for HPI Racing and Viborg will be its new central warehouse location.
Manufacturing:
HPI Manufacturing ( HPI’s own factory or HPIM for short) has been up and running for about 6 months now. Cars and Spares are shipping from our China factory. Not everything is available but we are working hard to get everything currently considered as on sale, produced asap.
HPIM and other partners will continue to manufacture the same HPI Racing products, with the same QC to keep the same level of specification we expect in HPI Racing products.
Cars in normal production schedule:
E-10,
RS4 Sport 3,
Jumpshots,
Venture,
Savage XS,
Wheely & Crawler King,
Micro RS4,
Savage X 4.6 RTR,
Savage XL Flux.
Trophy’s
Bullet’s
Vorza
WR8
Manufacturing in Taiwan is still a work in progress. Unfortunately, the cars manufactured in Taiwan have been affected by a supply chain issue. These issues are largely down to the closures of sub suppliers or external manufacturers, which are circumstances outside of HPI’s control.
We are in the process of trying to re-establish supply from alternative manufacturers where possible but this will probably just for spare parts supply right now. Not RTR cars.
A major RC factory in Taiwan closed down in the wake of Hobbico’s financial collapse. Leaving a lot of tooling missing and financial problems all down that factories supply chain. It is a very complicated picture HPI Racing has been trying to solve/work around for a long time.
We are now classing chassis made in Taiwan as On Hold. We will re-release them, resource them or discontinue them on a chassis by chassis, spare part by spare part basis as and when its future becomes clear. We are still hopeful we can bring the majority of these items back to market.
Car families currently On Hold from Taiwan:
Baja,
Blitz,
Firestorm,
RS4 Nitro 3,
Sprint 2.
For the Savage, It will depend on which version of the car. If they are standard items from the Savage X 4.6 RTR or the Savage Flux XL then these are in production at “HPIM” and will flow through our network as normal.
Many older standard items and optional parts are discontinued or will be hard to get hold of still, as they were also made in Taiwan. The Savage 5.9’s will be a mixed bag because anything that is standard on the current Savage X 4.6 will be available as normal however anything unique will be difficult to find as it was made in Taiwan.
The sintered differential parts you enquired about, we have had several batches of stock but are currently sold out. More are expected in the next few weeks.
The Machined Bulletproof differentials are an item that was affected by the factory closure in Taiwan. It has taken us much longer than we would have liked, but we have found an alternative supplier that can provide these at a quality we expect from a HPI Racing product. A large batch is due to hit the warehouse in August.
We hopefully also have a new third option on the way for the Crown gear and Pinion that came about from our extensive search for alternatives, these we will be looking to announce shortly.
We have been shipping from HPIM to our Distributors and Central warehouse frequently since October 2019. Several shipments of spares and kits have been delivered between then and now with more on the way every month.
Parts supply has been much improved for cars in our normal production schedule.
The www.hpiracing.com website is the best resource for our up to the minute catalogue. Each parts webpage will say if the item is discontinued or not. We are updating this all the time.
Licencing:
All of HPI Racing's Licencing agreements are being renegotiated and renewed because of the change of ownership. Until we have that particular brands licence signed and sealed we cannot restart production of that product.
This effects mainly body production but also some chassis production that has a licenced bodyshell on it. Some are signed and sealed, others will come back on board later, but some are definitely not. Nissan, Ford and Subaru are back on board and we hope for others to follow shortly.
The Team in the UK, is now focused around a small but dedicated group of staff that will cover all Sales, Purchasing, Marketing, Social Media, Graphics, Artwork, Videos, Website content, Range and Production management and Product development and sourcing.
Distributor Network:
We do not sell directly but use a large Distributor network, please check with your regions Distributor for full local retailer and stock information.
You can find details of all the Distributors we are shipping to currently signed on here:
www.hpiracing.com/distributors
If they do not currently have stock then it is worth contacting them to make sure they have the items on order for you from there next delivery bearing in mind the restrictions I mentioned above.
We are currently setting up the website to show all the retailers that have access to HPI Racing product.
Our domestic region and the retailers that our Distributors have supplied details for, are listed on our shop search section of our website.
www.hpiracing.com/shops
If your local retailer isn't registered with them ask them to get in touch with their local Distributor.
I hope this helps show we are working very hard to push HPI Racing forwards. We are building a future for HPI Racing. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and thank you for your understanding.
Most of the message was regurgitated copy paste from the message posted Here by ELWOOD.
However in response to my diff problems or lack of availability they said:
The sintered differential parts you enquired about, we have had several batches of stock but are currently sold out. More are expected in the next few weeks.
The Machined Bulletproof differentials are an item that was affected by the factory closure in Taiwan. It has taken us much longer than we would have liked, but we have found an alternative supplier that can provide these at a quality we expect from a HPI Racing product. A large batch is due to hit the warehouse in August.
We hopefully also have a new third option on the way for the Crown gear and Pinion that came about from our extensive search for alternatives, these we will be looking to announce shortly.
Potential new Bevel & Crowns? Sounds good to me!
Full reply below - warning LONG MESSAGE!! Lots of info here and pretty positive for HPI's future
FULL MESSAGE:
Thank you for contacting HPI Racing. Thank you for your patience. We apologise for the delay in replying.
HPI Racing as a brand has gone through some major changes since Vestergaard took over and we would like to outline below what they were and our challenges moving forward.
All our work is with the aim of making HPI Racing a sustainable and reliable business with the focus on the long term future of the brand and its customers. Detailing everything going on right now is impossible but the main things are:
The rebuilding process is very different from the previous times the HPI Racing brand has changed ownership. It is a completely new start up. No systems, staff or internal logistics were transferred in the sale which has meant that HPI Racing, as a company and as a brand, is truly rebuilding from the ground up. Over the last 9-10 months HPI Racing and Vestergaard have worked hand in hand to start that rebuilding process.
Existing inventory and body production machinery in the UK has been transferred to Vestergaard Groups extensive distribution warehouse in Viborg, Denmark. The Vestergaard Group will handle all logistics for HPI Racing and Viborg will be its new central warehouse location.
Manufacturing:
HPI Manufacturing ( HPI’s own factory or HPIM for short) has been up and running for about 6 months now. Cars and Spares are shipping from our China factory. Not everything is available but we are working hard to get everything currently considered as on sale, produced asap.
HPIM and other partners will continue to manufacture the same HPI Racing products, with the same QC to keep the same level of specification we expect in HPI Racing products.
Cars in normal production schedule:
E-10,
RS4 Sport 3,
Jumpshots,
Venture,
Savage XS,
Wheely & Crawler King,
Micro RS4,
Savage X 4.6 RTR,
Savage XL Flux.
Trophy’s
Bullet’s
Vorza
WR8
Manufacturing in Taiwan is still a work in progress. Unfortunately, the cars manufactured in Taiwan have been affected by a supply chain issue. These issues are largely down to the closures of sub suppliers or external manufacturers, which are circumstances outside of HPI’s control.
We are in the process of trying to re-establish supply from alternative manufacturers where possible but this will probably just for spare parts supply right now. Not RTR cars.
A major RC factory in Taiwan closed down in the wake of Hobbico’s financial collapse. Leaving a lot of tooling missing and financial problems all down that factories supply chain. It is a very complicated picture HPI Racing has been trying to solve/work around for a long time.
We are now classing chassis made in Taiwan as On Hold. We will re-release them, resource them or discontinue them on a chassis by chassis, spare part by spare part basis as and when its future becomes clear. We are still hopeful we can bring the majority of these items back to market.
Car families currently On Hold from Taiwan:
Baja,
Blitz,
Firestorm,
RS4 Nitro 3,
Sprint 2.
For the Savage, It will depend on which version of the car. If they are standard items from the Savage X 4.6 RTR or the Savage Flux XL then these are in production at “HPIM” and will flow through our network as normal.
Many older standard items and optional parts are discontinued or will be hard to get hold of still, as they were also made in Taiwan. The Savage 5.9’s will be a mixed bag because anything that is standard on the current Savage X 4.6 will be available as normal however anything unique will be difficult to find as it was made in Taiwan.
The sintered differential parts you enquired about, we have had several batches of stock but are currently sold out. More are expected in the next few weeks.
The Machined Bulletproof differentials are an item that was affected by the factory closure in Taiwan. It has taken us much longer than we would have liked, but we have found an alternative supplier that can provide these at a quality we expect from a HPI Racing product. A large batch is due to hit the warehouse in August.
We hopefully also have a new third option on the way for the Crown gear and Pinion that came about from our extensive search for alternatives, these we will be looking to announce shortly.
We have been shipping from HPIM to our Distributors and Central warehouse frequently since October 2019. Several shipments of spares and kits have been delivered between then and now with more on the way every month.
Parts supply has been much improved for cars in our normal production schedule.
The www.hpiracing.com website is the best resource for our up to the minute catalogue. Each parts webpage will say if the item is discontinued or not. We are updating this all the time.
Licencing:
All of HPI Racing's Licencing agreements are being renegotiated and renewed because of the change of ownership. Until we have that particular brands licence signed and sealed we cannot restart production of that product.
This effects mainly body production but also some chassis production that has a licenced bodyshell on it. Some are signed and sealed, others will come back on board later, but some are definitely not. Nissan, Ford and Subaru are back on board and we hope for others to follow shortly.
The Team in the UK, is now focused around a small but dedicated group of staff that will cover all Sales, Purchasing, Marketing, Social Media, Graphics, Artwork, Videos, Website content, Range and Production management and Product development and sourcing.
Distributor Network:
We do not sell directly but use a large Distributor network, please check with your regions Distributor for full local retailer and stock information.
You can find details of all the Distributors we are shipping to currently signed on here:
www.hpiracing.com/distributors
If they do not currently have stock then it is worth contacting them to make sure they have the items on order for you from there next delivery bearing in mind the restrictions I mentioned above.
We are currently setting up the website to show all the retailers that have access to HPI Racing product.
Our domestic region and the retailers that our Distributors have supplied details for, are listed on our shop search section of our website.
www.hpiracing.com/shops
If your local retailer isn't registered with them ask them to get in touch with their local Distributor.
I hope this helps show we are working very hard to push HPI Racing forwards. We are building a future for HPI Racing. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and thank you for your understanding.