Half/Half
 

Half Japanese half Chinese?
Anybody noticed that on the Dnano's, the AutoScale dumby chassis is made in China while the RC chassis is made in Japan? I would've assumed it was %100 Japanese? What gives? Are the 1/28 scale versions Chinese made as well? Or are those pure Jap?

Dunno, but there are supposedly differences in the Z world. Kyosho has manufacturing in both countries for sure. There are MR-02 Mini-Z chassis' that are Japanese mfg and majority are Chinese... look on bottom. The Japanese-made chassis are pretty rare in the US from what I have seen. Some of the fast racers claim the Japanese ones are better but I don't know personally. I have both and my fastest cars are Japanese but it could be coincidence. I know to get a good, fast Z chassis it takes a lot of work so I am not convinced it is all place of origin.

why do people think that just because something is made in china its bad? i don't get that... there are soooo many american companies that outsource production to chinese factories due to their ability to produce market quality goods and extremely low costs but most people are completely unaware. i'd bet that kyosho outsources many of its products to hong kong, taiwan & china.

Yeah no kidding. If only people would start to realize that like over 80% of even American products are manufactured in China. I wouldn't be surprised if the worldwide manufacturing numbers hold pretty high as well.

I think what happens is a perception issue. On one side you have Chinese products that are engineered, managed, and manufactured in China. In that case a lot of times products are rushed to market to turn profits quicker and cheap prices. You'll see a lot of this with knockoff/copy products. On the other side you get products engineered elsewhere and closely managed by the firms who have a vested interest that the quality is to their liking. The latter is much more common because these firms really don't like throwing their investment and reputation away. I'm no manufacturing expert but 2 of my best friends are engineers for a large well known company who deal with China 7 days a week. What can you say... we talk:) How do ya think I keep scoring the new dNano stuff before others in the US?LOL One of my friends is leaving next week for China and the other one got back a week or so ago. They are in constant rotation so you can be sure their products will come out exactly how they designed them. It has been a neat education for me.

As for the Mini-Z chassis thing specifically, there were some comments that there were specific improvements from one over the other. I can't recall exactly but it was a couple things and sounded legit and more than heresay to me. That said, I'll take either chassis and win races with it so take your pick :)

FYI Marc, last time I checked in the US, "Jap" is a derogatory term nowdays. I grew up with it around the house as my grandfather served in WWII and my parents were children around it as was I. Just thought you might want to know in case anybody called you on it:P

i understand the initial reaction however in this particular issue as when the mr-01's were the new and hot item, everyone preferred the jpn mr-01 vs. china mr-01. this was due to a higher level of quality control at the time. the jpn chassis had fewer problems, less prone to fried fets, etc. this is common knowledge to anyone from the mr-01 era.

i DO NOT think this translates to anything really past the mr-01 however 95% of the references include mention of the mr-01 which is an attempt at transferrance. if the jpn mr-01 was better, the jpn mr-0x is better... just not the case anymore.

anyone whom thinks anythign made in china is cheap is well, uneducated or simply passing along someone else's misinformed opinion.

there are however serious questions as to the material quality of items and these concerns are entirely legit. the lack of the same level of product safety measures has led to the discovery of serious and well documented (in the u.s.) faults in product production using contaminated materials or materials that would never have been allowed had an american corporation not outsourced production to china in order to produce the item at a cheaper rate so that they can maintain thier profit margins and still give us their product at the bottom dollar prices we demand they do.

this is really a topic that could be better served on it's own and equally controversial so lets continue it elsewhere. :)

marc, to answer your question:
are you really surprised at all? why, really is this an issue to begin with?
the car you dive is assembled of many parts made in many different places. why would you assume that 100% of an rc is made in any one place? what gives? why would you assume that a dnano is or must be 100% jpn manufactured? they make stuff just like we do, think it up, outsource production to varrying degrees to get better pricing

Arch, I guess it's just something I never noticed in all my years of playing with the Mini-Z's, so yes I was surprised. But not by much! :D

fraz , I was nearly using it as an abbreviation, nothing more.

Also Nano, I was not saying anything bad about the fact that it was made in China. Years ago we laughed at stuff made in China, now we almost embrace it.

Just use "Jpn"

just as easy and non offensive

I sure will, thanks' for reminding me. Last thing I want to do is offend anybody here.