Here's a thought.

[steelo]

What if RS wasn't discontinuing ZZ's? Many of the RS sales associates that I have talked to seem to believe that RS at the very least will still be offering ZZ's and their hop-ups online and will still be producing new parts.

One observation that would support the theory that ZZ's aren't being discontinued is the new "Cars" ZZ's. They are not like the old ZZ's. Almost like a 1.5 version of ZZ's.

ZZSE's are exactly what they were intended to be Special Editions. However, let's say for conversation sake that they were intended to be more than that. Sometimes a company will release a special edition product with the intention of using the product as a guinea pig so to speak.

What if ZZSE's were intended to be this kind of product? Would we see another incarnation of this product down the road? Possibly upgraded with more features and/or fixing the limitations of the current product or even more so the intergration of the best features of the current ZZ line and the special editions best features?

Another observation that would support this theory is that the "Cars" ZZ's and the ZZMT's are able to use the ZZSE's bodies. Why would they intergrate this feature with all of the current line if they had no intention of continuing on?

The empty shelves prove that ZZ's are not a dead product. The clearance prices may have had some factor in this, but I feel it is more the rumor that the ZZ line is being discontinued.

Granted the ZZ official site being closed down, the limited offerings on the RS site and the shipment of inventory back to the warehouses are all good indicators that the ZZ line is dead

However, it is September and all stores clear their shelves this time of year for new products. What if RS was planning on releasing another incarnation of the ZZ line and needed the parts to create the product or they were just out of date with what RS was planning with the new line i.e. replacing everything with all new parts and starter kits? The ZZSE's and ZZMT's could be seen as a good indicator to this.

With the ZZSE's propo electronics and the ZZMT's motors and a modified gearing system we could possibly see beefed up versions of ZZ's. I doubt that anyone would argue that the 6 channel proportional throttle and steering of the ZZSE with some minor improvements would bring ZZ's far ahead of what anyone else has to offer.

Now imagine that combined with a modified ZZMT chassis that was lower and had a different type of suspension system i.e. something more along the lines of what X-Mods has to offer.

Even a rear wheel driven incarnation of this would be a major improvement over the current ZZ line, but an AWD version with the bodies lowered as much as possible, add FF:TD bodies and then you have miniature drift racers with a movie tie-in.

Even ZZMT's would benefit. Same 6 channel design, ZZSE's propo system, adjustable articulation and 4 wheel steering equals RTR crawlers.

We've all seen the mods that people are doing and it is realitively inexpensive to do. Most of these changes would take place in the engineering of such products, intergrating technology that they are already using thus keeping production costs close to the same as they are now.

Here's my suggestion. Everyone needs to let RS know that we want ZZ's and X-Mods to stay around and what we want to see from them in the future. The price tag for the final product may have to increase $5 or $10, but isn't it worth it to keep a product line alive that you actually want instead of being forced to move on to a larger more expensive one?