HOBBICO ACQUIRES AXIAL, TEAM DURANGO & ARRMA

[jimmy]

Champaign, Illinois, USA January 9, 2012 - Hobbico, Inc. announced today that it has acquired several R/C car product lines: Axial, Team Durango and ARRMA.

AXIAL
Founded in 2005, Axial offers industry-leading R/C vehicles, focused on rock crawling and rock racing products. With excellent design features and a high level of detail, Axial specializes in highly realistic ready-to-run vehicles including the recently released EXO Terra Buggy and the popular Wraith Rock Racer.

Team Durango
Established in 2009, Team Durango is known for state-of-the-art race vehicles in 1/10 and 1/8 scale including the revolutionary and patented DEX210 2WD buggy and the fastest 4WD competition SC truck, the DESC410R. Team Durango holds world and national championship titles around the globe.

ARRMA
ARRMA is a new product line introduced in 2011, offering a selection of vehicles with advanced features, unique designs and parts compatibility. The Raider Buggy and Fury Short Course Truck are popular items from ARRMA. The acquisition also includes the dBoots brand of R/C tires which specialize in off-road tires for multi-surface indoor and outdoor tracks.


Hobbico is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of model hobby products, including radio controlled models, plastic model kits, rockets and other hobby products. The employee-owned company manufactures and distributes many famous hobby brands such as Duratrax, TrakPower, O’Donnell Racing Fuel, Revell, Estes, Great Planes, HeliMax, MonoKote, Real Flight, Top Flite, SuperTigre, Aquacraft, and others.
Axial will continue to operate as an independent company from its facility in Irvine, California. Team Durango and ARRMA will also continue independently from their current offices in Ashby, Leicestershire, UK. The product lines will continue to be available through a worldwide network of distributors.
“We’re proud to bring these strong product lines into the Hobbico family,” said Wayne Hemming, President of Hobbico. “I’m particularly happy to welcome the teams of talented professionals at Axial, Team Durango and ARRMA and look forward to the innovative products that they are developing.”
“I’m excited about this new affiliation with Hobbico,” said Jeff Johns, General Manager of Axial R/C Inc., “This will give Axial additional resources to continue our rapid growth.”
“I look forward to working with Durango and ARRMA staff as well as those within Hobbico to continue to introduce innovative and successful products. This is an exciting step which we are sure will help take us to the next level” said Jason Dearden, Managing Director of ARRMA Durango, Ltd.

[burgie]

maybe this explains the delays with the 210 and 410v3....

[nitrokillah]

hummm dose this mean we should expect some RTR durangos & a mini 410 in the future ?

[jonathan may]

A MICRO DURANGO WOULD BE GREAT

[Carlos69]

Originally Posted by jonathan may

A MICRO DURANGO WOULD BE GREAT

THIS

[Loomans]

Strange, the official Kingstar website is also down....

[JohnM]

Originally Posted by nitrokillah

hummm dose this mean we should expect some RTR durangos & a mini 410 in the future ?

Christ I hope not, that would be just like when Horizon bought Losi and flushed it down the toilet

As long as Hobbico leave Adam, Gerd and the rest to do their own thing, just with more investment, that'll be ok, but start making "toy" RC cars with the Durango name on them, no, no, no.

[Stu]

I imagine the delays with supply of the Durango kits has been due to high demand.
The Arrma brand has some cool RTR kits so the Durango kits will hopefully stay unchanged.

[HyperFX]

Originally Posted by JohnM

Christ I hope not, that would be just like when Horizon bought Losi and flushed it down the toilet

As long as Hobbico leave Adam, Gerd and the rest to do their own thing, just with more investment, that'll be ok, but start making "toy" RC cars with the Durango name on them, no, no, no.

They could make the "toy" grade "Durango's" under the ARRMA label, just like they are already doing.
I hope this doesn't go wrong.