MMM availibility date dropped!

[jhautz]

Originally Posted by Sammus

yep.

I wasn't gonna bring it up again.

Originally Posted by E-Revonut

Last week my lhs was asking me about my Novak HV setup because they want to have something to offer people until the MMM comes out, which the owner heard might not be until August! :-(

At this point I woudn't believe that if they told me. They have completely lost all credibility in my mind.


CC really needs to figure out how to manage a project. I would have lost my job LONG ago if i had all these dates come and go on a high profile project and still had nothing delivered.

[jnev]

All I can hope for now is that it will be out by my birthday in July... Lets hope for the best.

[hobbimaster]

Well its not just CC either, it seems all electronics manufactures these days say one thing referring to release dates, and then do not provide the goods as expected. I'm not sure if its arrogance, structure, or just lack of commitment. Things do happen, but come on, pick a date a year or so off from official release date and if it comes out early then you've made people very happy, if its close to the date given, well, thats ok too. Just dont tease us with pics and spy video (Tekin/MMM) at the hobby shows and web sights. I just dont get how the MMM got pushed back, to what has it been 3yrs now since official announcement and then this little sidewinder pops out of nowhere (I do own 2), That just shows me CC's priority level. At this point I think we all should email CC into oblivian if its not out within the next month "expected" release of April-May!

[E-Revonut]

Well I agree with most of what you said! But keep in mind that although CC is a big company in RC they really are still a relatively small company. If everyone starts e-mailing them it will take more time to deal with all the e-mails which will either pull someone away that could be doing something useful to getting the MMM out asap or they'll have to hire an extra person to deal with them which could only increase the MSRP when it is actually released! I am part of a mid sized company like CC, although not the same field, and I have been part of a small company....From what I have heard CC is having problems with suppliers of the parts they need, therefor CC is not soley to blame. After all this said, I do believe they should give a realistic date or they should have kept things under tighter wrap until it was ready!!!

[glassdoctor]

Now it's up to 3 yrs waiting?

[ssspconcepts]

Originally Posted by jhautz

I wasn't gonna bring it up again.


At this point I woudn't believe that if they told me. They have completely lost all credibility in my mind.


CC really needs to figure out how to manage a project. I would have lost my job LONG ago if i had all these dates come and go on a high profile project and still had nothing delivered.

I could not agree with you more...and further, I don't buy the story that "we are dealing with issues that are outside our control." If you ask me that's the problem...they are not trying to control the situation. My lord...the $$$ is there (for the time being)...MM proved that. They need to $hit can the weak link in the process and move on. Industry enthusiasts will pay the difference.

I don't remember what Batman character said it but the words I remember vividly: "this city needs an enema!" Maybe it was Penguin. At any rate this economy needs an enema. Customer service these days is crap and it needs a wake up call. I remember in the late eighties and early nineties the common slogan was "whatever it takes" to keep a customer. That ideology was a result of some seriously hard times...c'mon folks (Castle) wake up! Do you really want to go back to that? Or do you want to be the omni present industry leader and be the "last man standing" when the dust settles in the aftermath (in case you ain't checked...the market is lookin very 1980's)?

[lincpimp]

Wow, people certainly get passionate about this stuff. I am sure that CC is doing their best, they know that everyday that they do not have a product available for sale they loose potential sales.

The constant setbacks do appear to be annoying, but it certainly keeps us talking about it! There is no such thing as bad publicity, right?!

[highflier]

Lets be honest. Why do companies pre announce product. To stop competitive sales, create a demand so that they can have good sales at introduction. Typically there is a judgement call on just how far in advance to announce, Then figure in extra time for the we waited this long we will wait a little longer.
Bammmmm you have a killing intro sales demand. Oppps we guessed on product readiness then told then market something else... and now we have internal delays... followed by external delays, and now the market is just unbelieving.
CC will do good with the next minor product and gain trust... then the cycle repeats.


All in all we have to make our own judgement calls.

Highflier

[cart213]

Originally Posted by ssspconcepts

I don't remember what Batman character said it but the words I remember vividly: "this city needs an enema!"

It was the Joker.

[cart213]

Originally Posted by hobbimaster

I just dont get how the MMM got pushed back, to what has it been 3yrs now since official announcement and then this little sidewinder pops out of nowhere (I do own 2)

The sidewinder popped out of nowhere (along with the sidewinder micro) because CC learned their lesson not to announce new products too soon. I'm sure the sidewinder had a much shorter development cycle than the MMM because it is a downgrade of the MM (instead of an upgrade), and it didn't require a new motor.

[ssspconcepts]

Originally Posted by cart213

It was the Joker.

Thanks. I knew we had some Batman fans here.

[jhautz]

All I'm saying is take control of the situation instead of letting the situation control them.

Trust me I deal with overseas suppliers on a daily basis as well and they can be difficult to deal with at best. Its like you are their mercy to just believe what they tell you because you have no way of telling what is accurate and what is not. CC need to park somebody from their organization in the conference room of the offending supplier and have them start digging into every nook and cranny of the "problem" they are having. You would be amazed at what having somebody's nose up their butt on a daily basis does for their motivation to "SOLVE THE PROBLEM"

I know the proposition of spending multiple weeks in some small Chinese town while "helping" them figure it out does not sound very appealing, but sooner or later somebody has to just jump on the grenade and GET IT DONE.

[lutach]

I had a Schulze 18.97 burn up on me, but I have a 32.55K, 2 18.61K, 2 11.20 and the 40.160 and guess what, if you go the Schulze's site you will see a ton of new controllers coming out and most of which are HV (up to 14S lipos). Castle has a good market not only here in the US, but in other countries and Castle needs to come out with ESC that will match what Schulze is doing. How can Schulze and other Euro companies make controllers that can work with all the R/C sector and Castle can't? The 40.160 is almost $800 (I don't know why, maybe software) and if folks find it in stock, they'll buy it. Castle please come out with the goodies, who cares about plastic casing.

[glassdoctor]

Just a guess here ... I think the MMM got scrapped at some point in the last year and they started from scratch, with the Sidewinder being part of the same development project.

I think that explains why MMM info got real vague and quiet for a while, and then we started hearing a lot more in the past few months about the same time word of the SW got out. For that matter, the new 1/18 speedo I think was in the same "project"... but it's not out yet either.

No doubt the MMM has given more trouble to get finished... and there has been a continued problem getting the motors too. Heck, they finally had to buy/build their own factory to get them made... so I'm told.

I've been upset about the whole thing at times, but I also understand how it can drag on for a long time.

Their mistake is talking about it. But... you know we all would want to know what's being developed by all the r/c companies, if we could make it that way.

[JERRY2KONE]

I kind of understand now why Robin at UE has been so tight lipped about his goings on. Once you open your mouth about anything people like us won't let it go for a minute. We are so hungry for any news about this that we are ready to burn the place down because we want what they've got.

The facts that I see are that CC has given us a good product in the past with the MM. It has run its course and done a pretty good job at that. Now that CC is planning to release something new (MMM) that we want for the monster truck junkies there are no excuses that will do for any delays. Its no wander why Joe hates comming on here to give us any kind of info. Don't get me wrong guys, I am on board with you, in that I cannot wait to get one and set it up on one of my trucks, but lets take a step back and give the man some breathing room. I think it is obvious that CC is comming out with the MMM any day now. Whatever their problems may be I am sure that Joe will work it out and get the MMM to us as soon as he possibly can.