Over the past few years the RC industry has been on the brink of losing it's retail price paying customers, and finally the breed of non sponsored retail customers has gone extinct.
Kyosho managed to sign the final retail customer in the world, Fritz Beckenbauer from Austria. Thanks to their aggressive campaign of signing everyone, including Francois de Boise from Paris, who merely mentioned to his friend that he would like to give RC racing a go, the Japanese brand has now built up a strong team of people no one has ever heard of. With other brands also now adopting the aggressive preemptive signing of drivers, and with the new entries to the market low, it is looking like there will not be any more retail customers in the foreseeable future.
This development made, Fritz's parents, who bought a retail priced Sworkz for their son, the last retail customers in the world. Now Fritz who is fifteen, dumped the Sworkz for the Kyosho deal of 35% off retail.
This marks the end of an era for the RC industry, where now everyone is sponsored, and retail sales are obsolete.