From accessories to finished remote control cars, when the most depressed time built yo-yo, what has this car model company experienced? This is an article about the history of The Development of Losi, and can even be said to be the "History" of Losi, and the following information is derived from the 2013 and 2017 gel Losi Sr (hereinafter referred to as "Old Gill"), Gil Losi Jr (Little Jill) and Janet Losi discussion recordings.
Before the establishment of Losi
Before the elder Gill founded the Losi team, he founded a skateboarding company called Veriflex with a brother and nephew.
Little Jill and his brother, OldEr Gill, competed in a lot of skateboarding competitions. A runway was then paved for RC RC cars in a skate park near Veriflex. One day, old Jill brought home some kits from Tamiya, and Little Gil packed them together and started the game.
Shortly after this, Gill Jr. made his last skateboarding trip in 1978 or 1979. Little Jill despises skateboarders and the industry. Because at the time people had to be hooligans or drug addicts to be popular in this circle, he didn't want to be part of that group. After this final skateboarding match, he left the circle completely, he just didn't want to have anything to do with these people.
The RC is less profitable, but he prefers it to skateboarding. Old Gil built an RC RC track next to one of their skate parks, this time bigger than before, and soon they were keen to run wild on the track, but the government eventually closed the venue due to a lack of permits.
But a man's enthusiasm would never be extinguished so easily, so soon after The Elder Gil decided to buy a repair station on the farm (similar to the current model shop, but with its own processing facilities) because it was almost bankrupt. There were two partners who owned the pit stop. One of them tried to deceive them, while the other tried to tell them that they should not buy the place, as old Gill might lose everything as a result. The pit had a mail-order business, and Old Gil continued to run the business, which soon became today's main hobby. They then developed their mail order business into an import business and distribution business.
Sell and import Yokomo, Kyosho and Cox kits. When they come to the U.S. to repackage, they also drill holes in the fiberglass chassis of the Yokomo kit, re-optimizing it to make it more suitable for U.S.-based equipment and accessories. They also purchased Serpent's (what domestic players call snake boy) road kits, and re-optimized the modification kits, which were a huge success.
The official start of the Losi team
The Losi team began manufacturing pinions and large umbilical teeth in the early 80s, which were originally handmade and sold through their pits. They also make tie rods for Tamiya cars. Later, they began manufacturing parts for Yokomo and Team Associated (aka AE).
During this period, Gill Jr. participated in many local RC competitions, gradually became famous, and was asked by Team Associated to help develop work related to RC12L (there was also a Losi figure in the previous RC10 development, but it was not mentioned in the conversation at the time, and it is written here from RC12L), L stands for Losi.
RC12L
RC10L
They made a lot of money selling off-road vehicle accessories, and then Team Associated approached them and said they wanted to build an off-road vehicle. Team Associated asked Little Jill to help design it. To get his help, they reached a 10% discount agreement that would allocate them 3,000 sets of equipment in the first year. Little Jill wasn't a big fan of the final version released, but the RC12L was still better than many other companies' products at the time. The RC12L sells very well at the pit. One day, Little Jill and Gary Kyes had lunch with Jean and Roger from Team Associated to discuss why other dealers didn't get the promised kit. At lunch, Gill Jr. said the kits promised to them for the pit were unfair to other dealers because they thought they would never really want that many RC12L kits. Other dealers will be unhappy because they can't get the kit. Gene and Roger said that the previous agreement would not continue and that the distribution of accessories would be re-optimized, and that day Gene and Roger's decision set the development of JRX2 on and put the Losi team on the path of a high-level RC company.
The birth of a legend - JRX2
*JRX2 released in 1988
This is The First Product from Losi and is completely designed and manufactured in-house. After the JRX2 was designed, when it was time to build, Losi needed a large sum of money to fund the production. Old Jill sold the house to help. There were other money that was not made public in conversation at the time.
The first prototype part of the JRX2 was handmade. Parts of the JRX2 and other early models were originally hand-drawn. Computers were not used at the time.
The Losi team needed to manufacture a large number of custom machined parts for the new JRX2 kit. They eventually reached an agreement with a factory floor where Gill Lotsi Jr. entered the machine shop as a third party. Little Jill eventually learned how to actually produce and process. He had only known how to design prototypes before, but had never been involved in the actual production of parts, which had a huge impact on his future focus.
The JRX2 came out with a unique 5-link rear suspension. The RC10 driven by Gill Jr. about 4 years ago actually had a 5-link rear suspension as well. At the time, it never really piqued anyone at Team Associated. The rear slider for the 5 link is inspired by the Schumacher RC.
For the first launch of THE JRX2, they decided to change the way the product was released because they had a business of running a model store. They decided to send the parts first and then ship the whole truck. Old Gill believes that as soon as the whole vehicle arrives, the accessories need to be supplied in the store. At the beginning of the launch date, both the vehicle and accessories users can buy at the same time.
But contrary to their wishes, they have many missing accessories. So it kept going on, and the Losi team's money was running out. Old Jill called Allen, Hobbico's vice president. He offered Alan a thousand JRX2s, if Hobbico paid right away. Losi will be offered to Hobbico at a low price of $137 each. The next day, a check for $137,000 was delivered to Old Gill. This saved the launch of JRX2. However, there is also a "shipment" date in the agreement. The Losi team was a week behind the stipulated shipping date, and every week of each night, the Losi team owed Hobbico a large sum of money. Hobbico sold it all out at a very fast pace after getting the JRX2, which made the hobbico people very happy. When Old Jill called Hobbico to inquire about the sale, Hobbico told them they had forgotten the money they owed Hobbico. The product is so successful that they don't care if they owe money anymore.
There was an interesting thing at the time, they started with the JRX2 vehicle kit, there were often missing parts. So Old Jill bought a bunch of scales and accurately judged if there were missing pieces by checking the weight of each bag. Shortly after buying a lot of scales, the police came and sent someone to investigate why the company needed so many small scales. They believe that illegal operations may be taking place in the building.
The Jrx2 later released a longer wheelbase, also known as the JRXT, retaining the unique 5-link rear suspension. At the time, there were many companies that offered kits to convert the Jrx2 into a big cart. Losi designed its own version after seeing the demand, essentially killing the Third-Party Bigfoot Modification Market for the Jrx2.
*JRXT released in 1989
Future-proof design and testing
Because jr. Jill was involved in the production of JRX2 at that time, Gill Jr. began to study the manufacturing process instead of RC racing. He lost interest in racing and became more interested in manufacturing. Until 1987, he had been obsessed with RC-related manufacturing and had not touched the remote control for a long time, which I think is the same as many RC practitioners now, from the beginning of the enthusiasm for driving, to the later study of manufacturing.
They began to use CNC CNC machining technology and molds in the subsequent product development of JRX2, which can be said to be an innovative move in the industry at that time, in that era of pure hand, CNC and molds were added, bringing better precision and more exquisite shapes.
For example, the subsequent JRXPRO, JRXPRO's H-shaped swing arm first used a new long-fiber injection molding process. This is very new in the industry, where a small company (Cell Strand) holds a patent for the process. Old Jill asked them to customize some samples and use them to do a lot of testing, so that the new long fiber process would work on the original test product. Losi signed a contract with the parent fiber company, which gave them exclusive processing rights for the manufacture of RC remote control vehicles. Unfortunately, if the company is sold, the contract is void. Soon the company was sold to someone else, and then the technology was used in the products of other RC RC car companies. The Losi team made that guy millions. But he made enough money to betray Losi.
*JRXPRO released in 1990
The timeline came to 1994, the year That Losi released the XX and XX-T buggies. Losi is a company with a long product development cycle, which has already begun to be reflected in the original XX off-road vehicle, which is why the launch of one of their products is a classic, which can attract a large number of other companies to follow.
XX released in 1994
XXT
The transmission of the XX off-road vehicle came about two full years before the XX off-road vehicle. The XX transmission was the first part to be designed entirely on a computer.
The XX can be said to be a race modification of the JRXPRO SE, which was originally designed on the JRXPRO SE chassis. Little Gill said that in his opinion, the XX is one of the best cars they have ever driven and handled. They reduced the weight of all the accessories for the race. The chassis is placed on a CNC machine to precisely remove material. Everything is a concession for lightweighting, and for the team, every extra part is cut off. In order to reduce weight, even in some places polishing in addition to drilling holes.
The XX's performance on the field was so close to the limit that Gill would sometimes find solder flowing down from the motor shunt at the end of the game. That means the car probably won't run an extra meter on the track.
The era of four-wheel drive
The timeline came to 1997, when Losi released their first 4X4 buggy - xx4.
XX4
Little Jill completed the original design of xx4 on paper, then went to the company's engineers and said that the car was designed in the computer. But the engineer thought Jill was completely hot-headed, and many of the designs on the paper could not be implemented on computers and in production, and Jill eventually had to revise them. The DESIGN OF THE XX4 was inspired by the Tamiya Avante (a classic model that Tamiya has only recently re-enacted). The first test of the XX4 proved that this design was really very fragile and the team riders had to drive very carefully so as not to damage the parts. But despite this, they still won the race because it showed excellent performance even though it was fragile, and the XX4 ended up on the market at a cost of about $500,000.
Rise from the trough
In the 90s, the U.S. economy was depressed, the model industry was even more so, during the market downturn, Losi briefly launched the yo-yo business, yes, you heard it right, Losi is making yo-yo, and they even occupy a large share of the market, but the model business has almost stopped during this period, because the profit brought by yo-yo is not enough to support the development and manufacture of model products.
*Losi released Yo-Yo in 1998
It wasn't until 2000 that Horizon Models of america reached out to buy Losi, which gave Losi enough money to reinvigorate its model car business. I have to interject here, Horizon Vision is really good!
After the acquisition was completed in 2002, Losi established its corporate headquarters in Ontario, California. In 2006, The Losi team joined the 1/8 ratio off-road group race, releasing their famous 8IGHT off-road vehicle. As soon as 8IGHT was released, it led them to win many major events around the world. Gradually deepened the competition gene of the Losi brand.
Today, Losi's products have gained a large number of loyal fans around the world, just like Losi
"Our mission is to spread motorsport to the masses, each product focuses on a specific type of race, and in order to truly replicate the look and feel, we are committed to working fully with many of the world's largest companies".
Careful observation is not difficult to find that after 2000, Losi products, almost all have real vehicles and event organizing committee authorization, this authorization may be on the appearance of the painting, may be on the suspension, may also be on the tire, Losi does not hesitate to spend a huge amount of licensing fees, in order to bring users a more realistic appearance and control experience.
Losi Domestic Surrogacy
On March 1, 2022, with the joint efforts of many parties, Maggero Remote Successfully won the exclusive agency right of Losi in China. Magero Remote Control will, as always, provide a stable supply of products to model friends in China, bring good products to everyone, and provide sufficient supply of accessories. It is believed that with the efforts of TheRadi, such a good product as Losi will be supported by everyone and will eventually achieve its "due" market position in China. In addition, the product purchased at the original agent, the warranty after-sales service will be transferred to the Megaro remote control to bear, everyone can rest assured to play the car.
Finally, The Macierro Remote also made adjustments to the Chinese market price of Losi products to be closer to Chinese consumers, as follows: