Why minimal Mini Protos parts availability?

[MSH-Direct]

Originally Posted by 9sec240

Well color me embarrassed. I see now that the Mini P was available as a 6S 350mm kit. Been too busy enjoying my 3S.

How's the 6S fly? What battery fits? I can't imagine getting a 6S under the canopy.

Easy enough to overlook when you have a heli that needs minimal maintenance and upkeep

6s batts can be kind of hard to come by, but with all the quads now smaller 6s is becoming more common....

[jmtyndall]

6s 1200 from Gens Ace, 6s 1250 from Pulse work. I think the 6s 1550 from HobbyKing may also work.

I have 4 Gens Ace and 4 Pulse I could part with

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by jmtyndall

Which decision?

Alex repeated several times that the Mini P is still being supported. MSH is making parts.

The problem is your dealer isn't ordering them. Why not? Probably because sales on a several year old heli are slow. Look at what happened to Bill. Slow sales killed a great store. Your dealer doesn't want dead stock

The decision to not stock parts for a retired heli for a reasonable number of years after a heli stops being sold (not from when it was first sold). I never love it when a vendor gets designated as the key vendor for the US because it kills all the little guys that go out of their way to help you, like Bill, but any vendor that gets that distinction should be obligated to stock parts. I'm not saying to keep a mountain of parts, but at least enough to keep a trickle supply on hand. Not even having the heli parts listed on the website sends a clear message that the heli is no longer supported and should be retired. For a two year old heli, I find that unreasonable.

The reason I say it is short sighted is this. I have many old helis, Align, Mikado, and even a Rush and I'm still able to get parts for them. I tend to buy a new heli every year or so. I've been impressed with the hype around the new MSH helis and having loved my MiniP would have likely bought one. I personally will not chance buying an MSH heli now knowing they may well leave me high and dry with a two year old heli.

You can blame the lack of buyers, but ultimately, someone in the MSH chain of the supply needs to be held accountable if they want to compete with the companies that do make sure an adequate supply of parts are available.

I'm not one to bash companies and I certainly will not carry this any further but IMHO it had to be said.

Rick

[jmtyndall]

Rick,

Space in the MSH USA shop is limited. Picking up the Protos 380 and 500 in addition to the Max has started taking up a lot of space, but the sales volume is high. Parts can be kept moving.

I myself flew a Mini until just weeks ago. While I had some trouble finding parts, I spoke with Alex about stocking parts. There's too much risk of being stuck with tons of stagnant stock, taking up room and resources needed to support the other helis. MSH USA is a new company, and doing well, but young businesses can't have a mountain of dead inventory. It's not sustainable. At the time, there was less than a handful of people requesting MSH USA stock these parts.

Unfortunately the Mini Protos isn't a 2 year old heli for us. It shipped in the end of 2011, so it's a 5 year old design. A pretty good run, but naturally sales have slowed down as people have had the desire for bigger machines that are designed for the ridiculous power that today's systems are putting out. However MSH (Italy) plans on continuing to provide part support for the model, it's not being discontinued. If we can drum up enough demand for parts, I'm sure we can get MSH USA to carry parts. In the mean time, Alex has committed to helping you guys that feel "stranded" by ordering parts on an as-needed basis. Shipping times will be a bit longer as he has to get the parts from Italy first, but parts will be available.

If you need part numbers to make an order, feel free to send me a message of the items you're looking for. I'll compile a list of part numbers for you and we can talk to Alex about getting your parts in the next order.

Let me know,
Josh

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by jmtyndall

Rick,

Space in the MSH USA shop is limited. Picking up the Protos 380 and 500 in addition to the Max has started taking up a lot of space, but the sales volume is high. Parts can be kept moving.

I myself flew a Mini until just weeks ago. While I had some trouble finding parts, I spoke with Alex about stocking parts. There's too much risk of being stuck with tons of stagnant stock, taking up room and resources needed to support the other helis. MSH USA is a new company, and doing well, but young businesses can't have a mountain of dead inventory. It's not sustainable. At the time, there was less than a handful of people requesting MSH USA stock these parts.

Unfortunately the Mini Protos isn't a 2 year old heli for us. It shipped in the end of 2011, so it's a 5 year old design. A pretty good run, but naturally sales have slowed down as people have had the desire for bigger machines that are designed for the ridiculous power that today's systems are putting out. However MSH (Italy) plans on continuing to provide part support for the model, it's not being discontinued. If we can drum up enough demand for parts, I'm sure we can get MSH USA to carry parts. In the mean time, Alex has committed to helping you guys that feel "stranded" by ordering parts on an as-needed basis. Shipping times will be a bit longer as he has to get the parts from Italy first, but parts will be available.

If you need part numbers to make an order, feel free to send me a message of the items you're looking for. I'll compile a list of part numbers for you and we can talk to Alex about getting your parts in the next order.

Let me know,
Josh

Thanks Josh and Alex. I appreciate you guys taking the time to listen. My opinion stands though.
Rick

[MSH-Direct]

The above post is where I run into issues as a dealer.
Refer to your "getting stuck with old stock"..... Happened to a lot of us.

Its pretty easy to start and run a successful business when you have a lock on all of the new products without communication to existing dealers up front. Run and deal with a business the way I have had to the last 5+ years and see how long you last.

When MSHUSA opened Alex insisted he was not going to carry "legacy" parts. As a dealer that made me a bit gun shy...... on top of the declining sales leading up to their opening. Made me think "Discontinued"
If you were in my shoes would you order stock???

Keep in mind for the longest time I could order all of the new stuff from Alex but had to go through Italy for the 450-500 parts, again gun shy....
Now locked out of MSH site in Italy and cannot order any Mini parts if I wanted to.

Honestly, its a cluster **** that should have never happened...

[jmtyndall]

Originally Posted by MSH-Direct

The above post is where I run into issues as a dealer.
Refer to your "getting stuck with old stock"..... Happened to a lot of us.

Understandably. A lot of you guys bought stock when Mini Protos sales were good expecting it to sell through. As sales declined, you got stuck with stuff. I feel your pain, I always liked MSH-Direct, you guys were a reliable source for parts. Alex had the advantage I guess of showing up late to the party. When MSH USA opened, sales were already slow on the Mini Protos. If you came in now would you stock Mini parts? I don't have any inside knowledge of how sales have been, but I suspect if I were in Alex's shoes, I wouldn't dive head-first into the Mini Protos either.

Originally Posted by MSH-Direct

Its pretty easy to start and run a successful business when you have a lock on all of the new products without communication to existing dealers up front. Run and deal with a business the way I have had to the last 5+ years and see how long you last.

When MSHUSA opened Alex insisted he was not going to carry "legacy" parts. As a dealer that made me a bit gun shy...... on top of the declining sales leading up to their opening. Made me think "Discontinued"
If you were in my shoes would you order stock???

Keep in mind for the longest time I could order all of the new stuff from Alex but had to go through Italy for the 450-500 parts, again gun shy....
Now locked out of MSH site in Italy and cannot order any Mini parts if I wanted to.

Honestly, its a cluster **** that should have never happened...

As a customer myself, I won't pretend to understand the behind the scenes deals that are going down. I'm not aware of how dealers are ordering or where they're ordering from. Maybe there's some sort of oversight that locked you out of ordering parts? It makes sense to transfer everything over to the primary US distributor, and I'd suspect there's a contract floating around somewhere that guarantees MSH USA handle all the parts orders originating in the US. I see why you're frustrated though, and I'm sure I'd have similar feelings in the same position.

[OnTheSnap]

Originally Posted by MSH-Direct

Honestly, its a cluster **** that should have never happened...

Wow. Gun shy? No. Stupid? No. Strategic? Yes. Thanks for the advice though.

Anyway at any point you could have contacted us to get mini parts if you wanted to. Guess not. Nice of you to twist that into something negative.

As I said we will carry miniP parts. Will take some time to get it up and running. Let us know what you need and we will get it. Sorry for any gaps in supply.

Really there has been no demand sent to us up to this point. Dealers had parts forever. So now it's drying up and we will fill the gap for the guys flying the platform.

It is not a trivial amount of dollars and time. So we moved one step at a time. We hear the guys needing the support. We will provide it.

[rdlohr]

Originally Posted by learnedthehardway

Rick, if you can't locate any spindles PM me your address and I'll send you one. Have enough to let one, maybe two go to someone that really needs them.

Thanks. I was able to find some.

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

We hear the guys needing the support. We will provide it.

Those are the words we need to hear.
Rick

[oliver1071]

Guess I'm really late to this game just picked up a miniP used this month. It's a fun little heli fills the same space as the Oxy.

Crashes pretty well too. I've put it in twice so far because I said f-it and didn't go over the used heli at all just wired and flew it. So far I've had the belt snap only damage was the mixing arms because the belt wrapped around the head. And lost the tail grub screw so landed it on it's side flipping from inverted. This time zero damage just put a new grub screw in and flew away.

So far this thing is like crashing a micro haha it's funny never had a 450 you could crash and fly away from so hopefully I can get some parts when needed. There is a little crack in the bottom plate so I guess I'll have to grab one at some point but it doesn't affect anything and a little epoxy will fix that right up.

[Mikej]

Welcome to the team

If you try really hard (nose-down full speed face-plant) you can break the frame - but it took some doing....

[OnTheSnap]

Not all parts are added yet, but it's getting there:

https://www.mshusa.com/collections/mini-protos?page=1

[oliver1071]

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

Not all parts are added yet, but it's getting there:

https://www.mshusa.com/collections/mini-protos?page=1

Very Nice thanks Been ordering from Fastlad up until now.

[learnedthehardway]

Originally Posted by OnTheSnap

Not all parts are added yet, but it's getting there:

https://www.mshusa.com/collections/mini-protos?page=1

[jrman83]

Nice! Thanks, OTS!

Anyone know the length of the yellow tail blades listed on the site (MSH41111)? Nowhere that I have seen has that tiny bit of info listed.

[OnTheSnap]

Originally Posted by jrman83

Nice! Thanks, OTS!

Anyone know the length of the yellow tail blades listed on the site (MSH41111)? Nowhere that I have seen has that tiny bit of info listed.

Pretty sure they are 68mm.

[jrman83]

Okay, thanks.

Sent from my SM-N910T3 using Tapatalk

[MiataJohn]

Overall length = about 60 mm, center of bolt hole to tip = about 56 mm as measured with digital calipers.

[jrman83]

Originally Posted by MiataJohn

Overall length = about 60 mm, center of bolt hole to tip = about 56 mm as measured with digital calipers.

Awesome! I appreciate that!

[jmtyndall]

The mini really thrives on 62mm Tails with a more square profile. I think the stockers are roughly 59mm, and batwing shaped. Always had better luck with something like kbdd and lynx 62mm tails