The Australian Compact Char-G Arrives
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Head-ups about the pending arrival ofa repackaged Bit Char-Gstarted popping up on these forums about four months ago. Strong links pointed towards JNH Australia Pty Ltd as the likely importer, and “Compact Char-G” as the Australian domestic name.
Rumour turned to excitement over the last 10 days, as television commercials, run by JNH Australia,started appearing on our commercial TV networks url=””]Thread[/url. The piece of the jigsaw fell into place as the much-anticipated cars appeared in a KMart catalogue url=””]Thread one[/url] and Thread Two[/urlfor the period 13-19 July 2002. :smiley4:
When the Kmart catalogue arrived at my place around lunchtime today, Iquickly flicked to page 17 to gaze at the little photo in all it’s cheap-print glory. Hooray! There was a blue GT-R R34 Skyline in a “Compact Char-G” boxpicturedfor AUD44.84 (~USD25.00). Without further procrastination, I decided to get hold of one and see how it measured up against the Japanese-released versions.
Oh what a saga. Mindful of how popular these items would be, I cleverly (or so I thought) phoned ahead to check on stock levels at every Kmart store within an approximate35km (~21mile)radius of my home. Following were the results of a stock level check:
- Penrith (two in stock)
- Mt Druitt (claimed not to have received any stock)
- Blacktown (sold out)
- Castle Hill (five in stock)
- Parramatta Westfield (claimed not to have received any stock)
- Burwood Westfield (sold out)
- Fairfield (one in stock)
- North Rocks (after 19mins on hold they still couldn’t find anyone in their toy dept to answer my enquiry)
- Broadway (three in stock)
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I learned something else today. Kmart staff told me that they have a company policy of not holding stock for a customer under any circumstances. No amount of friendly, albeit desperate
, appealing for staff to hold one of the sets for me would work. I even offered to give my credit card details as proof of intention to collect. No go. I understand the logic behind NOT holding stock (especially on an item that could be sold 10x over in a single day), and I’m certainly not angry with the staff or store management for following policy. But come on, KMart Australia, how about revising this policy and being a little more flexible (perhaps offering a credit card “hold” system?)Anyway, I jumped in the car and headed for Penrith – geographically the furthest away from me, but close to a mate’s place where I had to collect a few bits of my camera gear. Early dip-out. Penrith’s remaining stock had apparantly sold out about 30mins before I got there.
So – I drove to Castle Hill. Disappointment again. I thought their stock level of FIVE was a pretty safe bet. Murphy’s Law prevailed, and after a 20min drive and 20min battle in the carpark, their sets had also been sold from under me. DOH!
I phoned ahead to Fairfield just to confirm that they still had their one in stock. The answer was in the negative, which saved me a painful drive across the city to sunny Fairfield. This was getting VERY frustrating.
For just a moment I considered driving up to North Rocks to try my luck. And then I had a thought, “If their own staff couldn’t find someone to help me after almost 20mins, what chance would a customer fending for himself in-store have?” I gave them a miss.
Which left the Broadway store. Again – on the other side of town. I phoned ahead. Got straight through to the toy department. The guy knew EXACTLY what I was talking about. They had TWO “silver ones” (his description) left in stock. JACKPOT.
Pushing the Barina s little 1.4L engine to the limit, I darted across the city (50min drive)and scored a carpark adjacent to Kmart. I nervously approached the store. Firstly, most shopping centres/stores don’t like you taking pix inside for whatever reason. Secondly, with the last three hours of disappointments, I wasn’t ready for one more. They just HAD to have one.
They did.
And I mean, “HAVE ONE”. One lonely-looking Silver Honda S2000, with a normal price of AUD49.84 on sale for AUD44.84. The second unit had already sold. After taking a couple of happy snaps of the Holy Grail, I grabbed it and strolled to the checkouts. I need another car like a hole in the head, but I wanted to see what Aussies were being served and, in my own little way, support the company bringing them to Australia at a pretty reasonable price.
This is not a traditional product review. Let me say from the outset that the Compact Char-G package that I purchased was almost IDENTICAL to the Japanese Bit Char-Gs that we know and love. There’s no need to do all the normal assembly and performance guff. It’s been done a hundred times before. Let’s just look at the packaging and contents.
The box
Same size and die-cut as Bit Char-G carton. But NO Kanji (Japanese characters)! 100% English, my friends – and 100% bad-translation-free! The specification icons on the front are generic – NOT identical to Tomy’s -however, they bear an uncanny liking. The motor is not specified, nor are the gear ratios. Oh – and be careful reading off the frequency from the front of the carton. The Honda S2000 Silver box shows “40MHz”, however, it is only available in 27MHz in Australia (verified on the controller and car itself). I wonder if the 27MHz white GT-R Skyline has the same labelling problem. Anyone???On the topic of conflicting information,a number of sectionsof the box state “6 Years +” as a recommended age for the product. Yet there is a large sticker that also says, “WARNING: Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts”. I’m not suggesting for a SECOND that anyone would buy these for a toddler, just making an idle observation.
The boxlooks as though it was originally destined for the UK/Ireland market with a “CE” mark next to “Tomy UK Ltd, European Headquarters”. JNH Australia have added a label to the packaging with their details, including an Australianfreecall 1800 number (1800 660655) to the Customer Careline. Nice touch, guys. I think customers will appreciate that.
The packaging indicates that, initially anway, there will only be four vehicles available. Model numbers, colours and frequencies are as follows:
- G-01 Honda S-2000 Silver27MHz
- G-02 Honda S-2000 Yellow 40MHz
- G-03 Nissan GT-R R34 Blue 40MHz
- G-04 Nissan GT-R R34 White 27MHz
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What’s in the box?
English instructions! Identical line art to the Japanese “blue sheets”, everything is in English, printed on quality stock and, as always, dead easy to follow. Like the box, it is 100% “Engrish-free”The body quality is indistinguishable from the Japanese Bit Char-Gs, and measurements absolutely spot on (no surprises, really). The motor, however, WAS a surprise – being the yellow Micro B 2.2 (22,000rpm) instead of the standard Micro B 1.0 (10,000rpm). Nice inclusion.
Pinion gear is the standard black (6-tooth) one. The axle is the standard orange 9.86:1 ratio unit. Tyres are medium compound. Controller is the normal orange/silver/smoke colour.
The “Cripple Question”
DISCLAIMER: Your controller contains no user-serviceable parts. Opening the controller (refer this post and this gallery) WILL VOID any warranty you may otherwise entitled to. The delicate electronics are NOT designed to be pushed and pulled by pair of clumsy hands. :smiley2:I carefully pulled apart the controller to find a redesigned printed circuit boardand NO “cripple capacitor” (refer this thread)on topor underneath the board.The new board part numberis 522294-B and they’re uptoREV 3. There’s been a number of component changes, including the main IC and several resistors. When I get a chance,I will have to try to work out what improvements, or otherwise, this design offers.
For the record, the range- straight out of the box with a fresh pair of Energiser alkaline batteries – was 7.2 metres. Not bad at all. Of course, I’d like to know more about the innards of the 40MHz cars – which is not a standard Tomy frequency for the Japanese domestic market.
Anyway….. I’ve rattled on and on and you’re probably needing a coffee, or a Coke(tm) or a beer….or perhaps a toilet break! :smiley1:
Cheers everyone
Derek
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