I was looking out for shops selling heli and Align products to visit. This was the list of shops from Align website here. I m sure there are many others. First stop taipei.
Taipei is very much like SG, well connected by mrt and buses. Most of the time exploration was done on public transport. Its like the taiwanese variety program shi zhi lu kou, instead of hunting down and trying to find the different variety of foods, we were hunting down hobby shops!
I tried to mark out the shops' location on a tourist map i got from the airport and see if i could visit them when i pass by their area. Was quite difficult to find some of them as the map dont show the small roads' names. Had to make U-turns and go merry go round a few times, but it was fun lol.A word of caution, call the shops up before embarking on a hunt to try to find it, cos i spent quite a long time tracking down the first shop on the list only to find that its actually a housing apartment with nobody inside!
Visited some of the shops in in Taipei County, mainly those in Taipei City and Sanchong City. The rest were abit too far. There are 3 shops in SanChong city area, so if you plan to visit them can do 3 of them together. A few in that list have websites.
The first real shop found was Oriental Asia International RC ( www.oairc.com ). This is the shop that supplies mockingbirdrc locally. Here's how to go there. Take mrt to Mingquan west station. From Mingquan road, take bus 225 towards SanChong City. Bus will go along Sanhe road, alight when you see junction with Ziqiang road. Its 5mins walk from there.Alight at this junction
OAIRC shopfront
The shop is more like a show room then a retail outlet. There were only a few of each items, all neatly displayed. Saw a room of computer terminals with workers, must be busily taking orders. There were a stack of radix blades that looked really tempting but prices were only slightly cheaper so only bought 3 pieces of rev max from here. They were kind enough to show us directions to the next shop on the list and even gave us towels, to wipe our sweat!?! lol.
Next shop visited is B. Nothing much of interest as they carry more rc car stuff.
Didnt have time to visit C that day. But from the tw rc mag i bought, this shop carries quite alot of stuff. Should be worth a visit.C's Advertisement in TW's RC airtech magazine.
While exploring the east of taipei, came across a GWS hobby shop just besides the Kunyang Mrt station. Quite convenient for those looking for GWS stuff.
From there can take a 5mins cab ride to infinity-hobby.Map to infinity-hobby.
Small shop front.
This shop has a online presence on rcgroups, carries many Align and other heli parts too. One of my flying kakis ordered from there before and prices are fairly reasonable. Shop owner was a nice chap, one of the few shops that sells pre-packed A123 cells for RC use. Was told that he orders the A123 cells individually and sent them to local factories for assembly. While i was there many came to enquire about the A123 cells.
Got myself a A123 charging adapter that just came in fresh from factory that day. It allows charging of A123 cells with normal chargers. Now don't have to spend a bomb on new charger to try out those A123...Thats about all for me in taipei, next stop taichong, where align and thunder tiger factories are located...
