How Reps Killed Rocket Bunny... 

This is kind of sad . I didn't think this could happen To Rocket Bunny. You said that they are still making kits and Im happy for that hope they continue. Im sure people will come back around. Now I'm thinking of I should buy a real front lip or not most of those companies are either closed or discontinued the product for my car. I do get a kick out of buying my parts directly from the manufacturer eg hasport.

I think rocketbunny was a lot cooler in v1 frs/s13 phase. Back then most of the cars produced with the kits were really good quality builds from Japan. I think once it crossed over into the US, it just got bad. Nowadays I enjoy seeing the renders, and the recent releases for old muscle cars like the Camaro are cool. Edit: FRS V1 is my favorite and I will always enjoy seeing a well built V1 frs,brz,86 anyday.

Personally I love the Rocket Bunny body kits, even the exposed bolts, giant wings and extreme width. But I know and understand this is a turn off for many but I like the rawness of it.

Your comment on how RB started with the people's car made me think that RB's departure from the everyman car to collector or high end cars could have negatively affected the company. It blows my mind that there's a kit for the Nissan Titan truck but not a single version of the 10th gen Civic.

Rocket bunny was very much a product of its time. It became the Ed Hardy of body styling.

Rocket bunny is and always will be known as the body kit for the ricer, everyone used them on cars with no performance, shitty stance builds, that's why it died off

It makes sense plus a lot of purist really hate the look of the exposed rivets. But having seen real pandem kits before on well executed builds irl its so hard for me to hate them and I feel like their kits are as good as it gets for letting the hands of one's work be seen in a build it always leaves a nice impression on me.

In a short summery: oversaturation, non-stop copy/paste format and overall degradation of quality control via non-professional fabricators is what killed interest and public appeal in Pandem's style. (Quick edit, Pandem is just Rocket Bunny US. Supposedly its for copyright reasoning, most people don't know that Ig)

Personally, im not a fan of rocket bunny styled builds. This is not to say they're not good looking. The mere prospect of hacking a car then screwing on flares is a tad too crude and irreversible for my taste. I do agree with the replica ordeal, but i suspect some of the more seasoned enthusiasts will echo my sentiments.

Accurate. The rocket bunny frs was so hot for about a year then it got to the point that there were 3 in my local scene after a year. The kits got so common we used to clown on them

the thing about modifying a car in this way is that it attracts a much younger demographic usually, and by default a younger person probably has a lot less money to spend, thus rep kits getting the sales. another thing too is the wait on an authentic kit can be a long time, on top of very expensive. gen Z and millenials have a hard time waiting for anything. most of the rep kits were put on the car very poorly as well so its probably a good thing they didn't waste an authentic kit. i think eventually everyone got tired of the bolted on "widebody" look, as it took off pretty fast and seemed like everyone was doing it

Before I watch this clip, and for the record; I always hated Rocket Bunny look and I'm going to assume it fell out of fashion because the three morons that did think it was cool all collectively realised it was stupid to Pop-rivet ugly shape angled shit all over the more subtle design language cars have trended towards. Also, they ll turned 25 and didn't want to be seen driving something that a Boba Fett nerd would own.

Reps have always killed or slowed brand names. This is probably before you got into this, but Veilside, Bomex, Mint Blue and a few other JDM brands opened shop in LA in 2000/01. The amount of knock offs offered after about a year made a lot of those original companies close up (Bomex is still around). Almost all the knock off brands weren't as good quality and fitment, but people also didn't want to pay the high price. I got an original Feel's kit for my EK, but there were knock offs a few months later. I paid a high price for an original and it showed.. but knock off prices... you can't beat.

The bolts always killed me! Molding the kit to the body is what turns my head.

We see a lot of people in our comments saying they straight up dislike (sometimes hate) the styling of rocket bunny, so it is hard for us to believe replica parts are solely responsible for killing off the RB brand. Just our opinion, This video is super well structured though keep going! 🙌

Pandem/rockt bunny kits are always amazing

The moment I heard Racing Lagoon's soundtrack I had to hit like

Just found ur channel and loving the content and *aesthetic* . Well deserved sub, no idea how you don’t have way more subscribers

I think none of these are overplayed. This is like having body dysmorphia when all you see is swole people on social media. So little people have cars modified at all.

Any industry of creativity will ebb and flow between periods of flashy style to subdued looks

Stance is also on the way out in the scene. I'm seeing fewer new kits with the riveted fenders and "boxiness" of RB kits. If fewer people want the look, the kits will be bought less.

I would definitely consider buying a original RB kit if it wasnt so close to impossible to get it street-legal here in Germany.

These kits destroy cars. People are probably not going to track their stock car and it makes the car less drivable since these cars wasn’t design to be driven with wider tires especially on poorly maintenance public roads.

Loved your comment about the S13 being the car of the people. By the way I’m the scum bag kid with one. 😂

Randomly found this on my recommended and I really enjoyed the video. Keep up the good work

This has always been a pressing issue to me, I feel like at a certain point people just started hating on rocket bunny kits and other types of widebodies as a trend in itself, ya know they'd rather have been seen hating on something that they know to be uncool than be caught liking something that is uncool (a proper widebody will never not be cool), I remember when pandem released the design for the MK2 golf kit several years ago people were literally making entire posts throwing absolute temper tantrums about how pandem and rocket bunny are ruining the car scene. And as far as reps go, that's just an unfortunate reality, there will always be reps of popular aftermarket brands, as well as people who can't install them properly, I.E. the fake Bomex kits of the 00s what's actually hurting, rocket bunny and pandem is people letting Internet comments control their opinion on them, if you like something then go for it, if you don't, well then don't, but don't try to ruin it for everyone else

i personally dont think that rep markets are a problem, cause in crushing majority of cases those who buy reps would not be able to afford the original product. Rep markets actually grow the popularity of the original products, and i mean, as you said it yourself, they are doing fine, those who can afford an original rocket bunny bodykit will buy the original product. I understand that in this case the popularity of reps "damaged" the aesthetics of the original product, but idk man, i dont actually think someone would refuse to get an original body kit cause the reps look bad, doesnt seems to make sense to me

I'm just here before you blow up. You deserve WAY more than 164 Subscribers!

Only 499 views deserve more this is a top quality video

rocket bunny died because its ugly and 13 year olds cant afford it

Nujabes! I haven’t heard him in a minute, RIP!

I hear that Samurai Champloo Nujabes playing in the back🤌🏾 great taste

Awesome mini-documentary that you've got. I still remember my Dad and I finding early coverage of Rocket Bunny in 2013 on Speedhunters, and being amazed by it as a kid. The reception and attitude for it definitely changed in the past years, and it's interesting to listen to your take on it!! Keep on making contemporary tuning-culture videos like this, I love it!

loved the music choice and video bro very well done

In my personal opinion I think the eid body style got played out, too many people doing copy cat "builds". And a lot of the quality of these "builds" were just downright atrocious. I also think that because there were soo many widebody cats in general that they lost a bit of they're excitement bc there were so many of them. Now I personally lost interest in widebodies on scertain cars, like s13s rx7s, y'know old cars that aren't being made anymore, cars that are getting harder to find parts for. These cars are becoming increasingly rare in good shape and un modified. Don't get me wrong I love modded cars but at some point we as a collective car community need to realize they won't be around forever. And if we just keep chopping the quarters off of ever s13 or rx7 or whatever eventually there will not be any nice clean examples left. SAVE THE STOCK BODY CARS AND STOP CUTTING THEM UP

I don't know if it's just me, but the audio on this video seems extremely low.

I personally disagree, while I think rocket bunny isn’t as extremely popular as it was then. Go to a somewhat notable tuner show and I can assure you there’s a car with an rb kit. Until this video I have never seen someone say rb or pandem was “dead”. I know some people don’t like exposed rivets but that doesn’t mean they are “hated” it’s just whatever floats your boat. People aren’t not buying rb kits right now, and socially they are still really good kits. Besides, who actually cares about what a bunch of 12 year olds think of someone’s rb rx7 (not saying you are childish just that a lot of the “haters” of rb and pandem are just children who know nothing about building cars”

You are way off. The reps became the main stream because the 225 dollar Russian Ebay knock offs were no big deal to blow up at the track. Taking out a Rocketbunny kit on the track is for rich kids , and youtube stars. The rest of us cant afford to keep buying top end kits. We run duraflex , and Russian knock offs , and duck tails made in Peurto Rico because i can afford to! LOL Its that simple. Rocketbunny was serving aged wine to a 12 pack culture!

Rocket bunny is pretty much Instagram aero. it's good for making your car look "good" but has zero aero R&D. Exposing the front tire like most rocket bunny overfender kits do, generally ruins airflow in the wheel well.

I adamantly refuse to support reps period. Seeing how few people know Hayashi but definitely know the Shakotan is a pretty good example of reps being so rampant it hurts the original. Especially when they're a small company. I wouldn't attack anyone but I also wouldn't run reps myself.

Its very contradicting because the real JDM movement roots came from DIY kits / mods not overly expensive designer kits. I respect the designers and all but I do not appreciate the brands who come in and make it an expensive trendy hobby. Rauh-Welt is definitely an exemption since its hand assembled by the man himself.

Love the quality of your video, but this is elitist bullshit. Sorry crappy reps bother you so much, but Rocket Bunny just straight up went out of style. Mura-san knows this and that's why all of his modern work is sold as "Pandem" and has a different style that is more interesting and distances itself from the bolt on over fender trend it helped create but has gone way out of style.

things like that will vanish anyway. since püolitics are more or less pushing electric vehicles. and also the manufacturers build only very ugly new cars. the amount of cool cars published today is way too low. they never will be affordable or most entry level drivers. the new gt86 is like 40.000 chf new. and even if some people buy them, they probably never get rid of them because they knew there is nothing else coming after this. bodykits are the least problem we have now....

Just like everything else, the more there is of something, the less special it becomes. This can be compared to sneakers and how everyone got onto the trend of dunks to the point that people start to hate it. The key takeaway is just do what you genuinely want and not something just to please the masses. Sure its overdone but you don't have to worry about what other people think because its your build and only you should care about how it looks. That being said please try not to buy reps, do yourself that favor and get something of quality.

Original products will always be held in higher regard over reproductions. In my opinion the biggest thing that has killed rocket Bunny has been over saturation. Of course, if there were not reproductions out there, the market wouldn't be as saturated....

easy, expensive and not everyone can have it = coolness factor and interest is always up. Cheap and easily available = meh factor and no one cares since anyone can have it now and instead of 1-2 per show it's literally every kid with a 2k credit card, line, etc and suddenly 20+ per show show up and instantly kills the interesting factor.

Rocket Bunny, like many other fads fall out of fashion once the normies get involved Once Joe from Marketing has Rocket Bunny kit then you know its over 😮‍💨

I don't like this over the top bodykits because they don't fit my vision as an engineer, they can even be cool in pictures, but in reality it's something that, unless you have a full racing car, ruins the driveability, because either you're going to use giant spacers or you're going to use giant tires, either way you are destroying the car's handling without reengineering the suspension. That's why most of these cars are trailer queens, which go against my belief.

Rocket bunny was always atrocious. Those wide bodies remind me of the new age OCC bikes. Most wide bodies tho are atrocious like LW

American kids ruined Rocket Bunny authenticity, especially the GT86 guys.

Honestly 90% of their kits were ugly af anyways. Idk why anyone even bought the reps.

@1:03 that's my car when I purchased it from the previous owner! I watched this the first time around and didn't even spot it, a friend just let me know! Agree on the original body styles look so much better, sadly Rocket Bunnys problem was copy kits.

Short resume: people came to dislike it because it became too generic and common. Think about it like despacito back then playing over and over.

Theres nothing shocking about cutting up a new car. Doing that to the s14 was a crazy move because it was damned near destined to faip as a business model

This is such a new car guy take. Widebody kits are not recent and they haven’t got out of style.. maybe in the hype, boy scene that no one gives a shit about but that doesn’t make a difference for the rest of us

Rocket Bunny has declined in popularity? I honestly I had no clue. Nothing really indicated to me that that was the case.

I hear the Nujabes and instantly know I gotta watch the whole thing... RIP Seba Jun

In theory: the auto scene was kinda stagnant and was trying to do something different. In reality: gen z turned 16

The rip offs are the spirit of hotrodding cutting up foreign jobs and strapping on some poorly made body kit awesome

I love the Najubes, Samurai shamploo in the background. It was a great informational video and the editing too. You deserve more credit and subs.ñ man so for now you got a New sub 👍🏻

Battle cry being used as the backround music >>>>>

Yall i need help finding a car news website it was a website where you could scroll and click on a title that interested you and you could see a persons article on it

very cool video you should consider doing one on wheels from the 90s-00s. I've never seen a video like it and I feel like your style of video would shine some well deserved light on some really well designed and styled wheels. So many different wheels. so many different brands, and such a cool era in JDM history!

Is that a nujabes song im hearing!?!?!?! We need to protect this man at all costs

Although I agree with the points made about cheap replica kits and poor installs. The kit, or more specifically the changes that are needed to be made to the wheel geometry to get it flush with the fender made the car feel heavy and slow. Which is a big negative on such a low powered car like the 86. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that going widebody ruined it. Then owners got dissatisfied and moved on.

Tacked on fenders never looked good. This stuff was always trash.

It's what happens with all the car trends. You get a really cool concept/style that comes to light. Everyone jizzes over it but, no one can afford it and then the rep companies come out and price everything down along with the quality. That concept/style is now way more accessible and the people with poor taste come in to ruin it for everyone. Think underglow, slamming cars, bodykits and paintjobs from the 90s-00's, etc.

Bra.. U deserve so much more subssssss plss keep posting I love your vids🥺

love the background music choice, nujabes ftw

in my hometown there's two rocket bunny cars. E46 and E92, E46 is rep and E92 is original and they both look sick cause in Russia they're rare

Rocketbunny's s13 body kit is based an a nascar body. I'm pretty sure people in Japan didn't like it but rocket bunny blew up in america after the s13 kit.

Nice to see old Alexi/Noriyaro at 2:35 in his s13

Widebody glass is nothing new in the car world. In the 1970s widebody stuff on American cars and yes even Vans was a huge thing for 10-15 years and then Mini trucks got popular. RB jdm stuff is just minitrucks for 2010 kids. There were more 70s corvettes with wide-bodies slapped on than the entire jdm scene in past 15 years. Know your history and you understand this is relatively insignificant in the whole car world lol

This was a great video. Also thumbs up for the song choice. One of my favorites.

My only issue with body kits is when you don't fill out the gap with tire. I have seen many builds that take up the space with more offset. The reason that overfenders became a thing was not for looks. It was meant so that you could run a wider tire.

The samurai champloo background music goes hard.

I would take a Rocket Bunny kit for my MR2, but they never made one. And I would definitely let them use my car to make it!

TL;DR: RWB actually based on racecars

I understand buying reps, not everyone can afford to buy them and also put in the effort to tear their car apart and do all the painting and prep that goes along with it. Paying 8k for a body kit is insane. Not saying its fair to undercut them, but I am saying I get why people would buy them. Its the same thing with wheels. I'm not spending 3k on wheels that have a replica thats sub 1k that is maybe 1lb heavier and slightly less durable.

Reps killed Rocket bunny? I thought it was the basic copy pasted wide fender design that managed to atrociously disrupt the body line of every single car they made parts for with extremely small numbers of exceptions?

I never knew people started disliking it in the first place, this is news to me.

they fell off because all their designs looked the same and were boring. the v1 s13 and frs were something different to anything else but then they slapped the same design from those two onto anything.

nujabes background music hooked me in lol

Support the artist man, I can't say it enough.

Underrated channel 😢

The rivets don’t do it for me. Never was a fan

Was that the racing lagoon soundtrack I heard?

what's the song you used, I've heard it a lot but never knew the name

i'm too old for this but, euro tuner used to love that replica of DTM car/GT1/GT2/AC Schnitzer kit.

This reminds me of what happened to the Meyers Manx. Replica buggy’s that did what Meyers did for cheaper, without sacrificing too much in style and functionality.

Well tbh, Rocket bunny probably got killed by reps, because some Rep kits are just as good in quality, and alot cheaper.. And for those that are pretty crafty, can make their own kits for cheaper as well I'd assume.... Sort of like buying different skate shoes, Vans have the iconic slip on, and then many other skate shoe brands are doing the slip ons as well, some being cheaper and more comfortable.. Lol

New Cian video made my bad day better

Rocket Bunny is freakin' awesome! This is terrible..

The market was flooded with them. It was the go to kit for SEMA when the GT86/BRZ and the A90 was fresh for the Aftermarket scene. I went from "Oh nice RB kit..." to "oh wow ANOTHER car with the same RB kit.. how creative" Then when you played, Forza, NFS or any other game that lets you customize, it's RB, Big Country Labs and Speedhunters. Its interesting how I saw 100s of RB kits on FRS/GT86/BRZs handful on some 350/370s, but they all looked the same. Peak lol is when a 240SX looks like a mix between a 67 Camaro and 1970s Cuda. Don't forget this is a trend society. Once the trend is set, they over commit to it and then it becomes "base"

Reminds me of when Tommyfyeah called out a certain group of California RU-vidrs for rep parts. Turns out he was right...

This kits are beautiful.

Love the channel love the video and I totally related to the super street browsing any time i had a computer at school!

Nothing beats the quality of a real rocketbunny.

A well done vertex style kit will always look best.

The airwalker/backyard special for the ek had the same problem. Reps were easier to find and people only wanted the look and didnt care for the quality. I was 1 of maybe 2 people in all of las vegas with a real walker japan bumper and saw a few replicas that just didnt have the same kick the original had. People just want that clout lol