So after weeks of waiting (stupid eBay not stating seller was in the USA) this finally arrived for the lunchbox! My lad is literally pissing himself with excitement....as is his dad
This is on ebay currently. Current bid £2k.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volkswagen-Tamiya-Sand-Scorcher-Replica/202460435604
so subject to no delivery issues I'm joining the club. I did want to build it but ended up with a rtr as my boy loves monster trucks....axial smt10....main complaint seems to be it's slow which I'm thinking is a good thing. I'll upgrade it as it gets trashed!
ok dumb noob question.
I've bought a lipo charger...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07C5YC38H?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_yo_pop_mb_pd_t2
and it hasn't come with a mains lead to use it. Have I bought the wrong charger (for a venom 3s 5000ma battery)
do chargers normally not come with a plug?
Quite often they just come with 12V croc clips- mine didn't come with a mains charger
oh. so do I need to just buy a mains lead? it doesn't mention it in the (not great) manual. what lead do I need?
got the truck just can't charge the battery!
That looks to me like it’s DC only so would need to be powered by a 12v battery or power supply. I would personally send it back and buy something else if you want to run it from mains as it will be easier (unless you already have a suitable power supply).
I’d probably go for one of these two myself ...
thanks for the advice. yep want to charge from the mains. first noob mistake! all sorts of different connectors to work out as well.
truck itself seems good. controller feels cheap and unlikely to last a throw on the floor by a toddler. quick test and it seems plenty quick enough for me despite reviews saying it's slow.
unfortunately I can't properly play with it till Xmas 🙂 boy is going to get a 1 64 model max d and then when he is looking a bit bored I'm going to drive the big one in covered by a wrapped box. should be priceless watching his face.
We've had some down time with the Mad Bull waiting for hex drive nuts to arrive after blowing teh splines running with a loose wheel..
Got it back together with a set of oil shocks but there's something amiss.
It squeels under take off much more than I remember and seems to have a significant amount of lag before it gets upto speed. Took the diff apart again and all seems fine however if I press down on the rear end to keep the car still and pull the throttle, the drive train slips from somewhere rather than just bogging down the motor.
Gentle take offs and its appears to have less slippage.
Any suggestions as to where its all going wrong?
Did you check the axles as well as the nuts on the Madbull?
Ive done a set of nuts on one as well. It’s my 7yo basher now
I treated myself to a S/H ECX Torment 1/10 4x4 Short Course truck.
I love it, everything I ever wanted in a truck.
It takes all the knocks and can clear all the jumps at the local pump track with effortless ease.
It's currently on a 15T brushed motor with 3400 Nimh batteries, I am tempted with a Lipo upgrade and a brushless motor as the ESC is switchable.
New body first though.
Brushless is ace, but Lipos are a whole different world of power and run times.
I've got my Dark Impact to be too fast so am going to get a digital controller to turn down the power but keep the run times and acceleration.
Hi guys.
I have a traxxas mini e revo, loads of spares, batterys and transmitter to sell if anyone is intrested.
Hi Dave, do you mean the 1/16 E-Revo? If so please mail me some photos and how much you're looking for.
Can someone recommend an online shop for Traxxas, considering the 1/16 E-Revo for my sons xmas present? Found a good price at RC Geeks but still looking at options, and they'd need to ship to me in Sweden preferablý.
TIA.
Time to re build my old Terra scorcher .
it has an engine and a servo for steering . they are old , not sure if still working .
what else do i need ?
radio
speed controller
batteries and charger ?
what else do i need ?
Yeah, radio (transmitter & receiver)
Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) if you don't have one - can't remember if the Terra Scorcher came with one of those resistive mechanical speed controllers, but if so then get rid.
Batteries & charger
You should be good to go.
Thanks, yes came with mechanical speed thing.
Yesssss!
[img] 
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BROOOOOM
Woop! I looked at getting one of the TT-02 cars, but decided I wanted something with more ground clearance. Don't really make use of it though, so it probably would have been fine!
Not the most straightforward body build:(
Never cut a lexan shell before, proving a challenge. Also never painted a shell. Is it painted from the inside?
You can score the body with a craft knife and then snap at the cut if you find this easier than using scissors, curved scissors especially for the job make things a little easier.
The body should be throughly cleaned with soap and water before paining on the inside using a paint suitable for Lexan, I would recommend Tamiya PS spray paint (make sure you get the PS not TS).
There is a good guide here ...
https://tamiyabase.com/articles/54-painting/135-part-14-polycarbonate-bodies
Cheers demonracer will check that out.
Its taken me a day to get this far.
[img] 
[/img]
I really enjoyed painting the body of my Neo Fighter. Cutting it out was a bit of a ball ache to be honest and I didn't want to buy the curved scissors for a one off.
Regarding painting...from memory, I:
- cleaned with soapy water, rinsed and dried thoroughly.
- Masked using frog tape (you can get proper stuff, but I had frog tape and it works well for DIY.
- used the Tamiya PS spray cans and stuck them in warm water for 10 mins or So prior to using (dunno if it helped but a tip I saw on a few sites)
- made a 'spray booth' from a large box to try and minimise the overspray.
- multiple thin layers, starting with the darker colour and then the light colour (only did two colours)...
I might have a pic or two on Flickr... probably already posted on an earlier page.
Timely spot of a thread. If i glimpse through the thread is there any info about buying an r/c? I have been itching to get one from a few weeks ago. Preferably off road and electric, decent scale size and performance. What sort of budget should i be looking at , and what is out there?
thanks.
Built this sand scorcher a couple of years ago when we were between house moves and i had no shed to keep me occupied.
Don't use it much at all but really enjoyed the build and surprised myself as i had never built any models before.
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I have no idea why the images are different sizes 🙁
I didn't do the driver - he was bought just to finish it off
Nice!
rmacattack
Member
Timely spot of a thread. If i glimpse through the thread is there any info about buying an r/c? I have been itching to get one from a few weeks ago. Preferably off road and electric, decent scale size and performance. What sort of budget should i be looking at , and what is out there?
The big question is, how fast do you want to go offroad? I built my Madbull to go very fast, and tbh I didn't enjoy it much and it needed a lot of space. So I went the other way and built a rock crawler, which can pretty much go at a slow jog but is tons of fun for driving over stuff. The appeal's really pretty different.
(my axial can do both... But it falls over every time it goes round a corner too fast)
Say something like this as a benchmark? I don't want a kit first off. Could come down the scale size on this. Is 4wd necessary , It won't be real harcore off roading. Speed wise I want something beyond the cars i got as a kid at christmas and as you say something that can still be controlled. Reading through here i guess lipo batteries are the way to go?
That;ll be rapid 🙂 Not my field though so I'll butt out!
Any ideas why my smt10 is silly fast in reverse but a bit slow forward? A bit of googling suggests I need to rebind the controller? It came all linked up. Fiddling with the throttle trim on the controller means when the throttle is neutral it moves forward
Reverse the polarity of the motor. Brushless; swap any two of the three wires around. Brushed; just swap the wires around. Bob’s you mother’s brother.
Managed to get a 6s brushless lipo beast of gumtree. Paid a fair enough price I assume. They seem to dabble a lot in r/c. Car is a year or more old but in pics looks great. Now to learn how to use it.
Arrma outcast with batteries and leads/ charger.
yep swapping wires worked. ty 🙂
Been having a blast on the truck this couple of days. Lipo batteries really make electric r/c less of a faff than days gone by. Been getting over 20 minutes of driving atm with a 30 minute charge time per battery. Charger will only do one at a time.
What I do notice that has been said farther up. You really do need a wide open large space to get full potential, my skill set was only allowing me about half throttle in the area I had, which at times was hairy enough.
I've also been understeering a lot , possibly due again to user error, but at times I feel the power lightens and pushes the front to much. Again more usage will help me counter and adapt for this.
All in all im pretty pleased with the package so far. Fingers crossed I get a lot of usage before any upkeep or breakages. Batteries will fade over time also I know this. And will have to learn a little tinkering and maintenance.
Hiya.
Life has been a bit hectic so just finished the Lunchbox build.
No paint yet, but it's going to be Kawasaki green over gold.
Not completely sure about the Fastrax shocks, they're a bit overspung and overdamped for the Lunchy, so further mods might yet be in order.
It's very, very silly and superb fun. Loved the build too, there's not really a lot to it but it all came together in a few hours.
I had to pop into Modelsport for a few bits and bobs yesterday and walked out with a Maverick Scout. 😶 It's soooooooo much fun. Built a little crawling course in the back garden and thoroughly enjoying it so far.
Not that pricy compared to a Tamiya kit at £140 ready to go. I'm very happy with it.
Ugly as sin so needs a new shell - the madness continues.
3 cars in just over a year. Not exactly up to Northwind's level, but plenty to be getting on with.....🙂
Ooh I fancy one of those Mavericks. What shell are you putting on it?
I *may* have just bought one of these Remo crawlers, which was RTR £130ish from China on the Bay. Escaped import stuff, too. Initial impressions are very good - turning circle is dreadful, though - even worse than the Axial SCX10 it's a clone of, so I need to remedy that. Otherwise, the kids (and I) love it 😉
Hoping to have my old Tamiya Terra Scorcher running by the end of the week.
Ecs arrived and waiting on radio. I have old batteries to make a start, then will invest in better ones once it is up and running.
Really fancy a petrol engine car though.......
Merak
Member
Ooh I fancy one of those Mavericks. What shell are you putting on it?
Not sure yet.
This article https://www.thercracer.com/2016/01/maverick-scout-review-and-video.html?m=0 shows a nice HPI Ford pickup body, also seen a couple of Beetle shells that should fit....
I'd love a MK1 Range Rover body but can't find a light lexan one.
A Defender or G Wagon appeals or possibly some kind of Jeep.
The original body is growing on me, but it's not going to last.
Great fun yesterday climbing over bags of compost, old logs, rocky flower beds etc.
I just need to learn how to drive it properly. 🙂
I've been having fun playing with my smt10 and building a small track in the garden with jumps and stuff. Just about getting the hang of j flicking it which is super useful in a tight space.
All the feedback I read was it was too slow, well anything faster would be nuts to control!
Any suggestions for a complete robust and cheap version I can get for the 3.5yr old? He is too much of a liability using the current one - nearly took his brother clean out yesterday
I hope there is enough room in this RC party for a total noob.
Being at the right age to know that the coolest toy in the 80's was a Tamiya buggy, friends had a wide range from Grasshoppers to FAV's, and having never been lucky enough to have one, Father Christmas was nice enough to get my boy the Tamiya Rising Fighter.
What a hoot. He loves it to bits (almost literally, still honing the driving skills).
We built it up pretty quickly to get it rolling (he is still only 6 so he wouldn't have coped with a long build time) and as a result its totally stock. Me being a total Noob didn't fit sealed bearings or nothing.
However, the Internet is full of rabbit holes, some of them Rising Fighter shaped. We are now in the process of gathering upgrade parts for 'Project Ultimate Fighter'.
So far we have;
- Sealed Bearings
- Square spike front tyres.
- Absima oil damped shocks
- New body to spend some time on while the original gets trashed.
- New driver as I rushed the first and could do better.
I have to say, at 47 years I do feel a bit self conscious about this new hobby but I used to build static models as a kid / teen and the upgrade parts and tweaks are sooo much cheaper that MTB parts. Plus Mrs Wachowchow is happy for us to do the work on the dining room table rather than being banished to the shed with the bikes.
Research shows that the new Absima shocks will need to be stripped down from new, lighter oil fitted and the internal (valve / disk) de-burred from moulding flash or whatnot and the stock friction shock springs used to reduce pre load.
Exciting stuff indeed. It really seems to have awoken a passion for stuf looking the part too. My static model days were building HotRods from stock car / truck kits.
TL;DR - Aren't RC buggies brilliant!!
That Remo looks good for the money! I think if the axles are the same ones as I think they are, you should be able to improve turning circle by clearancing the steering links- countersunk bolts, maybe a little mild cutting. A more powerful servo'll usually help too since there's so much tyre resistance, I've ended up with 30kgs in both of mine and it makes such a difference when crawling. Or try and find a lower rear gear for hte back diff for a redneck dig effect...
Nice that they've stuck a 550 in it, no replacement for displacement
Cheers NW.I think there are a few avenues for fiddling - the links, as you say - heightening the main (straight) one so it clears the gear case and then increasing the servo lever. I like the idea of the more powerful servo too. Tempted to play around with 4ws too, but that's a bit spendy, so maybe further down the line 😀
I have to say, at 47 years I do feel a bit self conscious about this new hobby but I used to build static models as a kid / teen and the upgrade parts and tweaks are sooo much cheaper that MTB parts.
Yup 🙂.
The self consciousness soon disappears - I've never really suffered anyway, which helps.
And you've got a six year old, the perfect excuse. We often have the five year old granddaughter on Sundays and just watching her and her mates laugh themselves silly whilst chasing the thing about has been one of the highlights of my year.
And always get random blokes, usually with partners/kids in tow coming up and asking about it. They usually start off a bit sheepish then eventually ask for a go. Honestly, I should be on commission.
Just had the (still unpainted) Lunchbox out for a spin in the garden and around the close - so glad I ignored the naysayers, it's just brilliant, much more fun than the TT02B buggy for some reason.
Even my wife likes it, she thinks it's cute and it makes me happy, which makes her happy. Everyone's a winner 😊.
Off to Wales tomorrow. First RC crawler up Snowdon? Just charging all three batteries as I type this......
EDIT - scratch that, bin dun -
I’ve ended up with 30kgs in both of mine and it makes such a difference when crawling.
What would you recommend Northwind? And thanks for all the advice so far.....
I do feel an idiot too tbh but I went for a group crawl around a pretty popular path near glasgow and the reactions from random passers by were so great. Yeah it's ridiculous but it's the sort of ridiculous that we could do with more of.
I can't recommend servos as I keep exploding them! But the Power HD 20kg ones are ridiculous value. I've switched both of my crawlers over to Turnigy 959s, 30kg and all-metal (usualyl what happens with cheap strong servos is the gears are strong enough but they're mounted into plastic in the case, and that's what breaks). So far they've both been faultless but then they should be, they're £30 each 🙁
Quite a few crawlers have gone up snowdon!
Cheers fella.
Just found some you tube footage of Snowdon - bah!
The slate quarries it is then 🙂
Yeah it’s ridiculous but it’s the sort of ridiculous that we could do with more of.
Absolutely. Completely harmless and so much fun.
My daughter(7) and I have just completed our joint-birthday project, the ever popular Lunchbox!
I ditched the shocks swapping to Absima adjustables for build
I didn't have an LB myself when I was a lad, always had a hankering for one but had Hornet, grasshopper etc then quickly moved on to more capable race buggies with a Mardave Meteor before taking to the rostrum at the local race club with a Schumacher Cat XLS.
The Lunchbox was a blast earlier today, my daughter has picked it up fairly well and it seemed pretty stable contrary to its rep, I'll put that down to the shock setup.
Anyway, here's how she looks.
Love that lunchbox, I wanted one of those back when I was a kid 🙂 Nearly built a crawler with a pumpkin body on it
Does anyone know what the story is with proline tyres and beadlock compatibility? I've got a reasonably nice set of chinese metal beadlocks, I like 'em but they just won't hold my lovely proline XLs on them. I really just want a simple 2.2 steelie look wheel but I don't want to pay proline prices...
As promised in a previous post a few pics of my stupid fast Hpi 5b ss. Shame I can't get rid of the hosting site advert.
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One for the surfers...
diz, thats a monster! Love it! I used to have a redact 1/5th e-rampage, with an upgraded motor, that was fun for a while but it broke something EVERYTIME we went out with it. Oh, and I knocked my 7 yr old son over with it. Not a good moment that 😳
As with others no doubt, this whole thread is making my trigger finger itchy... 😆
How are people finding the Absima shocks out of the box?
I have fitted a set to the Rising Fighter. I used the springs from the standard friction shocks as they are lighter than the Absima ones. First time out, the top shock eye snapped on one of the rears. I am thinking they are over damped.
I bought some 350 cp shock oil which made no discernible difference. I guess that is what is provided as standard.
Next step is to drill the pistons to loosen up the damping ( I have a spare set, already).
Is this the wisest path?
The Terra Scorcher is nearly back to life . Got a new ECS , radio , receiver , batteries .
Tried it last weekend with 30 year old batteries and it went for a while but then stopped working . Recharged the battery , ECS makes a sound and led comes on but engine and direction not working .
Received my new Nimh batteries today , tried them in the car and the same , ECS is on but nothing works . I cant charge the batteries as still waiting for a charger .
Could it be that batteries havent got enough charge in them ? or can you blow a receiver ?
Quick PSA.
The Euro Car Parts 55% off sale ends in 5 hours.
They've got Grasshoppers, Lunchies, Pumpkins, Mad Bulls, couple of nice TT02 road/rally cars (Subaru and Porsche) and the TT01E racing truck.
Paints and tools too.
I really, really, really do not need a Rising Fighter for £30 odd quid, but I can guarantee I'll have ordered something by midnight.
Jef Wachowchow
Member
How are people finding the Absima shocks out of the box?
If they're anything like the Fastrax ones, oversprung and overdamped. I'm modding mine in a similar manner to yours.
Stop it guys....
I used to dabble a little bit and enjoy the building/tinkering as much as running them (same as the mountain bikes).n
I keep poking my head in here to have a look and I'm seriously thinking of buying some bits from eBay and having a tinker again!
Edit, found it.
Found it.
Arse, looks like the sale code doesn't give the full discount on Tamiya stuff - a massive 1% off when applied.
Sorry folks. 😶
Wow. This is one hobby I don’t think I could afford for myself or the boy. And, blinkety flip, Traxxas stuff - HOW MUCH?!?!?! And I thought Scalextric was pricey.
I bought my kids a couple of 1/10 Traxxas E-Revos. My Lad is 5 and my daughter is 8 and with the Bluetooth modules and the link app i can control the throttle and brake settings to limit the speed.
It also means i can turn them up to 100% and play myself. They are amazingly fast on 6s batteries and run for ages. I strapped my garmin to one and got to 50 at around half throttle on grass. I painted the shells for them and have upgraded some of the internals after breakages. I cant see me ever going back to nitro even though i miss the sound and smell. I certainly don't miss the faff.
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I have been building up a Drift car, so complicated to get it all running sweet.
Thought I’d bump this thread rather than start a new one…
No1 Child had a cheapo Maisto 3XL crawler when he was about five, which was perfect as it was slow enough for him to control, slow enough that he couldn’t stack it into walls and break it – although he put it to the test in terms of how high a drop-off it could handle! – was waterproof so could go through streams and puddles, and was generally surprisingly good at crawling for the price. It eventually gave in to the abuse through – more on that later (and a question for the RC nerds).
Fast-forward a couple of years and he’s now saved up enough to buy a WLToys 12428.
It’s currently winging its way from an AliExpress warehouse, so he’s bugging me twice a day to check the parcel tracking app… looks like a decent bit of kit, from the many review videos we’ve watched on YouTube. Can go slow enough for a bit of crawling, but fast enough to bash around and do a few jumps at the skatepark. Loads of parts available for repairs and upgrades.
I had a Turbo Hopper as a kid and have always had a hankering to get back into it.
I built up a racing quadcopter from scratch a few years back but due to kids arriving didn’t really have the time to practice flying so was/am pretty crap at it.
Since the boy is getting a new RC car I figured he’d need someone to race against, so had to buy myself one 😊 I’ve been idly browsing for a while and keep coming back to the 1/16 E-Revo, looks fast enough to be mental but not stupidly big like the 1/10 stuff (although the 1/10 E-Revo is not off the cards…)
Anyway, I thought I’d test the water and get something similar-spec to the boy’s new car: the HBX 12891 Dune Thunder.
If anyone’s RC-curious and wants something cheap to test the water, I highly recommend it. Quick-ish (for a bottom-end hobby grade truck), supposedly waterproof (I suspect it’s just more water resistant than most, but plenty of vids show it getting practically submerged in water and mud and carrying on), and tons of fun.
Anyway, back to the cheapo Maisto 3XL… No2 Child now wants in on the RC action, but he’s only three so it needs to something slow and fairly indestructible – the Maisto would be perfect. No1 Child stopped using it when it developed the judders – if you slowly ease up the throttle with no load (i.e. in the air) it goes ok, but if you apply medium to hard throttle from the get-go it just judders and doesn’t go anywhere. Reverse is fine. Twin motors, one on each axle, and a servo (not proportional, from memory) for the steering.
It seems it has a proprietary RX & ESC in a single control board. I’ve tested the motors by applying voltage directly, they’re fine, so it’s not a fault in the wires between the board and motors. I’m a bit lost with debugging a circuit board though, and spares are not available.
Is it simple enough to buy new RX/ESC/BEC (separates) and replace the existing control board? I guess I’d have to work out all the required voltages for the components. And I assume I’d need to open up the controller and replace the TX too. Probably fiddly (don’t mind this as I love tinkering) and possibly not economical compared to just buying a new crawler, but seems a shame to bin all that plastic.
Any advice?
Mmm, the trouble with all-in-ones is you often can't get a replacement receiver for the transmitter- and the cheaper you go the harder it gets. And the transmitter's probably all on one board too.
I might have a spare rx/tx set that belonged to my Mauler, I don't think the guy wanted it when I sold it... But I can't get into that this week, flat out getting ready for a holiday, if you're still looking in a couple of weeks give me a bump
Thanks Northwind, I appreciate the offer but I'm in NZ so it might end up being a bit spendy to post them 🙂
I won't give Up on it just yet, but I suspect will just end up getting a new truck...
My Tamiya Bigwig is playing up, new one 18 months old not vintage. When running it won't move again once it's stopped, forward or reverse, unless you give it the grntledt of nudges and it's off again. Started very intermittently, now it's a very time it stops. I don't think it's electronic, the lights come on on the speed controller with a signal, no issues with steering, tried new batteries in the control unit and fully charged motor battery. I've stripped the rear gearbox this evening, wasn't particularly gunked up but I've cleaned it and relubed.
Could it be the motor, brushes? I'd did remove them and polish them a little, seemed to make a difference for 30 seconds then the problem returns. New brushes needed or us the motor screwed?
Not sure what motor it is, but it sounds like the springs aren’t pushing the brushes onto the comm enough?
I got my original Optima going again recently. Parts are still a bit pricey though. ☹️
I’ll join the I’ve broke it party 🙁
Smt10 making not very nice noises under power, sounds like it’s the drive train like it’s got gravel in it, wheels still turn but with minor much power. Reckon I’ve stripped something.
Need the time to strip it down to find out
Where do you get axial spares from?
Yep, was the brushes. New set in and it's running fine.
Wow! WillH brought back a whole bunch of memories with the Turbo Hopper! I totally forgot I had one of those when I was a kid! Apparently as a kid I would go everywhere with my RC's and drive them everywhere, this included driving them to the shops on the road! It was a while ago, the roads were nowhere near as busy.
This thread has got me wanting to convert my Nitro buggy and TC to electric. Nitro is such a ball ache, but the smoke and noise is amazing!
Diz, I want that Baja!!!!
I had a Tamiya XR311, followed by a Rough Rider back in the day!
I was looking at the 1:16 rc tanks on YouTube - quite fancied one, until I stumbled upon some rc monster truck videos, which looked much more fun than a tank!!!
So I sold a couple of watches, and picked up a Traxxas X Maxx. Mrs futon remarked that it looked much better value than the watches! Wow, this thing is huge 🤯 , it’s pretty incredible. Had few niggling problems, mainly with the spur and pinion gears disintegrating- hopefully now solved with some machined hardened steel replacements. The stock servo also crapped out 😝 ! Fortunately it’s a piece of cake to work on. Overall an amazing toy car 😁
Fast-forward a couple of years and he’s now saved up enough to buy a WLToys 12428.
It’s currently winging its way from an AliExpress warehouse, so he’s bugging me twice a day to check the parcel tracking app… looks like a decent bit of kit, from the many review videos we’ve watched on YouTube. Can go slow enough for a bit of crawling, but fast enough to bash around and do a few jumps at the skatepark. Loads of parts available for repairs and upgrades.
After a ton of research, I bought our eldest a 12428. It's an excellent choice, lots of spares and upgrades available cheaply. Loads of info on the web (monster thread on RC Groups). The plastic gears didn't last long once I switched to 2s lipo, so now running the metal gear set. Have also upgraded to some grippier tyres. Put a 35t motor in it to slow it down for the kids too. It has taken a ton of abuse and still comes back for more. would like to upgrade the servo, but that means a complete esc/receiver/radio change, so am holding off for now.
I have a Tekno sitting in an online shopping basket just waiting for me to complete the purchase...
I finished my A2 Quattro shell recently.
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