Out of the box part quality from different manufacturers

[martgifford]

I recently bought a B5M on travels as it was £20 cheaper (hardly a saving) in the US.
I bought a ZX6 in Japan where it was half a price of UK in most hobby shops in Japan (not joking)

I am just interested on different peoples experience on part quality and whats included in kit

For example - ZX6 was outstanding quality in my opinion vs a B5M where there was a ballstud with no thread and the fitment of the plastic parts was nowhere near a kyosho. Surprisingly I found the kyosho instructions better then Associated. Everyone is biased and on the plus side associated included some shock oil which Kyosho does not, and also included loads of pistons and different various spring cups

For example I assume a schumacher kit is pretty good and XRAY when i bought touring cars was always top notch.

Any different views out there. For example I was disappointed that associated did not include any grub screws to reduce the slop on front and rear hubs - they cost hardly nothing.Where as kyosho included a pinion and sway bars. I know there are differences in prices but was more interested in what people thought.

Ups and downs for different kits

Cheers

[racingdwarf]

what you have found is quite well known sadly, AE's quality noticeably declined when manufacture moved to china back in the days of the B4. The Kyosho kits are in my opinion the very best quality they may cost you a few quid but the wear rate is low, to the point that you can easily run one for a season possibly only replacing the odd ball cup (wear rate not breakages). In 8th if you could afford it the MP9 was a wise buy as in the long run it was far cheeper to run than a TLR that was half the price.The other thing I always love about kyosho is if you buy a kit they don't bring out loads of costly upgrades and then another kit 6 months later Not sure on xray as never owned one

It's generally quite simple in rc you do in most cases get what you pay for in quality

I do think its getting harder for manufacturers, at this time we have possibly the biggest choice we have ever had for competition kits must make the market place harder for those insisting on quality and holding a higher price, must be so tempting to cut costs and go for sales.

[martgifford]

I also noticed it with Yokomo vs Losi. I had a BMax and the tollerances were non-existant. Everything went together snug. Losi was better then the associated in my opinion. I just think it may be a Japenese thing, everything they done is amazing. I even bough snap poly bags in a 100 yen shop there on holiday and they surpase anything i have ever bought on ebay.

You are right about the quality and sales thing, the bottom line is important. I just am frustrated that associated did not include 6 grub screws for the slop on the hub carriers, but include a big bottle of shock oil (that even Kyosho do not include).

I think i will always stick to Japense now.

[mattr]

I've only had 3 brands since I came back into it, but I suppose I've been lucky in that the only one with truly dire quality was the car I bought first to try it out (again). And was bought cheaply.

The others have had good (TD) and excellent (X-ray) quality, and except for a couple of little design niggles have been excellent.

The first car, the b4.1, was utterly shocking. Some of the parts looked like test pieces from the first run of a new tool, porosity, stepped seams, incomplete runners/risers , really didn't inspire confidence. Unfortunately, many of the features/assemblies (and probably part numbers!) were recognisable from when I left the hobby ~25 years ago!

The reliability was so bad I sold it as soon as I could.
Snapping the front off a brand new chassis (60 seconds run time, give or take!) when landing an almost flat 15cm jump, was the final straw.

[martgifford]

I had a feeling about Team Durango being a good build although never got my hands on one. I guess its stereotyping Germany with quality, but most stereotyping are generally correct. I am starting to wonder not getting the latest kits but realising that you should just pay more and suffer it. I looked at a secondhand yoko BMAX2 and the standard car looked amazing without any hops. Does not say much about quality but I just imagine Yoko are generally good.

Does anyone have any experience of Team C. Where are they manufactured (assume China) but wonder if they were better then associated

[martgifford]

I think thats a good point though that if parts are from the previous model thats generally fine, its just if the parts are outdated and were good 15 years ago, things moved on. I guess its expensive to mold new parts