Jonathon Gillham

The Futaba 3PV is really small. Usual Futaba quality, 10 model memory, all the adjustments you need (EPA to slow the car down). I think my son was about 4 when we got one and it was perfect for him, and the good thing is its still going strong and is used a lot. You can get clone rx for them too which are a lot cheaper than Futaba ones and work fine

Honourable mentions to the Top Force and DB01 (both great to build and drive well) but for me its the Boomerang. Performs well (enough) on the backyard track and just keeps going, and the onky hopups are bearings. We have a number of Tamiya buggies and they all have their issues but the Boomerang seems immune

Thanks so much Twinfan! A life saver (possibly literally if I added stuff to justify that 55euro shipping and my wife was here when the courier arrived!)

Wow thanks @Twinfan and @Tamiyastef, this is brilliant. Its almost 10pm here but I have one I can take out and measure tomorrow if you want me to confirm the measurements. Obviously I'm happy to cover the cost of postage and a pint for your trouble!

That could be interesting, if the right kit comes up...TA08R... You raise a good point about the parts bag. Its a generic part that is bound to be used on a lot of things. The whole parts bag will be expensive, but if I could work out what else uses it then it may work. It could be used as a shock standoff or post as well, so its bound to be available in other parts. Any idea how to find a list like that? Thank you for the offer, that may be the best route yet. UK shops tend to have decent shipping options, I'm yet to find stock though!

Haha, I've been looking at all sorts of orders with Super Sabres and Boomerangs but nothing works out at the moment. Shipping seems to be a killer on anything that isn't a small bag of parts. RCMart are good right now, 3 sets of arms and shipping was about $6 but they don't have this in stock, and actually don't even have it as a part if you search for it. TTP have a listing but not in stock right now so that may be the best bet. Otherwise I may need to call on a favour from a friendly member to see what can be done! Let me know when you do make an order as that could be my best option.

Does anyone have any of these lying around? They are the steering post/bushing from the Thudershot series. We've managed to lose one and no one has them in stock, except Tamico and they want 55 euro shipping!

You'll have the radio a long time so its worth spending a bit more on sometging better. I have a few now from cheap FkySky GT3C to Sanwa M17. The better radios have better features, but there is also a lot that is subjectively better about them which is harder to quantify (compare driving a Suzuki Swift to a BMW 5 Series, bith work but one is just nicer) If you can stretch to the midrange like Sanwa MT5 or Futaba 4PM you won't regret it. Check out cost of receivers too. There are clone ones available from aliexpress which work well and are a lot cheaper at roughly 1/3 of the price. I tend to use Sanwa rx for race cars and clones for backyard cars. Pretty much all radios will do what you need, if you can go and have a look at them in a shop that would help to see how they feel in your hand.

I'm hoping its a bad batch and once they're done we get some decent ones. If its a change to material and this is how fragile they are then it basically means these cars are shelfers only. Just ordered 3 new sets, hopefully that will last through summer!

Thats a big price hike over the last run. I'm pretty sure I paid NZD400 in a combo deal with hicaps, which puts the kit about NZD300. GBP250 is roughly NZD500 atm. Its strange as other kits like the Boomerang are pretty similar in price to the last run

Thanks @taffer, sounds like i don't need anything else. The arms are splitting at the inner hinge pins, so far 4 have gone after minimal running so thats where the question is coming from. Saito2 has the same issue, I guess its rere vs original?

@Saito2 @ThunderDragonCy and anyone else who runs their Thundershot cars a bit - what spares do you carry? I'm going to order a bunch of arms so just wondering what else is worth throwing in the order. I'll get some dog bones as when the arms break its impossible to find the dogbones unless you have spares, this way I won't ever lose one.

60w is enough and will happily do 8th scale stuff too. I've had 2, one was a cheapie from Banggood and it never worked very well. I splashed out on a Hakko FX888D and some loctite brand solder (both seemed hugely expensive at the time) but it is night and day difference. I'm not a good or experienced solderer, but can get a passable job relatively easily each time now.

So its not just me then! I've split 3 front arms as you've described with relatively little running. Have you found a solution? Mine have the xtraspeed alloy A5 part and the pins with e-clips, not the screw pins and plastic. I was wondering if the pins are too thick and I should revert to what came in the box? As for the original question - I find the Thundershot series to have better handling than the Hotshot series, but as mentioned above the DF01 would be the way to go. I'm comparing Boomerang, Fire Dragon and Top Force here, and the Top Force has hicaps and a few other things. Of whats currently produced the Terra Scorcher would be the way to go as it has everything you need included. But buy all the arms you can as they seem to split if you look at them funny.

Yep you can use that Sanwa with any radio, its just that you may not be taking full advantage of what it can do. I wouldn't worry about that though as you don't really need to program them, they are good servos as they are. I have an M17 and don't bother programming my servos. I would use a high torque servo saver too. A good servo means you can use a direct horn without the servo saver, but you don't lose much/any feel by running a decent servo saver and it will help protect the servo. For some reason if you look at the high end race kits, on-road use servo savers and off-road don't. I'm not sure why as to me it should be the other way around, but thats just what they come with.