OnTheTrail

I think it would be substantially harder to find someone here that does NOT have that problem.....

Easy.....all three! .......Oh, uh think you already addressed that.....

I'm most likely in the minority here but for the most part, I don't see an issue in what Traxxas did. Could they have done it more tactfully? Sure, but seeing as how I work for a company that has had to defend it's trademarks and patents for decades, my guess is Traxxas has tried this tactfully in the past and it didn't work. You can send letters all you want to small companies in certain parts of the world and all Traxxas would have done was waste the paper and certified postage fees. Heck, about two years ago an entire container of pirated accessories was confiscated at the port of Washington that had boxes that were identical to our company's, including the trademarks and carton colors etc. Same exact thing with our competitors. If those pirated items were used in our products and caused service or even safety issues, then to most people, that looks bad to our brand. Oh, and by the way, that was only one or two containers caught, many others made their way into the U.S. market and I have to deal with the service issues they cause to this day. Granted, this Traxxas scenario isn't about pirated Traxxas parts or vehicles but hopefully this give some perspective on why companies have to risk these bold moves to protect their brand. If you think Traxxas is a bully, try your luck at trademark infringements to likes of Coca Cola, Oakley, Nike, NCAA, NFL, Microsoft etc. You'll wish your only problem was a a day to two without your ISP up. The thing that bothered me the most about all the "Traxxas is bad" initial social media stories is very few of them mentioned the fact that Traxxas NEVER said these folks can't make aftermarket parts that fit their RCs. They just had to use the trademarks properly. As mentioned above and others have commented on, you can send cease and desist letters but most of these companies will laugh. Going to the ISP providers was one way they could get their attention and get them to make the changes. Do I buy aftermarket accessories for my Tamiya, Traxxas, Axial etc RCs? Absolutely and I will continue to but I don't fault a company that tries to protect it's brand. Nor do I fault a company (large or small) that tries to make product that people demand as long as they play by the rules.

Tower Hobbies has been around for decades. They were around before the internet and use to mail hobbyists a sales catalog about once a month back in the day (yes, I'm showing my age..... ) plus huge multi-page advertisements in modeling magazines. Their prices are usually reasonable and competitive. As for Tamiya hop-ups, from my experience, they're spotty at best. They have some items but not as many as we'd like. That said, Tower was bought out my Horizon Hobby a couple years ago. Since Horizon is a distributor to most brick and mortar hobby shops in the U.S., that means if Tower or HH shows it on their site, your local hobby shop can get it for you as well. May take and extra week to bring in your Tamiya special order but at least you'd save the freight. As for Amazon, your observations are correct. I call bull on the "Amazon Prime" where shipping is free on everything. Somethings yes, most things, no. If the small Tamiya part is say $7 through your LHS, through Amazon, it's usually $14 with <ahem> free shipping. Due to my wife's years of Kindle book downloads, we have two Amazon accounts in our house. One with prime and one without. Very rarely do I see a net price that's truly cheaper when I check between the two accounts. May get it a day or two quicker with Prime but legitimate free shipping...???? Not really in my experience.

They're only about $23 from Tower Hobbies (although out of stock at the moment). I have several sets and they seem fine. Most of the time, I just use the stock springs that come with the car kit and keep the others for tuning if needed. There are other Tamiya oil shock kits that don't come with springs so those should be a little cheaper I'd guess. I've gotten a few of those as well. If you've never assembled oil shocks before, do a search on here or YT. Several good "how to" posts/videos. https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/cva-super-mini-shock-4-tt-02/TAM54753.html

Can you duplicate the sound only when driving or is the sound still heard if the car is running while up on a stand? If it does it while on the stand, start taking things off one by one starting from the wheel on in.

Since his Escort in on a TT02 chassis, I'd say yes it most likey would. I have the Audi Quatro on a TT02 and the Delta on the XV01 and the bodies are easily interchangeable between the two chassis.

I love that newly minted term. May have to use it at the model airplane fields this season.

There's a program called "Snip and Sketch". It was an update with Microsoft Windows I believe. I'd do a search on your Windows PC and see if it's there. It's a great app and I use it every day for work.

Definitely a scam. I'm also looking for that same hard to find stabilizer and got a private message from james21. The wording is almost identical (i.e. copy and pasted) but mine was a phone number and a name, not an email. I also saw james21 had no posts and recently joined. I think the moderators need to review this member and act appropriately.

Hmmm, never ran into that myself.

Pretty sure the XV-01 stabilizer set is what Tamiya specs for the XV-02. Hard to find without a huge mark up or overseas freight but the TAM54514 may help to tame your XV-02.

Anyone able to find a link to where you can see specs and/or a link to purchase the Carten Rally?

Two wrongs don't make a right but three rights make a left!

I may have to go that route. I mistakenly ordered a kit that I thought was for the M-06 but turns out it was for the M-05. My fault. I have plenty of music wire so I could use the fittings from the M-05 kit and make a set my self. Only for $16, it would have been a lot easier to do a drop in one. There are a couple compound bends to get around the suspension and steering components on the front of the M-06. The photos only look like two on each side but I think the outside bends also bend down for clearance as well.