amassing a clone army

Bird · Post by **Bird** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 12:34 pm

As of friday night, the Porsche is now totally mirrorless.

As for hog and 219s cars... I now know why these clones get a bad name.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 12:42 pm

i think spooky is too busy sucking off mystic knight.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 2:51 pm

Bird wrote:As of friday night, the Porsche is now totally mirrorless.

As for hog and 219s cars... I now know why these clones get a bad name.

My iWaver is a peice of SHIT!

The switch on the car broke, the damn crystal is a pain in the ass to put in, the controller throttle trim is shot to hell, the wire on my motor came off, the body has a big blue scrape on it, the knuckle thing is cracked up front, and the TX eat's batteries like a third world refugee eats insects!!!! Hog's is F'ed up too!!

If it can't stand up to a little torture from 1 session, yes only 1 session, then its not very good in my book.

Yes, I definitely think an Xmod is 100% better in construction and duribility!!

Before any of you start jumpin' down my throat for knockin' it, all I have to say is that the iWaver didn't even last long enough for me to make a video!! My first Xmod finally died after several videos and hundreds of jumps, flips, crashs, and other torturous things that I put it through. The only reason its dead is because the servo is shot to hell from the torture, its actually faster than ever, it hits a big 34km/h on the speed checker now, but without any steering. It'll be back for more, I promise.

If someone wants to say "You got a bad one." well, Hog got one too.

hogjowlz · Post by **hogjowlz** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 3:10 pm

hmm i agree on the crappy construction but i expected that i guess. the electronics are far superior. but the best car is always a hybrid.

betty.k · Post by **betty.k** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 6:22 am

take it from me, it is!!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:23 am

Well I can see 2 sides to this coin, but being that I'm on a budget, I don't think it's feasable for me to buy an iwaver, and put all the money into it, to get it up to par, and keep it working. I think a FET upgrade, 5th cell, and some kind of better motor would have this thing more than fast enough for me. The steering is adequate on my Xmod. So I think I'm just gonna put my money where it's already been invested.

I was looking forward to an Iwaver, but now I'm kinda seeing it as a money pit.

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:35 am

You're obviously a veteran, Dave. Yes, the iWaver is a money pit. And I don't care what anyone says, the performance gap between an Xmod and a Mini-Z is negligible. Hue35 and I have both, and currently the Xmod with AWD rules the track. Our track is slick as hell and I attribute the Xmods advantages to the AWD. I think the Mini-Z has perhaps greater potential for performance on other track surfaces, but you have to spend well over $200 to get there.

midget_man1387 · Post by **midget_man1387** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:16 pm

I think that the bottom line here is that you get what you pay for. ignoring shipping and tax, xmods are twice as much as iwavers. So why are we expecting them to be so great after all? They're an r/c. small scale. Real cars wouldn't take half of the shit that we put these r/c through, so why do we expect these things to last forever? Everything has flaws. Just like in the bit world, nothing is better than the real thing. The only difference here is that the bigger the scale, the more expensive everything gets. How much are super bit char-g's? We'll round to an easy number and say $24. so how much for a mini-z? we'll say $100. these iwavers are $25, so that's 1/4 of the real thing. now all of the BCG clones that we get for $6 are shitty... so basically, we shouldnt expect much more out of these than we expect out of the six dollar clones.

hey, I think I had something smart to say for once lol!

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:34 pm

midget_man1387 wrote:I think that the bottom line here is that you get what you pay for. ignoring shipping and tax, xmods are twice as much as iwavers. So why are we expecting them to be so great after all? They're an r/c. small scale. Real cars wouldn't take half of the shit that we put these r/c through, so why do we expect these things to last forever? Everything has flaws. Just like in the bit world, nothing is better than the real thing. The only difference here is that the bigger the scale, the more expensive everything gets. How much are super bit char-g's? We'll round to an easy number and say $24. so how much for a mini-z? we'll say $100. these iwavers are $25, so that's 1/4 of the real thing. now all of the BCG clones that we get for $6 are shitty... so basically, we shouldnt expect much more out of these than we expect out of the six dollar clones.

hey, I think I had something smart to say for once lol!

I don't think you can ignore shipping and tax when comparing iWavers and Xmods, if you live in the US. The only place you can get an iWaver for $25 dollars is Hong Kong, and it will cost you almost another $25 to have it shipped here. You can probably walk to a Radio Shack and get an Xmod readyset for $50. To me they're the same price, and from a quality of parts/build quality, the Xmod is a little bit nicer. I really like my iWaver, but my Xmod was a better, more durable car out of the box.

midget_man1387 · Post by **midget_man1387** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:37 pm

but if you look at it this way: What if you do live in Hong Kong? Then an XMod would cost around $75

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:47 pm

midget_man1387 wrote:but if you look at it this way: What if you do live in Hong Kong? Then an XMod would cost around $75

Yes, but you live in Ohio and I live in Oregon, and we both have a Radio Shack down the street. And on Friday afternoon, when you wear out a set of tires and you need some for racing on Saturday, you can go to Radio Shack and get some. That's worth something to me.

I see your point, midgetman, but my point is that if you're impatient like me, waiting a week or two for stuff to arrive from Hong Kong has a cost, even if the total dollars spent is the same.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:26 pm

I think the Clone Army just got its ass kicked by a thing called QUALITY!!

I have to say that the electronics are good in an iWaver, but an Xmod will eat it alive on the endurance side of the track. Plus, the parts are much stronger and better made.

As for the $$$ part of the cars, The iWaver is a much better value for a higher top end of a car. You can get it for $50 and drop $100 into Mini-Z parts for it easily and have a very good car. Then there is the Xmod in which you run out of things to buy for it. You can only go so far, until you have to start searching for good upgrades that are avalible and quality.

Anyway my iWaver is still FUBAR!!!

I do miss the fun I had with it for that one fun session with Bird and Hog. It handled so smooth.

My first Xmod is toast, it is getting a chassis swap in the next few days to resurect it. But I have like 10 Xmods and a shitload of parts, so its not too big of a problem.

Bird · Post by **Bird** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:13 pm

I think iWaver needs to invest in a quality control department. Seems like a lot of the problems people have with them could have been caught and handled before they left the factory.

As for the xmod, I like it a lot, and I see a LOT of potential in the design, but I just don't see the shaq coming out with the stuff to realize that potential. Some of the xmod aftermarket is on the right track(alloy cups, etc...) but some of these guys seem to be concentrating on cosmetics instead of performance and durability. I have heard people talk about alloy knuckles, but I am yet to see them... If these were readily available and priced right(I'd go maybe a little more than an AWD kit), I'd be all over them...

SuperFly · Post by **SuperFly** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:59 pm

Well, if you look at the mini z platform, most of the aftermarket stuff isn't made by Kyosho. Likewise, we shouldn't neccessarily be looking to Radio Shack to come out with all future upgrades. Consider this: X-mods have only been out for 7 or 8 months, and already there are 3rd party products you can buy for them. Give it some time and there'll be more stuff. It appears they are made by HPI, a serious, hobby-grade R/C manufacturer, and once they start selling them in other markets, there will be enough demand for people to make money selling upgrades.

As far as quality control on iWavers goes, it already exists. It's called Kyosho.

I think iWavers are a great way to get into Mini-z world. Adding quality control drives the price up significantly, and if that happens you might as well buy the real thing. You wouldn't buy a bit clone for $30 would you?

midget_man1387 · Post by **midget_man1387** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:28 pm

SuperFly wrote:I think iWavers are a great way to get into Mini-z world. Adding quality control drives the price up significantly, and if that happens you might as well buy the real thing. You wouldn't buy a bit clone for $30 would you?

couldn't have said it any better my friend... and anyway, thats sort of what I was hinting at lol