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I'm getting this:




Good news, it got here before Christmas. Bad news is my wife is taking it away from me to wrap it. I don't know why, she's never done that before with the toys I buy myself. I think maybe because I'm too happy, and we can't have that.

Anyways, just looking through the beautiful, sleek package, the car looks pretty nice. The controller looks nice too. The body looks like a cheap POS, but oh well I don't like the Mad Force body either. I think they knew most of us would swap bodies, and put the money where it counts. I'm cool with that. I kinda like the light weight aspect. If was some decent Lexan, it would be cool.

So, first impression, it looks really nice, and I'm really excited.

I'll kill that thing with my mini-z overland...
(just like payaso would say )

seriously, that's cool man. I remember how stoked I was when I finally got that mini-z. you're gonna have some fun.
just remember... you gotta split your time lol
when I first got my mini-z, I didn't touch a bit for weeks.
after I finally cleaned up my shit, that's when I got the urge to bust it back out and I did that Santa's Sled shit. lol

anyways, back to your stuff - if there was a time to airbrush, now is the time - flame that body out man.

Thats a great gift.

I wish I got one just as nice. I'm just getting a lousy T-shirt and some underwear. It's cool though, I buy way too much shit for myself through-out the year anyway.

Plus, there is always a surprise gift. Maybe you'll get some batteries with it?

You gotta be getting a Bit somewhere on Christmas morning.

@ Cabo, don't worry, I'm sure I'll still play with my bits. I'm all about the Zap MT, and yet I'm right in the middle of building a Thunder Charger from hell.


@sg219, I'm lucky to be getting this for Christmas, and like I said, its not really for Christmas. As soon as I saw these, I had to have one. It's just a happy coincidence Christmas is 2 days away.

Batteries... Hey, yeah, batteries, I need to pick up 8 AAs for the Tx, thanks for reminding me.

here's a tip... order yourself a new kyosho monster front shock mount. i broke the front shock mount on my 04 within the first 15 minutes of running. fairly tame running i should add (no jumps). a lot of other people have similar problems, i've also heard about an out of box failure. anyway, i got the 04 back up running with a spare kyosho shock tower that i ordered from tower for my mini-z monster. it fits up with the 04 chassis no problem, but you do loose the 04 body mounting clips (hey, that's actually a good thing).

other things i noticed...
-the fit of the front steering knuckles to the kingpins is way too loose; affects the steering at times there's so much play.
-with their respective stock motors, my kyosho seems a bit faster than the 04 (though the kyosho has a bearing kit; that may be the diff)
-the display on my tx seems jittery or intermittent; the numbers or letters flashing on or off at times
-betty k's right... the blue power led is way too bright making looking at the lcd difficult. you angle the tx to avoid the led hot spot and then you loose the contrast on the lcd. very annoying.

Yeah, I was reading up, and already pricing shock towers. That's right up at the top of my list of goodies to get. I have a feeling this thing is gonna suck my money down for the first couple months.


I'm also trying to figure what motor I want to run. I want something fast, but not too fast, because I don't want to be breaking everything. From what I hear the Iwaver X-speed Pro is decent, but it sounds to me like it lacks the torque a monster needs. What's a good torquey, fast motor?


As for the LED, if it's that bad, I'd just stick a sticker over it.

Your not the only one getting an Iwaver.

excellent dave! most excellent man....

modding the madforce is more of an art form than the other chassis', even though you can get several parts in alloy, you will find out soon enough that half of them aren't needed and key parts that should be alloy, aren't and that mate is the bottom line....

any questions, just ask.

what do you plan on using it for? ultimately this determines the right setup for you in the end.

things you want to do.

alloy front damper mount
alloy steering knuckles(I use 1deg camber, sits cheeky )

that's enough for now, more later....

cheers,

ph2t.

Thanks for the tips ph2t. I was already planning alloy shock tower, but I wanted to get a look at it first. I didn't think about the steering knuckle, that's a good idea, they probably take up a lot of shock.

The steering knuckles determine your camber? Cause negative camber is cool.

I'm just planning to run it out front in the gravel and dirt. It's mostly smooth swoopy landscape, no real jumps or big bumps. Don't think I'll break too much if I avoid the tree out front.

crazydave wrote: this thing is gonna suck my money down for the first couple months.

I couldn't resist.It just looks so goooood and i was breaking it too.Spent about $70 already and can't stop.it's an addiction.

@Crusty, thanks, like I really needed to see that. I already have obscessive compulsive tendencies.


@Stagg, didja open it yet?

It's 5:30 am here, and my kid is still asleep. What the hell? I was always up and bugging my parents by 5. That kid is slacking. Maybe it's time to throw in the its a punk Christmas CD.

Hehe I already played with it, and daaaammn this thing has real tight turning, unlike my old xmod. Now i got 70 bucks at best buy, and i dont need anything, im gunna try and sellit to my brother and parents. I need the cash for 01 parts lol. Also, i need damn alumimnum lug nuts, these things strip fast.

Yee haw! This thing kicks ass.

The body is not that bad. It's not good Lexan, but it's the same polycarbonate stuff that my Traxxas Stampede body was made out of, but still, I like that light weight aspect. The paper sticker are kinda gay, and needed a bit of repositioning, but I could live with them. I think they would have been better off leaving the stickers on the sticker sheet and letting us put them on, and I don't think it would have broke them to give us vinyl stickers.

I've read where people were complaining they did not drill the antenna hole. That's no biggie, what ruins the whole body for me is they did drill the body mount holes, crooked, too far back and too low. So the truck sits slanted, too far forwards and too high, not to mention there's not much material left below the holes holding it on.

So the body mount holes are my only real complaint.

And the radio, holy crap the f'in radio. This thing is nice. Feels almost as nice as my old Futaba Magnum Sport, that I paid almost $60 for way back when. It does feel sorta cheap, I don't know if it's the plastic or what. Still, great radio with lots of features for coming with such a cheap RC.

The car itself works very well. Suspension is smooth, and has decent travel. The car runs smooth and quiet. It's pretty fast out of the box. I really enjoyed it. It's got some nice soft grippy tires. They really kinda need some foam inserts, but for the price I aint bitching.

And the infamous breaking shock tower. Did I break it yet? Did it break just by looking at it? Well it didn't quite break that easy. I did manage to break it with in a half and hour playing, but in it's defense, I did smack the wall a couple times, the door jam, and the rocking chair. Not sure which one did it in.

Also while I'm sure the Iwaver's plastic is probably a bit more brittle than Kyosho's, ity seems to me the reason this part breaks so easy is the design. You're gonna hit something sooner or later, and when you do, all the impact is taken up by this poor little ball joint...Seems a likely canidate for alloy to me.

Luckily it was clean break, and we're all glued up for some more fun. I'm gonna try not to hit anything this time.

Pics later when I get the camera back.

Here we go, I finally got around to taking pics.

I've ditched the body mounting pegs,and just attached it with Velcro, so now it doesn't sit crooked. (ok so I put it on a little low in the front in the pic, but it's Velcro, I can fix it. )


Here it is with the infamous Tx. Notice my LED is offset, so it doesn't blind you when looking at the LCD, bonus.


Check out the suspension. Too bad most of the weight is around the axles, and the suspended part of the chassis doesn't seem to weigh that much, but it's still really impressiive that it can do that.


Here's the chassis. Notice the beefed up area of the shock stay.

Lemme give you a close up that.


I think it's important to note, this is a weak area of both the Mad Force and Iwavers, though Kyosho's part has been beefed up slighty in the proper areas.

After adding some support in this area, I've been romping the crap out of it, and it hasn't rebroken yet.

Actually, I think I'll make separate post about that, I think that might come in handy for someone.

Rock on Dave... That little thing kicks ass man. How does it do off road being 2WD? I want one. How is it driving in the house?



Sorry for all the Qs, but me likey alot.





silla