bitPimps.lixlink.com

Let's all review every clone we've owned in one thread so that newcomers can have a one stop resource for buying clones. Using Tomy cars as a standard tell us how each car varies is design and quality, and how many you have owned to give a guideline of your experience with them.

Here's mine:

Bensu Cannonball # owned:3

Description: Oval shaped dome package. Opaque white plastic bodies with blacked out windows. Separate 3 cell charger. 27 & 49mhz availble

Pros: Not many, good for parts. I like the separate charger. The 10-tooth pinion is handy, and the motor is a good torquey motor, though not much faster than it's 2.6 rating

Cons: Hard Tires. Sloppily wound steering coils are weak and limit steering travel. Chassis will not fit bit bodies without mods. There's not enough power to pull the 10-tooth pinion either.

Bottom Line: Overall fit and finish is not the greatest. Overall performance is about the worst. Really the only value in these is for spare parts.

Biglots Thunder Charger # owned: aprox. 20

Desciption: Comes in a blister pack. Has a Tomy like controller with a different more ergonomic design, and smaller button. Unfortunately the light blue plastic, and cheesy stickers kill it. There are only 2 body styles, a cheesy SUV, and a cheesy rally looking car. 27 & 49mhz available

Pros: They were only 5 bucks. Cool 6 spoke wheels. Wide flat tires are nice, but a tad hard for some slick surfaces. Motor is the pink endbell that is about a 3.0 and very torquey. This motor loves dual cells, but doesn't respond well to FETs. Cars steer very tight and even in both directions, almost too tight.

Cons: Bodies are cheesy, and the wheel base is a tad too long for bits. Bit bodies will work with some modification. The steering spring is kinda weak, and many of mine have trouble centering the steering.

Bottom line: With good performance, and a 5 dollar price tag, these are an excellent basis for projects.

Biglots Microspeed # owned: 2

Description: These cars have slighty improved looks over the Thunder Chargers, but they're still generic looking. The controller is the same as on the Hot Wheels micro RC. The cars charger pad is on the face of the controller with a clear dome over it, and joystick controllers. I find this set up uncomfortable. 27 & 49mhz available

Pros: The cars functioned and performed fine. Nothing to get excited about, but nothing wrong either. Blue mystery battery is very punchy, my favorite batteries.

Cons: I did not care for the controller, and bit bodies do not fit without mods.

Bottom line: There's nothing wrong with these cars, I was just unimpressed, mostly by the controller.


Walmart Motorworks # owned: 3

Description: Cool combination display case/3-cell charger. Tiny little micro controller. Wheels have Zip Zap like hubcaps. Car comes with extras like wings, cones, off road tires, hot rod tires, etc., depending on the model. 27 & 49mhz available

Pros: The cool little micro controller is nice and portable, works with Zip Zaps without modifications, and has good range. The extra tires are really cool. The charger base is good for charging dual cells. I like the push button time charge. Some of the newer body styles are kinda cool. they are pretty fast out of the package.

Cons: Controller too small for adult hands. Hardwired motor cannot be changed out. The steering uses a reverse steering system with the coil in the center, and magnets on the outside. there is also no sway bars. I have not got any good results from this setup. many of the body styles are cheesy.

Bottom line: It's cool to see a different approach, and you'll get some valueble spare parts, but bottom line, I'd never buy another.

Perfection/LXX # owned 3

Description: Basically exact Tomy copies. The older ones had poorly copied boxes full of bad engrish to brighten your day with laughter. The newer ones have the "Designed in Japan - Made in China" Perfection packaging. All frequencies available

Pros: Nice grippy tires. Good performance. Fit and finish is reasonable. Newer ones have the nice clear chassis, a boost function you can shut off, and Super bit styling. Some have headlights, or underglow. Bodies are usually not too bad.

Cons: Sloppy QC. Questionable quality of some the materials, particularly the metal parts. Misadvertised ratings. (Motor #s, frequencies, etc.) Olser LXX cars were known for having weaker PCBs. Newer ones are greatly improved.

Bottom line:If you get a good one, they're great. If you happen to get a lemon, you're gonna be at you're work bench for a little.


Mega Toys Charg N Go # owned 1

Description: Round dome car. Opaque bodies. Some different looking wheels. Sloppy fit and finish. 27 & 49mhz available

Pros: Despite how it looked, it worked and handled excellently. Easily one of my best cars. Nice grippy tires. Unlike most clones this car has a NiCd, which I happen to prefer.

Cons: Lots of sloppy molding. Noisey, noisy grinding gears. Once I swapped out the wheels and gears I had no complaints.

Bottom line: despite it's appearance this is a good clone. I may have gotton lucky, but other have confirmed what I've found

Precious # owned: 3

Description: Round dome car. Aside from the grey chassis, and cheesy paint jobs, they seem very much like Tomy cars. Availble in all frequencies

Pros: Fit and finish of the chassis is nice. It looks to be a well made cars. the included motor is pretty damn fast.

Cons: Tires are a tad hard. Molding on bodies is bit sloppy, and while the wheelbase matches up, Tomy bodies will not fit without mods. I'm also having trouble with the steering centering up consistantly. They sometimes seem to veer off for no reason.

Bottom line: A well made clone, and good value I'm sure, but I'm a little frustrated with the handling issues.




Ok, I know you guys got clones, so post up your reviews, and help make this thread a happening thing.

word mr dave dogg.

hogjowlz wrote:word mr dave dogg.

Thanks

...but where's your reviews?

You gotta give us the lowdown on Thors and Cylonas, and whatever else you've played with. We knows you's gots da opinions.

Ok, I have had Zip Zaps, and some clones that I don't remember what brand they are and also a thundercharger,
ZZ's have been the best, very reliable, cost more than clones but have good steering, except one of my ZZ's steering colum thing broke so the wheel is not being held in place so it doesn't drive right, gotta fix it shouldn't be hard, anyway Zip Zaps are not very fast out of the box so I recommend getting better motors. Overall they have great performance and a wide variety of body styles.
Thunder Chargers are good for the 5 dollar price tag, but my Thunder Charger had crappy steering, and a decent motor in it, You get what You pay for, and The bodies suck, so it needs body modifcations and/or a good paint job to make it look good. The controllers like Dave said have some real funky stickers on them and get fairly good range, mine is a 49MHz. Micro Speed bodies at Biglots fit "TC's" but the tires rub againest the wheel wells so those would need some shaving. Over all Thunder Chargers and fairly good Bits.

in order maybe. ill probably forget one or two.

zipzap== well you know. a 1st gen zipzap.

thor(r1?) === over all pretty crappy but it was my first car with the beloved pink clone motor 80 foot range(i shit you not). and the chassis/gears/wheels/ totally sucked. body was a whack bb.

thor(r2) === hardwired crap. even worse chassis and not good range like r1

some other name on a thor(r2) chassis

super racing(typeA) === stock they would do a little wheelie from rvrs to fwd. decent bodies. so so drivetrain.

super racing(typeB === mechanically better and white wheels.

cyclon-a === ive had a few lots where a few minor things varied but overall these werent bad for being 10bucks when bits were still 35. they had 5 frequencies ugly orange wheels and good gears. great range and good power from the pcb. they were also very durable.

charge n go = what dave said.

motorworks === bleh

toys r us 4x4. kinda cool when you ad a 3rd cell. you can make it breakdance.

whirly do stunt car === ummm made well but fucking strange. lots of useful parts.
those ones at burlington == they were nice. 10bucks. all around decent.

burlington has thunder fighters now. those are good as well.

shens = nice all around

disney rc = havnt done anything to it. body is heavy. white bit chassis with modified front end. motorized steering.

muscle machines rc = big ugly non functional supercharger. other than that i liked it. too bad i broke it.

key rc = ir clone with pimp 5stars. the remote triggered an alarm. broke that one to.

thunder chargers = search the thread "5$ clones at big lots = rulin"

2nd gen zipzaps = theys aiaite

zipzap se = proportional and slow. kinda kewl tho. bodies have come along finally tandy!!

panthers = good but kinda janky. nice bodies.

those little nitrous bottle fags and furios cars = very easy to break. tires are a joke. drove it into orange juice.

super slicks = like a big zipzap(og style) worth 20bucks.

rc skateboard = youd think you could use the chassis at least but its a big pile of dung.

rc motorcycle(thunder fighter clone) = its on trainging wheels. i took it apart and looked at it and put it back together and returned it for a car.

never had lxx but ive seen a few of birds == they seem ok


i probably have more but thats all the ranting you get for now

but it was my first car with the beloved pink clone motor

Are pink clone motorsf fast/good performance?
Just wondering

bomb torque. they are the same as the thunder charger motors.

Ok, I'll have to get some and test em' out. Has anybody ever got a Micro Sizer, Like the Micro Sizer PRO or Sport, My Target never has the PRO Microsizers, only the Honda S2000, Just wondering how they preform, and if there any good.

p-digi: (mini cooper, hummers) these are fairly well made chassis, and come with cool wheels and bodies. but it's the pcb that's gold in here, they're the closest ones to a fetted pcb i got.

precious: i've only had 2 and on both the rear axle suffers from a loose holder causing the gears to completely miss each other at times. but they got punchy pcb's.

enertec micro "flash" chargers: these are sold in brucestralian tandy electronics and dick smith electronics shops. probably available in other countries under a different name. these have a wheelbase that's 7mm longer than tomy's. hardwired motor, dualcell, comes with front and rear lights, crappy sway bar and front suspension travel, powerfull steering, both coils and spring. the front wheel axle is set about 1mm back from the steering pivot as opposed to tomy where they are both alligned. pcb is bigger than a tomy but comes with a fet h bridge. boost is cut in reverse and when turning like the p-digi mini coopers. excellent range. these are my favourites with a different pcb in them.

enertic cars have to be my favourate clones hell id take one over a tomy any day.

pros, automatic boost, duel cell, tight steering, duel cell, front & rear lights, on and off switch, cool wheels.

cons, boost cut in half when steering, bodys are crap.

Dave, I had 3 Bensus and none of them had separate chargers (though I turned one contoller into a charger).

betty.k wrote:precious: i've only had 2 and on both the rear axle suffers from a loose holder causing the gears to completely miss each other at times. but they got punchy pcb's.

Yep I totally had the same problem.
We used those cars for the bitPimps auction cars, out of the 5 I had 3 had bad rear ends. (Naturally I used the 2 good ones for the auction cars. )

Dave, I had 3 Bensus and none of them had separate chargers (though I turned one contoller into a charger).

Bensu Cannonballs do indeed have separate chargerss. I don't know about other Bensus.