Got sick of waiting, so I bought a MiniZilla: review inside
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2005 10:23 am
Well, this now leaves me with useless RC18T CVDs, motor mount, axle shims and wing (wing came to me for free thanks to BRP). I'll take 45 bucks for it all, but that's not why I'm here...
Anyway, I went to the ol' LHS yesterday and they had a Mini Zilla sitting on the counter, along with one up on the shelf in the box. It's a really purrrdy truck with the big bling and all, so I drove it a little on the dead battery. Besides hating the radio with a passion, the truck seemed really nice, and I was fed up with 3 months of waiting for an 18T (NO ONE HAS THEM IN STOCK!!), so I bought it. Well, it's a damn fun truck!
The stock pinion lifted the truck off the ground from a stop, which was a little much for me, so I went in and decided to change the pinion. Working on this thing, to say the least, SUCKS. I like having phillips screws all over, and don't mind using an allen key, BUT MAKING 3 DIFFERENT SIZE SCREWS PISSES ME OFF. Also, not including them rubbed me the wrong way.
Besides the screws, it took me roughly 20 minutes to change the damn pinion. In order to get in there, you must first REMOVE the rear body mounts to get ot the screws that hold the plate that the ESC and receiver rest on!! Also, unplug the servo when you do this, as it makes your life a little easier. Anyway, moving on, the reason for the removal of the plate is so you have room to actually get an allen wrench to the damn motor.
My other qualm was the radio. It is the cheapest-shit radio I've ever seen. It sucks more hang-down than Jenna Jameson on a month-long video shoot. The steering wheel blatantly rips off Futaba, except it's painted a crappy silver. Apparently, it's standard on all of the Hot Bodies RTRs. For this reason I'd never buy one again.
Okay, it sounds like I hate my purchase, but I really don't. I got it up and running on the medium pinion and off the 4 hour charger at 11 last night (I left my peak charger at my mom's), except I only charged it for 3 hours. Even though it was very tall, the only problem I had were backflips! I have 2 Etec 1200s sitting at my house collecting dust, so I'll be turning them into a nice lil pack for this thing, and I'm willing to bet it'll be a lot of fun.
Anyway, back to the drive. I didn't even use my stock radio (used the store's stocker) and just immediately swapped over to my Futaba 2PC. This 'lil thing's fun! It has a ton of pep and torque, and is a good basher, though it disappointed me on the curbs a little. It hauled ass around my yard and corned really well on the street. It fact, I haven't barrel-rolled it at all. I'd guess speed in the 15 mph range.
Ok, one last bothersome thing on this nice truck that irked me: battery space. It's gonna take one oddly'shaped pack to fit in there. Overall, I think it's a great little truck, just buy an Iwaver controller or a 2PC from TRC under the Mini X section.
Anyway, I went to the ol' LHS yesterday and they had a Mini Zilla sitting on the counter, along with one up on the shelf in the box. It's a really purrrdy truck with the big bling and all, so I drove it a little on the dead battery. Besides hating the radio with a passion, the truck seemed really nice, and I was fed up with 3 months of waiting for an 18T (NO ONE HAS THEM IN STOCK!!), so I bought it. Well, it's a damn fun truck!
The stock pinion lifted the truck off the ground from a stop, which was a little much for me, so I went in and decided to change the pinion. Working on this thing, to say the least, SUCKS. I like having phillips screws all over, and don't mind using an allen key, BUT MAKING 3 DIFFERENT SIZE SCREWS PISSES ME OFF. Also, not including them rubbed me the wrong way.
Besides the screws, it took me roughly 20 minutes to change the damn pinion. In order to get in there, you must first REMOVE the rear body mounts to get ot the screws that hold the plate that the ESC and receiver rest on!! Also, unplug the servo when you do this, as it makes your life a little easier. Anyway, moving on, the reason for the removal of the plate is so you have room to actually get an allen wrench to the damn motor.
My other qualm was the radio. It is the cheapest-shit radio I've ever seen. It sucks more hang-down than Jenna Jameson on a month-long video shoot. The steering wheel blatantly rips off Futaba, except it's painted a crappy silver. Apparently, it's standard on all of the Hot Bodies RTRs. For this reason I'd never buy one again.
Okay, it sounds like I hate my purchase, but I really don't. I got it up and running on the medium pinion and off the 4 hour charger at 11 last night (I left my peak charger at my mom's), except I only charged it for 3 hours. Even though it was very tall, the only problem I had were backflips! I have 2 Etec 1200s sitting at my house collecting dust, so I'll be turning them into a nice lil pack for this thing, and I'm willing to bet it'll be a lot of fun.
Anyway, back to the drive. I didn't even use my stock radio (used the store's stocker) and just immediately swapped over to my Futaba 2PC. This 'lil thing's fun! It has a ton of pep and torque, and is a good basher, though it disappointed me on the curbs a little. It hauled ass around my yard and corned really well on the street. It fact, I haven't barrel-rolled it at all. I'd guess speed in the 15 mph range.
Ok, one last bothersome thing on this nice truck that irked me: battery space. It's gonna take one oddly'shaped pack to fit in there. Overall, I think it's a great little truck, just buy an Iwaver controller or a 2PC from TRC under the Mini X section.