Pro-Pulse Pro-B100 1/18th Scale Buggy review

dogbreathracing · Post by **dogbreathracing** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:53 pm

There has been lots of hype about these little buggies....so I figured I would pick one up just to check it against the competition.
Went by my local RS only to find that the standard $99.00 price quoted on the web was in fact incorrect, our RS had them on sale at $49.00 so I went home with a new Pro-Pulse Pro-B100 Buggy under my arm.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

First I checked the web sources and found that the Pro-Pulse buggy and truck price out at $99.00 through your local RS store or on-line. There are soon to be a fair line of optional and up-grade parts available.
The packaging is very attractive and the system is well mounted inside the box. But we didn't plunk down our money for a pretty box....so let's open it up and take a look....
To me this buggy looks to be a 85% clone of the associated RC18B, the top-plate looks a bit different, and the servo-saver and steering arms are slightly different, it does look like most all of the aftermarket hop-up and Associated replacement parts should fit with little problem (things like arms, hubs, shocks, towers, ect ect).
Oh look a little piece of paper that lets us know that the kit is NOT a RS product but is made by Megetech (a name most of us has at least heard of).
The overall build is very clean and looks to be of good quality, this may well be the very first "Hobby-Grade" R/C sold through RS.
So far I am impressed.

A CLOSER INSPECTION OF THE CONTENTS

Now lets take a little closer look at what we actually get for the money....
We are all used to getting cheap RTR kits with plastic bushings, worthless hard compound tires, a stock motor that couldn't rev high enough to spin the tires, and radio transmitter that was designed to fit a toddling infants hand....is that what we are going to get here?

NO WAY!!!
The list of things you get in this set is long, we will start off with a full set of 15 ball bearings, a set of oil filled shocks (they do come dry in the set, I guess the actual oil is an option, but they are still much smoother than any of the stock spring only boinger shocks found on most RTR sets), an aluminum finned motor mount, aluminum center drive shaft, nice soft pinned tires pre-glued to the rims WITH foam inserts, Dual ball diffs, a lexan body that is very nice with a decent paint job (at least on the buggy, however the truck body is hideous and should be thrown out and replaced right away..), SEPERATE electrical componets....YEAH! no more all-in-one units...a standard three wire servo...three channel FM receiver....programable ESC (programable in the fact that you can set it to either street or track which internally adjusts the the throw of the throttle (now what that means exactly I don't know, haven't had the time to check everything yet, but looks promising)....and finally a FM transmitter with steering and throttle trim and steering dual rate adjustments...and it fits in my fully developed adult male hand!, These are all standard on the Pro-Pulse B100 Buggy........hhhmmmmm Associated didn't include any of those with the base RTR RC18B set!?!?

(one note: the Pulse buggy does NOT come with a battery or charger, those are purchased seperately)

LETS BURN RUBBER

OK, got a 1200 7.2 sport pack all charged, got batts in the transmitter, lets go burn some rubber (if this cheapy clone has the guts)

I hit the throttle and my eyes lit up like a 7 year old boy on Christmas morning.....this thing had guts! Big flaming gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts!
I have never seen a RTR kit of any scale that had as much punch and speed right out of the box....AMAZING!
I have two buddies who both own RC18s one truck, one buggy, both were jaw dropped by this little buggies speed, torque, and handling!
This buggy handles very well in it's stock form....a little tuning and it will be a dream to drive. I spent the first half the first pack just drifting around the small dirt patch out beside the house (I think there may be a 1/18th dirt track going in there later this month when it dries up a little)

OVERALL OPINION

Is this thing worth the $49.00 I spent on it? WITHOUT A DOUBT!
Is this thing worth the regular $99.00 price? Yes considering the quality of the build, the availability of aftermarket parts and options AND all the extras that you get in the kit I would say it is a very good value for an entry level 1/18th scale AWD buggy. It's about $50-$60 less than the Associated RC18B/T and if you add in the costs of all the goodies (oil shocks, bearings, dual ball diffs ect) then it becomes a great value!

WANT SOME PICS?

Basic Pro-B100 chassis, near clone of the Associated RC18B, but this has added goodies!

Close up of rear hub, bearings, aluminum motor mount

Comparison of Pro-B100 front and RC18T front, shows similarities and slight differences

Comparison of Pro-B100 rear and RC18T rear, shows similarities and slight differences

Attractive body work on finished product....who wants to race?

LBRC · Post by **LBRC** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:22 am

Fifty bucks as in 10 for each of five fingers? Sort of like steeling without legal repercussions

Clint · Post by **Clint** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:42 am

Damn, for 50 bucks it's a no-brainer.

thats cheaper than some xmods.

BilboBaggins · Post by **BilboBaggins** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:56 am

I just got a RC18B (plus the shock towers to make it a RC18T) on Saturday and I was looking a the Pro-Pulse on Sunday. They looked similar but in the wife's description cheaper. The main thing I saw was that the batteries use a different plug, I probably would have picked one up if it use the same battery.

Now the questions.

1. Will the buggy take the RC18B body?
2. Will the truck take the RC18T bodies? (Saw a cool one from Parma online yesterday.
3. Will the wheels and tires ($29.99 a set of four at RS) fit the RC18B/T
4. Will the RC18 shock towers fit it?
5. Was it just one store selling it $49.99? (If it is that cheap I definitely would have got one or two and looked to switching the battery plugs.)

Murdoch · Post by **Murdoch** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:06 pm

very nice.. glad to see it looks like a good design.

I wonder though.. could you make a pro-pulse rallycar?

dogbreathracing · Post by **dogbreathracing** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:30 pm

I do believe the bodies, shock towers and wheels will all fit.....yes I believe it could be made into a 18R with shock towers, body and wheel/tire set.

You will have to check your local RS for in store pricing....I found mine at a local Portland area store.

Murdoch · Post by **Murdoch** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:04 am

okay that's just awesome.

Maxximum Attack · Post by **Maxximum Attack** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:46 am

I'm not too certain about the 18R conversion. The arms require some slight modding, but I'm not too sure about the body posts/ shock towers etc.

Here's an 18R parts list. There is also a .pdf that tells you how to convert from one type to the other in the RC18 range, but I don't know how to upload it. Can the gallery take pdf's?
http://www.rc10.com/misc/database/db_kit18r.htm

$50 is low enough to at least try

Maxx

dogbreathracing · Post by **dogbreathracing** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:49 pm

here's the link to all the available hop-ups through RS

http://www.radioshack.com/family/index. ... lse+Racing

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:42 pm

Clint wrote:Damn, for 50 bucks it's a no-brainer.

thats cheaper than some xmods.

That's what I was thinking.

BilboBaggins · Post by **BilboBaggins** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:42 pm

The RatShack I went to today is selling them for $99.99. They have had no mention of any sales.

payaso · Post by **payaso** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:08 pm

All the RS'round here want $100

Fuck that. Have you run it in the dirt yet? That's the review I want. The diffs shread faster than a mofo with the smallest amount of dirt/grit

silla

dogbreathracing · Post by **dogbreathracing** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:14 pm

I'll go look again tomorrow and see how many are left here

The diffs "Shread"? expand please....you mean the diff gear strips?

even the RC18 series has problems sealing the diffs, I have a buddy who has a simple fix for that with some cheap foam, but haven't gotten that far yet....

a dirt review of performance is coming...as soon as the three inches of standing water goes down a little....supposed to have a couple of good days later this week

payaso · Post by **payaso** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:21 pm

dogbreathracing wrote:even the RC18 series has problems sealing the diffs,

That's what I was refering to. A little bit of grit, and the gears destruct.

I have yet to see any real "fix" for the design flaw. Even the cover that "driven" makets just slows the process, but not a total fix, and here in Fl, with all the sand it's even worse.

silla

dogbreathracing · Post by **dogbreathracing** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:00 pm

This all may be true, but at this time I can not comment....I haven't had it in the dirt yet.

This is a problem that even the RC18 suffers from so I don't think it fair to wave that finger at this car because of that....it is a problem that is found in most all AWD cars....we all suffered this problem clear back to the Optima and Lazer cars years ago...seems it hasn;t gotten any better. Any serious racer would have a few complete spare diffs in his pit box for quick changes

bitPimps.lixlink.com

Pro-Pulse Pro-B100 1/18th Scale Buggy review

Now that you know....would you buy one?

Pro-Pulse Pro-B100 1/18th Scale Buggy review