New Vs Old Team Associated Quality

[jackdc100]

Hi everyone. Back in the mid-90s I owned several Team Associated cars and trucks. At the time Team Associated was considered to be top-of-the-line in terms of quality. Is that still considered to be the case with the newer kits? I am getting back into RC after 30 years away from the hobby so I am curious about what to buy. I went to a local hobby shop and the salesperson recommended Tekno and Team Losi over Team Associated in terms of recently-designed RC vehicles. What is your opinion of this? I figured the people at this particular forum would be the most knowledgeable in terms of a comparison. Please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance:)

[juicedcoupe]

If it's of any relevance, a Team Associated B74 won the last Worlds championship.

[GoMachV]

The modern kits are very competitive but I've heard some issues on breakage. They seem to be the car that works everywhere though. Parts support with local shops is probably the best of the modern stuff. Losi is owned by Horizon hobbies and their support is trash. Yokomo is distributed by Amain and they are one of the best imo. Not sure about tekno for parts but great quality. Also for top of the line quality look at Xray. They are like a Swiss watch.

Now, modern AE re-releases... quality on some parts just sucks. Their old kits required fitment, the new ones require shims lol. Kinda went the opposite direction. The parts are all Chinese and thunder tiger, the parent company, just churns out whatever they want. That said, I have at least one of each and will continue to buy them because they are a fun build and remind you of the old days, just dont expect the quality of old.

[jackdc100]

Ok thanks for the info guys. I will look into X Ray. Is their parts availability decent? Are parts generally available to mail-order at least for these brands? That is a bummer about the re-releases. I was intrigued by the re-release of the RC10GT. I had one of those. It was very reliable. People say nitro vehicles are temperamental but I never had any issues with mine back in the 90s. I don't know of any modern engines that would work in the re-release though.

[RCveteran]

The whole world is now built to a minimum spec we can get away with while charging as much as possible regardless of where it is made, in general. Boutique manufactures like gomach above may be excluded but that is different. If you didn't know he makes some good stuff in the USA

AE is not as high quality as Tekno or Xray. That said for average dude it is a bit of splitting hairs depending on what you want to do. Technically a Porsche 911 is better quality than Corvette, doesn't mean I get around the track any faster in one or the other is how I look at it. Buy what you want, they are all close enough to me.

Buy Schumacher if you value over engineering, by Xray if you want tough, buy AE if you want the easiest way to get around the track with the most support. If you're just bashing around, way better choices than an AE race car.

[jackdc100]

Yeah I am looking for something that I can bash with and take to a track once in a while. The main motivation to buy one of these brands is to assemble a 2wd kit so that I have a better idea of how to fix the vehicle. I have a Traxxas Slash 4x4 VXL that is too complex for me to diagnose and fix when it breaks. I really regret buying it. The drive train breaks for no reason and there is so much going on that I can't figure out how to fix it. I was hoping that getting a nicer 2wd car so that it would be more reliable and in kit form so that I would have a better idea of how to fix it. From what I remember the Team Associated stuff didn't break unless you got the car in a big crash. They were aso relatively simple and easy to diagnose/fix. I am pretty unimpressed with the Traxxas truck. In hindsight I should have gotten something higher quality from the get-go.

[JosephS]

Yeah I am looking for something that I can bash with and take to a track once in a while. The main motivation to buy one of these brands is to assemble a 2wd kit so that I have a better idea of how to fix the vehicle. I have a Traxxas Slash 4x4 VXL that is too complex for me to diagnose and fix when it breaks. I really regret buying it. The drive train breaks for no reason and there is so much going on that I can't figure out how to fix it. I was hoping that getting a nicer 2wd car so that it would be more reliable and in kit form so that I would have a better idea of how to fix it. From what I remember the Team Associated stuff didn't break unless you got the car in a big crash. They were aso relatively simple and easy to diagnose/fix. I am pretty unimpressed with the Traxxas truck. In hindsight I should have gotten something higher quality from the get-go.

And I was going to recommend a Traxxas.

Do you have lots of really flat areas that you can drive a 1/10 buggy?
For my bashing I switched from buggies to stadium trucks because I had limited places I could run a 1/10 buggy.

For occasional racing you may want to check the local tracks to you as to what novice classes are active.
You may also want to consider 1/8th scale as that seems to be a popular class. As well they are big enough to bash anywhere and seems to be sturdy.

The rc10 is a viable basher now that all of the parts are available again.

[RCveteran]

Honestly your Traxxas 4x4 VXL is kind of a beast for bashing. If it's broke, take it apart, print out the manual and parts diagrams and rebuild it like a kit, you'll be familiar and not starting over cost wise. Once you tear it down it's not as complex as it may look. And if it is truly dead type broke, well, you can't make it any worse.

What's wrong with it, post some symptoms and pics/videos and I bet those of us here can steer you in right direction.

[1911Colt]

Our local carpet track (now closed ) had a figure 8 class for the 2WD Slash. With just a few upgrades, those things were effectively bulletproof. I saw folks drive away from collisions that contained enough energy to destroy my entire collection

I am not familiar with the 4x4 Slash, but I would imagine it is very similar to the 2WD.

[duckhead]

I will be the last to endorse Traxxas but it is undeniable how durable the Slash is. Yes, the Slash 4x4 is a bit more complex (as is any 4WD vehicle) but as mentioned above they aren't that bad once you've taken it apart once or twice. Traxxas part support is pretty much the best around as well and largely economical. I stocked up on 'HuanQi 727' (Slash 4x4 knock off) kits for my kids awhile ago and they've beat the hell out of them, and they hold up. You can even tune them for the track with lower ride height, better shock package, proper tires, etc.

If you have your heart set on a modern 2WD kit, any mentioned above will drive exponentially better on a track than anything you will remember from 30 years ago, and the comments about 'splitting hairs' is spot on. The RC10B7(D) will have the best parts support, hands down. Any other kit will most likely require you to be your own parts support on track (your mileage might vary depending on the track).

Regarding durability, I'd say that is a bit subjective based on the quality of the driver It is also worth mentioning that we didn't have brushless power, double and triple jumps, and gobs of traction back in the day, so any comparision about "durability" between old and new is apples and oranges in my books.

Now, keep in mind, if you don't want to spend $300-$500 for a balls to the wall racer, you could consider something like the Kyosho SB Dirt Master.

Just my $0.02, which is worth about 1 cent, at best

[jackdc100]

Thanks for the info guys. I am generally running on baseball diamonds at local parks that are pretty flat. I can walk to those. There are a number of 1/10 indoor tracks within an hour drive. There is a 1/8 scale outdoor track about a 1hr drive away. The price of a 1/8 scale car scares me though.