My take on Traxxas
 

After owning a total of 3 Traxxas vehicles, I think I have had my fair share of experience with them.
-Good: Parts support like crazy, 100% RTR w/ battery, great customer service, tons of aftermarket support, very popular, fast out of the box in most cases, etc.
-Bad: Overpriced by a ton, sometimes electronics aren't the best, too much plastic (plastic driveshafts?), do fine at first but wear out over time, etc.

This is just my 2 cents. Please don't turn this into a Traxxas bashing thread, because as you can see they have some positives. To be short, I had 3 Traxxas vehicles at one time, and now I'm selling the last one...

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

That's a pretty good take on that. I agree 100%.<div>
</div><div>One thing thought is that there plastic driveshafts are pretty good. Like on my E-revo there better then the steel ones. Then the Summit shafts are stronger then that. So it's good plastic!</div>

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

the stampede is a cool fun truck, but a bit over priced
the T/E maxx is fun, but weak as a 105 year old woman with osteoporosis and overpriced to hell
the revo is a good idea, but over complicated and overpriced to hell
the slash was a GREAT idea, thanks to that, you now have a SC class, but, outdated and overpriced to hell
the Xo-1 cool idea, but only good if you have a Iphone and a million miles to drive it, chassis is ho-hum
the 1/16 stuff, cool idea, fun little guys, but overpriced to hell
the summit, cool rig, but GOD is it overpriced to hell to the max
the 4-tec, total junk, overpriced to hell
the Jato, fast fun truck, but too much plastic, and overpriced to hell
Funny car, sweet idea, looks good as a shelf queen, but overcomplicated and has nothing on the fiberglass wonders for 1/5 less

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

AMEN!!! My buddy just picked one up last week, $600!?!?!?!?!?! For THAT???

Not to mention BOTH steering servos were junk out of the box, I mean really? The guys on disability and saved for what he thought was a badass MT and got some overpriced defective BRUSHED POS. He is mad but they won't refund so he can take my advice and just get a Savage
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RE: My take on Traxxas
 

LOL............. you guys crack me up....:D:):D:):D;)

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

are u talking about 2 Rustlers and a Bandit? arnt they very much the same????
Dont know if that considered having much experance at all with traxxas, dont get me wrong, i know u have alot of experance with the rustler, but what about the 1/16 cars. TRX 3.3 motor, ez start, 4 wheel drive, revo suspension, etc

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

what makes the revo complicated??? I find my revo platnium easy to work on. Im even brought a 2nd gearbox so I can easly swap from centre diff to reverse.

rember when the revo first came out??? it was very competaive... and still is today... Fastest MT i know of, mind u there are some faster truggies nowdays
still can whoop all these... Associated MGT, Losi LST, Tamiya TNX, Traxxas T-Maxx, HPI Savage, XTM Mammoth & a Duratrax Warhead

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

Agreedhttp://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...eeth_smile.gif, The Revo platform isn't very hard to work on at all IMO
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RE: My take on Traxxas
 

That's a negative point imo. They have nothing for those of us who like building their cars.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

The brushed 2wd's are VERY overpriced specially when you see the ECX, and evader options which in some cases are stronger than the traxxas offerings, and cost quite a bit less.

Even the others are all over priced for what you are getting in the box. Slash 4x4, and pede 4x4 should be $50-80 cheaper for what you get in the box. Summit $100-$150 at least knocked off the price.
Even the 1/16ths should be $50-80 cheaper too. Its ridiculous they cost as much as most 1/10ths... hell I know of a 1/8th scale RTR that is in the same price range.

But that's my take on it.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

For me HPI is my #1 RC company but Traxxas isn't really that bad. Since I got back into RC 15 years ago I have owned the following Traxxas vehicles...

7 - Stampedes still have 2 and enough parts to build 2 more Pede's or Rustlers
5 - Rustlers still have 1
2 - 4-Tec's
3 - T-Maxx's
3 - E-Maxx's (old school) still have 1
1 - E-Maxx (new version)
1 - Revo
1 - E-Revo
1 - Nitro Pede
1 - Jato
1 - E-Jato still own

Forgot to add

2 - Slashes
2 - 4wd Slashes
3 - Mini Revo/Mini Slash

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

all you gotta do is look at associated's rtr pricing to know that traxxas is out of their minds with pricing.

that said i've never owned a traxxas and don't plan to, i see enough of them every week to know i don't want one.</p>

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

Here is my current stable of cars:

Losi XXX-SCB w/Castle Sidewinder SCT combo package
AE SC10 RS RTR w/Spektrum SR300 RX
Losi 10T Nitro Truggy
Traxxas Slayer Pro

The Traxxas slayer is everybit as good as the other cars/trucks I have. I had 4 of the 1/16th Traxxas vehicles too and they were nice, but I sold them as I didn't really run them anymore. My take on Traxxas is that they make a quality product and they are a bit more expensive than the other manufacturers. Take Losi for example, the XXX-SCB/SCT RTR comes with a brushed setup out of the box. Compare that price of $199.00 (used to be $249.00) to the other Traxxas brushed offerings and the Traxxas brushed stuff is about 15-20 bucks more. Not enought to break the bank, but certainly enough to put off some people.  Sure seem to be a whole lot of people buying their stuff!

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

It's interesting to me to see folks complain about Traxxas prices now. It seemed that not long ago folks liked their pricing, getting a good about of stuff in an RTR package for a reasonable price. Have their prices gone up, or are competitors just offering better packages/prices that used to be more expensive?

Last Traxxas I bought was a 2WD Stampede, and I thought the price was decent at the time, for what I got.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

little from column A, and a little from column B
the Stampede XL-5 is now $239.97 (taken from tower as I do this post)
it used to be $175 a few years back...
For a design that nothing dramatic has changed in over 14years IMO that is a pretty expensive product.

Compare that to say the Ruckus at $150 (price off horizon hobbies, yes they went up a tad too, but nowhere near as high as traxxas raised prices)
what value are you getting for $90 more? a battery that has 1100 more mAh?

Then there's the slash 2wd at $272 vs the ECX torment $169
or the Rustler at $214 vs the ECX Circuit at $129, or the evader at $120 (hell the BL evader is $35 more than the brushed rustler with a 2.4ghz radio)

For those being base entry level RC's their prices no longer reflect that, and bring them into the price range of the better RC's that require less modifications to bring them up to par. Now if they even included a 2.4ghz radio to reflect some of the increase that might even be ok, but you get literally the same exact package (AM radio, 3300 NiMh battery, same charger, and same exact truck, and shoddy motor) that they been selling for years at almost $100 markup in most cases now.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

Wow, that's quite an increase. [&:]

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

Why did he buy a Summit if he wanted a MT? The Summit is about the same size as a monster truck but it's more of a trail/crawler rig. People who buy and use a Summit for it's intended purpose love them, it has cult status amongst it's legion of fans.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

This is very true. If you know what you're buying when you get a Summit, they are fantastic. There really is no other truck like it on the market right now.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

The one thing that Traxxas has that no other manufacturer has is excellent customer service. There are no other companies in the industry that provide the support that they do. Web or phone, it is on the money. They also have a repair service that is quick and reasonably priced.

When you are brand new to the hobby, and let's face it, we all were once, this kind of support is invaluable.

Once you are familiar with a vehicle and know how to maintain it, the value of this kind of support is potentially far less to an individual hobbyist. I don't need their support any more, but the first month or two that I owned a Summit I called them quite a few times to get them to walk me through some trouble shooting. They were patient and knowledgeable.

But, there is a cost to maintain a support network like that. Guess how it gets paid for?

That's why the XL-5 Rustler, virtually unchanged in its RTR package in 10 years, sells for more today than it did 10 years ago. You're paying for the support, whether you use it or not.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

I would have to disagree with you on that. HPI has just as good a customer service as Traxxas.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

I haven't really needed anything with HPI, but Traxxas' is about as good as it can get I would think. They sent me several free Titan 12t after I nicely explained what happened.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

the fact that you need customer service in the first place mustmean the product is not that good or as good as everyone says they are.

i've never needed associated's customer service, never needed kyosho's or tamiya's either.</p>

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

some degree of truth to that

The BEST customer service is the one you never need IMO.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

I have had issues with tamiya, but it was becauseI used a pan car on a really bumpy surface without loctite and some stuff bounced off.. and I lost a wheel/tire at when I went to find parts at a store... they wouldn't give me a free one. Although the parts bouncing off.. they didn't say not to but I guess it makes sense.

So my fault I guess - but Tamiya really won't replace stuff unless it's defective.

Axial has very good customer service. They sent someone I know an extra ESC because he thought it broke but I really just had to bind the radio for him :P

I really just think of Traxxas like Apple (Escept for Apple is quite a bit more illegal). They are 10x overpriced, but they present an image of quality, exaggerate figures, and show things as being 100% ready for use.

And for some people it works great. But I like to be able to improve and build my own car. I've bought 2 RTRs, and they both worked perfect. What I dislike is the way - as with Apple - that they market overpriced products to beginners, and with that overpriced product people assume that other similarly priced products must be crap and Traxxas is a good deal. This leads a group of people, including those at hobbyshops (Which also want the larger profit from a more expensive product) to recommend them, and often create average/poor pruducts.

It's profit driven, which is fine, but It would be nice if it were slightly less so.

RE: My take on Traxxas
 

Did you really just compare a Duratrax Evader to a Traxxas Rustler? Have you ever had an Evader and a Rustler on the bench at the same time to make a reasonable judgement?
I think you guys are just bagging on Traxxas based on price ONLY. You simply cannot compare the flimsy, flexable, low quality Evader to a Rustler and say the Rustler is over priced. Sadly the Evader is barely above a radio shack type toy grade R/C product where the Rustler is a solid, hobby grade unit with TONS more quality in it.

In alot of these "Traxxas is over priced" threads, I see many people essentialy trying to compare a Dodge Viper to a Dodge Omni and bagging the Viper for being over priced....