I have yet to fly my X400 however I have had no problems with the head yet despite numerous spooling up and down of the assembly during setup. ESC is Phoenix 35 and soft start is on. Will report when I actually put it in service. Regarding getting more parts than you need in a crash kit that just seems to be the way it is with all heli makers. You can get all the parts individually from grandrc and others. So the X400 head is weak, so what? Upgrade it and enjoy the heli. Any heli you crash will need repair. RT