Fan-addict - The TLT is all plastic, except for the chassis plates. Where are you getting this more metal thing from? Sure the links and stuf are metal, but you can't count that. The 350 still has more metal than the TLT.
The 350 has more metal than most Tamiya kits, actually. While I agree the cost is high, I disagree with your reasoning why it should be less. The semis are the same price range and they don't have bearings either. The only way those diff pans would be metal and to Tamiya standards, they'd have to be billet alum. In that case they would just CNC them, which would give them less of a scale look.
Again, this is NOT a rock crawler by any means. I talked about this in the other 350 thread. This is a flat/medium surface truck. I you want to go crazy, just take the diff covers off. They are just for show anyway.
If you want to do some rock crawling, you'd have to mod it up pretty good...but would it be the 350 or some mod thingy with the 350 shell?
I had this issue with the Clod Buster, it's been modded out so much that only the axels remain. Now it's just a monstor truck with Clod axels.
Anyway. My point is that Tamiya makes high quality parts/kits and while they sometimes come at a high price, you won't be disapointed once the kit is in your hands.[&:]