cheech nailed it. Mike got the parts from Tower. So far the breaking point hasn't shifted to any of the plastic parts though. The same thing is true with the Evader I bought from Raz...no breakage of plastic as a result of having aluminum parts onboard. You're right though, the breaking point does tend to find the next weakest link...in the case of my E-Maxx that has all aluminum bulks, braces and shock towers, when I hit a low lying rock with my front skid plate it caused my chassis to break in the most inconvenient spot (though when is breakage ever convenient[:@]).