Hey, Dave. I hear what you're saying about availability, but put bluntly, I don't think it's a given that the TRex head would be an upgrade. The stock head flies awfully well.

Pieces. The tail on mine is the Sonix part from Helidirect. It's a near perfect copy of the OEM plastic tail, but in a hard aluminum alloy and with bearings instead of balls for the grip control arms. I had to bend the hinge bosses a tiny bit to make the double-joint arm fit in, but otherwise it went together ok, and it's quite precise otherwise. Why did I get it? Because it went on deal-of-the-day at HD for $50 bucks all-up, and at that price I couldn't stop the credit card in time .

The head is the Kasama unit. I actually got it a couple months before I got the heli because it was the first really different, but still conventional, Bell-Hiller head I'd seen and I wanted to get hands on with it. I didn't have any plans to get an MT at the time, but I wanted to see first hand what the head was like, and I figured worst-case, I could sell it for only a little less than what I paid. The main difference in flight is that the K head will take a greater pitch range than the stock head; I have about 6-8 degrees cyclic pitch and 10 degrees collective, and I can put in full travel of both without binding. With the all-metal construction (and the fact that the K head is also a hard alloy and heavily built) I can run the head at its current 3200 RPM without any concern about it coming apart in flight. The speed and pitch capability make for insane aerobatic capability without compromising the MiniT's feel- quite an accomplishment.

All that said- at 2600 RPM, the stock head is just as good for almost everything- the upgrade stuff just dials up the volume at the extremes. I had an in-flight incident due to misprogramming the pitch ranges (didn't result in a crash, but could have), but that was my mistake. Others have mentioned issues with their plastic grips having tracking difficulties, but I didn't experience that personally. If I had it to do over, I would not use the Kasama head (though I'm not giving it back ) or the complete tail unit, either. Instead, since I like the high head speed, I'd go for the TT or Sonix main hub and grips, and aluminum grips for the tail (probably the tail slider "combo" at HD). HD also has stainless steel main and feathering shafts for the Titan that aren't a bad idea IMHO, but they aren't really required.

Anyway, that would turn out to be about $100 in upgrades instead of the $250 or so in mine with the Kasama head and Sonix tail, and I think it would be quite sufficient- the all aluminum SE looks cool, of course, but it's not $400 cooler! The fact is, the standard MT is great as it is when you get it; my only suggestion is the changes I mentioned for greater strength. Metal mixer arms and washout aren't a terrible idea, for the same reason, but the plastic bits make a nice fuse in the mechanics- my Gazaur has very light mixers that perform that function and protect the rest of the head, and that isn't a bad feature though you have to inspect them regularly.

Full disclosure, there's also the tinker factor. As with the K head, I get some stuff just because it's fun or interesting. I did that with the motor- the JGF 500TH that I had in there was very good and entirely sufficient, but I got a Scorpion 2221-8 to see what it was like, just because I'd heard they were great (they are ). There's nothing wrong with upgrading because it's fun, basically-- it's a hobby, after all .