Thin - You will certainly bend a shaft before you will break gear teeth. I 've replaced 3 outer and 4 inner shafts and only lost 1 gear tooth. I have been running athe alum upper and lower now since I broke my first plastic ones. They are worth every penny. As far as weight goes you'll barely notice. stock lower is .97g eflite alum is 2.47. It is a gain but you can drop wight elsewhere to compensate. For example the xtreme 180bb motors run great in the CX2 and are 2g lighter then stock with heat sink. WWW.boomtownhobbies.com taliboom is 8g complared to the stock rear body which is 11g there's 3 more.

McLrn - Wow impressive. I have purchased quite a few blades but not anything like that. I am suprised you have kept the jet ranger body looking so good with all those broken blades or is that the good side you photoed

Good looking heli.