ORIGINAL: turbodremz23

I support clones...we all do in one way or another...mabey not in the rc hobby world, but at some point in time when you went to the grocery store, you have bought the store brand or other brand...well thats a "clone" of the original..

I have a KM Baja clone, and as strong as it is, then for all the HPI owners that break parts, I salute you!

The point to all of this is personal choice and taste...I dont like black coffee, some people do..or better yet, how do you pronounce the word tomato, or potato? You may think I say it wrong, but I may think you say it wrong...get the point?

HPI is not a small company, and the 5B is not the only model they have on the market, and financially I dont think they are feeling a major downsize on 5B sales..but 99% of the KM parts are compatible with the 5B, so when something on a KM breaks, what do they buy to replace it? HPI parts.

In one way or another, the "mother company" as some have called them, still win in the end. They may not make the full profit off the sale of a 5B, but when you consider the costs of broken KM parts after a hard day/week/month of balls-out bashing, they still make their money.

I started with a clone for one reason, and only one reason...I got a good deal, and saved enough to replace weak parts with HPI/DDM/Dark Soul/Integy/etc..though it has not been cheap, I still have as much performance, if not more than a 5B SS plus some and have not spent the $950+ retail...plus HPI is about to make more off of me after my mistake of getting my KM into a fight with a tree earlier today and bending/cracking the front of the chassis..and I will now have spent as much as the 5B rtr kits retail price.

but to each his own..I own a clone, but still support HPI cause HPI supports my KM parts..