ORIGINAL: NOIC

I haven't been back to this thread in a while. I was in the process of breaking in my new Savage XL. Thanks to all for your comments, but the decision was ultimately mine and I'm only semi-sure I made the right one. A lot of you bragged up the HPI stuff and I suppose since all I wanted was a bash around truck the XL is ok. It has some nice features like the 3-speed transmission and the size. I got a pretty good price too, ($569 including shipping from Ultimate Hobbies), but I'm disappointed in the quality. Most of it is plastic. The radio is crap. I put in a Spektrum SR3001 DSM 3-Channel Pro Series Receiver right away and programmed it into my M11. You have to take the body off (or cut holes in it) to turn off the receiver so more tweaking is needed. Taking the radio box apart is a pain. They put the twisty closer underneath the air filter and the air filter is put on with a wire tie instead of a rubber O-Ring like my OS engine. With the body on you can't reach the roll bar with is a much better way to carry it since the plastic bumpers are so flimsy I'm afraid I'm going to break them. So to sum it up, yeah it's an ok toy and that's what I got it for. Maybe after changing a few things I'll like it better, but in retrospect I'm thinking I probably should have gone with the Revo Platinum. So I'll play for a while, but eventually an upgrade is probably coming. Having said that, I may be all wet and just haven't given it a chance since I've only run about 6 tanks through it. Time will tell. Either way, as usual I appreciate all your comments.