Looking for quality 1/8 or larger buggy.
 

What options do you think is good for 1/8 or bigger size buggy. Was debating on Arrma typhon. Hear a lot of good things about it. Any other ideas?

Any of the 1/8 scale buggy kits you find around the online hobby shops will do nicely. Do you have plans on racing? If so, I'd suggest a platform that a local track/shop supports parts for. But seeing you mentioned the Typhon, I thinking you are more interested in something RTR and more of a basher type. The Typhon should be on top of anyone's list when looking for a RTR eBuggy. Other RTRs I would mention...Losi 8ight-E, HaBoa Hyper VSe, and probably the Associated RC8.2e.

+1

All good recommendations there, though I would caution you stick with name brands available through AMain:
https://www.amainhobbies.com/search?s=1%2F8+rtr

Brands to watch out for:
* HPI - went bankrupt after Traxxas sued them for patent infringement back in 2014, company was sold around 2016 and the brand has yet to fully recover, parts supply chain issues have plagued the brand since

* ARRMA - went bankrupt after Traxxas sued them for patent infringement back in 2016, they have 2 more months for someone to buy them or the brand will go out of business, if someone buys them, it will take a while for parts supply chain to be restored and/or may suffer the same fate as HPI

* Associated - known for weak diffs and weak arms, decent for light bashing, but brand is better suited for racers who don't mind high maintenance

If it were me, I'd limit my choices to Losi, HoBao or RedCat, where each brand is comparably priced in quality for what you pay for.

Good question I may consider both. However not too many tracks in Maryland. Only few that only do 1/10th.

Great I just bought new for 500 last year. Didn’t know they went out of business. Shame.

None of the brands discussed so far have gone out of business yet... I would be shocked if ARRMA doesn't get acquired, I'm sure there are some buyers lined up and lots of wheeling a dealing going on to settle agreements for each of the 30 proprietary brands that are to be chopped up under Hobbico.

Yeah I know. As far as quality Arrma is good stuff. Built well for money. I just wanna platform that some parts are interchangeable. Do they make such kits.

Most 1/8 brands have parts that are interchangeable between the SCT, MT, Truggy and Buggy, provided you stay within the same brand. The best kit money can buy right now is TEKNO, they are one of, if not the most durable brand and they offer a 50% lifetime warranty for any broken parts you mail into them, no questions asked making them the least expensive brand to maintain by a long shot.

If you're not into racing and just want to get the ultimate basher, then look no further than the MT410:

My Arrma Kraton is great, fast, durable andante loads of fun.
having one slight issue with the pinion which hopefully I can resolve pretty easy but not bothered as love it.
I like the look of that Tekno aswell in the vid on the thread.

I would say the Kyosho Enferno VE. All the option parts cross mingle within the whole MP series and truggy! Dollar value and also option parts are cheaper for the VE.

Go for the Typhon!

I have a DHK 1/8 8384. It is very durable with a lot metal parts.

Losi 8ight is a really good 1/8 scale buggy for the price if you want high end.

Hi,

I am new to this forum - glad I found it! I see many of you have a huge knowledge so I would like to ask for some advice.
If there was such discussion already - I would appreciate a link.

I wanted to summarize somehow what is the ranking/classification of top-end/highest class of 1:8 RC electric buggies (only). I can see many brands around on the Internet, also here. You talk about Losi, HPI, Kyoso, Arrma, Associated etc. while I cannot find out which of it is good/high/highest class. I wanted to get some knowledge how can I compare 1:8 race models, on what basis etc. I know each company has different models, but may you support me and list the best/most popular models of each of worth considering company?
RTR's are fine, but I have nothing against building a model on my own (I did recently build by DF-03 and its great fun)

P.S. What do you think about Mugen Seiki and how does it compare against previously mentioned car manufacturers. I have seen it recently and I was actually impressed
P.S.2 Is there something worth mentioning about parts availability for them? Personally, I come from Europe, if you dont - I would appreciate your comments anyway.

Mugen is very good, I would consider any brand in the Top25 to be a worthy adversary:
World Top 25 RC Drivers

I would visit the local club in your area and pick a brand that offers the best local team driver support.

In my area the top 3 brands I see are TEKNO, XRay and Mugen

Thanks for your response Bill.
RC is not very popular around around here, so I guess I'd need to look online if the parts are available at and then decide which brand would be good for me due to parts availability.

What do you think about amain.com shop? I was searching for models - just to get the feeling what is the cost range for these brands. It looks like most expensive 1:8 buggy RTR's are very similar with the price as Mugen, Xray, Tekno chasis' (what needs probably 50-100% of the price extra for motor, ESC, servo etc - right? or do they already contain these things but not installed). So now I am wondering if I should rather go with top-brand RTR (already durable and good performance) and get the feeling or I should save some more cash and already hit top-brand kit (almost unbreakable with end-class performance). On the other hand end class performance equipment would be probably needed only during some kind of races that I will not participate very soon I guess ...

BTW. I just looked thru your blog - a lot of useful data. I hope you would not mind if I will trouble you via PM from time to time with some questions (possibly about picking right equipment if I decide to buy something).

If it were me, I'd probably try to locate a distributor in the EU just to make it easier to get parts.

AMain is a very reliable source, but unfortunately, they are located in the US :(

I haven't taken the time to do a write up on 1/8 buggies, but I feel a lot of my thoughts are universally transferable here:
Which 1/10 4WD SCT is the best?

As far as RTR's go, I would check to see if you can find a distributor for ARRMA in your area, they were recently bought out by Horizon which is a big win for the brand :)

other RTR's to consider would be Losi, Associated and HoBao, most RTR's are dated designs but for someone who is not racing, that's probably not important.

Best of luck!