Hello folks,

My 1st RC model since my Tamiya Falcon back in the 80s, is hopefully now making its way across the world to find me in Mongolia. I hope to share the hobby with my 7 y/o son and the Slash will be his.

As I continue to look for what will become my reintroduction to RC, does anyone here have any experience buying vehicles direct from China, though sites such as Banggood or Ali Express? I am hoping that it would be cheaper and faster to get them here to me in Ulaanbaatar, if there are any decent models available.

Thanks in advance for your ideas and experience on the matter.

-Pete

Banggood is like, or wants to be, China's Amazon. I personally have not ordered anything from there, but RCers have been getting their "goods" there for years. AliExpress has evolved a bit. Just read/research a bit on "About AliExpress". I tried Alibaba.com (owner of AliExpress) for a large bulk purchase of o-rings. I got very little responses from sellers there, and I got turned off.

Good experiences with BangGood. Have not used Ali.

I've bought a thing or two, literally, via BangGood, but only because of a temporary lack of inventory in the U.S. Had to wait forever. Ok, a month. And shipping cost negated the parts' prices. Too costly to cross the Pacific. And HoBao is back in the U.S. so that's not an issue.

HoBao is made over on your side of the ocean. I'd put them on my short list. I don't suppose there's anything like a hobby shop nearby, is there? See what they carry and what they stock parts for. If not, try and at least verify that whatever you buy, that you can get parts for it. And find an aftermarket bumper set. RPM or T-Bone Racing. Save you a lot of breakage. IIRC, Tacon is made in China, they make RC electronics and cars. See if you can find a local distributor. HobbyPartz.com and NitroRCX.com (two names, same outfit) sell them online and have a warehouse in southern California. Maybe if you contact them, they can point you to a retailer over there? Or look up Tacon RC. Google is your friend. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply Rob.

There are 2 local shops here, but no good options, I think. One sells Tamiya and Kyosho cars and kits, with no parts in stock. That is, they just order parts as needed, which I could just do.

The other has 1 TLR Mini 8 buggy, 2 nice Axial vehicles and lots of HSP cars/trucks. Again, the staff could offer no support knowledge and they have zero back-up parts for what they sell. They just sell them, and help kids order stuff as it breaks.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll have a look at Tacon and HoBao, and contact HoobyPartz and NitroRCX about shipping direct to me, so I don't have to pay the 3rd party shipper from the US.

Holy COW dude! You weren't kidding! You're really in the northern part of the Mongolian plateau?! And I see Cyrillic lettering on some locations! (I'm looking at Google Earth) And you have TWO shops that at least sell RC cars? Wow, that's amazing. Who'd a thunk? HobbyPartz and NitroRCX ARE in the US. I just suggested the websites as a place to look to see what might be available in China....but hell, you can get a TLR Mini 8ight? That would be my pick right there. And Axial has some great scale and trail type rigs. Nice choices! With choices like those, who needs Tacon?

Thanks again Rob,

Yeah, I have been living in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar for 4 years now. It's a great place! Anyway, I am overwhelmed with indecision about my own RC as of yet, so I will just try to relax and enjoy teaching and learning with my son's 2WD Slash. The shop that sells that one Losi, some Axials and mainly HSP has ZERO parts support, and no technical knowledge to offer. So, I think the only benefit of buying there would be not having to wait and pay for shipping. That advantage, I think, is undone by the fact that the shop charges $100 more than getting the same model from Amazon.

Here is the link: Losi Mini 8ight Drake Edition : Hobbyzone

I looked at some pictures on Google Earth, it does look nice there. I was imagining the Gobi desert! And wondering why on earth would anyone want to be there? But Ulaanbaatar looks lovely. What do you do there?

Ah, I see the mini 8 is the buggy. It would probably do alright if you just put some 2.2in stadium truck tires on it and geared the pinion down a tooth. Lemme ask you this: How much are you willing to spend? I noticed from the link to Hobby Town was it? That they have the Axial Yeti and the Yeti Trophy Truck. Those would be great for your area.