Wltoys 12428b (part 2; it arrived!)

 My somewhat ignorant review so far (1 day..), first the awesome stuff:

1. The headlight and tail lights are awesome ;)
2. It's sufficiently heavy, the build quality is very good.
3. My boy loved the way the rear suspension worked.  Smooth and powerful.
4. It goes slow well and can be used indoors if you're careful.
5. The steering servo seems powerful, if a little fast at speed.
6. I like the look, but i can't wait to spray paint it all orange or something.

Then the stuff I've fixed:

1. The front suspension didn't rebound, but it was adjustable.
2. The rear diff is metal but it didn't have much grease in it.
3. I set my imax b6ac v2 charger to liPo instead of liIon which overcharged the battery by 0.2v, enough for the car not to start the first time.  I fixed me being shite .. ;)
4. There was a squeaking noise coming from somewhere, i thought it was the rear diff but not that, so i sprayed some silicone lubricant on the drive shaft at each universal joint, but the culprit was right where it exits the transfer case (near the centre of the car).

And finally the broken stuff:

1.  The steering is reversed.  Maybe my brain is backwards so i didn't say anything, but my boy is the same.  Can't find a switch anywhere to reverse it and so short of replacing stuff* I can't find any way to fix it :/

* in addition to replacing the transmitter as best i can tell the receiver is part of the ESC and from what i've read the servo is an incompatible 3 wire type which doesn't work with most hobby grade stuff.

Wltoys 12428b (part 1: how we chose)

So after playing with a toy grade RC car that my boy was given, I decided I'd like to get into the hobby some more.  If you've been here you know how hard it can be to choose, so maybe this might help someone.  My decision was based on a few criteria:

1. Had to be initially cheap (we paid ~$120AUD delivered), I wasn't sure we were going to stick with this hobby.
2. It had to be able to be fixed and have parts readily available.
3. It has to have an active modding community, from which i can pick an upgrade/mod path if required.
4. Has to be fun to play with outside but not be ultra fast because we're just going to crash it otherwise.
5. Generally look tough and not like a toy.. yeah.. ;)

After much consideration i decided to purchase a pair of Wltoys 12428b 1/12 4WD RC buggies, one for me and one for my boy.   It's the successor to what seems to have been a wildly popular RC car the 12428.  I think this model looks better and has more metal parts as well.