[Si Coe]

As said, most stuff gets made in a great big factory in China somewhere, and sold under different names. Not just electrics, even whole cars, and good cars at that. The Anderson MR4 is sold all alround the world, and dominates micro racing, but most people have never heard of it. Thats because its also called the LRP Shark, FTX Blaze, Duratrax Vendetta and probably a few other names. Even Yokomo sell a rebadged version of it.

On the electrics side remember that appearances are decieving. Lots of chargers are based on the same circuitry as the Core UDC series, but housed in different cases so look don't look the same. Under the skin the UDC and Imax are the same.

The Hobbywing EZrun systems are excellent VFM, but they are sensorless and not quite as good for racing as sensored systems. The Orion Vortex is based on the more expensive sensored Xerun series, so you did buy the right one.

In the end though, some of that price difference is down to service. I have Hobbywing and LRP esc's, and both are good. The critical thing is that if the Hobbywing dies, thats it, new one time. It hasn't, its proved to be good quality so far, but if it does go wrong there is no support. The LRP however has superb back up from SMD who have helped me a lot.