i was looking on ebay a few weeks back & spotted the 416 copies, & thought would it be worth buying one - i currently have a 415MSX & many of the parts are interchangeable between the 415 & 416 - it's only really the chassis, steering assembly & bulkheads that are diffferent.. So for about £150 i could technically "upgrade" my TRF415MSX into a 416 by robbing Peter to pay Paul, taking parts from my car & putting them onto one of these fakes.
then i got looking, yes, i can buy the car.. but what about the spares - they sell the car but no spares? does that mean i have to buy genuineTRF spares & have the aggro of wait 6 weeks for them to come from Japan like i currently have to because HobbyCo don't stock the spares for TRF's & I have to send for them on special order via my model shop? still i suppose for the price of one genuine TRF416 i could get 2 of the copies & have one to race/upgrade & pull one to pieces for spare parts.
but then i got thinking, there is a company in the UK that sells (or at least used to sell) copies of RTR Tamiya TL-01's & TL-01b's for about £80 & everyone i've spoken to who has bought one or seen them in the flesh says they are inferior to the genuine article & shouldn't touch one with a bargepole - not that the original TT-01 was anything overly spectacular to start with, but people who had them usually liked them & said they were tough & easy to get it to do what you want if you are an RC novice... so if i buy a copy of a car from the other side of the world am i going to have the same problem because how it looks on pictures on ebay & how it is when you actually get it in front of you & onto a track are often 2 completely different things & i can't exactly go to their shop & get my money back if i'm not satisfied because it's not exactly a short drive down the road to get to Hong Kong or wherever.
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