Awe man, it's nothing more than an SC18 (SC18, RC18T2, RC18B2 Chassis), up-sized to 1/10 Scale...I am extremely
disappointed with AE.
I am a big Associated fan, and have been for a while, at least since Kyosho killed off the Optima Mid Series, the Lazer ZX Series, and the Ultima Series back in the late 80s & early 90s...I ran nothing but Kyoshos back then, like my tricked-out Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid SE (the finest 1/10 4wd Buggy produced in that era), and my tricked-out Kyosho Turbo Ultima Pro (the finest 1/10 2wd buggy produced in that era).
I continued to race my Kyosho Turbo Optima Mid SE & Kyosho Turbo Ultima Pro for a while after they were discontinued, but eventually parts, especially the trick upgrade parts, became harder & harder to find and get, and then I couldn't find or get them at all (no eBay back then), so I shelved 'em both and started looking for some new buggies...
I actually found, liked, and bought a Traxxas Rad2 Kit (Version-2 of the Traxxas Radicator, which was just an upgraded Traxxas Bullet), back when Traxxas actually offered unassembled kits that you had to completely assemble yourself, which I really liked, because I love building kits!
Anyway, the Traxxas Rad2 was an awesome 1/10 2wd Buggy, it went together perfectly with no problems, and performed even better! One of the stand-outs were the shocks, they were great...plush, consistent, excellent spring weight & rate for the buggy, and they looked great as well! Another stand-out was the transmission...it was just plain awesome! It had the standard 3-Gear Setup, with a sealed gear-differential (4 spider-gears, 2 sun-gears, all inside the main diff-gear). It also had a Ball-Diff Option. The transmission was actually very similar to the Associated Stealth Transmission that came along later (Hmmm...).
Overall, the Rad2 buggy matched my old Turbo Ultima Pro in every way, and was even better in some areas...and it was still stock, but both were running the same Trinity 13T-Single Chaotic Reaction Motor & Novak T1 ESC!
Well,
back on topic...I have been anxiously waiting for AE to release a 1/10 4wd Truggy based on the AE B44 1/10 4wd Buggy, but it just never happened. Then, when the Short-Course craze hit the world, and AE built the 1/10 SC10 2wd Short-Course Truck based on the AE T4 2wd 1/10 Truck, I thought for sure they would soon follow it up with a 4wd SC Truck based on the AE B44 1/10 4wd Buggy...but again, it never happened.
Now they release a 1/10 4wd SC10 SC Truck based on the Belt-Drive 1/18 SC18 Mini Short-Course Truck...and it just sucks! Why on Earth would they do that, especially when they have such an excellent 1/10 4wd platform in the AE B44 4wd Buggy...it just doesn't make any sense! I guess I will just have to make my own conversion to turn the AE B44 1/10 4wd Buggy into a sick B44SC 1/10 4wd Short-Course Truck!
Ok, my ranting is done...sorry for the long post...