I thought it would be fair to post some comments on AE vs. Tamiya. As I mentioned previously, I just couldn't afford to get my son into a 502X to match mine, so I got him a B44.2 to start racing 4WD buggy at our club. We built the AE kit together and I now understand more clearly what you get for the extra money with the Tamiya kit. The B44.2 design is sound and the car seems to be a great platform, but without any doubt the plastic parts are cheaper, the fit and finish of the aluminum parts is not as nice, and overall the car seems to be a lot more bulky and perhaps overly complicated compared to the 502X. There are certainly very different kits, so all those folks who called the 502X a B44 clone might have been off-base. I agree the A-Arms are near identical, but it pretty much stops there.
So if you can afford the Tamiya, I would argue you get better plastic, all metric screws (thank god! - Why does AE mix standard and metric - how goofy is that?), a more refined and minimalistic design, easier access to the diffs for rebuilds, a lower center of gravity, way better instructions, and generally nicer parts. However, the Tamiya is still very expensive in comparison so I stand by my descision for now. Durability is an unknown at this point as we are just gearing up for the next race season.
Anyways....that Tamiya pricing is not all smoke a mirrors....it is a higher level of quality.
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