[racingdwarf]

what you have found is quite well known sadly, AE's quality noticeably declined when manufacture moved to china back in the days of the B4. The Kyosho kits are in my opinion the very best quality they may cost you a few quid but the wear rate is low, to the point that you can easily run one for a season possibly only replacing the odd ball cup (wear rate not breakages). In 8th if you could afford it the MP9 was a wise buy as in the long run it was far cheeper to run than a TLR that was half the price.The other thing I always love about kyosho is if you buy a kit they don't bring out loads of costly upgrades and then another kit 6 months later Not sure on xray as never owned one

It's generally quite simple in rc you do in most cases get what you pay for in quality

I do think its getting harder for manufacturers, at this time we have possibly the biggest choice we have ever had for competition kits must make the market place harder for those insisting on quality and holding a higher price, must be so tempting to cut costs and go for sales.