tamiya made thier own B44

[kaiser]

If you are going to do things this way, at least make it to where all the AE parts would work on the damn thing. At least we would have access to spares.
On a good note, the shocks are definetely better than AE's.

I don't think the shocks are any better than the V2 shocks AE have just put out.

Also with the copying (sorry, I meant design inspiration!) to my mind they've taken the market leader and said "what can we improve?" AE have gone a way towards that with with the B44.1 & B4.1, but really what Tamiya have done is what we were hoping AE would have done. If they were called B5 & B54 would we be so up in arms?
Lets face it, there's virtually no difference between the front arms, uprights and knuckles on any of the best 4wd cars these days and they are all virtually identical to the ones on the XX4!

you are right about the xx4, in a recent interview with his highness gil losi jr, he said the things he is most proud of is the jrx2 and the xx4, saying that all modern 4wd's were "inspired" by the xx4.

[Brandon G]

As long as AE makes their shocks in China and Tamiya makes theirs in Japan, I will go out on a limb and call the Tamiya's better.

[peetbee]

LOL, do Tamiya actually make their stuff in Japan still?
Whilst I haven't built the V2 shocks, I have built the Tamiyas and the build quality/materials doesn't seem any 'better' than the V2s I held at club last week. The V2s are a lot smoother than the old AE shocks.
They do look prettier tho, could be worth an extra second or two a lap!
Just wish I could afford the upgrade

[AscotConversion]

Tamiya owns a factory in the Philippines making a lot of their rc stuff, but i don't know if it's just the plastic or aluminum too. They were actually smart as they may actually have a chance of having their copyrights upheld there. It still didn't stop the Chinese from copying the 416.

[drbelleville]

As long as AE makes their shocks in China and Tamiya makes theirs in Japan, I will go out on a limb and call the Tamiya's better.

+1 Tamiya has always made the nicest shocks.

[8rad]

TRF is a dead copy team. they need to change the name into TCF

I could not agree with you more 59.

I am happy that Tamiya have taken their rightful place among the racing elite. But by doing this the easy way Tamiya have taken everything that makes them great and pissed on it by releasing a xxx/b4 clone POS and has the nerve to charge $300 for it!

So, along with Ansmann, Academy, MRC and all those chinese companies cranking out $99 plastic clone cars the TCF201X belongs in one place, the landfill.

Now a B44 clone? To come out of the gate with the legendary Avante and now this? SHAME....SHAME ON YOU TAMIYA!

[peetbee]

+1 Tamiya has always made the nicest shocks.

Well, maybe not always!

[Coelacanth]

+1 Tamiya has always made the nicest shocks.

Well, maybe not always!

Indeed, I wouldn't be swapping my ancient Kyosho Golds--nor the more recent coated Kyosho shocks--for Tamiya plas-tastic shocks, even if they did work well.