Checkpointracer

Sorry that this is off-topic but foxy42 became a mod?! Or has he always been one?

SAVAGEJIM

I too agree about the royalties and licensure of the original product. Too long have many a wannabe company reverse engineered an existing name brand RC and rebadged it under a new name and that phony is in fact a substandard clone. Not only does the original RC suffer because its clone has too many problems, but the original company that spend tens of thousands of dollars research and designing it is also ripped off. This drives the price of legitimate RCs up and the cost is passed onto us, the RC fans. It is absolutely not fair that there are people who steal intelectual property without paying due royalties to the original designer.

I have said this dozens of times in other posts and on other RC forums as well: when a copied engine appears and you try to give advice to tune it only for the asking person to fail from your advice since your advice is based off of the original, the knock-off does nothing but ruin the reputation of the original product.

I say we should boycott known companies to reverse engineer and put out poor products. If we know a company did not legitametly pay for licensure to make the clone, we should not buy it at all.
I say we should all do massive research and find which companies are operating under legitimate licenses and post them here as legitimate companies.

I also say we should seek and find the companies that are stealing by reverse engineering and not paying and royalties or operating under legitimate licenses and post them here as companies not to buy from.
***DO NOT BASH THE COMPANY! JUST SPEAK THE TRUTH!***
What I mean is don't say "This company steals so they suck...blah blah blah" But instead say, "This company does not have a licesne to copy the Losi LST2" without the hard bashing words.
One of the ways we can ind out if a company is legitamately operating under a legal license, we can simply ask them. If they refuse to answer the question directly, they most likely are not and have stolen the intelectual property.
Also, once a knock-off company says "yes, we have a license," we need to hit the net and other information sources (preferrably sources like the BBB, FTC, etc.) to verify they are telling the truth.

daytimeninja

Good post. There should also be a section if this gets stickied about trusted brands. Eg, ones that make quality items, good customer service. Also maybe a trusted websites section, so newbies know what websites to stay away from.

Xanderdos

Well if your new and wanting to rave i suggest a team associated or a losi ...

SAVAGEJIM

I too would suggest Associated as an entry level RC. They have RCs that are a cheap alternative to the more advanced RCs AND they are a reknown company. Not only that, they use better quality production techniques and materials.

If knock-off companies are targeting those who want to get into the hobby, I hope that Associated and others who make legitimate entry level RCs can squeeze out the illegal knock-off companies. We should make a list of legitimate cheap alternative entry level RCs for the purpose of protecting the legitimate companies. I am sure that with little research that we can find affordable entry level RCs from every legeitimate reknown name brand company. Hopefulle, we can steer new fans clear of the cheap and illegal knock offs.

Mcdude532

What about Sportwerks?

Foxy

Sportwerks is a racing marque, definitely NOT a knock-off brand.

Foxy

Sportwerks is a racing marque, definitely NOT a knock-off brand.

ToyDestroyer

I must say I would recomend Exceed as an entry level truck or buggy. They are inexpensive, durable, and parts are easy to find. I have had to order parts twice for mine and I had them within a week. Nobody wants to dump hundreds of dolors into a hobby they may not like. By going the Exceed route I got everything for less than $200 and I have been having alot of fun with it. I did notice this brand was mentioned in the original post and I think it does not belong in the catagory of cheap knockoff. I have had a really positive experience with this buggy.

Alexxx

i agree with savagejim. instead of this thread, we should have a list of good quality entry level r/c cars, instead of bad quality ones. This will stop product bashing.

traxxasracer_4

i dont like the fact that knockoff companies get hold of a good car or truck and lower the quality such as the story with a post from the first page. on the link there were knock off t maxxs with less than quality parts and racing buggies taken down to plastic on wheels. how do they get away with it

DaveG55

No it won't, not really.
Just start a thread and ask which is best, a Savage or a Revo - arguably two of the very best trucks out there.
After our fellow members get done yelling about using the search function there will be, without question, people who bash both trucks.
Seen it way too many times

irockdude

Dont forget Duratrax as a GOOD brand. low prices for begginers and a quality product for experienced r/cers. and i do have experience with Duratrax, i own a nitro evader and a vendetta st. great cars. also there website car support replys to questions the same day.


go to rcuvideos.com and search irockdude and see my vendetta st in action.

SAVAGEJIM

Unfortunately, they do so by illegally reverse engineering. Since they are overseas, they often do so without any form of retribution for breaking international copyright laws, patents, and so forth. At least with the last decade, intellectual property owners have been demanding that such companies repect such laws, and hopefully this will cut down on great trucks like the Revo, Savage, LST2, and others from being illegally copied.

On our side, we, the end users can boycott known illegal copies and only buy trucks and parts that are produced legally and under license from the parant company. This way, the inferior and illegal copies will not make money and the illegal companies will either stop doing it illegally or go broke.

I always say let the best stand out for its own merit; if a vehicle is poorly made, it should be disdained and never bought. But I personally hate that great RCs are being copied and mass produced under extremely poor production and materials standards critereon.

I am a Savage fan, and every now and then, I frequently hear people bash the Savage truck because it sucks at this and sucks at that. But I also wonder how much of the suckage is contributed from an illegally and poorly manufactured Savage clone?