10/01 Quanum Vandal 4WD Electric Racing Buggy (KIT)

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Customer Rated

Apr 21, 2016

Overall opinion is car is solid buy with good parts availability from Hk (and under the other brands its sold under) Its pretty well build and strong, decent metal gears in diff. I stripped down my diffs and removed the small amounts of stock (low qu***ty) grease and repacked with a better qu***ty lithium grease, this reduced gear train noise somewhat , And I would advise anyone to do the same (and recheck all scews). BTW screws are all hex type . I would also advise to purchase some spare spur gears also with the car (see my comment below). As this is a common ware item. As is normal for this size car spur gear is a plastic gear and these do ware and strip over time with use. (Good idea to use the paper tick to get pinion and spur spacing) Only down side is the metric spur/pinion gears, I prefer non metric due to more options (but mods can be done I believe to go non metric)
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FYI: RE Pinion and spur gears:
Vandal uses 0.6 module metric pinion and spur gears stock pinon is 17T and spur is 65T (dif has 13T/38T gears) to give final stock ration of 11.2:1 I wish I had known at time of purchase. (I purchased the non metric 48Pitch pinions) Hope that is of use to others buying this car. FYI: HK sells the Robinson Racing metric pinions now if you need to change your ratios (Cars & Parts > Pinion & Spur Gears > Pinion Gears > Browse By Pitch > Metric)

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Customer Rated

Mar 08, 2016

I bought this for the girlfriend while it was on sale and I finally had a chance to go through it last weekend. Given what I paid for it I can't complain too much, but I did find some things that I am glad I checked. The factory differential grease is horrid - it looks like old earwax and it wiped off in hard clumps. I re-greased and oiled both diffs and discovered that both diffs were each missing one of the O-ring seals. A trip to the LHS fixed it but the exploded view in the instruction manual confirmed that the seals should have been there. Again, given the price it is not a bad deal, but it does need a little more than just slapping in electronics and a motor.

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Customer Rated

Mar 03, 2016

5 crowns across the board
i got his for a super sale of some kind but if i had paid full price i still would have gotten it. the pictures dont do it justice
mine came without pinion gear but thats nothing to be a problem

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Certified Buyer Rated

Jan 22, 2016

A very fun buggy, great price, the shocks are EXTREMELY weak. Shock shafts bend like crazy, so soft though they can just be bent back into place. Also aftermarket shocks are very cheap so not a big deal. Would buy again.

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Certified Buyer Rated

Nov 30, 2015

Very good Buggy and a fantastic price

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Certified Buyer Rated

Nov 18, 2015

Bought this buggy because I already had a 9.5T Hobbyking Brushless Set from my old Monstertruck left. Put it in and this Buggy drives awesome. Good traction, very fast (est. 70 km/h) and in relation to its very low price it is really a bargain. BUT: my son crashed it directly onto an metal post and the whole front broke (top and bottom joints are too weak, holes are around 3mm from the edge which leaves not much plastic left for strength).

So I ordered the aluminium frame plate with front inforcement and the carbon fiber top plate for reinforcement and hope this will help.



Also I will upgrade to the Vandal XL tires for added ground clearance and more "air" to dampen shocks because the buggy is really fast and can jump very high - very funny see this small car jump over 3 meters.



Even with the upgrades for around 45 it seems to be a good bargain so 1 star down for the weak plastic construction and the holes too close to the edges. Plastic is not reinforced with glass fiber, but that would be impossible to realise on that budget.

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Customer Rated

Oct 24, 2015

I have driven this buggy in a 5h race. never lost so many shocks. They just broke or fell of. But it was so much fun! I think with better shocks this buggy can be a race buggy. Take care to secure the pins in your axes as they came loose on mine while driving. I then took a big skrinktube over the axis and so secured it from coming loose. Nice car, I have 3 of them ;)

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Customer Rated

Oct 17, 2015

Brilliant value for money buggy! Although a kit, it comes pretty much assembled. Just strap your choice of electronics and you are ready to plow the dirt!

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Customer Rated

Aug 05, 2015

Here is my review: http://hadtoreview.blogspot.com/2015/08/hobbyking-quanum-vandal-also-sold-as.html

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Customer Rated

Jul 26, 2015

Was impressed with the car until I found the rear input shaft had so much runout from the bent shaft that I was forced to buy a replacement shaft before I could use the car! Now it is fine but waiting for the replacement took a long time. I guess quality control let it slip by! I will continue to purchase items from hobby king!