In one of my previous posts, we revealed a plan to get a 10th-scale crawler/trail truck build going. Unfortunately, sourcing out a kit locally is close to impossible. Some shops only carry limited stock and oftentimes get sold out immediately. Importing could cost double upon arrival due to import taxies and duties.
So I'll be buying parts instead. HK-based RCMart.com has a few Vanquish Products parts in-stock still. I've bought from them before and I've not had any issues with the local post. There's also amainhobbies.com who can ship internationally to my location and they seem to restock Vanquish parts regularly. Both will definitely have the added shipping cost, and of course, the wait time (close to a month, or more).
Why Vanquish? Not only they sell individual parts or sub-assemblies, their platforms are also solid even before any massive upgrades. There's also a lot of third-party support for their existing kits to easily mount hardbodies into. I went into Axial's catalog of parts, and I've not found complete kits for sub-assemblies like transmissions, so it'll be tedious to find each part for that, with the potential of missing one crucial part during assembly.
Here's my amainhobbies wishlist looking like:
amainhobbies also carry RC4WD hardbodies, as well as ShrinkRC 3D Printed mounting kits for these hardbodies, and should I choose to go PC or Lexan, they also carry Pro-Line bodies, like the one for the SR5.
RCMart.com do not carry as much selection as amainhobbies, but I can get a few parts from them to save a bit from shipping, but only a bit. I also found some third-party (aka fakes/clones) of some parts that would still work with some thinkering (which I'm all for).
These F10T copies looks great considering (I'm more leaning towards these as they look like the 1:1 axles), and the original parts are compatible:
These D44 copies also look like the originals:
And these costs a fraction too, so I won't be afraid getting them scratched or trashed.
Injora and Meus are also good source for parts, like wheels, tires, inserts, suspension links and dampers.
The electronics are still to be decided, but nothing much has changed from the original plan.
That's all I have today. Thank you for hanging out with me on this post.
If you wanna pitch in, you're very much welcome, and thank you very much in advance!