Clone Reviews! --UPDATE 2/7--
 

Ok, here's the situation. I've been getting different types of clones from a good ebay seller I found. Here's the post I have about him:

http://www.tinyrc.com/forums/showthr...&threadid=7372

Anyway, I'm reviewing everything I get from him, and here is what I have so far. I'll add to it as I try out more stuff:

-=The Cannonball=-

http://home.attbi.com/~kenkudaki/minirc/cannonball.jpg

Well, the name kinda says it all here. What a pile. This was the worst clone I've ever seen. The only interesting features were that it came with a seperate charger (that takes it's own batteries), and it's remote takes 3 batteries instead of two. Normally I might care, but there was no way I was going to play with this long enough to notice any difference the 3rd battery made. Don't buy these, unless it's dipped in gold. Or candy.

-=Compatible Parts=-
Motors - But quality is uncertain
Charger - If you need a seperate charger
Remote - Maybe the 3 batteries will come in handy with another car you have
Front End - suspension, wheels, steering, etc

-=NOT Compatible=-
Gears - These cars don't even use the same drive gears
Axles - Too wide
Bodies - Too long

Overall: It didn't even pull in one direction, it would randomly wobble off one way or the other. Completely impossible to control. Cheap and rattly. There are better clones out there for the price.

-=Panther=-

http://home.attbi.com/~kenkudaki/minirc/panther.jpg

MUCH better than the Cannonball. Great prices. I'd say these are a little better than Lxx, but not as good as Shens.

-=Compatible Parts=-
Everything BUT the bodies and rear axles.

-=NOT Compatible=-
Bodies - The rear chassis mount is wider than a Bit's, but you can shave it to match.
Rear Axle - It's too wide, and pulls away from the gears on a Bit. Bit Axles are too narrow to fit at all.

Overall: The Panther seems like they're made from the Shen that ALMOST passed quality inspection. Overall, a very nice clone. Decent quality, but not as good as the Shen. At least as good if not better than Lxx, although the Lxx has the Axle and Body compatibility going for it. Good steering, GREAT range, good overall quality.

-=Shen Qi Wei=-

http://home.attbi.com/~kenkudaki/minirc/shen.jpg

The best clone I've seen. Great all around, and fast!

-=Compatible Parts=-
EVERYTHING

Overall: Fabulous. Steering is right on the money, and it has a nice motor out of the box, if anything a little TOO much torque! You can spin doughnuts from a stop. :) Better quality then the Panther (can cost more), but of course not QUITE as nice as an actual Bit. :) This clone rocks!

-=Lxx Char-G=-

I don't have a pic of this, but you all know what they look like.

-=Compatible Parts=-
EVERYTHING

Overall: Not all they're cracked up to be. While they LOOK the most like a Bit, right down to the controller, the quality just isn't there. The controller is of particularly crappy quality, especially compared to the Bit controllers, which LOOK identical. The car is just under a Panther in quality, but they seem to vary a LOT from car to car. Some may be nearly as good as a Shen, some worse than a Panther. I guess my opinion is don't risk your money on the Lxx lottery, instead buy a Shen if you want a clone, or a Bit if you want the real deal.

I agree totally about the Cannonballs, the only good thing is the charger. Mine doesn't even move without a push. DON'T BUY CANNONBALLS!!!
I didn't believe all the hype about the Shens until yesterday when I got one, now I'm a believer! After I got my Shen it inspired me to incorporate a little review of sorts in my sig. Also my cheapest clone, a Charge N Go is probably my second best(next to the Shen) it pops wheelies!

Great Reviews! Thanks for the effort :)

Those cannonballs looks suspiciously like the "motor works" clones that wal-mart sells... can anyone confirm if they're from the same manufacturer?

Also, I totally agree about the shens! I've actually replaced 2 bit/microsizer PCBs with shen PCBs since they were more responsive and seemed to let more power through than the bit PCBs. I came to this conclusion after extensively testing a bit and a shen head to head with everything completley the same (gears, batteries, bodies, motors).... the problem was that the shen was -still- accelerating quicker than the bit and was steering better. So of course the next logical step was to transplant the shen's awesome PCB into the bit's quality chassis....the result was perfection :)

-paul

I'll likely soon be adding a Charge N Go to this list... stay tuned. :)

Also, if there is anything YOU'D like to see added, or have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Well you can identify Shen's by the packaging, "Shen Qi Wei", or their other name, "Rally Racers". Also, any place that has alot of Shen's should have a Castrol Accord one. If you want to order one, then try eBay.

Also, check the ebay stores I posted in this thread. I know he is selling them for about $10-$15 shipped.

http://www.tinyrc.com/forums/showthr...&threadid=7372

-Chris

Head on over to Wal-Mart and pick up a Planet Toys MotorWorks for $13.88 + tax. They're no collectibles and they're not fast, but they are fun as heck to play with because they handle very well!
-Cyrus

i would have to disagree with all of you on the shens.. i have had nothing but trouble with them. in my opinion the precious clone takes the cake. it has the clear body, everything is compatable. i just bought a shen from that ebay guy that was suggested in this post and it just dont work. now the guy wants 5 bucks to replace it. i would search elsewhere for the shen or other clones if you have a choice. i agree that the shens are of higher quality than the thunderbolt because i have had one of those. i also have 2 other shens. but the prescious beats the shen hands down in every category! IMO

Motorworks and the cannonballs are totally different. I think the best clone i have gotten was the LXX. Cheap and worked far better than the shen i had....the shen would not go stright EVER. Also the shen was super slow when compared to a real bit or the LXX with the same tinyrc motor...not the stockers.

Not really. It's Bensu who makes them. MotorWorks just seems to be their latest and most upgraded. MotorWorks has to be my favorite clone.

Has anyone ever seen this clone? Just got it.

cyclonas are very consistant. not quite tomy quality but they are very reliable and cheap. with a little modding they go really really really really fast.

Although these cannonballs are pretty enh quality, I do have to say that the tires are super super soft. I was disappointed when I got my tomy tire kit and even the "soft" tires were significantly harder than these. Lame! What am I going to do with tires that go from "really firm" to "rock hard"? These cannonball tires are probably going on my LXX.

i got the skateboard from walgreens too. they're super racer chassis. motors are ok but the rest of it sucks.

I have to agree with you. I also ordered motorcycles at the same time and those suck too. Only thing I found cool about the Skateboard was the wheelies. The motorcycles, I'm going to have to take two with the same frequency and make it into a tryke.

NEW UPDATE!!
 

-=Charg N Go=-

http://home.attbi.com/~kenkudaki/minirc/chargngo.jpg

These are also nice clones. I'd say quality-wise they're about the same as the Panthers. You can buy them at Walgreens, which is nice.

-=Compatible Parts=-
Everything but rear axles. Their bodies also fit a bit loose on Bits.

-=NON-Compatible Parts=-
Rear Axles - They're too wide, and pull away from the gears on a bit. Bit axles are too narrow to fit at all.

Overall: I'd put these one slight step above the Panther, due to the fact that the bodies will fit on Bits (although a tad bit loose). I have 2 of these, and one thing I noticed was that in one of them, the steering spring seemed kind of weak. It wouldn't ALWAYS return the steering to the center right away, leaving the car to keep turning for a second or two. No big deal, a new spring will fix that. Otherwise, steering is good, LOTS of torque, and good speed. Also, one word of advice: REMOVE ALL OF THE UGLY STICKERS!! LOL it will improve the appearance instantly. :)

if you ever see "thor" racers with crappy yellowish looking bodies pick a few up. their motors are the best ive ever seen. the back tires were also very nice. other than that it was a p.o.s. maybe the pcb would be worth it also with good range. mechanically they suck.

there are two kinds of thor racers. one has a zipzap looking motor and one has a hardwired motor like "thunderbolt" racers. they have slightly better quality but a hardwired motor that is slow but has the most torque ive seen on any motor.

worth buying for the moter if anything. it is way better than any 2.6 motor i have ever seen. it accelerates almost as good as the r-spec but it has about twice the torque.

UPDATE COMING!
 

I'll be adding FOUR MORE clones to my reviews tonight! Stay tuned...

i wouldnt say that shens are completely compatable either.. the motors are not a good fit. you can force them to work with a bit of triming and shaving.. so this would make them slightly incompatable.. you can get it to work.. but its not a good fit.

and i did finally clear things up with that guy from e-bay. although i must say that im quite disapointed. that i had to go through all that i did to get a working car. for that reason alone i probably wouldnt buy from him again. dont get me wrong he was very nice, but only after he found out i was from the forum. befor that he basically wanted me to pay for a replacement (poor business practice). customers shouldnt have to pay for a replacement of a defective item. Thats my opinion at least.

Have you seen the Bit Char-A's?

Bit Char-As are the same as Precious, right? If so, I have them coming up in my next review (I do like them).

As for the Shen motor compatibility, I'll double check it. I didn't have any problem with mine though...

ive heard the same about the prescious and bit char-a also, but i have seen the bit char-a packaged in a box like the tomy. not a bullet like the precious.

the motor in the shen is like a zip zap motor. it will work, but it wont fit correctly. its very snug due to the endbell. the only way for me to fit it into a bit chassis was to shave a bit on the chassis... the engine works great, but its not a good fit.

ABUU
 

I shwink that the best clones are LEYU
They are amazing i loved the 3 that i had!!!
My friend has a bensu which i think is AULDEY and it was amazing too it had amazing turning and it had really good handling the range was sick too

i have a thor race with a hard wired motor, and it sucked, in my mind! i had to dual cell it because it was so slow!

here's the "crappy yellow body" he was talking about!

I have a few Thors, both hardwired and replacable motor types. I noticed that if you take the board from the replacable type Thor (mine had bad steering) and put in into the hardwired Thor, you get really good torque from that motor and it runs faster too.

The hardwired Thor boards I have don't put out as much current and have had weak radio range too. The other Thor boards are really strong, and have great range.


Thor motors work wonders in Z-cars!-better than a 2.6!

interesting.....

anybody got any info on the fit racers?

picked up a shen earlier this week, I have fallen in love with it!The PCB sends massive amounts of power to the motor! Even with an OLD fit racer motor, this thing flies! with the fit racer motor, and it peak-charged, i press forward and a directional button, and get this: The thing rides on 3 wheels!!! and sometimes it flips over! i love it! I must take good care of it, lol

After hearing everyone build up how good Shens were, I really wasn't expecting to be as surprised as I was. I also love those clones and I use those for all my stretching and PCB swaps. If you consider they're interchangeable, they're the best. If not for that, MotorWorks would be my favorite.

Quick question about the cannonball clone....

What type of battery is it inside the cannonball?NiCad or NimH?

Thanks!

Wal-Mart sells a new version of the MotorWorks cars that come with extra tires, attachable body accesories, interchangable hub caps(rims), and a new style transmitter with a seperate charging base. The chassis seems to be the same as the previuos versions but quality seems much, much better.

the shen's are great. way more faster than than my LXX. My LXX kicks ass too. However...the quality on the LXX is alot better than my Shen.. My shen was dead on arrivial so i returned it for another and it was great...but i liked my lxx better so those parts are in my LXX...cuz my shen broke again...:D

Sorry for the delay
 

Ok guys, I'm now back. I was supposed to update this a long time ago, but life got in the way. Here's a quick explanation:

1) Got sick and went to the hospital for the first time in my life. Was sick for a number of days (I'm perfectly fine now).

2) My monitor went out on my PC, leaving me unable to use it since I'd just given my spare monitor away. That lasted for over a week before I could get a replacement (I'll only use a 21" monitor).

3) My wife's grandpa died last week, and we were out of town for 5 days for the funeral.

So there you have it. I'm now back, and will finish my FOUR new reviews withing the next 2 days. :)

-Chris

Nakamichi's are really good clones. They are fast. They come with 2 speeds and are fast. The bodystyles are limited, but they're still my favorites.

go motorworks every body get one oh wait you can't