When I first heard that ECX was releasing the 1/24 Temper, I was very excited. My first thought was "Cool! They're bringing back their version of the Losi McRC!" My second thought was "Awesome looking body! I finally have another body choice for my McRC!"
Turns out I wrong, and semi-right.
At first glance (and for the price), it sees like this would be a low budget McRC replacement.
It isn't.
Looking closer, the first difference is that the links of the 4-link suspension are not setup the same. The lower links are reverse triangulated when compared to the McRC. The Temper is narrow at the axles and wide at the transmission. Looking at my other crawlers (SCX10, Venom Creeper, Trail Trekker, McRC), they are all wide on the axles and narrow at the transmission. Because of this, they have better articulation. To fix this, you could pick up a front/rear axle setup from the Losi McRC or Micro Trail Trekker. If you can find them that is, as both of the rigs have been discontinued. And either an McRC transmission mount, or attempt to mount the transmission side of the lower links in more.
The next problem with the Temper is that. It. Is. Slow. I mean really slow. Slower than the McRC stock. Slower than the Pro-line Racing Ambush on low speed. The transmissions look similar comparing the McRC and Temper exploded views. So I'm guessing the transmission gearing is different, it could be the gearing in the axles, or it could be a combination of both. I really don't feel like doing a tear down just to confirm this.
The third problem is that the radio is NOT Spektrum compatible. Since both ECX and Spektrum are under the Horizon Hobby umbrella, I feel this is a big miss on their part. I personally feel that all Horizon Hobby brands that use 2.4 GHz should be Spektrum compatible. Otherwise why do you have a decent 2.4 GHz radio brand that you choose to NOT put in your r/c models? Us hobbyists love having options.
As for the body. It can be used on the McRC, but new holes are needed. Apparently ECX didn't want to make the body mounts with the same spacing. I may still try to pick one up and see what happens anyways.
The one good thing about this is that it does have a slightly longer wheel base, which should give it better stability over the stock McRC. My McRC is not stock on electronics and a few other items so I cannot make a fair assessment on this.
My overall assessment is that this is good for a first time crawler for, like, the first battery run. After that, it becomes apparent that this has very limited crawling ability. Poor articulation, really slow speed, and non Spektrum compatibility for those that have a favorite surface Spektrum radio. I don't fully regret getting it, as I will still drive it occasionally. And I can let my younger nephews have fun with it. That is until they see the ones that I drive. You can try to make this a capable micro crawler, but I recommend picking up the RC4WD Gelande II 1/18 or Pro-line Racing Ambush instead. They do cost more than twice as much, but they are more fun and a lot more capable. I even recommend the Orlandoo Hunter over the ECX Temper 1/24.
Happy crawling!
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