Another recent micro crawler to hit the market. Woohoo! This is Pro-line's 4 kit offering. And it has 3 great features going for it:
- Leaf spring suspension
- Adjustable speed setting
- Detailed interior
Well it's not a full interior setup like you would find with a 1/10 RC4WD kit. It's more like what Axial racing has done with some of their SCX10 bodies like the Wrangler Unlimited, Dingo, and Deadbolt. And it even has a driver figure molded in. Very nice.
Instead of a 4-link setup, they went with leaf springs. While not big on articulation, it still gets over objects very well. This also helps give it more scale looks. It definitely shows that small scale crawlers can have a variety of setups.
The adjustable speed setting is done with a switch on the Tx. It basically seems to limit the throttle end point to 3 specific settings. With a full battery charge, it emulates having a 3 speed transmission, a little. You don't get the torque difference with actual gear shifting, but it does give you another setting to change on the fly to help you conquer those obstacles and get around your course.
Jumping back to the scale features. It has a lot for an r/c truck this size. The tires are Pro-line's scaled down Flat Irons mounted on Denali wheels. It would have been nice for them to be actual beadlocks, but that is no reason to turn down this crawler. It has a nice looking skid plate for the transmission. The bumpers are simple and clean. Give me that "no frills" feel. And everything is mounted to a steel ladder frame chassis.
The electronics are pretty good for an RTR so far. The Tx isn't too small like the ECX 1/24 Temper and RC4WD 1/18 Gelande II, but it isn't as big as your standard pistol grip Tx either. It uses a combo ESC and Rx unit. I'm not usually fond of combo units, but for small scale it make better use of the limited room. The Rx unit has a spot for another standard servo connetion, and the Tx does have a 3rd channel button. Would be useful for a light kit to turn off and on. The battery is a 7.4v 25C 350mAh with a hard case. It has a proprietary connection (or maybe it is one used somewhere else), but either way you need to use the included USB charger. The steering is handled by a Pro-line branded micro servo, but no details yet on if it is metal gear and what the actual performance specs are. But since it is a standard 3-wire servo, this can be swapped out for the micro servo of your choice. The motor is a Pro-line branded micro torque brushed motor, and again no specs on the motor itself at this time.
The body is a generic SUV in the style of their old CGR bodies, and looks nice. A very good choice for this little truck. In the box they did include some alternate color scheme stickers so we do get to customize a little right out of the box, The body is mounted using Velcro. I personally like this choice as I don't have to mess with tiny body clips. And it helps give the body a cleaner look.
The axles are worm gears. Great for keeping the truck still when on an incline. Though not scale, they do have a scale feature. The axles have diff covers.
Another item included in the package is a nice little scale terrain piece. This is actually nice. It gives you an obstacle to start out with. And it doubles for a nice picture set.
Overall, this is an excellent micro crawler. The only down side that I have with it is the suspension. While the leaf springs certainly give it scale performance, having 4-link would be nice. But again that is just my opinion, and not a deal breaker by any means. The only other item (and not really a down side) is on the reference to its scale. They call it 1/25, but it appears bigger than the Losi Micro 1/24 Trail Trekker. But whatever the actual scale is, it still looks great.
Of all of the micro crawlers that I have that are still available, I recommended this one. It is a little pricey, but is the best overall with the Losi Micro crawlers are no longer available. There are a few other micro crawlers out there, but I haven't picked up them so I can't really give any useful thoughts on them.
I do hope that this becomes a big hit. I would love Pro-line and other companies to release accessories, upgrades, and optional parts and bodies for this truck. Make it the SCX10 of the micro size. Let's do this, people!
Happy crawling!
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