Wow not sure what half of that says as I'm not going to bother reading a novel in response to my opinion. Glad you have your opinion as well I'll just agree to disagree with it as I'm guessing you did mine.I mean Spektrum electronics are better than Traxxas and a lot of other stock electronics out there so it could be a lot worse.
The fact that 7 out of 9 of your RCs are Arrmas would suggest to me that youve probably bought most of their kits that are relevant to you and its time to branch out and start trying other things. Theres a lot of other great brands out there that have cool rigs.
Manufacturers try and make something for everyone. Every manufacturer is going to have releases that your not interested in because they arent relevant to you and your tastes.
Are you sure that these new releases werent in the works before the 4S line you were waiting for? Even if they started development after the 4S rigs you're waiting for, whatever is causing the delay in the 4S line may not have affected these models and they were able to release them first? My point is there are a lot of reason why this line might have launched before the other line.
The supply problem is affecting every manufacturer in every industry so I'm not sure why you're holding this against Arrma.
The mini Infraction makes perfect sense. Its an entry level kit, priced for entry level people. Every brushed entry level kit has problems with the brushed motors wearing out cuz they use cheap motors. Not because theyre brushed. The Titan 12T is a perfect example of this. Just because its not for you and me doesn't mean there wont be people out there who love it.
Do you own any drift cars? Not sure why you think drifters are running WOT for 90% of the pack. You literally can't drift that way. You have to feather the throttle in order to maintain a drift. Besides crawling, drifting is probably the second easiest type of bashing you can do on electronics. You can't compare what people do with the full sized infraction to drifting anyway. People running the felony/infraction are mostly blasting up and down parking lots at full speed. Yes they can drift because theyre so over powered but thats not really their intended use. Which brings me to my next point.
Have you actually looked at the mini? Its not a speed runner or a drifter. Its got off road tires on it and looks to me more like a Rally kit than anything else. Even in the kit pics on HH website they show it running off road, not on road.
I dont feel like this is supposed to be a speed run car. i feel like this is more of a 4tec competitor. No one would say the 4-Tec is a speed run car. Yes its bigger than the 4-tec and yes people are going to try and turn it in to speed run rig. The people that are going to do that are going to replace the electronics anyway though. But a speed run car, I dont think thats its intended use just like speed runs arent the intended use of Typhons but people convert them, yourself included if memory servers. I think they may have grafted in some potential there for people who wanted to try and convert them for speed runs but I dont think that really the intended use, otherwise theyd have made them into proper 1/8th scale kits that run on 4 or 6S. Just my take on it.
I will admit the choice to use 1/10 scale electronics in a 1/8 scale kit seems a bit odd at first but you compare the size, weight , and electronics to a 4x4 SCT then it starts to make more sense. A Slash 4X4 or Losi Ten-SCTE are both very similar in size and weight to this kit and both kits run 2-3S electronics and 3660 sized motors and those are SCTs. On road you're going to have even less resistance to overcome So I dont think its going to be a serious problem for this kit.
Maybe you can explain this to me as I only own one kit (Kraton 4S) that has this type of transmission. I've not had any issues with the Spur gear being made of plastic. Spur gears are supposed to made of plastic as a cheap and easy to replace failure point for your driveline. Same way A-Arms are a cheap and easy to replace failure point and why most peopl in the hobby advise against running aluminum arms.
I have had problems with the spring for the slipper clutch not fitting in the driveshaft hole properly and therefore not keeping tension on the screw and allowing it to back out and allow the slipper to slip but that doesn't cause damage to the plastic spur unless you dont fix the issue and just let it excessively slip. Traxxas uses the same type of plastic spur/metal slipper on quite a few of their VXL kits and I've owned several of those kits and I've not had an issue with that style of spur/slipper on the Traxxas kits either. Now I know people have had issues with the motor mounting plate on the Arrmas allowing to much flex which can cause you to possibly strip the spur but thats a problem with the motor mount plate. The upgrade is less than $15.
Youve just described nearly every rig on the planet. They want to sell you upgrade parts.
I'm not sure how you can say Arrma is worse since HH bought out Hobbico. You say youve been a loyal consumer of the Arrma brand for the last 2.5 years but the sale of Hobbico to HH happened at least a year before that so your statement would seem to suggest that you started buying Arrma products after HH already had bought the brand and would have no basis of comparison of before and after.
Now IDK what Arrma was like between 2015 when I took my last break from the hobby and 2018 when they were bought out by HH but prior to 2015 especially back in the 2009-2011ish time frame Arrma just generally considered more of a budget, not terrible but not great, brand. Kinda like a modern day ECX or what Vaterra used to be before it was discontinued. You didnt see much hype or following around Arrma back then like they have today just like you dont see it with ECX now or Vaterra in its day.
Sorry man, I aint tryin' to hate and your feelings toward the brand are your feelings but a lot of what your ranting about doesn't make sense, at least from my point of view, and I think you're being unfair to the brand. Just my .02