What are the best 1/12 and smaller off road bashers?

[sumguy75]

Have wanted a small scale off road basher for a little while but not sure what the best options are. Parts availability and upgrade options would be priority. Traxxas has the 1/16 E-Revo, Summit, Slash as well as the 1/18 LaTrax Slash and Teton. Team Associated has the 1/14 buggies/truggies and newly added MT's, Losi has the 1/18 Mini T. Rlaarlo is a new name to me but they have several options in the 1/12-1/18 scale.
Parts availability is a priority, I just don't want to bother with anything that has sketchy parts availability and few to no upgrade parts available. Traxxas always has parts available and lots of hop ups. Rlaaro has a lot of parts listed on their site in stock and look like good quality in general.

Any feedback from people who have owned and bashed some of these smaller rigs off road a good bit?

 

[SenTom]

FTX Tracer (Or the HBX 16889) is quite popular over here. Parts easily available, pretty indestructible, 2 body variants, brushless and brushed version available.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I had a Losi Mini 8ight and it was rather fragile.
It was also like a humming bird on cocaine when running on 3s.

Traxxas might be the answer with your requirement of parts availability, but they likely break more than the rest given my experience with Traxxas LOL

Something to consider is if you can buy 2 or 3 cheap brands for the price of a Traxxas and keep the extras as your spare parts

 

[Hector_Fisher]

HPI savage xs? Never owned one, but I heard they were insanely overpowered and could take a reasonable beating.

 

[sumguy75]

Rlaaro has a nice assortment of 1/14 buggies and MTs. Team A has a new 1/14 MT but its $259 and will probably take a while to see if parts will be available readily.

The Savage XS is interesting, listed as 1/10 but wheelbase is more like 1/12 at 8.85 inches. Not cheap but looks very well built.

 

[Garcbomber]

Rlarrlo has been hitting it out of the park lately. Kids and I have beat the hell out of the AM-x12

 

[gotnitro]

LC racing makes some nice sh!t.

I built this last winter, never used it yet. Might be for sale soon.

 

[FJSPEED]

I have a Traxxas E-Revo and a Summit both 16th scale I was thinking about selling. The Summit 16th scale is set up as a crawler. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you pictures.

 

[305HemiGuy]

A lot of people seem to like the new EazyRC 1/18 Chevy Pickup Truck.

 

[slick2500]

If you are looking at the Rlaarlo or Wltoys stuff you might as well go Lc Racing and get something good.

The Traxxas 1/16 scale stuff is rather fragile

 

[Snowmandk]

A lot of people seem to like the new EazyRC 1/18 Chevy Pickup Truck.

But that‘s a crawler, OP was asking for a basher.

LC Racing is good stuff

 

[305HemiGuy]

But that‘s a crawler, OP was asking for a basher.

LC Racing is good stuff

The truck I'm referring to is a basher.

 

[Snowmandk]

The truck I'm referring to is a basher.

View attachment 321279

My bad, thought you meant the K10 pickup.
I only know them from their crawlers, didn’t even know they made anything else

 

[Miata_meistro]

08s and a shrink ray

 

[RCbuzz]

Have a couple 1/16th e-revo's here, loads of fun. Very early on they had an issue with their bulkheads causing poor diff mesh, mine must be newer as I have never had a diff issue. I think that was resolved many years ago.

They are rated for 3S but I have always been happy with them on 2S (rumor has it your asking for trouble on 3s), still tons of power. Parts availability is awesome.

 

[sumguy75]

My bad, thought you meant the K10 pickup.
I only know them from their crawlers, didn’t even know they made anything else

Lol, same here.

 

[Lil Dylan]

I'm looking to get two mini bashers for me and the boy. How are people liking the Grom? Not worried too much about speed as the boy is 4yo. Just want something durable with parts availability and upgrade potential. I thought about getting a TA Reflex but I'm bowing out when I saw replacement bodies are $45.