TheWiseRabbit Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Hi all. Bit of a back story to start with. I've been out of the rc game for about 10 years. My interest started again a month or so ago and I've been looking around for what to get. My two main criteria is it has to be a kit rather than rtr which seems to be all the rage right now and must be an off road buggy. I started looking at 2wd electric 1:10 scale but things have escalated a bit I've owned electric and nitro in the past and have always wondered about petrol and in particular the Baja. Now however when I find myself seriously looking into it I keep on seeing comments on how fragile it is, always breaking, unreliable, expensive parts and in general over priced. That being said they still seem to be very popular and currently out of stock in most places. I thought I'd turn to you fine fellows for your opinions. I'm still keeping an open mind as to what rc car to get. Electric 2wd kits seem ok but they just seem too fiddly and soulless with esc, fail safes etc. Nitro is slightly better but I do feel I've done that to death which leaves petrol. Hope y'all can help me decide. Also any comments from hpi baja owners on their experience would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninetiesbeard Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I havent seen the bad side of them. Last time i took mine out, it ate a few nose heavy landings and was totally fine. Although that said, it is mostly after market. I think the value in the hpi baja lies in the aftermarket support, being able to build the buggy into whatever you like. It can survive huge power numbers with hardened gears in the transmission, do speedruns, mad bashing ect. As a stocker, i cant comment as mine was never stock. Ive seen videos of people bashing stock ones without issue, but theres a few things people complain about like poor brakes and no power ect. I wouldnt buy a new baja, but thats because id modify it anyway. It all depends what you want from it, one of the hpi/kraken versions would be really nice out of the box, and probably do whatever you wanted it to. They are expensive, if you were to buy a new tsk-b that would be £1200; thats MCD money. Maybe consider a clone? if you are willing to accept arguably lower quality, a rovan or king motor baja can be had for a lot less. First search brings up one at £434 delivered RTR. To directly address your questions, I dont think the baja is fragile, or unreliable but i will agree that parts can be expensive and that £1200 for a new baja TSK-b is overpriced, yeah. The baja community is quite active, and theres tonnes of videos on them on youtube. My baja was my first petrol rc, after running 1/8th nitro for 10+ years and it didnt feel difficult making the switch, they are just different to drive and everything is much heavier duty. Also youve got to factor in the noise of them, if you end up with an aftermarket exhaust (you will), they can get extremely loud which might not suit your bashing spots. They arent difficult to work on, think of it as a large nitro rustler; its the same principle. Hope this helps, any questions feel free to PM and ill try to help 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mond Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 They are out of stock because HPI went out of business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supersavage Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 If you wanted to there's so much after market support for the baja you could probably build one just by buying all the aftermarket options you want, it wouldn't be cheap and it might take a while but you'd be able to build it exactly how you want it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collective itch Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 hpi baja are great if setup and maintained properly imo. the clones aren't as durable on material front, and try to buy genuine i you can. one of the reasons hpi had trouble is due to all the r and d they put into the baja, and then it was cloned. this will put any business on the rocks. HPI should of done a traxxas and sued them, but they didn't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWiseRabbit Posted February 25, 2020 Author Share Posted February 25, 2020 Thanks for the info chaps it's very much appreciated. @mond and @collective itch i didn't realise they had gone out of business. I spoke to a guy in a rc shop today who basically confirmed what you said. Also parts would be harder to come by which is a bit of a bummer as a petrol novice. @Ninetiesbeard I'm glad that they're not as fragile as I feared. I've checked out the other cheaper options like rovan etc but like above I'm not a fan of clones and do like to support the original innovators/designers where possible. That being said finding a kit is near on impossible. My 2 main criteria is it has to be a buggy and it has to be in kit form . I did show the wife a vid of the baja and the first thing she mentioned was the noise! She seemed to think it was a lot louder than my nitro buggy back in the day. Lole you said I dont think it would suit the bash spot j had in mind. All that being said I may have to put this project on hold and look elsewhere. Looking around the biggest choice for kits is the electric 2wd market so I may give them a go. I'm still holding out hope for a nice big fat baja at some point so I'll probably be hitting you guys up for more advice in the future. Thanks again . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mond Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 You can get clone parts for the Baja. The King Motor Baja is quite common and you can pick them up for 400 quid. Its not a kit but not many are these days. Are they loud? Actually I would say nitro is louder than a petrol with a good quality pipe that has a silencer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rally1998 Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 (edited) No they aren't Fragile. Just like any R/C they get abused beyond belief. If you have sympathy you won't have any issues. I've had mine 5b SS since I built it from new in 2011. I have had no major dramas at all. HPI had initially sold to Ripmax some years ago and they really didn't have a clue. HPI have recently been bought by a big firm (vestergaard group) that are restarting production on all models and parts. The Baja will be the last to be rejuvinated due to something to do with the manufacturing and rights but it will be back under a different part number. I have had mine sat in storage for 2 years and want to do an engine rebuild for the fun of it and renew all the fluids etc and parts are easily available. I won't personally go anywhere near Rovan or KM Stuff and currently there is no need to. Edited April 13, 2020 by rally1998 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lopes3d Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Had a couple HPI bajas in the past good cars pretty reliable thing that springs to mind I used to go through drive pins like there going out of fashion. You may want to look at a losi 5t or king motor x2, yes there 4wd but if you play around with the diff oil weight they can still be tail happy. And the platform is hell of a lot easier to work on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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