Ouick Review 1/6 scale 21st Century r/c M1045A2 HMMWV

From: Ron (rojoha@adelphia.net)
Date: Wed May 04 2005 - 13:36:39 PDT


Yep, they are finally available at Wal Mart. I'll have one at my spaces at
the Aberdeen meet next week if ya wanna see it (or a 1/6th scale R/C M5
Stuart). Gonna have to be careful it doesn't knee cap someone. BUT...

Don't rush out and buy one, YET... sit back and wait for them to be returned
(in droves) and then grab one for a lot less than the present price of $200.
    I just spent 2 1/2 hours farting around just trying to screw the antenna
into the HMMWV. Bad design, worse is that it appears that they NEVER tried
to assemble it out of the box before commencing production. A simple rework
of the antenna and centering the threaded stud in the middle of the antenna
coil will do the trick but how many hundreds (thousands) have or will be
shipped before the mod makes it onto the production line? Aren't many
Daddy's gonna fart around for hours and screw it up before they try to
return it. We're talking serious money here.
    Once your past that, it is pretty cool, moves right along. No real
approach and departure angles due to the bumper system installed. Looks
silly cooking along with the TOW unit on top...something not to scale here,
probably due to the spring inside and the remote control firing aspect.
    Instructions say NO water crossings, no snow operation, no operation in
sand, dusty environments, yada, yada, yada....
  Eats 10 AA batteries in the hand control pretty damn fast (NiCad's gonna
be a must or kit bashing a 12 VDC thin nimh R/C battery pack onto the unit.)
HMMWV uses the same 12VDC battery as used in the Stuarts.
    Cannot put any figures in or on it.Maybe a deer (or a rag head) strapped
to the front fender.
    They can be bought on one of 4 freq pairs (A,B,C or D) in the 27 MHz
freq range and the crystals can be pulled out of the hand set and HMMWV very
simply and swapped if a source for them can be found. So four can run
patrol actions at the same time. Maybe someone familiar with R/C stuff will
recognize the set up from something else?
    Don't see any potential for using the running gear to do a 1/6th MB or
Kuble...they would look like rock hoppers.
    Pictures and more descriptions and how to solve the antenna challenge in
20 minutes or less will be on the yahoo group later tonight.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onesixthrchmmwv/)
     Spend it before the Fed makes it worthless!
    America!!! What a country!!!

    Ronzo



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