VATERRA Halix 4WD Monster Truck with AVC

This truck is AWESOME, and I very badly want to give it five stars. Why not? Because this truck has a very vulnerable Achilles Tendon that kills the fun.First, the good: This truck is a very solid performer, easily able to stand against Traxxas's 4WD Stampede. This truck is actually more user friendly than the 'pede thanks to it's AVC feature. Turning this feature up stabilizes the truck, at the cost of slight performance reduction. To share a personal experience about it, I drive this truck with the AVC turned off for maximum performance. My sister's boyfriend came and watched me drive it. He had never driven a hobby grade RC, and was very timid when I handed him the transmitter. He felt the truck was too much for him, so I turned on the AVC. With the AVC, he quickly gained confidence and had a blast driving it.Now....that Achilles tendon.......is the four drive shafts from the differentials to the wheels. Vaterra decided to forego traditional dogbone style shafts, and went with telescoping drive shafts. Plastic drive shafts. Brittle plastic drive shafts that break easily, even when puttering around on flat ground. Horizon Hobby has been wonderful about replacing them for me, but I don't like working on the truck every time or every other time I drive it! A CVD system for this truck is in the works, and I fervently hope that this rectifies this issue.So..... I will happily recommend this truck IF you don't mind constantly replacing driveshafts while you wait for the CVD replacement system to be released, as this truck truly is a blast to drive for botn beginners and experienced drivers. If you don't want to deal with the drive shafts, then I suggest watching and waiting for improvements to be made to the drive train.

The truck is very fast and it is pretty good out of the box but some adjustments are needed. First run on a 2S lipo resulted in a broken Front bumper(Every bit my fault) and a broken rear camber link(quality/Vaterra fault), My girlfriend was using it since she saw me having so much fun and she was going about half speed and made a right turn and flipped the truck on its back. When I walked over to flip it for her, I saw the right rear tire hanging. Like I said this was the first lipo and not even half the 5000Mah back was used by the time the camber link was broken. This is also to note worthy that this is the same plastic as the drive shafts and those are known to break more likely than not and that is backed up by every retailer being out of stock.In the end I would say buy this truck if you want a 1/10 scale monster truck, heck buy it if you were looking to get a 1/12 scale truck. Just know that the plastics will need to be replaced, but that isn't an issue as Vaterra is releasing metal parts for the known weak plastic parts in April.

This is my first monster fast truck. Boy I had so much fun. As everyone said about the achilles tendon of the driveshafts. I bought the metal shafts, did not change them, and gave it a shot with the plastic ones. I jump over 5 steps went as fast as possible, did willies, turn it over a bunch of times (first time driver at fast speed) jump over sidewalks drove on grass that was a feet tall and this car did amazing. I crashed it against a pine tree and still did well. The thing is all scratch but I bought it to have fun and I did. When the driveshafts die, I already got the metal ones ready to go. I have a 2C battery and the thing was powerful. I will update this ones I break something which with 90 degree weather and flying over things will be soon. I will also charge my 3S battery and see what happens.

Amazing! This truck is fast with just a 2s. Handles great , fast , all wheel drive and looks awesome! For the price it can't be beat.