The Flyhal 1/10 scale brushless RC monster truck is an RC car that is lacking something of a clear name but it is fairly clear this a thinly rebranded XLF X03a RC Truggy with a number of upgrades that has made it stronger. If you are unfamiliar with this model it is a lightweight ready to run 4wd 1/10 scale truck-buggy (truggy) with brushless power train and large monster truck wheels well suited to off road. Read on for a full review including my honest opinion of the truck after running it for a number of weeks

It's become clear to me the the 'Flyhal' brand is unique to the Chinese retailer Banggood and appears to be a shadow brand. This means that they are not a manufacture but a thinly disguised house brand that may be used to sell large job lots of RC models at a discount or as an exclusive bundle. For example it is clear that the Flyhal FC650 was a rebranded XLF F16 (brushless) and the Flyhal FC600 is a HBX 16890a pro. This particular Flyhal model is also made by XLF, in this case the X03a brushless 4WD truggy. As I have not reviewed the XLF F03a I will not compare to that model and so please ignore a direct comparison because from what I can see, a number of components seem to have been upgraded.

The Diatone Q33 RTR is a micro RC car, similar in dimensions to a matchbox or hotwheels toy. This car is a buggy style which by no means suggest that you can run offroad with this car but it does make it more durable and simple than closed body style cars. It claims to run for 60 minutes and is available in regular car, FPV car and FPV car & goggle kits. All cars come with remote, inbuilt battery and charger - everything you need to run except AA batteries for the remote.

If you are strictly into RC cars you probably won't recognise the Diatone brand but if you ever dabbled in quadcopter then you will. They are in fact one of my favourite brands in that category because of their balance with price and quality. The Diatone Roma F5 and F4 LR are some of my favourite quads. So far as I know this is the first RC car they have released and was done as part of their 10th anniversary. This is not the first micro RC car I have reviewed, I looked at the Turbo Racing C71 1/76 scale as part of review on the MyRCFamily youtube review. This is however the first buggy that has been released in this size. Don't expect off-road capability but do expect better durability and reliability, something the C71 struggled with. I'll keep this review short and simple since this can be considered a toy grade RC car since it can't be easily upgraded or have parts replaced. Read on for more...

The WL Toys 144002 1/14 scale RC Monster Truck is a recent release from WL Toys setup as a monster truck and based on the hugely popular 144001 buggy which I have extensively reviewed, modified and tuned in over 40 guides here. This newest version looks to be better suited off-road with the larger wheels and has a number of improvements that are not noticed at first glance. Here I'll review the car in full and let you know what I like about it and what I don't like about it (+how to fix it)

The 144002 is now the 7th time the original 144001 platform and gear have been recycled by WL toys and I've reviewed them and modified every step of the way. In case  you are wondering:

• WL Toys 144001 - The original 1/14 scale 4wd buggy based on the LC Racing EMB-1
• WL Toys 124019  - The lengthened 144001 buggy (now considered 1/12 scale)
• WL Toys 124018 - Lengthened 144001 made in a desert buggy style
• Eachine Eat14 - Factory brushless version of the 144001 
• WL Toys 124017 - Factory brushless version of the 124019
• ​WL Toys 124016 - Factory brushless version of the 124018
• WL Toys 144002 - Monster truck version of the 144001 and subject of this review

This summary is simplified but all along the way WL toys have been making evolutionary improvements to poorly setup or weak points of this car meaning that this latest truck is very much improved over the original 144001. I will of course detail these in the review. Sadly there are still some fundamental flaws too which I will also outline. Let's have a closer look at the car before we take it for a drive so we know what we are dealing with. I'll break this down into sections of power train, driveline, suspension, steering, body and chassis to give it a bit of structure. Then, I'll follow up with a full review of the performance in all areas (including GPS-measured top speed) and my conclusions and recommendations.

The HBX 901a 1/12 brushless truck as reviewed here is a brushless 1/12 scale desert buggy and one of my favourite RC cars of 2021. It was light yet very durable with a very efficient power system and drive train. Short gearing ensured very lengthy battery life and ensured motor and ESC temps remained extremely low with the preference of strong acceleration over top speed. In this article I'll show you how to install a larger 14t pinion gear and talk about the performance improvements.

In my original review I mentioned that the motor mount for this car had preset motor holes that should allow the fitment of a 14t pinion and recommended the Surpass Hobby M0.6 13-17t pack. I can now confirm that these do fit as expected - see the images and steps below to do this yourself - it is very easy and takes around 5-10 minutes.

The WL Toys 284131 is a mini 1/28 scale 4WD RC car that was released in the second half of 2021. It has fully proportional steering and throttle with independent suspension and is an updated and upgraded version of WL Toys own k969 and k989 cars. The body is based on Ken Block's Hoonitruck, made popular in the RC Scene by the Arrma Infraction. It not only looks the part but it's actually a great little performer in it's own right and hard to pass up at a price of between $55 and $65.

WL Toys are infamous for taking well designed cars and making much cheaper versions of them. You can either take offense because of the copying or embrace the fact that this opens up the category to a group of consumers that was never going to buy the full priced model. For example the 104001 copied the 2016 XRAY XB4, the 144001 copied the LC racing EMB-1 and here the K989 / 284131 copied the Kyosho Mini-Z. As much as I wanted one, I could never justify the $200 needed for a Kyosho mini-z but at around $60 the new 284131 is much easier to stomach. Clearly the price point puts in an entirely different market and for this reason I will aim to keep this review as a more stand alone rather than directly comparing to the mini-z range.

The Flysky Noble Pro is a new top end surface radio made by long time manufacturers Flysky. It is a premium version of the Noble NB4, which itself is a mid-high spec radio. The Noble Pro is a radio set that Flysky have thrown everything, including the kitchen sink at and I will review all of the features here so you can figure out if the may or may not be important to you - this will be the main focus of the review. Lastly I will compare against the best offerings from market leaders Futaba and Sanwa to give you a feel if they really do complete in the racing scene.

Before we get to deep into the detail (and there is a LOT with this radio) lets have a closer look at Flysky as a manufacturer. You've probably heard of them before but what you might not know is that they have been manufacturing radios for over 12 years with options in both surface (cars, boats, tanks) and air (multirotors, planes, helis). They initially started out with low to mid-range hobby grade models where their reliability was rewarded with a number of OEM contracts for various RC Cars and Boats This has allowed them to grow their manufacturing base and expand with a more recent push into the premium end of the market with the Noble NB4 and Noble Pro for surface and the Paladin and Nirvana NV14 for air. Let's have a closer look at the present Flysky offerings in the surface category:

WL Toys and Eachine recently released the 124016, 124017 and EAT14 Brushless RC Cars that are an upgraded version of the brushed 124018, 124019 and 144001 respectively. I've spent a lot of time optimising and documenting these brushless upgraded models and so wanted to compare them to the factory brushless version. I this article I'll compare the cost and performance of the new brushless models to a brushless upgraded version so you can figure out which option is best for you. All costs will be at today's advertised price before discount coupons or loyalty points. Prices change regularly including flash sales so you may get items for more or less when you are shopping

First of all if you need to refresh yourself with the brushless cars, you can see my review of the EAT14 here. This of course has the same running gear as the 124016 and 124017 so performance is identical. As you'll see in my review there are a few nice improvements that these brushless cars have over the brushed counterparts over and above the brushless power systems.

The WL Toys 124016 and 124017 (and the Eachine EAT14) have a major issue with cogging - the stuttering that occurs when accelerating from standstill or low speed and is a major downside to these recent releases. Cogging in your car is not by bad luck but by design choice; in the search for top speed bragging rights, the tall gearing has really compromised these cars ability to accelerate. Never fear, QuadifyRC to the rescue! I'll give you 3 and a bit options on how to fix this issue by addressing the root cause rather than by going on a wild goose chase and addressing the wrong things.

As soon as I found out WL Toys and Eachine had retained the big 27t pinion from the brushed models I knew they would be fast but were going to be poor on acceleration. This turned out to be correct as you can see on my Eachine EAT14 review which has the same running gear as the 124016 and 124017. You can get away with this big pinion on a brushed motor (like with the 144001, 124018 and 124019) because of the way they work but not on a brushless motor because of the way they differ mechanically. Cogging is when the electromagnetic field invoked by the motor is not strong enough for the motor rotate and catch the next pole thereby getting out of phase and rocking back and forth; it's that jiggle your car make before it takes off. So what causes it? The motor can not generate enough torque for the given load. The 2845 is not a small motor for a car this size so it is safe to assume that it is the load that is unreasonably high due the very tall (fast) gearing.

Since we know the root cause we need to address it directly in order to get the best quality solution but before I do that I'll let you know the things that will NOT fix it:

The WL Toys 104009 is a recently released a 4WD RC monster truck. It is made by WL Toys, one of the lower cost RC Car manufacturers that tend to strike a good balance between performance and affordability. This particular car is stated as 1/10 scale but is about the size of a typical 1/12 scale, still big enough to perform off-road. In this review I'll cover what I like about this car and what I don't like so you can make a decision to see if it will suit you or not.

As I mentioned WL Toys have made some very popular cars based around a common 144001 platform which I have written EXTENSIVELY about here: All my WL Toys RC Car review and upgrade guides. This car however is not based on that platform, rather it is and upgraded version of a lesser-known WL toys car, the 12402. Upgrades include oil shocks instead of friction dampeners, metal suspension arms front and rear, a much better looking body heavily inspired <cough> by the traxxas Maxx and XMaxx plus a whole lot of LED lights. Let get straight into the review.

The Sequre SQ-ES126 is a top of the range compact electronic precision screwdriver that has been made for very precise work such as small scale RC Cars and quadcopters. These small screwdrivers can significantly speed up your build and repairs, especially when you have long screws! This in not a cheap tool though so in this review I’ll give you all the details to help you understand if it is the right tool for you.

Before we get stuck in to this review let just define the difference between cordless/impact drivers (like you might use for building/home rennovation) and the precise compact drivers like used here.