Scale RC Drift & Crawler Bodies from Killerbody

If you love scale realistic R/C cars and trucks, this is for you because we’ve got new scale bodies for 1/10 scale use, designed for drift, rock crawlers, and more. So, strap up your boots, and let’s check out these excellent scale body shells from Killerbody.

Touring Car Bodies

Killerbody has been in the R/C industry for a few years, offering various R/C body shells made from lexan or polycarbonate material, plus their super realistic land cruiser body made from hard plastic.

All the bodies are for 1/10 scale use, and the majority are for on-road touring cars, drift cars, or rally use, but there are a few off-road truck bodies for rock crawlers in the 313 and 323mm wheelbases.

Right off the bat, the coolest thing about Killerbody is:

1) Most available bodies are ready-to-go, pre-painted, detailed, and ready for you to install.

2) Those same pre-painted bodies styles are also available clear and unfinished.

Not everyone has the time or interest to detail bodies, so this is a win-win for both types of hobbyists, and in most cases, the pre-painted body is only $25 more than the clear version.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X

The Killerbody Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is fully detailed, with led light buckets front and rear, hard plastic side mirrors, wipers, wing, double exhaust, and rear diffuser. Most of the accessories are attached using double-sided tape or body clips. You’ll notice a ton of decals used, and the placement is top-notch.

The accessories included vary from body to body, but the clear and pre-painted versions of the same body will include all the same accessories. There is no difference between the clear or pre-painted versions in that respect, only the work involved, like perhaps installing a wing or bumper. In our case, we installed the side mirrors on our Lancer, but that was it.

For material, all the Killerbody touring car bodies use 0.9mm or 1.0mm thick lexan, with additional lexan and hard plastic accessories bolted onto the main shell.

Note: the FZ02 is the short MK2 chassis with a 260mm wheelbase. The FZ02L is the long version at 270mm and is probably too long to fit these bodies. Most chassis have an adjustable wheelbase to match the body, but best to double-check first.

For the width on these bodies, they sit at 195mm wide, which is an odd size; usually, bodies of this nature are either 190mm or 200mm, but these are 195mm, and it’s done on purpose – so you can tuck the tires under the body with 190mm, or have them stick out at 200mm, and of course you can change this with different wheel offsets.

To mount the bodies, you’ll have to pop body mount holes because there aren’t any. To help with the pre-painted bodies, I recommend using the Bittydesign magnetic marker kit to align the posts. But, for the cleanest look, use hidden magnetic body mount kits for the ultimate realism.

 

 

Killerbody Crawler Bodies

Nearly all of those accessories will also work great on a rock crawler. As will the LED illuminated side mirrors, the moveable fuel door, the 1/10 scale driver figure, the cloth tie-down straps, and off-road toolsets with attaching mounts.  But, we haven't even talked about the amazing looking rock crawler bodies that Killerbody has created.

Killerbody HORRI-BULL Rock Crawler Body

For the 1/10 scale bodies, there are a few to choose from, starting with the HORRI-BULL lexan body with a 313mm wheelbase. This body is available pre-painted or clear and features 1.5mm thick lexan, with a windshield visor, front and rear led light buckets, and a full array of decals.

A scale roll bar is also included, but you’ll need to install that yourself on the pre-painted version. This body is a pretty universal fit for any 313mm crawler, although bumpers and side guards may need to be removed like we had to do to fit the body on our TRX-4 Sport.

Killerbody Marauder Rock Crawler Body

The Marauder body is next, and it’s a hybrid lexan body with a hard plastic roll cage, hard plastic tire fender, and hard plastic wheel wheels underneath. Because of this, the body is made to fit specific truck models only, with the original Marauder having a 313mm wheelbase compatible with the SCX10 and SCX10 II, BUT, the Marauder II body features a 323mm wheelbase and is compatible with the long chassis TRX-4 only.

It would be possible to remove all the underside bracing to fit the body to other trucks, but that comes with other issues because the fenders screw into the wheel wells. The wells would have to come off exposing tiny screw holes or you would need to hack up the wheel wells.

 

Toyota Land Cruiser – LC70

The very last off-road Killerbody is perhaps the most “killer,” and that would be the hard plastic Toyota Land Cruiser (aka the LC70.) The LC70 is a kit that must be assembled, but it is offered pre-painted and intended for scale builders looking for the ideal template to create a personalized truck.

Build time is 3-5 hours depending on experience, and that’s just assembly and does not include mounting or any extra detailing or painting. Once the body is assembled, you can see it looks fantastic with realistic body lines, molded grill, light buckets, lens covers, folding side mirrors, dash, fenders, and more. The dash can also be mounted with left or right-side orientation.

Our Custom LC70

We started with a tan pre-painted LC70 body for our truck and picked up several Killerbody accessories.

First, we added a good-looking LC70 metal bumper that attaches to the chassis rails. Then we added the 14-piece LC70 led light kit with a light controller. Then we added the movable door and windows upgrade, which allows the doors to open and the windows to roll up and down.

Next, we added the complete LC70 interior set, which includes adjustable, realistic feeling rubber seats, plus an adjustable steering wheel and illuminated dashboard. Last but not least, we added the metal latches to the tailgate.

The LC70 has even more upgrades like different fenders to match tire sizes. In addition, there’s the flatbed conversion kit, the flatbed mud flaps, and the flatbed cloth cover.

The following LC70 option parts require mounting on the body of your truck and some work is involved. For starters, the rear shocks and towers are in the way of the bed. To fix the clearance, you can cut holes in the bed for the shocks and shock tower to poke through, but it’s not the cleanest look. So, a second solution is to use the Xtra Speed Cantilever rear suspension kit to lay the shocks flat. That is what we used even though it’s for the SCX10 III, but we didn’t need to use the center brace for our TRX-4.

The next mounting hurdle is having clearance for the cab where the transmission may poke up. For the SCX10 III, you will have to do some cutting on the bottom and backside of the cab to make room. To hide the hole, Killerbody offers a gearbox cover. For the TRX-4, the transmission isn’t an issue, but the shifting servo is, so we had to cut out part of the floorboard in the interior set, but you can’t see it from the outside. Lastly, the TRX-4 battery position sits too high for the body, but the optional Killerbody TRX-4 battery mount fixes this issue.

For the crawler bodies, the big news is that Killerbody is creating 1/24 scale bodies for the popular SCX24 mini crawler. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen them yet, and we don’t have any more info, but we will keep our eyes out for them and let you know as soon as they are available!