Traxxas Bandit VXL Brushless 1/10 RTR 2WD Buggy (Purple) w/TQi 2.4GHz Radio & TSM

In my shallow opinion, this might be the best buggy for the money on the market. Parts available everywhere and very affordable. Stock plastic parts have high quality. Motor has tremendous power for this size and the ESC is easy to program. The design philosophy is making this buggy as simple as possible to just rip the dirt all the time without worrying about breaking it.

The following are a few points I like the buggy mode
1. Velineon 3500 + VXL-3S
2. Ultra shocks body/cap and springs
3. A arms and adjustable steel suspension links
4. Beautifully painted 1mm thick lexan sleek body with rear engine mount design, kind of retro style and old school
5. Overall waterproofness
6. Price point

Also a few things I think can be further improved
1. Pin-lock wheel can be changed to Hex wheel
2. Lexan body front mounting hole can be change from I to O shape that could be better impact-resistant
3. Front bumper is a little too short to protect the front A arm hinge and fiberglass reinforce bar. Could be 1 inch wider
4. Steering linkage can maybe redesigned to make it more direct driven by Servo
5. Wing could be 1 more inch wider (this is just personal preference and not necessarily a bad thing)
6. Adding two pieces of Velcro strips to keep the inside of the chassis clean when driving on dirt/dusty condition

Bandit VXL was my first buggy and I like it more than my Kyosho RB7SS which I built recently with Hobbywing XeRun XR10 Pro SS and G3R 17.5T as the powertrain. I would recommend Bandit VXL to anyone who just wants to start the hobby with an RTR buggy within $300 range.

Had this buggy for two months. I upgraded a lot of parts to aluminum. Totally upgraded it before even running it. Motor plate, shock caps, casters, steering hubs, rear hubs, motor heat sink, wheelie bar, front bumper, gear cover, custom shock tower brace, metal gears in the Servo, on board battery monitor. Running both street and dirt. Not big jumps just buggy friendly ones. Had several tumbles, but have not broken anything yet. Only running 2 cell for now. Plenty fast on 2cells and able to run 3 packs one after the other without overheating. I like the availability of spare and aftermarket parts traxxas seem to have. Also stock replacement parts are priced reasonable. Very easy to work on with nothing really exotic. It is a very good Basher buggy.

Had to work through a radio glitch I found that drove me crazy for a while. I set the endpoints on the steering (not with the app) that would seem to disappear randomly. I figured out that if you turn the vehicle on within 20 seconds of the transmitter, your settings were not in place. Wait 20 seconds after turning on the trx to turn the car on and all is well. This is a hundred percent repeatable so it is a definite glitch hopefully isolated just to my unit. Not willing to send transmitter in to be evaluated I will live with it.

The transmitter antenna is also directional and works best when it is pointed at the vehicle. My son does a left hand control thingy that has the antenna pointed away sometimes that affects the range.

Overall I am happy with this model. Easy to work on and get parts for basher buggy. I put hex adapters and rear buggy tires on the front. This helps with understeer and general driving wile still looking like a buggy. If you treat it like a buggy and not a large wheel MT it should last a long time. Upgrading to metal gears in the Servo is a must. Plastic gears just should not be used for 1/10 scale steering.

The radio programming is ok once you get use to it. Traxxas clearly wants you to buy their app by not making adjustments via control knobs available.. Impossible for any precision without the app. The gear cover has a cutout in it that lets in dirt. Traxxas should have addressed this. Had to buy a rpm version that did not have this cutout.

Gave four stars for the glitch I had to figure out, open gear cover and the obscure transmitter programming Method. Directional antenna may have not been the best design choice. It will compensate for a low power signal, but has to be pointing at the model for optimal range.

Overall satisfied.

Even though I bought the brushless Bandit, I use only 2S batteries. I run the crap out of it everyday. I have enough batteries to play for hours. Very pleased with my purchase.

Excellent buggy. Very fast for rtr. On sale couldn't go wrong.

Great buggy!!!!! Drives great right out of the box and Amain’s customer service was fantastic making sure other items got to me within a day of the buggy. No waiting around to get to use it. Very pleased

Tried to order this car, order was damaged then returned without ever reaching out to me whatsoever, then refunded again, with no notice to me beforehand. Ordered this for my sons birthday but now it's not going to get here in time. Not happy at ALL. Cant be a verfied owner if you never receive the car you bought in the first place. I'll be happy to re-write a better review if amain can keep their customers happy.