OUT TO PLAY
What better way to test these cool little vehicles than on a playground. Thus, I headed for School Street
Park in Agawam, MA not too far from where I live. There was a dry and dusty baseball diamond, lots of hills that could act as jumps and the ground around the jungle gym area had been rubberized and had lots of elevation changes. I went with my two nephews, Brett and Doc and we had a boat load of fun each taking turns driving all five of the new 4.1BL Dromida vehicles. One thing we noticed immediately when taking a few passes up and down the parking lot is that speed wise, not only were they plenty fast due to the brushless power plants probably hitting near 25mph with the stock battery, they were all really evenly matched, no surprise as they share identical power plants but this made bashing together lots of fun.
Greg’s Opinion: After driving each of the Dromida 4.18BL Speed Series vehicles, I managed to pick out a favorite from the bunch; the DT4.18BL. The truck has a wide stance with its desert style tires and rims and I feel it gave it a performance edge over the others in stability. In my opinion the DT looks killer too with its light bar and spare tire out back. But the real attraction here is the brushless system, this is one mighty mini!
On the dusty and dry baseball diamond, where traction was quite low, each worked well as we raced the base path. We all agreed that the BX4.18BL had the most traction due in part to the mini pin tires, rear wing and cab forward body style. The MT4.18BL had the least traction on the dry diamond but I really liked power sliding the MT4.18BL around the diamond and this made rounding 3rd base and heading home a blast. The SC4.18BL and DB4.18BL, both riding on the same tires seemed to have the best of both worlds as traction was very good and they had fun and predictable sliding characteristics.
Tony’s Opinion: The Dromida DB4.18 was my choice simply because it looks like a scale desert buggy. I love the lights, the little drivers and the open-wheel design; even the spare tire hanging off the back looks cool. I found the DB4.18 to be a bit more nimble with the weight of the body and cage centered over the chassis. It also only required the removal of two body clips to gain access to the internals; the body swings forward and out of the way. Pretty neat little buggy.
The next stop was the jungle gym playground area with the rubberized surface. This sprayed on coating that covered the ground looks like sand but is very forgiving should a youngster take a hard fall. The area offered some rolling type hills with a few spots that were ideal for turning into jumps. Zipping around here was great fun because the surface provided a great deal of traction, a great departure from the baseball diamond. Because of this hard sharp turns could cause a traction roll, more so on the MT4.18BL as it had taller tires and a higher center of gravity than the rest. The vehicle that seemed to excel on this surface the most was the DB4.18BL as the combination of the buggy body and tires lent itself to quick cornering speeds when both entering and exiting corners.
Deans Opinion: My favorite vehicle in this line up is without question the SC4.18BL. I really like the look of the full fendered SC style body and the paint scheme used by Dromida on this vehicle is super sharp. The body itself helps protect the chassis and suspension components should there be any mishaps and the four faux light buckets adds realism; nice touch! Additionally, the tires used on the SC4.18BL worked very well on every surface I used the truck on.Jumping these little vehicles was a blast too. All took off what a fairly level attitude or with the nose point upwards ever so slightly. Should any of the vehicles get out of shape while in air, due to an ill-fated approach, a blip of throttle would quickly pull the nose up or brake would bring the front end down to where I needed it. Landing was a bit rough as they tended to bottom out due in part to light shock oil being used through-out the line-up of vehicles. That said, it did not take too long for the suspension to settle and then get back on the throttle. Using the smaller playground slides as jumps was also a blast as the vehicles would often go sailing. Doing this caused tough tumbles more often than not, sending vehicles cartwheeling or resulting in upside down landings! The only issue with this was a few ball cups would up popping off, an easy fix that did not even require pliers. Considering the severity of these crashes I’d say the 4.18BL line-up is pretty darn tough.
Before we departed I charged up a small 2S LiPo pack for the DT4.18BL and had at it on playground area. The truck had considerable more rip, causing it to traction roll much more easily if I was not careful when cornering, and launched itself through the air over jumps and off of slides. These little cars are great with the stock battery but turn into something fantastic with a simple battery change!
Matt’s Opinion: The new BX 4.18BL from Dromida keeps all the great characteristics of the original brushed BX 4.18, but adds the power of a potent 5300Kv brushless system. This little buggy looks like a shrunken down 1/8 scale rig that is huge on performance. Add to that the fact that this little beast rings in at just under 150 dollars fully ready to run and you’ve got a winning combo for your first basher.PERFORMANCE RATING TALLY
Performance – Acceleration: 10
Performance – Steering: 8
Performance – Handling: 9
Performance – Durability: 10
Overall Opinion: 9
DROMIDA 4.18 BL ARTICLE SERIES
Click the following links to see the other articles in this series on the Dromida 4.18 BL vehicles
