My full review of the Redcat Racing Caldera SC-10E brushless electric 4WD RC short course truck. Costs about $200, got mine new from an eBay drop-shipper.

(watch this on YouTube for more options)

The pizza-cutter joke (in responce to an earlier knive-thing?) was a good one


Good review as allways! Allthough I'm completely uninterested in the product, it was nice to watch (as usual)

Sorry Jang, you'll hate this... there is an easier fix for the rod ends. Just squeeze the plastic "loop" with pliers while they are still on the ball. This stretches the plastic and frees the joint up.

Great review! I bought one of these too and also had to fiddle with the steering to get it sorted (loosened the pivots and put in a metal-gear servo).

Since I'm a basher I pulled the stock tires and put on 2.8" Badlands:





Then a larger motor:



Now that I have it where I want it I'm going to build up a Himoto 4wd buggy from Ebay: a used Mega-E XB-10 like in the URC review: (maybe turn it into a truggy: poor-mans Hyper10TT )

(watch this on YouTube for more options)

Sorry for all the pics and links: I'm enjoying my Redcat Caldera and I'm a sucker for off-brand RC's - thanks for reviewing them!

I really enjoyed this review, right up until you did not recommend it. I feel that it's a little harsh to not recommend it when other vehicles made by Team Associated require all their linkages to be replaced by RPM after market parts as well.

I doubt it was necessary to sand and polish the metal balls, that seemed like far more trouble than simply boring out the plastic captured ball ends with a sanding drum on a rotary tool which shouldn't take more than a few seconds per link.

I totally agree this is a design fail, but something that is a zero cost fix as opposed to so many other name brands out there with far more severe design failures which are getting good reviews.

You have recommended quite a few other cars which had many parts break and not a single plastic part broke on this car, what gives?

So it comes with a crappy servo, body, and ball links that need tuning/replacement, seems like a fair trade to me for the initial low price.

and its not ROAR legal.

no big deal if you're just a basher, but for an SCT, it sure does look squashed (so does Himoto and ExceedRC)

i was thinking this as well. the other thing jang could of done is just changed the ball ends with some traxxas ones, i am sure he is like the rest of us and has a few laying around in our parts boxes. it is a shame that this truck is so short. it looks to be a fairly decent SCT, with the exception of that. (and this is coming from a guy that DESPISES short course trucks...)

The high body and large tires make the wheelbase look shorter than it really is, and in the video Jang wasn't comparing it to one of the stubbier ROAR-legal SCT's (like the Associated SC10).

SC10 on the left, Caldera on the right:



SC10 on top, Caldera on the bottom, both with the same tires:



With the body off the difference in length is more the lack of the extended SCT bumpers than a differnence in wheelbase. Not ROAR legal, but that's such a tiny portion of the market a basher wouldn't care.

I appreciated the review a bunch because buyers need to know about the servo, ball ends, tires, PVC body, and ROAR illegal problems.

Us advanced RC drivers can fix this stuff easily. Jedi Master Jang did say that it wasn't for the newbie.

PS Why is it called a Durability Montage when that's the way I drive all the time?!
C’mon, a cement wall isn't able to stealthily ambush an RC like a tree.

This is a rare instance in which I must disagree with you, Bill. I've owned and raced several Associated vehicles (RC12, RC10B, SC10, RC18T/B/MT) and never had an issue with the stock linkages. Some, I had were FT and not the RTR stock ones but the big difference was that the FT were titanium.

A person who typically buys a RedCat wants something cheap and is typically a beginner. If I'm a beginner and I buy this and take it home all excited to run it and it just squirrels around all over the place because the tires won't hook up, it won't steer right and then the servo breaks. I'm not going to be a very happy camper and I'll either put it on a shelf and forget it or sell it on Craigslist and either way forget about the hobby altogether because of my poor experience.

Doesn't seem like a fair trade to me when somebody could've spent a little ($20) more on a Aarma Fury or even a 2WD Slash and been happy and hooked into the hobby.