ECX Smash: Initial impressions

With the fun of cold and snowy weather here in Wisconsin for the next few months, I needed a way to get my r/c driving fix indoors. After checking out a few smaller-scale vehicles, I found an ECX Smash on eBay that met my budget.

After discovering a slight issue with getting the Smash up and running (and while waiting for a pair of 7.2V battery packs to arrive) I've spent some time getting acquainted to how this little truck is put together. Compared to my Slash, the sturdiness of the Smash chassis is decent. It looks like it can take a bit of abuse without breaking too many parts, though I hope I don't encounter any broken parts during my time with it.

The tires feel soft and should have great grip on carpet, concrete, and gravel. I don't plan on running this outdoors, so I'm not too concerned with performance on grass, though I think it could handle short grass without much issue.

Before taking the body off, I noted the small size of the body pins and then proceeded to drop one on the floor, losing it temporarily. Keeping this in mind, I now keep a magnet handy to stick the pins to once I've gotten them off the car. There are a few ideas that I'm working on to help easily remove, and keep track of the pins and I'm looking forward to working on those enhancements.

The interior is well-constructed and organized decently, though I did fumble around with the battery pack when installing it. All-told, there's not much room for extras, and what you'd expect to see inside of a 1/18-scale vehicle is what you get with the Smash.

The radio is very nice, much to my surprise. Given the small size, I was expecting to find a smaller controller sitting in the box, but the remote is sized very well and features a nice, rubber grip on it's steering wheel. The overall size is comparable with that of my Slash.

I'm anxious to get this little vehicle up and running next week and will post some additional thoughts and a review once I've put it thought a few tests.