If they all came of Germany @Adolf, they would all be great
Simon

 

Defiantly catch 22 my 450,s are clones and mostly reliable -updated servos only and weak main gears ..
But the 550 is a total another story. replaced all of the head assembly, drive gear. now near 80 % changed to make a reliable machine. Learnt the had way lol
But from my experience research, research a lot, Join the forums and ask (annoy) many people with as many questions you may have (never a dumb question) if you learn from the answer......May help the hobby go - main down side I believe is the major holding back on r & d
knowing certain company's are going to knock of their ideas .

 

Too right ... i made all the same mistakes.. Now i would never buy cloned stuff again ..

 

I think it comes down to this,
you get what you pay for.
Simon

 

I think clones are great no one wants to pay $500 just to see if it will fly completely through the top of a gumtree

God bless tarot

 

You do get what you pay for, no question. But there's no way i would have started flying without the good ole clones. No way was I paying top dollar for a brand name bird. And let's face it, when you are just getting into the hobby, you probably don't know the difference anyway... a tarot, a trex, a walkera, a gaui, even the hobby kings - they all look great when you have nothing and know even less. It's money that does the talking.
Once you start flying and get bitten by the bug (or crash...whatever) - that's when you start researching and talking to people and discover your own idea's and attitudes. I welcome all machines!!! even the ones we just throw stones at now

 

My 2nd heli was a trex 450 Clone! I think they are good for getting people in on the low end of the hobby as @ZEN RC states. I souped it up quite a bit too until i realized that it was better to get a brand name Heli..

 

First clone ive bought .. assan 700 (hk trex) $225 airframe flys fine . Carnt comment on part life as its only had a couple of maiden flights so far but it's looking good . I think its all about what electronics you fit as well .. mines stuffed with futaba servos (9255's & 9251) .CC120 . Sk540. 4035-500 scorpion & 6303sb

 

I think clones both help and hurt the hobby. They help by providing lower cost alternatives for beginners. I'm thinking specifically of the 450 clones. There's plenty of 450 clones. Not so much on larger models. I had both a HobbyKing and CopterX 450. I had the occasional quality issue. I crashed them a lot! Like a lot of people I replaced broken parts with Align parts. I used budget electronics. Why pay top dollar for a model you're going to repeatedly slam into the ground? The machine I fly the most today started out as a Tarot 500ESP. I converted it to FBL and it's been crashed enough times only the main gear casing is still Tarot!

I think they also help push the price on the Brand model down.

They hurt when unsuspecting beginners have quality issues and don't know it. I'm sure they hurt the profits of the Brand manufactures. However I had a hard time feeling bad for a company that chooses to manufacturer in a country with known intellectual property issues and then is surprised when their product is cloned!

I recommend a Dx6i, sim, and an mCPx to beginners. If a beginner approached me and asked about a getting a 450 I'd recommend a clone.

It also seems to me beginners are starting with a micro and the sim but are then skipping over the 450 and going straight to a Brand name larger model. I wonder if the clone market is feeling this relatively new trend.

 

Help the hobby.. Shore :- they get more new-bees started for a lower price (who in their right mind is going to pay around $1500 or more to start a new hobby without a guarantee of success)
The true RC modeller will eventually work it out through trial an error. Some take a little longer than others. Some will just Quit anyway!
Hurt the hobby No .
Hurt the brand name manufactures Yes and No " depends if the clone/copy is reliable and works properly"

 

I have a a fubar on my x3, fubar on my trex 500, a kbar on my logo 600 and a kbar just arrived in the mail for an unknown project... Can't go wrong..

 

Well @ScottE you are right in the sense that the electronics make up much of the helicopter. However physical design does come into play when you really start to push the heli. and become advanced in your manouvers. Yes a good pilot could make a cheap clone fly well, but put the same pilot on a decent design and you will see a world of difference again.

And @RonM3313 you are right when beginners have quality issues and don't know it. I had a 450 black angel which i thought was the best helicopter in the world. I spent a fortune on it and kept stripping main gears every time i flew really hard (i put a super high powered motor in it thinking it would make everything better - which it did in a way). I thought all helicopters were like this one. It was excellent value for money but when I finally brought a 6s minip I could not believe the difference. It was a more expensive kit but cheaper over time.. TCO was much less and flight dynamics were much better.


And @Fredo its very true what you say as well. You need a cheap way to get into the hobby and there is alot of misinformation out there telling newbies to buy the biggest helicopter possible because its reliable for example. But again some of the clones are very cheap, ie the alloy is like butter, the screws are like toothpicks - but they work at least and all helicopters will crash.

 

@Piro-flop flys a hk 700 ass like a demon
Hk servos rjx
Hk motor
Hk esc
Ikon
= weapon

 

I think Hobby King clones hurt the hobby more than they do good, I bought a Hobby King 450, and being used to Hirobo quality, I felt like doing a poo in the box that the Hobby King 450 came in, and sending it back to hobby king, so they could it eat, yum yum.

I used to think blade used to set the standards in steaming piles of sh*t, but hobby king has set a new standard.

I have a few issues with Hobby King 450's, allow me to express them one by one.
- The landing gear was deformed, therefore when setting up, the main frame was anything but level, I scabbed the landing gear from my genuine Align t-rex and put it on the Hobby King, otherwise I would not have trusted the setup when using a digital pitch gauge.
- The main frame was out of alignment with the components that went into it.
- The servo holes for mounting the servo where drilled incorrectly on the rear CCPM servo mounting, I tried two different brands of servo, each fitted the front servo tray mountings, but none fitted the rear one. A dremel and CA glue rectified the problem.
- Gears, scabbed out of my genuine Align and replaced.
- When I first spooled up the Hobby King 450, I thought Hobby King also have a sex toy factory, and accidentally had put a sex toy in the Hobby King 450 box, because when I spool it up, it vibrated harder than a nitro with bent shafts.
- Second flight attempt, I spooled up, tried to take off, pushed up on the collective, .... nothing, the pinion fell down the motor shaft. So I scabbed the pinion from my genuine Align.
- Third flight attempted, finally took off way. Flight performance, think blade 450 3D. My genuine Align 450 flew better.
- Fourth flight, something happened to the tail / linkage , lost control of the tail. (Vbar with Futaba 9257, most likely not these). I would post up the pictures on the crash of the day thread, but even crash heligod has some dignity.

If you consider time spend on mucking around and work arounds, a proper branded kit would be cheaper than a Hobby King 450.

Personally, only a thoroughly unscrupulous scoundrel would sell such things to a beginner. An experienced builder would know all the work arounds.

Hobby King has set a defacto standard (product that has achieved a dominant position by public acceptance or market force) as the lowest common denominator.

Yes, I know what I was in for when I bought it, but, someone who has never had a rc helicopter before might not know.

My advice, unless your buying something explicitly as a sacrificial helicopter, buy a genuine branded helicopter, it will save you money, and it will do what its meant to do, be a hobby. Hobby King will do the opposite.

I have never, ever had problems with a helicopter like this before.

 

I started with a Dyanam E-Razor 450, which I think is a clone of the T-Rex 450 SE. I learned hover orientations in the back yard with it, and crashed it a bunch of times in the process. Parts for it are cheap, so it didn`t cost me a lot to keep it flying while I was learning. Though I did learn to hover with it, it was not until I bought a T-Rex 500 ESP that I actually started to get into any forward flight and see any progression.

Had I known back then what I know now, I would have bought a simulator and maybe an mCPx to start off with. But it all turned out ok, and I still have the old E-Razor. It lives on a shelf above my desk.

 

I started with an MCPX and moved into a trex 450.. .MCPX was a great learning tool...

 

I started with a Blue Ray 450. The head was rubbish, but it got me flying. When I decided to get a new machine, I was looking at getting an Align 450, but I couldn't find a bare bones kit. Not wanting to purchase a bunch of electronics that I didn't need, I bought a Tarot kit. I've upgraded a few things on that bird, and it flies very well.

 

A guy showed up at the field today and wanted to sell one of us his FB Shark 450 clone. He paid $500 for it and wanted $250. Needless to say... No takers. I always feel bad for these guys.

 

If you are going to get a clone 450 a Tarot is a pretty good option..