xsracer
11-18-2002, 01:53 PM
New products.
Konami will release DigiQ Formula bodies (for about 1/2 price of the single car) sometime in the middle of December. The cars are the same as the ones available, but you can get a different numbers. For instance:
JORDAN HONDA EJ12 (CAR No.9)
JORDAN HONDA EJ12 (CAR No.10)
Also, display charger will be release on 12/12 at the same price.
Digi Q Formula Mini Review
1. ACQUISITION
Since ToyEast didn't get it until Nov 16 or 17th, and HLJ doesn't carry it, my only option was Rainbowten. On the negative side they don't have a nice web interface and the shipping is a little too expensive. On the positive side, I place an order on Mon Nov 11 and got it on Sat Nov 16. Not bad at all. An order from HLJ might take weeks sometimes.
2. QUALITY
I've got McLaren Mercedes MP4-17 kit and JORDAN HONDA EJ12 single car. Overall, the quality is not as good as original Digi Q, but it's not bad either. As I have expected, the quality is about the same as Combat Digi Q, which is also made by Konami. The drive/battery part looks quite solid. The front/front wheel section looks kind of flimsy but given the looks/design of F1 cars in general and the size of these cars, I think we can forgive Konami. The level of details is awesome mostly.
3. ASEEMBLY
Well, there's not much to it. There are some extra parts and decals. I didn't bother with them. From what I understood, you should paint those parts 'cause they just off-white. Don't know for sure, since I don't read Japanese.
4. CONTROLLER
You get the same controller as DigiPropo Special but they're NOT interchangeable with regular DigiQs. Somebody might have different results but it didn't work for me. It would be nice if they were but I don't think it's a big deal either. Don't forget that the charging station between them is physically not compatible anyway.
5. STEERING
Rear wheel steering. I was totally confused about it since Konami site shows front wheel steering in response to the controller wheel. It is simply NOT the case. Front wheels are not attached to anything but each other. What happens is that when you turn, the front wheels sometimes happen to turn in the same direction so it kind of looks like it's turning with front wheels.
6. DRIVING EXPERIENCE
My remote was defaulted to "4567" so I just tested it like that. In my opinion, regular DigiQ would be pretty hard to drive with steering set to 6. The turn is just too quick. On the other hand F1 was quite controllable. I think it's due to its longer body and/or wider wheel base. If anything, it wasn't too responsive at that setting. The speed was pretty decent at 4. In fact, when I tried to do an extreme turn at full speed, it would drift like crazy on the hardwood floor. Don't know if it's good for racing but it sure is a lot of fun. I don't really race competitively or anything like that so I can't give you an impression from that perspective but in my opinion the fun factor of these cars is pretty high.
7. RACING MODE
Racing mode is entered by using special code (don't remember the number right now). Once you enter that code, you can change two parameters (I think acceleration and braking), which will not change the code. During continuous driving, the bar will decrease from 8 segments to empty. Once empty, you'll have to stop to recharge the bar. The longer you stand, the higher you bar moves (up to full). I never reached the empty bar so I don't have any details. The bar regenerates pretty fast though. Having bar about half full I got stuck under a shoe: by the time I wiggled my was out of it, it was full again.
8. CONCLUSION
The amount of money I paid is not really a big deal to me. Also, I do not race with anybody for sports. With that in mind, I enjoyed them. Whether it's worth for you or not, you have to decide for yourself.
A note for usagi: hype had nothing to do with me buying these cars. I've seen the plans very long time ago but I didn't think I was going to buy them. Tanks were a different story - I was really looking forward to them. F1 I didn't really care for. What sold me on F1 is a level of details. It's a toy - not a full scale R/C and I treat it as such.
Konami will release DigiQ Formula bodies (for about 1/2 price of the single car) sometime in the middle of December. The cars are the same as the ones available, but you can get a different numbers. For instance:
JORDAN HONDA EJ12 (CAR No.9)
JORDAN HONDA EJ12 (CAR No.10)
Also, display charger will be release on 12/12 at the same price.
Digi Q Formula Mini Review
1. ACQUISITION
Since ToyEast didn't get it until Nov 16 or 17th, and HLJ doesn't carry it, my only option was Rainbowten. On the negative side they don't have a nice web interface and the shipping is a little too expensive. On the positive side, I place an order on Mon Nov 11 and got it on Sat Nov 16. Not bad at all. An order from HLJ might take weeks sometimes.
2. QUALITY
I've got McLaren Mercedes MP4-17 kit and JORDAN HONDA EJ12 single car. Overall, the quality is not as good as original Digi Q, but it's not bad either. As I have expected, the quality is about the same as Combat Digi Q, which is also made by Konami. The drive/battery part looks quite solid. The front/front wheel section looks kind of flimsy but given the looks/design of F1 cars in general and the size of these cars, I think we can forgive Konami. The level of details is awesome mostly.
3. ASEEMBLY
Well, there's not much to it. There are some extra parts and decals. I didn't bother with them. From what I understood, you should paint those parts 'cause they just off-white. Don't know for sure, since I don't read Japanese.
4. CONTROLLER
You get the same controller as DigiPropo Special but they're NOT interchangeable with regular DigiQs. Somebody might have different results but it didn't work for me. It would be nice if they were but I don't think it's a big deal either. Don't forget that the charging station between them is physically not compatible anyway.
5. STEERING
Rear wheel steering. I was totally confused about it since Konami site shows front wheel steering in response to the controller wheel. It is simply NOT the case. Front wheels are not attached to anything but each other. What happens is that when you turn, the front wheels sometimes happen to turn in the same direction so it kind of looks like it's turning with front wheels.
6. DRIVING EXPERIENCE
My remote was defaulted to "4567" so I just tested it like that. In my opinion, regular DigiQ would be pretty hard to drive with steering set to 6. The turn is just too quick. On the other hand F1 was quite controllable. I think it's due to its longer body and/or wider wheel base. If anything, it wasn't too responsive at that setting. The speed was pretty decent at 4. In fact, when I tried to do an extreme turn at full speed, it would drift like crazy on the hardwood floor. Don't know if it's good for racing but it sure is a lot of fun. I don't really race competitively or anything like that so I can't give you an impression from that perspective but in my opinion the fun factor of these cars is pretty high.
7. RACING MODE
Racing mode is entered by using special code (don't remember the number right now). Once you enter that code, you can change two parameters (I think acceleration and braking), which will not change the code. During continuous driving, the bar will decrease from 8 segments to empty. Once empty, you'll have to stop to recharge the bar. The longer you stand, the higher you bar moves (up to full). I never reached the empty bar so I don't have any details. The bar regenerates pretty fast though. Having bar about half full I got stuck under a shoe: by the time I wiggled my was out of it, it was full again.
8. CONCLUSION
The amount of money I paid is not really a big deal to me. Also, I do not race with anybody for sports. With that in mind, I enjoyed them. Whether it's worth for you or not, you have to decide for yourself.
A note for usagi: hype had nothing to do with me buying these cars. I've seen the plans very long time ago but I didn't think I was going to buy them. Tanks were a different story - I was really looking forward to them. F1 I didn't really care for. What sold me on F1 is a level of details. It's a toy - not a full scale R/C and I treat it as such.