hmmm, yeah, comex hobby's a pretty good place for car stuff... they got pretty much everything, but it's a little expensive... my friend works there, and he says there's no employee discounts :(

hehe, yeah chinese people with bad english... im chinese myself, so i understand them pretty well..

mmm... i think they might carry DigiQs... not sure, tho, never asked... i know their stuff is really popular (the bits), cuz they're prolly the only place in edmonton that sells them... heh, i told them to call me when they get the new motors in...

the clones are typical price... 24-30 bucks @ the store, and at london drugs, they have a brand i've never heard of.. it comes in a dome package like a lot of other clones, but they're 24.99, and some have 1.0's and some have 2.6s... they have a whole ton at the one down by calgary trail...

:mad: too bad I haven't been in edmonton in a long time, but everytime we do go there we hit west ed mall so who knows when i will be up there next time, probably the summer and i will have forgotten about them. I am in calgary at least once or twice a month so if anyone knows about a place that sells bits and zips tell me I need to know before i snap.

Have not tried this myself but there is a web order store in Saskatchewan.

Shipping is not stellar but would be cheap if you ordered alot or with a friend.


http://www.minime-rc.com/store.htm

If anyone orders from there let us know your experience.

Wow, great find scout. I also wonder how great of a store it is and if they are trustworthy. I did a bit of searching and came up with a store in Canada that says (web site at least) that they have real Microsizers! The site is called http://www.greathobbies.com . Check Page 4/5 of their only flyer for prices, at $50cdn for a Microsizer, it's a pit pricey! Hobby Hobby also sells them but at $55cdn.

About the other question about places in Calgary, I'm not too sure on getting Bits but I'm sure you could find clones at some hobby stores there such as PMS Hobby Craft or any other Hobby/RC store in the yellow pages. I'd just call around and see who has what, prices and if they knew of anywhere that has what you want. Hopefully someone could help more with this. (I actually go to Calgary more than Edmonton personally too but was never into mini RC's before). HTH

Thanks for the help everyone!

I went to Radio Shack today and they didn't have any clones but I remember reading in a post before that Walmart in the US carried them and since it was just down the mall from RS, I went there. Well, they had lots there and for fairly good prices ($19.92cdn each) so I bought 2.

They are clones called Thunder Fighter's. Seem to work pretty good so far except I noticed animal hair gets in the axles/gears VERY easily. The hair makes them work very poorly so after a drive, I have to clean them out completly. Is that normal? They had lots of different body styles, colors and with ugly stickers and 2 diff frequencys (49 & 27). Decent range, took them 15feet from me without a problem. So if you want a cheap clone that's not too bad then I suggest it. Hoping to start modding one or more of them soon!
Any suggestions on what to mod first?

heh to get started, making a intercooler look-alike is prolly the simplest thing you can do... take a row of staples and chop the sides off with pliers or something, and then just glue them in!

i did it last nite, jsut for the hell of it, and now my celica's no longer bone stock! :D
hehe, i got a real bit char-g, no decals (yay!), and im realllly scared about messing up the body, so i havent lowered it... but you could give it a try, either by making a new, lower tab on the chassis, or filing the tab slot higher into the body...
for looks, you could always make a muffler .. :)

gl with the mods!

hopefully i will be in Red Deer this weekend. Should have to take some spare change and buy some clones to mod the hell out of, i have a few ideas that haven't been strongly mentiond on this forum that I want to try and if they work i will post them.

PS. do you like the avatar?

red deer eh? i have noo idea... only been thru there, not actually into the city... what are the mods you're thinking about?

heh, yeah the avatar loox good!

just a bunch of little things like a timed capacitor boost and a pulsing go button alternating headlights some other things that i can't think of at the moment just little things that will seperate it from the real bits ya know.

oh whoaaaa... that's nuts! complicated stuff man... how old are you?

im 17, taken some pretty heavy electrical engineering crap in physics class.. and that stuff is waaaay beyond me!

no no no not from my brain lol but off this site there are tones of circuts that you could modify to fit a bit or clone ect...
if you go into Radio Shack or where ever and buy a 555 timer there are tones of circutes that you could think up or make just look here

http://www.discovercircuits.com/

lots of flashing led stuff and timed buzzer stuff that is good for the capaciter thing take a look you will understand most of it some is beyond me but what i have mentioned only sounds complicated, if you have any remote understanding in electronics this should be a breeze. Now all i have to do is get a lower power soldering iron because my guns are way to powerfull:D oh ya and I am 17 on the 22nd. :D

Man, now you 2 are making me feel old. I'm 19 going on 20.

I've been thinking of a few small projects also that would make this hobby so much better. Some are to extend indoor ranges even further (thru walls hopefully) and others is a possible way to have more than the usual 5 cars running at once with zero interference (think of a 10+ Bit race with no interference)! So many more ideas and so little time.

My first mods, I'm going to go find some KIT Racers tomorrow for some good parts (2.2-2.6 engines, batts, etc..) and also some copper core wiring for better antennas. Might also try to source some rare-earth magnets. I also need to buy a few tools, solder (my old soldering iron from my PSX modchipping days will work excellently for these!) and many little electronic bits. Damn these things are addicting just to tinker with!

Thanks for the site, it has some great ideas and most the schematics seem clear. Can't wait to hear more on your ideas. Variable speed would be very very useful I feel. The boost feature would also be very cool. Definitly keep me informed on how things turn out!

I still need to buy more clones hopefully this weekend at wallmart hey C_CRX you are from Red Deer so when you get back from buying the kitracers tell me where you found them and how much you payed than i will think about getting them. From what i hear they make for great parts motors batterys tires ect... . a ten+ bit race would be sweet.
This is my first project to tackel before I get into the harder stuff this will alternately flash the headlites. it runs on 9V but hey smaller resistors and such. if i think about it maybe i could control how fast they blink.
http://xedox.de/blinker.htm

whoaaaaa... kk, y'all be doin waaayyy too good in physics class .. or something.. you guys are waaay beyond me... as well, im scared dead of screwing up my bit... :(

i'll stick to the motor, axle, gear, tire swapping... and cosmetic stuff... ^_^

u guys are too smart! :eek:

Pie - This has nothing to do with what I learned in physics. I've forgotten most of that anyways and college Math was way more advanced than high school physics.

I suggest buying a cheap Walmart clone to do most of your 'experimenting' on. That way, if you screw up, you have extra parts and if it works to your liking, do it to the Bit! I plan on doing most of the things you want too but I also want my clone to be personalized and unique. Creating my own mods will allow that and, hopefully, it will make the car better. I already have new mods in the work that will improve my handling (not only a magnet change here) and how it runs (tire mod). I also found a source in Canada for rare-earth magnets.. Less than 1$ a piece (before shipping)! Going to see if I can find a place in Red Deer that has them soon.

Some of my more complex ideas will probably require that I reverse engineer these cars from the ground up, and that will take quite a bit of time.

dabigpig - About the Walmart clones. The antenna's are different. The 27 appears to have a copper antenna that's very slightly larger than the 49 which has a nickel or similar silver colored product wire. This may explain the very slight delay in the controls of the 49.

The stickers came off very easy with a hairdryer. The paint on them isn't phenominal but it's not that bad either. The price was right though and they will make perfect experiment cars. I also did a very slight mod to my 49 which has made it run quieter and faster than the 27. I oiled the gears, axles and motor with special oil used mainly for slot cars. Very worthwhile mod I think. Very good candidates to test things on I feel.