Alzrc 380

[Coxy]

Has anyone purchased one of these? Just wondered about build quality and parts availability afterwards, I know its the 380 clone, so parts should interchange...

[Grumpy]

All the reports I've seen say they are very good quality, rivaling the original.. BUT the way i see it is price is the problem.

On Banggood or Aliexpress the basic kit is £180, onto that factor import duty which you might get hit with of about £45 (20% VAT plus handling fee).. I'm not sure if the Alzrc comes with blades, they arent mentioned but decent ones would add £45 if needed. So in total the basic Alzrc clone airframe with quality blades comes to £225 if you get away with import duty, or £270 if you get hit for duty but you really have to budget for 'worst case'.

The genuine SAB G380 with blades included is £260 normal retail price, you can get 10-15% off if you buy in one of the quite regular sales (Easter will probably be next as you just missed the Christmas holiday one). So you very well could end up paying more for the clone. Second hand value the clone will always be worth much less, so factor that in if you might ever want to sell it. Sure the Alzrc combo kits with motor servos etc are quite cheap but that's because they use budget price components. You could put those same budget priced components in a genuine G380 and build it for much the same price, and at least you still have a genuine Goblin 380.

I think Alzrc are trying to rake in cash from the initial surge of interest in their clone heli by setting an inflated price. They will most likely drop prices once the initial interest settles down.

[myxiplx]

And I've seen a few people on Helifreak report that they bought it, and while the overall quality was pretty good, they did need to replace one or two components with SAB ones, and if you run into something like that it's just going to bump the price up even more.

[Peteski]

I looked at this and in the November sales the basic kit price difference was only £50 and even at full retail the saving is only about £80 (and that's presuming NO import duty as Grumpy mentioned). For me the real SAB version is easily worth the extra money and it's a fully proven original product with full UK retail support. I picked up the KSE version for £250 in the Halloween sale and it was even less on black Friday!

This clone has been discussed to death on Helifreak in the SAB 380 forum of all places! Reading between the lines it appears to be a good quality clone, but they messed up on a few key parts leading to quite a few maiden crashes. So bang goes your marginal savings right there and you're left with a cheap clone on resale. Don't be tempted by the combo kits either. They are cheap, but the motors seem to fall to pieces!

Summary of differences from what I know:-

The boom is made of fibreglass, not carbon (a bit heavier and probably weaker)
The tail hub is a different design and prone to failure - people are switching to the SAB tail parts after crashing
The magnetic canopy mounts are weak - at least 2 canopies have been through the blades
The motor pulley is prone to failure - again people are switching to the SAB pulley after crashing
It does come with main blades, but nobody seems to be using them

Other than that I think it's supposed to be pretty good! I guess it could turn out to be a source of cheap consumable spares, but I'm not even sure about that when buying from the UK.

[Coxy]

Some very constructive feedback there. I also did a price comparison through a UK supplier and got to the same conclusion that it's not such a bargain as advertised, and if I was considering a purchase it would be the genuine article .....

[Peteski]

I think that's the right conclusion. If you wanted to save money then you'd be better off buying a used Goblin 380 instead of a new clone.

[Coxy]

Good example currently on fastlads site...for someone out there...