Team Associated SC28 and MT28 RC Review: Cheap price, cheap experience

The dark of winter brings with it inevitable boredom for spring-through-fall outdoors enthusiasts, and that includes anyone from off-roaders to radio-controlled hobbyists. And so, those of us who loathe the bitter cold find ourselves turning to indoor activities to stay entertained, in particular seeking out new ways to enjoy the automotive and radio-controlled (RC) hobbies from the comfort of a couch. Team Associated’s 1/28 scale SC28 and MT28 RC vehicles are our latest foray into finding the perfect indoor toy, but we’ve come away thoroughly unsatisfied.

$60 is a weird realm for an RC vehicle. It’s somewhat expensive for something found in the toy aisle at your local big box store, but it’s incredibly inexpensive compared to true hobby-grade examples. As such, the Team Associated’s $59.99 SC28 (Short Course Truck) and MT28 (Monster Truck) are priced low enough for a fair amount of skepticism; the company does, after all, make well-regarded products in the $250-650 range, and the brand’s reputation is generally solid.

And so, the tiny 1/28 scale SC28 and MT28. We purchased two for our test, figuring that they would make for great indoor toys reminiscent of the sadly long-departed Radio Shack XMODS. What arrived was fairly disappointing; our research had indicated that the 1/28 Team Associated products would be inexpensive, but in our hands they felt decidedly cheap. The flimsy bodies have nice paint, but that’s all the good that can be said for them. Worse, there were physical problems: Test RC number one suffered from a misaligned body and chassis right out of the box, and test RC number two would only reverse at about half the rate of number one, with a grinding noise emanating from its differential all the while. Consider us underwhelmed.

Does the driving experience make up for the shoddy build quality? Unfortunately, not entirely. They move along just fine, and there’s definitely more than enough speed for RCs roughly six inches long, but they’re just not particularly fun. Perhaps this is due to our test surface, which consisted largely of wood floor and area rugs; in all fairness, we can see that more fun is to be had if there’s significantly more real estate to play with than in the home of the author’s.

When functioning properly, the 1/28 Team Associated machines can be entertaining, albeit when persistently remembering the limitations. On a hardwood floor, full throttle with any amount of steering angle results in a pirouette; attempting to control it in a slide is amusing for a bit, then quickly becomes frustrating. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of playing with the SC28 and MT28 was hitting the lip at the edge of an area rug. Though only maybe one-quarter of an inch of elevation change between surfaces, it easily sent both machines sailing into the air, landing on the barely-sprung suspension and bouncing once again before settling. We also came away wondering why machines this small didn’t showcase a better turning radius. Maybe we’re asking too much, maybe not; all we know is how we felt after spending time running the SC28 and MT28.

We didn’t expect great enjoyment from these machines, so there wasn’t much in the way of great disappointment. Rather, it left us yearning for more entrants into the tiny RC space from competitors like Traxxas, Axial, FMS, and so on. There really aren’t many hobby-grade options at this size, so other options might light a fire under Team Associated to improve on the SC28 and MT28. The company does also offer the 1/28 rigs in TR28 (Truggy), CR28 (Trail Truck), and HR28 (Hot Rod), DR28 (Drag Car), and F28 (Formula Car) guises. The differences are mainly limited to the body and tires.

Aside from the build quality, another minor gripe is the charging methodology. Included in the “Ready to Run” packaging is a cord that connects the rig to the transmitter, but out of the box that’s the only way to charge the vehicle. Doing so doesn’t take long, but expect it to run the life of the remote down by quite a bit, mandating more frequent swapping of the four AA batteries it requires. We grabbed a standalone USB charger for the SC28 and MT28 to the tune of ~$10, which does the job without draining the transmitter battery. It would be nice if the USB charger was included in the package, but it isn’t.

The best we can say about the Team Associated 1/28 RCs that we tried is that they’re relatively affordable. They represent an easy way to get into the hobby without spending triple-digit Upgrade hop-up parts do exist, and there is somewhat of a following for these little machines, albeit fairly limited compared to what the miniature market experienced with the likes of the aforementioned XMODS. We hope that someday, the aftermarket and quality of the Team Associated toys match the reputation of the brand’s true hobby-grade offerings, though for now we’d probably spend our money elsewhere.

Yay: Cheap to buy, small size, easy to use

Nay: Questionable build quality, standalone charger sold separately, other options at this price point are more fun

Takeaway: Team Associated’s SC28 and MT28 1/28 scale RC vehicles are inexpensive and offer an experience that perhaps punches below the price of purchase.