Banana Hobby, LX / blitz RC Planes. Good or cheap chinese?

[CheckMySix]

Hey all,

So, besides building and flying FT planes...which helped me get back in the hobby after years away...I've been flying Eflite planes. F16, F18, A10 and Spitfire. I've been looking at some birds on Banana hobby and wondering...is the quality comparable to Eflite and say Freewing or...just cheap Chinese knock offs. It's really hard to guess based on reviews on BH. Watches some videos on YouTube and they seem decent. But, lower price and more build work compared to what I'm used to.

So, anyone flying any of their planes? If so, how do they stack up to an Eflite or Freewing? I really want to add to the hanger but...this damn Rona madness has half the bloody world on backorder! Hell...been waiting a month for the FT Freedom Fox! Wanna give them money but...I need something new...and soon! I'd love to get the Freewing A6 intruder but...back order. The Eflite F4...backorder! Parts are even worse!

 

[b-29er]

BananaHobby/BlitzRC isnt a brand, they are a bunch of manufacturers that BH rebrands, more specifically Art Tech and Lanxiang. Their quality is more towards cheap than good. The Lanxiang aircraft (the majority of their EDFs) are primarily EP, not EPO or EPP, so they'll explode into confetti most of the time rather than large gluable chunks. I had a MiG-29 from them once, had a gear failure from landing in grass, and then had a servo failure a few flights later that caused a nose-in. Largest piece I could find was the elevator and

Motion has the 90mm F-4 in from Freewing, which is probably pretty close to the E-Flite, since they are made by the same people lol. They also have the Mirage, which i have a 90mm FlyFly version, the speed envelope, maneuverability and control are amazing, and i've heard similar of the freewing 80mm version (i'm not sponsored by freewing, promise!)

 

[sprzout]

I will say that everyone in my club who has bought products from Banana Hobby has been disappointed, to say the least. Their fit and finish, mounting locations for servos, motors, etc., is just very poor when you compare to MotionRC, Eflite, FMS, and many of the other well known brands.

Sure, those latter brands are more expensive - but you get what you pay for with those companies. There's a reason so many people prefer the EFlite Apprentice as a nice pre-built trainer plane, or the UMX Timbers are so popular with the park flyer crowd - the planes are well built, the electronics are solid, and they have support should you need help with getting them set up.

There are a lot of guys in here that will just tell you to buy cheap, that it's fine - but if you spend say, $200 on an EFlite, vs spending $150 on a BananaHobby plane, then putting in another $75 for "upgrades" to get it to fly as smoothly as the EFlite that's comparable, all while wondering why you had to do that, is it worth it?

 

[CheckMySix]

Thanks guys. Yea... the consensus I've heard is...cheap! LX has a B25 Mitchell that looks great and I prefer the B25 over the B24. They have it in kit form so... put my own electronics in it but even then...seems like more aggravation then it's worth. I'm sticking with Eflite and now Freewing.
Just ordered my first Freewing. The AL37 (737 supermax)! Pretty excited about that. Been wanting a big bird and...she's pretty big. Over 78" long! Gonna have to trade in my Malibu soon for something bigger...lol. I can get my Eflite F16, A10 and FT Guinea Pig in there now! Gonna have to rebuild the wing on my FT Cub so I can take at least a couple to the field when I have the AL37 in there.

That's for the input agents. Confirmed my instinct! Cheers!