We’ve reviewed a lot of different brands over the years, but we had never reviewed a truck from MJX before. In recent years, MJX is making a big push on the rc scene, offering big fun and performance, at affordable prices. With our primary readers being bashers, their products fit well for our type of people, so we got in an MJX Hyper Go 1/14 Desert Truck for review. Featuring unique styling and big brushless power under the hood, we just had to try one out. Is the MJX fun? Does it hold up to a good beating? Scroll on down for the good stuff…
From: MJX RC
Direct Link: MJX Hyper Go 1/14 Desert Truck Brushless RTR
Review And Pictures By: Cubby & T-$$$
Specs-
RTR or Kit: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4wd: 4wd
Electric or Gas: Electric
Scale: 1/14
Body: Pre-painted polycarbonate
Chassis: Metal
Width (measured by BSRC): 8.0″
Wheelbase (measured by BSRC): 7.8″
Motor: Non-sensored brushless, 4 pole 4400kV
Speed Controller: 45 amp brushless
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: 2.4GHz
Differential: Front and rear gear diffs
Driveshafts: Metal CVDs
Shocks: Oil filled, aluminum caps
Screws: Hex head
Battery: 2S LiPo 3000mAh
Part Number: #14209
Top Speed (measured by BSRC on 2S stock LiPo): 26 MPH
Street Price: $178
Required To Complete: It doesn’t take much to get the MJX up and going in the back yard. The only thing you’ll need is some AA batteries for the transmitter. The truck comes completely pre-built and painted, plus it includes a battery and charger for the vehicle.
Build Quality: We passed the truck around the room and didn’t find anything out of sort with the MJX. The shocks were fine, we didn’t find any missing or stripped screws, the diffs were working properly, etc.
Test Drivers: Your incredibly lovable Cub Reporter, Hawaiian Chris, and T-$$$.
Test Venues: We actually had some relatively decent weather in which to test the MJX. By relatively decent, we mean temps were actually in the 50s, instead of being below freezing. We took the truck to two different parks to let it rip. We had received a lot of snow before testing, so both parks were somewhat muddy and there were still some snow piles around. But for February in our area, we’ll take mild temps and non snow covered areas to let loose with an rc car.
Set-up Notes: After popping some AA batteries in the transmitter we used the included USB charger to charge up the pack in the truck. Easy peasy and we were up and running.
Turning: While the MJX Desert Truck does a lot of things well, we considered it a bit mid in the turning department. The stock tires have an aggressive tread design, but they also have a rather flat profile. The flat profile of the stock tires would cause the truck to “catch an edge” on occasion, thus creating a traction roll. In most corners that wasn’t an issue, but from pavement to dirt to grass, it would occasionally traction roll after catching a rut, bump, or rock. On most surfaces, the truck had plenty of steering, albeit with a slightly not so precise feeling, mostly due to the stock tires. We found the best way to corner was to coast up to the apex, then punch the gas, where as the front was usually quite planted, with the rear following in suit. On slick surfaces, the rear felt a bit loose, but the front was nearly always planted enough to maintain decent corner speed.
Jumping: Oh yes, the MJX loved hitting jumps. No, it doesn’t have a center diff, but tending to jump fairly level, requiring minimal input from the transmitter to land nice and flat. On super bombed out/rutted jump faces it would get kicked at a weird angle at times, but after some corrective effort from transmitter inputs, it could typically be landed safe and sound.
Bumps/Whoops: We gotta say we had an absolute blast pounding the rough sections with the MJX. Nope, it wasn’t as planted as a larger scaled truck or dialed in competition machine would be, but it would typically make it through super rough areas on all four wheels. Pounding a whooped out section WFO would sometimes get the truck a bit out of shape, but by staying on the gas it would just pound its way through and stay shiny side up. For its scale, the MJX took on the rough stuff quite well.
On-Road: For some people pavement is the only place they have to bash. If pavement is your only option, you can definitely have a blast with the MJX. It has good power out of the hole and can hit some pretty good sized pot holes without any problem at all. If you are a hardcore on-road guy, you’ll likely want to increase the top speed a bit and put on tires better suited for pavement, but even bone stock, you can have a blast with it.
Grass: Being just a 1/14th scaler the MJX got around in shorter grass really well. Its aggressive tires, full time 4wd, and potent brushless power system allows the truck to get around well when the grass isn’t too tall. We did attempt to run it in some taller grass, but that’s when we found out that being a 14th scaler can only go so far. If deeper grass is your only bash venue, we’d recommend looking at a larger scale MJX (like the 1/10 Hyper Go 10208 Brushless RTR).
Tires: Oh yes, about those tires. They look cool and have an aggressive tread pattern, which works well on looser terrain, but their flat profile can cause some issues when pushing it hard in corners.
Power: The stock brushless system on the included 2S pack had plenty of rip down low and into the mid-range. No, the truck did not have a crazy top end speed, but then the Desert Truck wasn’t designed to do speed runs with. Out of the box the truck had plenty of power for “normal” bashing, but you speed demon types will likely play with the gearing or go up to a 3S battery for more top end speed.
Radio: We didn’t have any issues with the included transmitter. Range was solid, we never experienced any glitching, and it felt fine in our hands.
Broken Parts: Out of the box it’s easy to see the MJX was made for hardcore bashers. There is a large aluminum top tube and many of the plastic parts look quite beefy. Like we always do, we started out easy on it, but found out quickly, via numerous accidental hits, that it can indeed take a beating. A couple packs in we just started driving it as hard as we could and the MJX did not mind one bit. As we had trouble breaking it just by driving it hard, we had to take it to more extreme levels to actually mess something up, with the servo finally giving way after a number of brutal hits.
Misc Notes:
The MJX comes with LED lighting that was controlled by a button on the transmitter. Very nice touch that looks good and actually works decently when running in low light conditions.
The transmitter also comes with a switch that can limit power to 70% for new drivers. This came in real handy when we would hand the radio over to a first time driver at the park.
We had a wide choice of MJX products to pick from, but for our first MJX review we went with the desert truck because it had a unique and scale look to it. In hand, the truck looked nice and we received numerous compliments on it while out bashing.
The included battery is a 2S 3000mAh unit that seemed to give our test truck a ton of runtime. We didn’t time it, but we feel like you can easily drive the MJX hard for over 10 minutes with no issue, and driving it at less than full tilt you’ll get a lot more runtime.
Final Verdict:
MJX has been around a while now, and after we had a chance to beat on one, we gotta say they aren’t messing around. The MJX Desert Truck looks good, drives well, has good power, and can take a beating. That’s exactly what we want out of a bash truck and the MJX delivered without any big, or really even any small, issues. For a small amount of the money, the MJX Desert Truck can definitely deliver some fun bashing times and we can highly recommend it to you.
