As always, I did my research before purchasing the Dominator and it pretty much had a reputation for being a tough and durable truck with good race capabilities. In fact, just before I purchased the truck, OFNA racer Paul Coleman used one to win a race running against SuperMaxxes! That basically meant that the truck simply couldn't be all too bad. I went down to the LHS and purchased the 80% assembled Dominator - the truck came with an engine, but without any electronics.

The pics aren't great because I was staying in a friend's house during the time they were taken and the lighting isn't great.

Out of the Box

The truck came with a pre-painted shell that you'd either love or hate. I know an RC Mag that really hated the shell and kept making jokes about how it looked like something that came from a circus. Truth is that I thought the shell was pretty cool and it was one of the things that first caught my attention when I first saw the Dominator at the hobby store. You can see the shell in the first two pics - my only problem with the shell is that the pre-drilled holes mount the shell a little too far forward for my liking (see the first pic, the wheels just don't line up nicely under the wheel wells). On the plus side, the polycarbonate used is of high quality and is very thick, so it should stand up to quite a bit of abuse!

On the last pic you'll see the truck without it's shell on. This is pretty much what the stock truck looks like (although I have added a venom temp guage, front aluminum arms and a fuel filter). The truck began life as a buggy, so you can see that the layout is basically the same as competition buggies - radio on one side, fuel tank and engine on the other. Everything sits nice and low on a nicely anodized blue chassis that's very durable.

Basher Shell

Here are some pics of the spare body I painted for it. I didn't wanna bash up the stock one so this one became my basher body.

Wheels and Tires

The tire on the right is the stock one - check out the unique tire patterns. These hook up pretty nicely on fine loose dirt and on tarmac, but they were a little loose on the sandy BMX track where I bash every weekend - the tires on the left are OFNA oval-pins which became the tire of choice instead. The tires are Maxx sized so there should be a variety of options to choose from. Third pic just shows the truck with the new threads - they are actually slightly wider and taller than the stock "swoosh" tires so they do add a little to the stability of the truck.

The stock yellow wheels are made of nylon so they are easily dye-able. I like their aggressive look.

Maiden Bash Fest and Damage

Here's how the truck looked after a muddy bash day. I was jumping the truck off 5 ft jumps and running it hard over the BMX terrain. My day ended when I broke the front suspension arm (see third pic) off a bad landing. No problems - that only meant I could upgrade to the aluminum units instead! Besides being stronger, the aluminum arm has the advantage of securely capturing the knuckle ball with screws; the stock plastic arm was no more than a large ballend and it sometimes popped off during collisions.

I did discover that when swapping over to the new arm the suspension could not move through it's whole range of motion. You can find out more about how I solved that issue here.

Back To Top