Well I picked up four of the new Auto World 4-Gear cars locally. One is very quick (chrome bus), two run well (black pick-up and chrome surfer van) and one is slow like it is bound up someplace (chrome pick-up).

The chassis have twin neo magnets like the Ultra-G chassis had (doubled instead of single this time). They also snap-fit into the body. AW did a killer job on the wheels -- these look like NOS AFX rims and roll pretty true for a change. The front are not independent, rather a solid axle. All the chassis were in the shortest wheelbase setting - there are provisions for two further settings, and the bus had the front axle mounted to a pair of struts coming down from the hood, rather than to the chassis.

Front and rear axle slop is there, but not as wild as previous efforts.

All in all not bad. I saw the semi-trucks today also but passed as they are not my thing, really. They looked really nice, however, and were $17. The 4-Gears were $15.

:wave:

Lucky Bob's or Model Empire...? Thank's also for the info. any pics?

Lucky Bob's or Model Empire...? Thank's also for the info. any pics?

Model Empire. Haven't shot pics yet.

I just bought the bus from LB's on ebay.I thought $19 was'nt a bad price.I'll probably just use it as a display piece.Of course i'll have to run a few "hot" laps with it first!!!:drunk:

Lucky Bob's or Model Empire...? Thank's also for the info. any pics?

Is Lucky Bob's still around? They haven't updated the site in three months.

Is Lucky Bob's still around? They haven't updated the site in three months.

They update their site when they have something new to offer. What has released over the past three months? I'm sure they'll add the Trucks and 4-Gears to thier site soon. :)

I hardly ever look at his site, I just drive to his shop...

here's a few pics. I picked these up on Saturday.

Thanks Marko, not much room left for the bus...

Hi all, I preordered the S'Cool Bus and the Baja Bandito from Motorcity Toys and got both in the mail Saturday. So far the best offerings from Auto World yet. They both rock & the wheels are straight! Only a little binding on the rearward most top plate gear. They even have the screw in the bottom back to help hold the gear plate on beside the copper clip. I always like to take them apart first just to inspect and check for binding of any parts and to clean off the factory white grease and use ProLong to reoil. Like earlier said the rear most gear had slight binding which was easliy fixed by pushing up lightly on the rivit from the bottom of the gear plate. That loosened up that gear so it spun freely. Only other thing I did was to adjust the pick up shoes so they made even contact but that usually needs to be done on any car. S'Cool bus is more of a drag car as it's got to much front over hang to be able to make
6" turns with the guard rail attached. One more note is that cars come with a guide flag (old AFX style) instead of pin. Easily changed. :thumbsup:

The Pickup looks good in red chrome, but the semi needs some stripes.

Yeah! I likes that red chrome too!

It is real sharp!! The pick -up in flat black looked great too! I will have to go back and get a couple more before they are gone.

I have to add my 2 cents to this convo.

I picked up the 2 pickups (chrome red & black) & the orange bandito from Bob Beers and the black truck was just unbelievable straight out of the package. I had a friend of mine over and he used one of my xtrac's with these (what I believe are called) nachocar magnets. Some dude on ebay had a pile of them and I bought approx. a dozen pairs. Those magnets are heavier but they make the cars stick like glue, great for kids. Anyways, I was able to keep up with that thing straight away. Incredible about how solid this was out of the package. I tried the bandito next, which ran ok but def. needs some work and the chrome last. The chrome was better than the bandito but not as good as the black. Awesome job though. They look soooo danged cool.

2 thumbs up in my opinion.

Cheers,
Xence

Looks like these were worth the wait afterall from what Ive been reading. Now it seems like its taking forever for mine to show up!

Glad to hear that the 4 gears are working well....
Now to get me that Bus... :tongue:

Scott

Got my Bandito and '56 today. Here were my impressions:

4-gear chassis:
--Only flaw was each had a wobbly rear wheel. Everyone said theirs have been much truer than in the past, but luckily I had a pair of spare real (AFX) 4 gear rear wheels so no sweat there. I just put the 2 good AW ones on the bandito and the AFX ones on the '56. The axle holes in the chassis were just the right size, no excessive slop and they seem to line up so the chassis sits flush on the track. The tires were true, no lumpy bumps. Lovin the ansen sprint style wheels, here's hoping they get a set of rears sized for the standard XTs and use ansens all around on some future releases.

--Both motors run strong and the geartrains are very smooth. Is it me are these AW armatures getting even stronger with each release?

--Guide pin is now the flag-only design. If you dont like that, hope you were saving all the extras from earlier XT releases. OR break out your end nippers, clip off a little bit, bevel the edges with a swiss file and it'll work just fine on your Tyco and Lifelike track.

--Neo magnets? We dont need no stinking neo magnets! Ive never been the #1 fan of powerful traction mags but seriously, this is WAY too much magna-grip--much more than the standard ultra Gs. I didnt even bother running either with these in place, it felt like 2 pounds of pull when I stuck one on my track. Lose em, use em on something else. The motor magnets provide just the right amount of grip for acceleration but let you slide thru the turns. But im not complaining, thanks to these and all the neo dots Ive liberated from the rest of my ultra G's Ive got a big stack that I use on other projects.

--I put this idea out there in another thread, but the Super III and 4-gear bodies/chassis wont be doing any swapping. So this makes the 3rd chassis from AW to use basically the same style body mounts but nothing is in the same position as anything else. The front screwpost holes are there, so theyll retrofit AFX 4-gear bodies (possibly minus the basket handles) and theyll make for some easy conversion and custom jobs.

Regular orange Baja Bandito body:
--Good detail all around. The surfboard is a nice touch, just like the psychedelic paint job, peace sign on the nose in place of the VW, the pushbar bumpers are cool, and the overall look is what you'd expect from a retro modded street rod bus. The air scoops and 8 straight pipes must mean that something nice and nasty is powering this thing!

--Minor gripes, but the pipes being separate pieces look breakage and loss prone, and the chassis mounts look fragile but not as thin as the ones on the '56. Also, this had orange glass which kinda blends in with the orange paint. The purple glass from the '56 wouldve looked good here, and the orange wouldve worked on the '56. JMHO.

--Anyone else notice the headlight piece? Flamethrower 4-gears must be on the horizon somewhere.

Flat black '56 Ford p/u:
--Very close knockoff of the original Aurora design which always looked good. The primer black is meaner looking than the original glossy one. A real nice touch! Flame job tampos are crisper than the original hazy ones from Aurora. The mustardy yellow looks good against the black, and the little red outlines give it good depth.

--Minor gripes are (again) fragile looking chassis mounts. Theyre very thin, since the basket handles are right under the running boards which is understandable, but couldnt AW have take a small liberty with the design and moved the stacks down to sidepipes just to get some more plastic under there? Again, a minor gripe. If it ever breaks, it'll be a bigger one. Not too high on the mirror shine on the bed cover. Having owned 5 Jeeps, leather grained vinyl has a satin or semi-gloss luster to it as opposed to gleaming like laquer. Again, its a minor gripe.

Overall, I think AW has another hot item on their hands. Their QC isnt picture perfect quite yet, but it seems to improve noticealby with each release. If they continue that trend along with continuing to conjure up cool new bodystyles with attractive paint jobs they cant go wrong. Looking forward to future releases!

Do they fit the old 4 gear bodies though? I didn't expect them to fit anything else.. but by the sounds of it they have basket handles now?


Dave

Also picked up a Bandito bus and I also think AW hit big on this release. Yes, I also got bad rear rims and axle, so I'll be replacing them. Yes, I also think the neo-dots are overkill.........But I understand they were put in to accomodate the newbie/impatient (kids) racer to help keep in in the slot. But I do like the easy access to removing the neos so no big deal.

Finally, to that question, yes the 4-gear chassis will fit Afx 4-gear (specialty) bodies. AW fitted their chassis with screwholes.

Coach, it depends on the body. If its a narrow one like the Thing, youd have to lop off the basket handles. But other than that you should be all good. Something like the dodge vans would prolly screwpost right up, just havent tried it.

Saw these and the Semis Saturday at Bob's Hobby Shop. $18.95 each. But you get a 10% discount. I didn't get any. But will later. I like the S'cool Bus.

just bought the chrome bus at the swap show in ny @ the hilton today...very impressed. and $15. wish i bought a semi.

$15 and no shipping is a STEAL. I like the bus too, and Ill prolly pick one of the regular yellow ones up sometime when the 'gotta have it now' syndrome dies down. The bandito and '56 were must haves.

Well maybe some day I will have to get some of these...they sound better than the ones from days gone by. Thanks for posting up this information everyone.

Bob...someone give me some money...zilla

Imagine all the possibilities. :thumbsup:

The colors, the modifications...:wave:

I gotta get 4 of the VW's for our VW campout. VW's only. Those will make for some fun racing and grrreat give-a-ways for the yearly raffle. Hmmmm, (thinking to myself) get a job and buy them. Will do. David

These are a lot of fun and work well right out of the package, in large part to the neos. The neos make this an excellent chassis for a kid set. I only bought the pickup trucks so far, and will probably snatch up the VWs too.

I've heard a few requests for AW to offer up the 4 gear chassis by itself.

The big rigs are a hoot, kind of snappy and tricky to maneuver on my layout with a bridge/overpass but they do get around. For you TJet fans, the big rigs are actually closer to TJet scale than A/FX scale even though they are on an XT chassis. If you have a scenic'd layout that's closer to HO scale, these trucks will fit in quite well.