Anybody else find it ironic that in the days of $500 touring cars, $150 lipos, $250 ESC's, $100 motors, $100 servos, $25 bodies, $20 allen wrenches, $70 pit lights, etc etc that everyone gets all uppity about a $100 transponder that unlike pretty much everything else, will last for the next half dozen years?

I personally buy a lot used because of cost, but when I think about what I have invested in RC, transponders really isn't that big of a thing. And unlike everything else I own RC related, transponders actually hold their value reasonable well on the used market.

Is the cost a barrier to new people coming into RC? I think yes. But no more so then everything else. If you want to race, it's part of the cost of entry.

I own 2 hybrids, 1 of the older AMB's and a much bigger one for my 1:1 race car. It just seems like people are making a bigger deal of this then is really there.