Just curious when the acquisition occurred, and if they've done any swapping of parts or models across the brands. I'm actually a huge fan of both brands. I really like my TT EB-4 S3 on the track, and had I not bought a new MBX-6 I was going to get an RC8. Apparently there are TT parts and motors on the RTR Team AE kits and there haven't been complaints about any of those parts.

I was also surprised to see that Kyosho had acquired Team Orion.

From wikipedia:

In 2005, an announcement was made that Associated Electrics would be purchased by Thunder Tiger, a Taiwanese RC model manufacturer. [1] Thunder Tiger expressed hope that the buyout of Associated would make it the fourth largest RC model merchant in the world, following the big three (in order) Tamiya, Kyosho, and Futaba/OS. [2]



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Electrics


I had no idea......

There's parts that interchange btw the two. Diff parts, flywheels, shock springs I think, clutches, probably spurs and bells.
I know they don't make the original gas truck any longer by ae, but thundertiger makes the exact same truck now that used to be the gt only now has a black chassis.

Even before being bought out they used thundertiger engines. They actually are nice engines. The small blocks on the gas trucks have excellent carbs, I'd say nearly as nice as the coveted os carbs. I ran a ae .28 this summer just to try it out. Once I sorted out my fuel tank problem the engine was excellent. It was a little difficult to dial the engine in, but once it was it ran like a vspec with less runtime.

But anyways.. There's so many good things out now under so many different names I wish I could just try one of everything. lol
Good luck with your mbx6, they sound like an excelent buggy.

http://www.thundertiger.com/article/about_us/120.html

Officialy owned by TT since july 2005.
It was probably necessary for AE to keep up with the competition,
Being a part of TT allow them to use there factory. As far as I know the B44 was the first car to be mostly manufactured in taiwan (I just never saw a B44 box with made in USA on it).

Good to hear about the TT engines. I too have had excellent luck with them. And I'll say it again. I am a huge TT fan. I wish they'd do more with the EB-4 buggy, it's a great car, just not as light or high tech as the new stuff out. I wish I could try everything too, the Mugen is my next endeavor, it should arrive this week. I'm sure it'll meet my high expectations.

im pretty sure the old T3 and RC10GT became the "new" Thunder Tiger models....using the same molds, metals, etc.

Assoc T3=TTR Phoenix st
Assoc B4=TTRPhoenix bx
Assoc tc3=TTR Sparrowhawk vx
Assoc GT=TTR Phoenix GT
Assoc TC3 chassie used on the new TTR sparrowhawk XB
4WD buggy
XXB brushless 4wd Buggy

parts will interchange.