Boom Racing BRX02 D130 High Cap 1/10 Review
Boom Racing BRX02 D130 High-Cap: Build & Review Companion Article
Companion piece to the RC-TNT video review
The Boom Racing BRX02 D130 High-Cap is the fifth Boom Racing chassis I’ve built and reviewed for RC-TNT, and it might be the most complete package yet: a well engineered rolling chassis wrapped in an officially licensed Land Rover Defender 130 High Capacity body. This article is the companion piece to the video review, which runs a full 52 minutes because there’s a lot to get through, so treat this as the place to come back to for the part names, numbers, and detail that don’t always survive the edit.
A quick note on that: this is the first Boom Racing vehicle I’ve ever been sent for review without having to purchase it. Every other one I own, the BRX01, the BRX01 AWB, the BRX02 D110, and the BRX02 6×6, I bought myself, most with a sponsorship discount. When I proposed this review, Boom Racing actually asked me how it could stay unbiased if they sent it to me without payment. That’s the kind of question that tells you a lot about a company. The answer then, and now, is transparency: I get to say exactly what I think, praise and criticism both, and their car goes in front of a bunch of people who are actually interested in seeing it.
Buy It
The BRX02 D130 High-Cap kit itself, and the Pro Spec Upgrade Set worth adding to it, full accessory breakdown in the Tires, Bumper & Accessories section below.
BRX02 D130 First Impressions: Scale Proportions
The overall length of the BRX02 D130 caught me off guard. That it’s longer than the D110 wasn’t a surprise, I’ve built the D110 chassis and still have its body ahead of me. What did surprise me was that the D130 comes out roughly the same overall length as the BRX02 6×6 I built a year or two back, despite the 6×6 carrying a third axle.
A long-wheelbase scale vehicle is generally the worse choice for technical off-road work, with one exception: steep ascents and descents, where the extra length adds real stability. That tradeoff is worth it. Once the model is finished, painted, and running, the added length pays off in a different way, it adds a sense of scale realism and presence that shorter-wheelbase vehicles don’t have. I’m not sure exactly why a longer small-scale vehicle reads as more realistic to the eye, but in my experience it consistently does.
Verdict: a stunning model.
Suspension
The BRX02 D130’s rear suspension was a pleasant surprise: true independently mounted coil springs rather than coilovers, only the second model in my collection built this way. It’s a nice scale touch. The front runs coilovers, as you’d expect on most crawlers this size.
Sitting right next to those rear springs, though, are bent rear lower links, which creates an odd juxtaposition. I doubt the real Defender 130 runs bent lower links, and I’d question whether any real vehicle would, short of a dedicated rock crawler.
The rear shocks also sit at a fairly steep angle (around 45 degrees). I’d have liked to see shorter shocks sized closer to what you’d find under the real D130, so they wouldn’t need to be laid down so far. Something for Boom Racing to consider in future revisions.
Chassis & Build Quality
The chassis rails are beautifully machined aluminum rather than steel C-channel or the carbon fibre of the D110, and I confirmed they’re hard anodized rather than painted, consistent with Boom Racing’s standard finish across the BRX01 and BRX02 lines.
Build quality throughout is excellent:
- Powder coating on several parts is excellent
- Paint on the rails is excellent
- Every thread taps cleanly
- Overall fit and finish is a step above what I usually see at this price point
The Manual
Boom Racing’s manual is a strong point. It uses line diagrams and drawings, groups several build steps together by theme, and keeps everything in the correct build order without ever feeling overloaded. If something doesn’t make sense on first read, it’s usually because there’s a detail you haven’t noticed yet, a second or third look through the page resolves it.
Each section opens with a parts key that labels and locates every component, which means even the steps that seem confusing at first sort themselves out once you look them up. Overall, a pleasant build experience. I only found two errors across both manuals, every page of which is technical, one screw callout listed the wrong screw type, and one door handle part was mislabeled T15 instead of T16. Both minor, both easy to catch, and pretty good going for that much technical content.
Drivetrain & Electronics
The BRX02 D130 runs a 385mm wheelbase and uses a conventional shaft-driven 4×4 layout: the motor mounts to the planetary transmission between the shock towers which drives a mid-mounted transfer case, sending power fore and aft through universal jointed drive shafts to solid, straight front and rear axles. Nothing exotic here, but it’s all cleanly executed.
Motor and ESC
I used a HobbyWing QuicRun Fusion SE 1800kv, a combo brushless system built for crawlers. Motor and ESC are a fusion, a single bolted-together unit rather than two separate boxes joined by wires. 1800kv with the stock pinion, works well on 3S. You might consider dropping a tooth or two on the pinion, or running the 1200kv unit with stock pinion – I feel it’s a shade fast on 3S with my setup.
Planetary Transmission
A two-speed unit, sized for scale detail, I know this transmission well and love it.
Transfer Case
A flexible unit that gives opposing-direction drive shafts, with the option to fit front overdrive OR DIG (amazing!), and comes stock with the SWD for selectable 2WD and 4WD via the transmitter. The Sense S10 shows 4H and 4L range selection independently of a separate 2WD/4WD toggle. Two Boom Racing Python 125MINI waterproof (IP67) micro servos handle speed and SWD, one per function. Though both are rated around 9.5kg of torque at 8.4V, I run them at 6V so they don’t have to work as hard. The SWD servo sits at the end of the battery tray, and that placement significantly eats into usable battery space. Useable tray dimensions are 99mm (L) x 47mm (W) x 28mm (H); without the servo sitting in the way, length would be 144mm, a substantial loss. Typical 2200mAh 3S packs run about 104mm long, so finding a battery that actually fits is a challenge, look for ‘shorty’ packs.
Axles and Drive Shafts
Solid diffs front and rear; the front rides on coilovers, the rear on the independent coil-spring-and-shock setup covered in the Suspension section above. Power reaches each diff through slip-jointed drive shafts with universal joints at both ends (not CVDs), standard practice for a crawler with this much axle articulation, and it keeps drive smooth even under full droop.
Links
Adjustable turnbuckle-style links front and rear, with rod-end (heim) joints at both mounting points on each link. That’s what lets Boom Racing get away with the bent rear lower links I mentioned above, a straight link wouldn’t clear the coil spring at full compression.
Body Assembly
Body prep was a properly involved process, I set aside two full weekend days for it. It’s not just cutting parts from the trees, cleaning up flash with an Xacto knife, then washing and gluing. This body uses several layers of pieces in multiple places to achieve a clean finished look:
- Interior: a separate console compartment lid; the seats built up from a substructure, a base, and then the visible outer covers as distinct layers
- Exterior: the roof and part of the rear window section sit on top of a supporting structure, which itself attaches to the front of the bed
- Bed: three of the four sidewalls are molded in place, with a separate tailgate/dropgate at the back, a panel for the inside front of the bed, and another panel that meets the cab
It’s a properly modular design, and it rewards thinking through the assembly order before you start.
Steering
A PowerHD WT85 servo rated 55kg of torque at 6V and 70kg at 8.4V, mounted on its own plate off the side of the chassis rail rather than up on the axle, driving the knuckles through a drag link and a separate steering link. Keeping the servo off the axle keeps unsprung weight down, always a good thing on a crawler. It’s strong enough that the steering is slightly overkill for what the car needs, no complaints there.
Radio System
A SENSE S10 transmitter paired with an S10RX receiver (10-channel) with a built-in gyro, reporting live attitude (pitch and roll, in degrees, with a little animated truck on screen tilting to match) alongside battery and BEC voltage. The GPS module in the radio box comes bundled with the S10 system and some of Sense’s receivers, feeding the same telemetry setup. I install and demonstrate this in the video review, so more detail on it belongs there rather than repeated here.
Electronics live in a radio box at the rear of the chassis. The kit includes extension cables for all electronics so everything reaches back there without needing to source your own.
Painting
This is where I’d like to see Boom Racing improve. The manual doesn’t include any guidance on which parts to assemble before painting versus after, or where to mask. I’ve masked and painted around twenty styrene models over the years, so I know to look for this, but anyone following the manual step by step without that background could easily glue panels together before realizing they needed paint first. That would be a real shame given the body isn’t cheap and looks excellent once finished.
The manual does include one useful callout: it suggests hobby filler for the rear panel section just behind the back passenger doors, where two plates meet with screw holes and a seam. I used Selleys Knead It (a moldable two-part epoxy putty, sold in Australia) there, pressed it in by hand and sanded it back, and it worked well. The body looks noticeably better for it, and I wouldn’t have thought to do it without that note.
Beyond that one instance, more guidance on assembly order for painting and masking would be valuable. If Boom Racing went as far as walking builders through the painting process, even though most manufacturers don’t, it would make this one of the best kits on the market for newer hobbyists.
Body Mounting & Lighting
The body mounting system carries over from previous BRX02 releases and is an improvement on the system used on the BRX01. It’s simple and effective, and the rear body mounts double as tie-down points once the body’s on.
The body is ready to accept a full lighting system, but the manual gives no guidance on cable management for it. Some planning is needed if you want to add lights, particularly if you want the body to keep releasing cleanly by design without risking the wiring.
I went with a KYRC 18 LED Control module for the lighting. The controller itself lives in the receiver box at the rear of the chassis, alongside the receiver and gyro, connected back to a mid-mounted connection point via a data cable on a permanent passthrough through channels 1, 2 and 3, so that link never needs touching. Front and rear light cables plug into that mid-mounted connection point. It has dedicated channels for turn, fog, head, DRL, brake, and reverse, more than a basic EBL-style unit gives you, which normally just reads brake and reverse straight off the throttle signal. I’m still not fussed about running indicators, so most of those channels sit unused, but having the option there didn’t cost anything extra over a simpler module.
Body retention itself is a lovely little spring-loaded metal clip mechanism, similar to previous BRX02 models; the rear bed is held on separately by four screws and two lock nuts. The only lighting cables you actually have to unplug are the two front leads, every time the cab body comes off.
Tires, Bumper & Accessories
The BRX02 D130 uses the same more aggressive tire tread found on the 6×6, rather than the smaller, more all-terrain tread found on the D110 and similar to the BRX01.
The front bumper attaches with small grub screws, a nice detail. Solid, too – but no winch fairlead.
The range of accessories available for this chassis is substantial. Worth calling out specifically is the BRX02 D130 Pro Spec Upgrade Set (USD$395), which bundles around a dozen upgrades: bonnet vent intake (3 styles), XT diff cover, KUDU steel windscreen roll cage with injection-molded snorkel, metal side mirror mounts, injection-molded dual exhaust, tubular aluminum front bumper with stainless steel skid plate and D-ring shackles, overdrive machined steel transfer case gears (32%), KUDU 80mm shocks with 52mm rear coil springs, TPD 1.9″ Gekko RED tires with foam inserts, ProBuild Spectre beadlock wheels, and KUDU steel tubular rock sliders.
If you’re planning to add a winch, Boom Racing also sells a Muscle Winch Mount Lead Kit sized for the BRX02 platform, worth grabbing at the same time as the rest of your accessories.
BRX02 D130 Verdict: How It Drives
The BRX02 D130 drives beautifully, lovely to drive. Yes, it’s heavy, but this is a scale model designed around realism first. The Boom Racing axles make it a pleasure to push and steer with confidence, the drivetrain is slick, and shifting is effortless. The accessories available for this platform mean you can do all sorts of clever things with it too, just look at how I kitted out my BRX01 with selectable 2WD/4WD (it comes stock on the D130) and with overdrive gears for the front, so that when it’s in 4WD the front wheels really pull the car in the intended direction, eliminating the understeer so typical of scale 4×4 models. The damping could be a bit slower, I might put pistons with one less hole in next, the thing bounces a bit more than I’d like, but overall it’s brilliant.
My only real gripe with this vehicle is the reduced size battery tray, with that SWD micro servo taking up real estate. It means I have to run a shorty pack rather than even a smaller standard battery, like a typical 2200mAh 3S LiPo. I think I’ll make a battery box for this that sits in the bed, so the body never has to come off. I like the sound of that.
If I had one suggestion for Boom Racing after building this, it would be to add a paint guide to the body manual: what to mask, what to glue together first, what to paint, and what can be skipped. I’m experienced and was left to guess. I got it mostly right, but there are a handful of places I wish I’d painted, and a few I wish I’d painted differently. That would really make this kit stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Taken as a whole, this is a complete kit I’d recommend for experienced hobbyists rather than first-timers, and it’s hugely rewarding to build and drive. Beyond the basic electronics you’ll need to add yourself, motor, ESC, steering servo, and a radio system, plus paint and hobby filler for the body, nothing further is required to end up with a very complete model indeed.
This might just be the finest scale model you can buy.
Boom Racing BRX02 D130 in a sentence: heavy, honest, and built to be driven, not just displayed. If you want to build one yourself, the BRX02 D130 High-Cap kit is where to start, and the Pro Spec Upgrade Set is worth adding once you do.
A note on affiliate links: we were provided with this car by the manufacturer for review purposes. The Amazon and AsiaTees links in the above article are affiliate links, which means we may be paid a small commission if you choose to click on them to make a purchase. As always, we make effort to ensure that no review is impacted by this – we still report on bugs and issues encountered during product testing, and our fixes or solutions if found. Thank you for reading and happy RC-ing!
Craig Veness
RC-TNT
Craig has been into radio control since the 90s and into RC crawling since about 2010, when a Losi MRC started the obsession! Now it's all rocks this and crawl that and upgrade all the things! ...You know how it is, right? Welcome home 🙂
