THE AXIAL RR10 BOMBER
Review by Evo RC
The Axial’s RR10 Bomber crawler / rock racer is a fantastic vehicle. Its versatile enough to handle multiple terrain types and challenges. As is, the RR10 is geared for crawling but can be easily upgraded into a rock racer.
Over the last several years, Axial has released a series of similar masterpieces. Late 2015, Axial released two new vehicles, the Yeti Rock Racer and their larger 8 scale Yeti XL monster buggy. The new addition was the Yeti SCORE Trophy Truck, a slightly modified 10 scale Yeti chassis with a truck style body.
The second release was the RR10 Bomber. Based on the real rock racing vehicle driven by Randy Slawson, owner of Bomber Fabrication and multiple winner of the King of the Hammers.
The RR10 comes ready to run with a 35 turn brushed motor, metal gear servo, large BF Goodrich Baja tires and the King adjustable aluminum shocks.
The RR10 Bomber is an in between vehicle between a crawler and a rock racer but as an out of the box I would say it’s more of a crawler. It has the chassis structure of a higher speed vehicle so you can mod it to your liking. Stripped down, the front resembles the Axial Wraith, the rear of the vehicle more like the Yeti.
Stock gearing and motor are set up for lower speeds and high torque. The larger 2.2 inch BF Goodrich Baja tires are an advantage when taking on larger obstacles.
The aluminum bodied, adjustable King shocks handle rough terrain with ease and absorb the impact with ease. As out of the box power plant can handle 2S and 3S LIPOs.
The stock pre-painted body panels and decaled to match the appearance of Randy Slawson’s Bomber Fabrication vehicle, so you’re a bit tied to the look.
I got my RR10 primarily as a crawler, to take on the Maltese rocky beeches during the hot days of summer. I went for the RR10 look as it looks more extreme rather than composed and realistic. So primarily I started off by getting the Bomber for crawling. With the big soft wheels it obviously performed well and for over a year it remained almost in stock form.
The second summer I wanted a bit of a change so I decided to switch to a brushless setup and after some research and opinions from friends, I went for the Hobbywing Fusion Pro combo. It’s a very good setup allowing for very slow smooth crawling and bursts of power when you need it. The Fusion has an amazing feature called Rev Matching which I recommend you read about if you’re looking for brushless crawling setups.
The Hobbywing Fusion pro changed literally everything. For crawling, the brushed stock system was more than capable but the Fusion Pro gives you that extra edge. What really opened up the capabilities of the bomber was the high rev capabilities of the 2300KV combo. Was going up to Italy with the RR10 as well so go a fresh set of Proline Super Swampers with Proline dual stage foam.
Italy was a blast but it was more about the Arrma Fireteam on sandy beaches. It was around July when we went up to Gozo for a few days to relax. I had space for an RC and I got the RR10 along. Had already spotted some good places to crawl like the Dwejra hillclimb, Xlendi’s clay coast and Xwejni bay.
Dwejra makes for some really good crawling and beautiful scenery along the way. The Xlendi started out with some crawling and got to some clay like rock formations with a sort of hill climbs. Better seen in the videos below. Started crawling, then as the incline became steeper the Super Swampers began to skid and digging into the clay, going slow was no use.
So I said let’s try a faster climb, a proper hill climb, pressing down on the throttle and the bomber started to fight the rocks digging in or traction. It’s a whole new experience. Started out horrible, a struggle getting to the top, then toppling back down in rolls.
Time after time I started getting the hang of it and got to the top. What next? I looked for another climb, and the next and so on. Weeks later I went down to Selmun for the slopes there and again it was a blast. Crawling is so much fun but I never thought I’d enjoy these hill climbs even more.
With more power came more maintenance so I decided to give it a complete overhaul. Changes out all the screws to stainless steel, swapped out the plastic axels with alloys, new differentials all greased, took out the rear tire, swapped links out to alloy all the way from rod to tip, skid plates, higher torque servo, motor heatsink and fan and a few other upgrades.
Also put a two way digital switch so I can switch the motor cooling fan on and off as well as turning the lights on and off directly from the remote. Turned out to be a beast and one of my favorites, I would never part ways with it.
The Axial Bomber as a kit was discontinued around 2019 and the RTR it seems to be out of stock or lengthy periods of time from main RC online shops. You can still find some available on Amazon and eBay and some other online vendors. Must be old stock or making way for the new generation models but in my opinion its one of the best and most versatile off roader ever. Axial seem to be pushing the Axial Capra which I haven’t had a go at yet but if it’s half as good as the bomber then it will be a blast too.