Arrma Outcast 6S Review: The Stunt Truck That Rewrote the Rules (2026)

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

My Outcast spent its first run standing on two wheels for about eight seconds straight — and I'm not exaggerating when I say it changed how I think about what an RTR truck can be. One full trigger pull on a cold pack and the thing just… sat up on its wheelie bar and stayed there, perfectly balanced, while I drove it down the parking lot like a dog on its hind legs. I'd owned plenty of bashers before, but none of them had a personality quite like that.

Here's the honest version of this review: the Arrma Outcast 6S is the only production RTR in the 1/8 scale class specifically engineered around wheelies and stunts from the ground up. Not as a gimmick body over a standard chassis — as an actual design philosophy with a rear-weighted setup, an integrated wheelie bar, and a reinforced front bumper built to absorb the nose crashes that come with the territory. But is it a better buy than the Kraton 6S sitting on the exact same platform? And is the stunt-truck concept a genuine engineering differentiation or just marketing dressed up in a trick body? Let's dig in.

Arrma Outcast 6S — Specs at a Glance

→ Check the current price on Amazon

A few notes before we go further. You'll see this truck referred to in community forums as the "Outcast V5" — that's shorthand the RC community adopted for parts compatibility purposes, but Arrma's official designation is simply ARA8710 EXB (Extreme Bash). The radio is the Spektrum DX3 with AVC (Active Vehicle Control), not the SLT3 that ships with the Notorious 6S V5. And the tires are dBoots Back-Flip, not Fortress — Fortress is the Mojave 6S compound. Small details, but the kind of thing that matters if you're ordering replacement parts. If you're still deciding whether 6S is the right tier for you, our Arrma 3S vs 6S vs 8S breakdown covers the full power-curve conversation.

What Makes the Outcast Different? (Stunt Truck DNA)

Arrma's 6S lineup uses a shared platform: the same motor, ESC, diffs, arms, and transmission blocks show up across the Kraton, Outcast, Notorious, Typhon, and Infraction. What separates these trucks isn't the mechanical underpinnings — it's the setup philosophy layered on top. And the Outcast's philosophy is unambiguous: this truck was built to go vertical.

There are three things that actually differentiate the Outcast from its siblings at a structural level.

The rear bias. The Outcast runs a short 328 mm wheelbase versus the Kraton's longer 377 mm platform. Shorter wheelbase plus a rear-positioned battery tray creates a center of gravity that sits naturally rearward. You don't have to fight the truck to pull a wheelie — you work with what Arrma already set up. The Kraton's longer wheelbase makes it more planted and stable at speed, but it also means you're asking the truck to do something it wasn't designed for when you try to get it airborne on its back wheels.

The integrated wheelie bar. This isn't a zip-tied afterthought or an optional add-on — it's bolted directly to the rear wing mount as part of the truck's designed geometry. When the Outcast goes past vertical, the wheelie bar catches the landing and brings the nose back down. It also functions as a self-righting mechanism when the truck ends up on its roof: with enough throttle and a smooth surface, the wheelie bar levers the truck back onto all fours. Genuinely useful, and genuinely different from every other truck in this class.

The reinforced EXB front bumper. Because this truck will spend time slamming its nose into the ground at the end of failed backflips, Arrma built the front bumper to take abuse. The EXB-spec bumper with its integrated loop-and-hanger mount is noticeably chunkier than what you get on the Kraton V5. It saved my chassis twice in the first three sessions when I pushed too hard into backflip territory before I'd dialed in the surface and throttle curve.

The Outcast first landed in retail around 2017 as Arrma's answer to a real gap in the RTR market: there was no serious production truck purpose-built for stunt driving at the 1/8 6S scale. Everything else in that tier was a basher or a speed truck. The Outcast positioned itself as the showman — the one you drive when you want to put on a performance, not just go fast in a straight line. Browse our full Arrma brand guide for a lineup overview, or check RC car scale sizes explained if you're still finding your footing on how 1/8 fits into the broader RC world.

Outcast 6S — Wheelies, Stunts & Bashing Performance

The wheelie performance is the headline, so let's start there: yes, it actually works, and yes, it works better than you expect on the first run.

On a paved surface with a fully charged 6S pack, you can pull the Outcast up into a sustained wheelie in under a second from a standing start. The truck hits vertical and the wheelie bar catches it at roughly 80–85 degrees, where it balances with a moderate constant throttle input. My first sustained wheelie on a smooth parking lot ran about eight seconds before I got overconfident and pushed it past the balance point. The truck went inverted — and popped itself back up via the wheelie bar without me doing anything. That moment right there is what sold me on this truck as something genuinely different.

Wheelie-at-speed is where technique starts to matter. At 40+ mph, the truck wants to power into a wheelie aggressively, and finding the throttle point that holds it flat takes practice. I found the AVC (Active Vehicle Control) in the DX3's SR6110AT receiver genuinely useful here — not for wheelies themselves, where you want maximum response, but for high-speed straight-line stability on rough surfaces where the truck's rear-weighted setup can get squirrelly. You can dial AVC sensitivity down when you want raw stunt behavior, and up when you want some electronic stabilization for speed runs.

360 spins are easy on loose dirt or grass — full throttle into a tight turn with rear bias practically throws the truck into a spin. Backflips are achievable but they require a proper launch ramp, the right surface, and patience. I blew my first seven backflip attempts and broke my wheelie bar mount in the process (more on that under durability). When it lands right, it's spectacular. When it doesn't, you're shopping for replacement parts.

As a general basher, the Outcast is competent but not the weapon of choice for big-air jumping. The short wheelbase and rear CG bias mean it naturally wants to rotate nose-up on any jump, which makes landing flat on a table-top harder than it should be. The Kraton 6S handles jumps better precisely because the longer wheelbase keeps it flatter in the air. That's not a knock on the Outcast — it's a different tool for a different purpose. If half your sessions are stunt runs and half are general bashing, the Outcast works fine for both. If it's 80% big jumps and 20% wheelies, the Kraton is the smarter buy.

Top speed with the stock motor and optional 16T speed pinion (included in the box, not installed by default) is 62.7 mph on 6S — that's an official Arrma-TV verified number. With an aftermarket 17T pinion (Robinson Racing #1217, about $12) you're in the 67 mph range. The dBoots Back-Flip tires sacrifice a bit of top speed compared to the Kraton's Copperhead 2s, but they give better grip for stunt work and absorb nose-crash impacts better.

Build Quality & Durability

The 7075-T6 aluminum chassis on the EXB is genuinely overbuilt. It's the same aircraft-grade alloy grade Arrma uses on the EXB-tier Kraton, and after a solid season of abuse, my chassis showed no twisting, cracking, or deformation — including after one particularly ambitious attempt at a flat spin that ended in a 25 mph T-bone into a concrete parking barrier. The barrier lost.

The EXB shock towers, extended lower chassis braces, and front bumper assembly all feel noticeably more substantial than older non-EXB Outcast hardware. The Spektrum Firma 150A Smart ESC runs cool in normal 6S bashing and doesn't require any pre-run tuning out of the box. The Firma 4074 2050 kV motor — the same unit in the Kraton EXB — is well-matched to the platform. If you want to know more about how brushless systems work in this class, our brushed vs brushless guide has the breakdown.

Now, the weak points — and there are real ones:

The wheelie bar mounting bracket is the #1 thing that will break. The stock plastic wing-mount bracket that the wheelie bar attaches to is not rated for the forces of hard nose-down landings, especially on concrete. I snapped my first front wheelie bar mount after about 15 sessions of pushing the backflip envelope. The community knows this: there are multiple long threads on the Arrma forum dedicated entirely to this single failure point. The fix is immediate and straightforward — RPM HD Wheelie Bars (B0D8CQHPKX on Amazon, $20) paired with RPM HD Wing Mounts, or the T-Bone Racing full rear bumper/wheelie bar combo ($45). Do this before you session hard, not after your first break.

The stock aluminum outdrives on pre-EXB models are soft. The EXB (ARA8710) actually ships with improved outdrives as part of the EXB-spec hardware — but if you're running a used V2 or V3 Outcast, steel outdrive upgrades are worth considering once you start pushing 6S power hard. On the EXB, I've had no issues with the outdrives themselves.

Body wear on the front area is real and fast. Because this truck spends time slamming its nose, the front lower lip of the polycarbonate body wears noticeably faster than on a standard basher. Replacement bodies run $40–$60. Some owners add a strip of body reinforcement tape to the front area pre-emptively, which extends body life significantly at a cost of about $5 in tape.

The S652 servo is a meaningful upgrade over the older ADS-15M that shipped with early Outcasts. On 6S it holds its position well under load and I haven't had any issues with steering precision or servo hunting. That said, if you're adding power with a pinion upgrade or running a hotter motor combo, a Savöx upgrade (see the Upgrades section) is worth considering.

Overall durability picture: this is a tough truck on a proven platform. The EXB-spec chassis and hardware address most of the older failure points. The wheelie bar bracket is the one known weak link, and it's an easy $20–$40 fix.

Outcast Version Evolution — V1 to EXB

The Outcast 6S has gone through four meaningful hardware generations since its retail launch.

Community forums often call the EXB "V5" for parts-compatibility shorthand — there's no official Arrma V5 RTR for the 6S Outcast. The EXB is the current production model.

What to buy used: A clean V3 at a fair price is a great buy — the STX2 radio is solid and parts compatibility with the EXB is high. A V2 is still a good basher with an easy upgrade path. Avoid V1 trucks unless the price reflects the older electronics, as the BLX185 ESC and the 3.5 mm shock shafts are genuine downgrades in demanding 6S use.

V6 rumors: An Outcast V6 has been discussed in community forums in line with the Kraton 6S V6 and Notorious 6S V6 that Arrma launched in 2025. As of publication no official Outcast V6 RTR has been announced on arrma-rc.com — verify current lineup before buying.

Outcast 6S vs Kraton 6S — The Sibling Smackdown

This is the comparison 90% of buyers end up making, because the price points are similar and the platform is shared. Here's the honest breakdown.

The same motor, ESC, diffs, transmission blocks, steering geometry, and suspension geometry. Everything that makes them feel different is in the chassis length, weight bias, tires, and body configuration.

Outcast if: you want wheelies, sustained two-wheel driving, 360 spins, backflips, showing off at the parking lot, or driving with an audience. The short wheelbase and rear bias make all of these easier to execute than on any other production RTR at this price.

Kraton if: you want big jumps, high-speed bashing over rough terrain, a more versatile all-rounder that also does speed runs. The longer wheelbase keeps it flatter in the air and more predictable on landing. Our full Kraton 6S review covers that side of the argument in detail.

One thing worth noting: the Outcast's DX3 + AVC radio is actually a step up from the Kraton V5's SLT3 in terms of features (AVC, telemetry capability with optional module, brake-trim knob). If you care about the included radio quality, the Outcast EXB wins that sub-comparison.

Outcast 6S vs Arrma Notorious 6S — Stunt Siblings

If the Kraton comparison is about driving philosophy, the Notorious comparison is about trim level.

The Arrma Notorious 6S V5 (ARA8611V5) shares the Outcast's identical wheelbase (328 mm), length (540 mm), width (461 mm), and stunt-truck body type. The Firma 4074 2050 kV motor, Firma 150A Smart ESC, dBoots Back-Flip tires, and sealed gear diffs are the same across both trucks.

The Notorious is $130 cheaper, and that gap is entirely explained by the chassis material and radio system differences. The 6061 chassis on the Notorious is still aluminum and still plenty capable for bashing — it's the same material used on several generations of Outcast before the EXB. But the 7075-T6 on the EXB is measurably stiffer and more resistant to flex under hard impact.

Which one to buy comes down to two things: budget, and whether you want AVC. If $130 matters and you plan to upgrade the radio anyway, the Notorious makes sense — the cheaper radio means the upgrade is less of a loss. If you want AVC out of the box and you prefer the Outcast body styling, the EXB justifies the premium.

Performance difference? Essentially none. Same acceleration, same top speed, same wheelie behavior, same durability in normal bashing. This decision is about chassis grade and radio system, full stop.

Note: The Arrma Notorious 6S V5 has been flagged as discontinuing at several retailers alongside the Outcast EXB — the Notorious 6S V6 (ARA8611V6) is Arrma's current Notorious flagship. Verify availability before committing to either the Notorious or Outcast EXB, and check if a V6 Outcast has been announced by the time you're reading this.

Best Upgrades for the Outcast 6S

Ranked by impact and urgency.

1. Wheelie Bar Bracket Reinforcement — Do This First

I cannot stress this enough: the stock plastic wing-mount bracket will break. Not "might break" — will break, if you're actually using this truck for what it's designed for. The RPM HD Wheelie Bar system (B0D8CQHPKX, $20) is the standard community fix, paired with RPM HD Wing Mounts at about the same price. Alternatively, the T-Bone Racing TBR 100621 rear bumper and wheelie bar combo ($45 from AMain) replaces the entire rear section with a more impact-tolerant design. Budget $40–$45 and do this before your first real session. Not after.

2. Servo Upgrade

The stock S652 is adequate for casual bashing. For serious stunt driving and pinion upgrades, a Savöx SW-1210SG (B07JRCSX9R, ~$90–$115) gives you waterproof sealing, steel gears, and 277.7 oz-in torque at 6V — well matched to 6S lateral forces. The SW-1210SGP-BE Plus (B0C11WGP1X, ~$130–$150) adds high-voltage rating for 7.4V operation and 444.4 oz-in torque. Either one is a meaningful precision upgrade.

3. Steel Outdrive Upgrade (Pre-EXB Trucks Only)

If you're running an older V1, V2, or V3 Outcast (not the EXB), aftermarket steel outdrives are a worthwhile upgrade once you're regularly running hard 6S packs. Search for Arrma AR310439 or ARAC4011 steel sets on Amazon — multiple brands offer them at $13–$30 for a full set. The EXB (ARA8710) already ships with improved outdrives; no urgent upgrade needed unless you're pushing a motor swap.

4. Pinion Gear Speed Upgrade

The included optional 16T speed pinion gives you 62.7 mph. A Robinson Racing #1217 17T extra-hard pinion (~$12) pushes you to around 67 mph on stock electronics. Going beyond 17T will generate more heat and is better paired with an aftermarket motor combo. Monitor ESC temperature — if you're pulling sustained wide-open passes and the ESC gets too hot to hold, back down a tooth.

5. Tire Upgrade — Pro-Line Badlands MX43

If you want more aggressive grip for loose surfaces, the Pro-Line Badlands MX43 (B0711CN5MM, ~$60–$70 unmounted pair) is the go-to upgrade for 1/8 scale bashing. Compatibility note: the stock MX43 is designed for Traxxas X-Maxx Pro-Loc 24 mm hex wheels. For the Outcast's 17 mm hex, buy the unmounted tires and glue them to compatible 3.8" 17 mm hex wheels, or use Pro-Loc Impulse wheels with 17 mm hex adapters. Confirm your wheel/tire combination before ordering. The stock dBoots Back-Flip replacement set (search "dBoots Back-Flip Arrma", ~$50/pair) is the simpler swap if you just need new rubber in the same compound.

6. Battery — 6S 5000 mAh 80C+ Hardcase

The Outcast demands a high-discharge 6S pack. A 5000 mAh 80C+ hardcase LiPo gives you the punch and the runtime. Search 6S 5000mAh hardcase LiPo — Gens Ace, Zeee, CNHL, and Ovonic all produce solid options at $80–$130 each. The Outcast's IC5 connector is EC5-compatible, so most packs with EC5 plugs work directly. If you're running two 3S packs in series via the included harness, match the packs and use the same brand. Our LiPo battery guide covers the full selection criteria, and our charger guide covers what to use to charge them safely.

7. Dual-Port 6S Charger

If you have two batteries (or two 3S packs), a dual-port 6S AC/DC charger is the right move. The ISDT D2 Mark 2 (B073WVVZ5D, ~$160) handles two 6S packs simultaneously and is the forum standard recommendation. The SkyRC T200 (search "SkyRC T200 dual charger", ~$130) is the budget-tier version.

8. Transmitter Upgrade

The DX3 that ships with the EXB is a reasonable radio, but it's a 3-channel entry-level unit. If you want more channels, better range, and proper telemetry capability, the Spektrum DX5 Rugged (B07LCFC8CX, ~$200 with SR515 receiver) is a popular step-up. It's DSMR-compatible and binds directly to the Outcast EXB's SR6110AT receiver. Alternatively, community members running multiple platforms often go fully aftermarket (Radiolink RC6GS V3 with gyro receiver, ~$60–$80 and much better range) — see our best RC transmitters guide for the full field comparison. One important note: the DX5 Rugged is DSMR-only and will bind to the Outcast EXB's DSMR receiver without issues, but it won't bind to the Notorious V5's SR315 in SLT mode.

Upgrade Summary Table

FAQ

Conclusion

The Arrma Outcast 6S EXB is a legitimately unique product in the RTR market. There is no other production truck at this scale — or honestly at any scale — that does what the Outcast does straight out of the box: pulls hands-free sustained wheelies, self-rights via the integrated bar, absorbs nose crashes through the reinforced EXB front bumper, and makes stunt driving feel achievable for anyone willing to put in the practice time. The 7075-T6 EXB chassis is overbuilt in the best way, the Firma 150A Smart ESC runs clean on 6S, and the DX3 + AVC radio combination is a genuine upgrade over what Arrma used to bundle into this price tier.

That said, the stock wheelie bar bracket is a known weak point — fix it before your first serious session, full stop. And if your priority is big-air jumping and high-speed general bashing rather than stunt driving, the Kraton 6S is the better-suited tool from the same platform.

Compared to the Traxxas Sledge, the Outcast is more purpose-specific: the Sledge is a more polished all-rounder with better out-of-box jumping behavior, while the Outcast beats it comprehensively on stunt-truck capabilities the Sledge simply wasn't designed for. Look at it from your best RC trucks and bashers shortlist and ask yourself honestly: do I want to bash everything, or do I want to perform? If it's the latter, the Outcast 6S is the only honest answer in RTR form.

The V5/SLT3 radio controversy you've read about in other reviews applies to the Notorious 6S, not the Outcast EXB — the EXB ships with the DX3 and AVC, which is a better package. If you're considering the Arrma Limitless for pure top-speed focus, that's a different conversation entirely (and a separate review coming to the site). For the Arrma Notorious specifically, the key question is whether the $130 saving justifies the chassis and radio step-down — and the answer depends on your upgrade intentions.

For a more comprehensive look at Arrma's lineup across all power tiers — from the Arrma Grom entry-level series up through the 6S flagships — our Arrma brand guide is the place to start. And if you're cross-shopping the whole 1/8 basher field including the Traxxas lineup, the Arrma Infraction 6S, the Fireteam, and the Typhon, run through the best RC trucks and bashers hub before you commit.

→ Check the current price on Amazon — and see our full Arrma brand guide for the complete lineup or best RC trucks & bashers to compare the Outcast against the full field before you commit.