Remember this is my experience and opinion, so don't flame me. I love Align helis. I never considered flying anything else. That was a mistake. Recently I bought a Gaui 425 from
www.heliflightcenter.com for a factory promotional price of $79.00. Yes the price is correct. The quality IMHO is far superior to Align. When I flew it I found myself annoyed that I had been missing out on so much because of my prejudices, This heli will fly circles around any of my Aligns IMHO. I love it, period. So I will be selling several Aligns very soon.
My next challenge was trying an Outrage 550. Here I will state that without a doubt that the quality of Align cannot compare. Design is awesome, parts quality is a +10. Flying it needs to be experienced. I out maneuvers anything I have ever flown. Stable but explosively agile if you want it to be. Here's the big catch, the 550 is much cheaper to repair than my Trex 500, and it is a much bigger heli.
This is going to be an awesome year for me.