The short answer is this: the new 1/7 ARRMA TALION 6S EXB is not simply the 1/8 Talion made larger. It feels more deliberate than that. The new truck is longer, lower in attitude, more planted at speed, and much more committed to the idea of being a true off-road speed truck rather than a fast truggy with a familiar name. If you liked the older Talion, that difference is easy to understand. If you never owned one, it explains why this return has landed with more weight than a normal new-release announcement.

The new Talion matters because it finally feels like ARRMA leaned fully into what the platform always hinted at. 1/8 Talions were already respected for being quick, balanced, and more composed than some bigger bashers. But this new 1/7 version pushes the identity further. It looks longer because it is. It sits lower. It carries itself like a truck meant to stay flatter at speed. And once you step back from the spec sheet, that is really the whole story: this version feels less like a compromise machine and more like a truck built around one clear idea.

That idea is simple. Talion is no longer trying to win the argument for most dramatic stunt truck in the lineup. It is trying to be the truck you grab when you want speed, stability, and confidence on real surfaces that are not perfectly smooth. That may sound like a small distinction, but in practice it changes how the truck is judged, how it should be driven, and even how it should be powered.

Why people still cared when Talion came back

Some RC releases are interesting for a week and then disappear into the same noise as everything else. Talion was never really that kind of name. Even while it was gone, it stayed in the background as one of those ARRMA models that people kept bringing up when talking about older favorites, balanced designs, and trucks they wished had not disappeared. That matters because it changes the expectations. This was never going to be judged like a brand-new platform with no history behind it. The new truck had to feel like a real Talion, not just a badge on a modern 6S parts bin special.

That is one reason this release feels stronger than it might look at first glance. It is not just a return. It is a return with a point. The new Talion still has that fast-standing-still profile that made the older truck so easy to remember, but now the hardware underneath supports that look more honestly. Instead of feeling like a truck that happens to be quick, it feels like a truck that was built from the start to behave well when the speed gets real.

And that is where the emotional side of this release actually connects to the practical side. People did not want Talion back just to look at it on a shelf. They wanted it back because the old truck had a very specific balance that other ARRMA models never fully replaced. The new 1/7 version does not recreate that balance exactly, but it does preserve the spirit of it in a more modern, more speed-focused form.

The real upgrade is the platform, not just the electronics

The easiest mistake to make with the new Talion is to start the story with the power system and stop there. Yes, the modern electronics matter. Yes, the truck can be geared for serious top speed. Yes, there are EXB hardware gains worth talking about. But the biggest upgrade is still the one you can understand before turning a wheel: the platform itself is now more honest about what Talion wants to be.

The truck is visibly longer. It looks stretched because it is stretched. The body stays low and sleek. The stance makes more sense as a speed-truck stance than before. The longer rear section changes the whole visual impression of the vehicle, but more importantly it changes how the truck behaves in the category it now clearly wants to own.

That does not mean the electronics are irrelevant. It means the electronics are not the first thing that defines the truck. What defines it is the way the new 1/7 format supports speed and composure together. A truck can always be made quicker with enough gearing, enough battery, and enough optimism. What is harder to fake is the feeling that the platform itself still wants to cooperate once the speed arrives. Talion now feels much more like that kind of platform.

New 1/7 Arrma Talion vs 1/8 Talion: what actually changed

The most useful way to compare the new truck with the 1/8 Talion is not to ask whether one is simply better. It is better to ask what ARRMA changed the truck to do more clearly. Once you frame it that way, the answer becomes much cleaner.

The 1/8 Arrma Talion already had the reputation of being one of the more balanced ARRMA 6S vehicles. It had speed, it had enough truggy practicality, and it did not feel as exaggerated in one direction as some other trucks in the family. The new 1/7 Talion takes that foundation and shifts it harder toward speed-truck behavior. The wheelbase is longer. The body profile is more obviously stretched. The truck feels less like an all-around 6S machine with speed credentials and more like a purpose-built off-road speed platform that happens to still be a basher.

That distinction matters. A lot of the conversation around the new Talion ends up circling back to the same point: yes, it still looks like a Talion, but it now behaves like a truck that has chosen its lane much more aggressively. For some 1/8 Talion 6S fans, that is exactly the right move. For others, especially people who loved the more compact 1/8 feel, it may take a little longer to decide whether the new truck kept the right parts of the original personality.

In practice, the easiest way to describe the difference is this: the 1/8 Talion felt like a very good fast 6S ARRMA. The new Talion feels like a speed truck first.

Why the new Talion feels so stable

The new Talion’s strongest argument is not that it posts a big top-speed number. Its strongest argument is that it makes speed feel usable. Those are not the same thing.

Some RC trucks feel exciting because they are always half a mistake away from a scene. That can be fun, but it is not the same as confidence. The new Talion feels like the truck that lets you stay in the throttle longer on imperfect ground because the platform itself wants to help rather than argue. It reads the surface more calmly. It does not come across as eager to lift, tip, or turn every rough patch into a panic correction.

This is where the longer wheelbase earns its place. The truck feels more willing to stay settled. The lower, flatter attitude helps the whole package feel more attached to the ground. On real roads, rougher asphalt, hard dirt, and mixed surfaces, that becomes easier to appreciate than any single spec claim. It is one thing to say a truck is fast. It is another thing to say it still feels worth pushing when the road is not perfect.

That is also why the Talion does not need to be evaluated like a pure stunt truck. If someone wants the vehicle most likely to entertain from every angle, every jump, and every bad idea, there are other trucks that lean further into that role. Talion is doing something more focused. It is trading a little of that chaos for speed confidence.

1/7 Talion 6S vs Kraton 6S EXB: same family, different purpose

This is the comparison everyone makes, and there is no reason to avoid it. The Talion and the Kraton 6S EXB now live close enough in buyer intent, price territory, and general ARRMA ecosystem logic that a lot of people will naturally end up deciding between them.

If you already own a Kraton 6S EXB, the Talion is not going to feel like a mandatory second purchase just because it exists. The shared family DNA is too obvious for that. But that does not mean the Talion is redundant. It means the choice comes down to personality rather than hardware overlap.

The Kraton still makes more sense if you want a taller, more playful, more stunt-friendly 6S basher with a bigger appetite for that classic “send it and see” energy. The Talion makes more sense if what you want is lower, flatter, faster-feeling ground behavior with a more speed-truck identity. It is less about which one is more capable in a vacuum and more about what kind of driving experience you actually enjoy.

That is why describing the new Talion as “just a longer Kraton” misses the point. Shared parts do not automatically create the same driving experience. The tire direction, the body shape, the chassis attitude, and the whole visual and dynamic posture of the truck point toward a different goal. Talion feels like ARRMA took the modern EXB 6S foundation and then pushed it toward fast, planted off-road speed instead of all-around spectacle.