Greetings to the vast community of micro helicopter enthusiasts.
I am trying to weigh up and decide between the 2 Helis mentioned above and I seek experienced opinion.
As I see it / read about it, a reasonable point summary is as follows:

Blade MSR:
Transmitter must be purchased as Mode 1 OR 2, not selectable after purchase
Transmitter can be subsequently upgraded to an alternative (Dx6i for example) if/when my hobby progresses - Heli (Rx'r) will bind
Charger: Holds 4 Li-Po batteries and can be charged 'in the field' via 'D' batteries
Motors: Brushless (I read) supposed to be more powerful? longer lasting?

NineEagles Solo Pro 11 (side issue - what's the difference from a pro I?)
Transmitter selectable after purchase as Mode 1 or 2 by flipping it around and reversing antenna.
Transmitter can only be substituted with other NineEagle units as Heli Rx'r not '2.4Ghz standard' - will not bind with Dx6i for example.
Transmitter will charge 1 Li-Po internally, but sucks 'AA' Alkalines to do it.
Transmitter has an LCD display - useful?
Charger: Holds 'only' 2 batteries, via 240V only (or an inverter arrangement)
Motors: Brushes (I read) less power, wears quicker, cheaper to replace?
Comes with an extremely tidy aluminium carry case that holds the lot!
About 10% cheaper ($230 against $255 approx - Melbourne retail)
Skids a bit fragile (significant because of the integral battery mount?)

Is the above summary accurate? Missing something?
Is the power difference noticable?
Different forums are inconclusive on wich is more agile, unstable, fun!

I look forward to the subsequent collection of opinions (that stay on topic!)

How's this for my first ever post! (besides being a bit long!)

Blade MSR

Both main and tail motors are brushed coreless, NOT brushless.
Original packaging is excellent for protection/transport. A flashy aluminium case doesn't make the model fly any better.

I'm a newb and I got both of these heli's this morning. I had both of them flying pretty quickly. I will be getting a DX6i for the MSR before the end of the week ... then I'll let you know if it makes a difference (so I've heard).
Now I said flying didn't I? Not really ... just some hovering and a little moving around. I can't tell you if one is faster than the other, but they were both pretty easy to get going and to be honest, I can't tell the difference. Seems to me the biggest difference is the cost of getting started. I will have already dropped more cash on the Blade MSR by the end of the week ... but it's a really cool little helicopter. (best to get what you can afford, and afford to fix/replace)
I do like the way the batteries pop into the Nine Eagle, no wires to deal with. That's nice. It didn't require binding because it's pre-bound for the radio. I do wish that I could use the DX6i with it ... but not a huge deal.

electrotor is spot on about the box being OK for protection/transport. But it would be kind of cool to have a nice case I don't have one. And although these mini heli's are not super expensive, they aren't cheap either.

But I'm a newb ... my opinion means little.

For the prices you quoted I would go with the MSR.

But Hobbykings price on the Nine eagles would change that.

yes its just 10% cheaper but you need to buy a dx6i to get the most out of the MSR how much does a dx6i costs? thats if you dont have one yet.

what matters most is the opinions of forumers who owns both msr and NE.

Oversize rc in dandenong have the pro for $165 for the deluxe kit, crashed my pro in FFF into a 300mm h beam 6 meters up at work today and it landed right way up after hitting the ground and i just flew away without a prob cheers scott

Re: electrotor
Sorry - brushed coreless - still getting familiar with the tech.
If the flite characteristics do not favour one over the other then I am looking for other aspects to help decide which to buy. I am hoping for someone with experience in both.

Re: jjmcmullen
Your opinion is valued as I am in a similar position to you, except I shall be buying only one and want to get the 'right' one.
The 'hovering and moving around' should be me also in a week or two! The Dx6i is only on the distant horizon for me and is over $200 I think. You seem to confirm the inability to bind the Nine Eagle with the Dx6i.

Re: szo
Hobbykings price on the Nine Eagles? will it just make me 'sad' if I knew?- I tend to buy in person. (Hobbykings in Sydney?) Dandenong reference below sounds promising

Re: mnmc10
don't have a Dx6i and cannot be certain I will be in a position any time soon to outlay the cash on it ($200+?)
Is the Nine Eagles Transmitter more 'capable' out-of-the-box when compared against the MSR?

We: scottyvisco
Where is Oversize rc in Dandenong? is the $165 for the Solo Pro II with the accessories included as mentioned earlier for $230?
It does sound robust - as I have also read for the MSR.

AND
Should I get distracted with the Walkera 4#3b? With its metal rotor head, larger battery and discrete swashplate servo's for a similar price to the other 2. I would really like to get the most satisfying heli for the bucks.

Well, right now they are $99 at hobbyking, but I remember them being around $60 a week ago.

There is simply no comparison between the mSR and the 4#3b. Nothing against Walkera gear, I own some, but in terms of flyability the mSR is epic in that you spend the entire charge flying the heli. With the Walkera you spend the entire flight trying to keep from crashing. Both helis are flying, the mSR is just a lot more fun.

And having seen a bit of the Nine Eagles stuff, I doubt there is any comparison there either.

I work for one of the largest hobby shops in the Southwest US. I have personally sold several 100's of the mSR and have found it to be the greatest bargain in micro heli, with a couple of caveats. Durable, incredibly easy to fly, good looking in the air and on the ground, nice long flight times, and capable of some really sweet aerobatics, you cant go wrong with it.

1. The tail boom and skids are occasionally a bit fragile. But I suppose that could be said of any flying machine, you crash hard enough and stuff breaks. I have a store demo that has literally 200+ crashes on it and I have never broken a part on it. (I do crashes as part of my sales demo.) I bang it into walls, boxes, glass display cases and occasionally myself and it just keeps on going like the Energizer bunny. But I do work on a lot of helis that have tail motor damage, likely from failure to cut power on impact on the part of new pilots, but still something I see quite a bit. Skids the same way. Would be less of an issue if they didnt sell so fast that parts have been in short supply the last month or so. But supposedly there is a huge new shipment of parts becoming available early this month.

2. The stock transmitter is pretty awesome for a inexpensive to manufacture beginner set up, with dual rates and digital trims. But moving to a DX5e or DX6i is well worth the additional expense. At $60 for the DX5e, its not exactly a huge expense, and a DX6i is $150 and absolutely worth the expense if you intend to be in the hobby for any length of time as it will fly 95% of anything you might try to throw at it, including all the amazing micro stuff Horizon is producing.

As someone who flies pretty much everything, and sells/works with helis and planes on a daily basis...I would highly recommend the mSR if you want to get the most 'bang' for your buck.

Whoops, I now see that Hobbyking is HongKong not Sydney and $99 US$?.... We get a bit ripped sometimes in Australia it seems.

watersharer (that's a quote from MASH is it not? ("Time wounds all heels"))
Thank-you for the informed opinion
You advocate well for the mSR (I am leaning that way) and it makes my indecisiveness a bit easier by leaving the Walkera to one side.
Does anyone have similar experience, but with the Solo Pro II, that would care to push its strengths?

If I had a choice between a flight sim and the mSR, I'd take the mSR in a hearbeat. In a week I went from flying tail-in to hovering in all orientations and simple circuits. Yes, I bashed it up a bit and had to replace a tail ($15), landing skids ($3?) and blade grips ($?), but at the same time I actually learned how to fly a single rotor heli in all orientations.

I can say I learned to fly because after a week of the mSR I dragged out my brushed 4#3b and was able to hover it nose-in in my living room. Before the mSR, I'd never done anything nose in on a heli, except crash it.

The quote is from Robert Heinlein.

Originally Posted by watersharer

The quote is from Robert Heinlein.

I am only an egg.

Originally Posted by RasticeB

Whoops, I now see that Hobbyking is HongKong not Sydney and $99 US$?.... We get a bit ripped sometimes in Australia it seems.

Thats not the deluxe kit though. Whats extra in that?