Personally I'd say that the DE versions aren't a waste of money as for 1/2 the price you get something that's 4/5 the quality. Slightly more plasticy but mine has as good a range and I didn't feel bad about cutting short the barrel on the full-stocked, long version I bought. But of course all tastes are different and I might have been luckier in my puchase compared to RC-1138