Redcat Racing Electric Volcano EPX Truck with 2.4GHz Radio, 7.2v 1800mAh NiMh and Charger Included (1/10 Scale), Red

I bought this for Christmas for my son who is 5 years old. I liked it so much I bought myself brushless epx Pro which I have also reviewed and is a fantastic truck as well. He has been running this truck pretty hard (and crashing a lot) for 3 months now and I haven't had to replace anything except the front bumper. I have driving this truck as well and I have definitely bashed it and I have to say it's extremely durable and I don't think you can beat it for the price. Since it's hobby grade you can always upgrade if you want to give it a boost in performance or durability. There are a few things you need to do before you run it for first time and I do have one or two recommendations so here goes:First thing we did before we drove it was set the gear mesh. This step is imperative as it ensures the gears won't strip from being too loose and also ensures if they're not too tight which could burn up the motor or ESC. We really didn't have to do much else out of the box except for charge the battery.I definitely do recommend getting an upgraded charger when you buy this truck they really don't cost that much and they cut your charge time and a half. You're going to run nimh batteries I also recommend getting at least a 3800 mAh battery. I would even go so far as to recommend purchase the battery box as an upgrade and run this with 2s lipo battery, you won't be disappointed, it's a serious performance enhancement.The batteries that was included failed after about 2 weeks and I called Redcat and they told me how to file a warranty claim. Within one week I received not only a new battery but one that was 200mah larger than the one that came in the box with the truck, free upgrades are always cool.One more thing to remember, if you do upgrade to LiPO batteries you need to switch the ESC to Lipo mode by moving the jumper. This will enable the low voltage cutoff so you don't ruin your battery. You can see how to do this by Consulting the ESC manual that is included with the truck.In conclusion I definitely recommend this truck to anyone starting out in RC. You don't have to spend a ton of money to get a really good amount of performance and durability. This is an extremely well-built machine in general but even better when you consider the price point. If they can handle my five-year-old I think I can handle pretty much anything

This is the third Redcat Racing truck i have bought in the last few months, two Volcano EPX entry level brushed trucks, and one a little bit faster Caldera brushless with the LiPo battery. The two Volcano's were gifts for my 6 and 8 year old nephews and the Caldera was so I could play along. First off, six may be a bit young, I will admit that now. On our second outing my 6 year old nephew panicked a little gripped the throttle wide open and sent a 20-25 mph plastic truck straight into the side of the garage, not great but held up pretty well considering. Had to replace the steering servo mount, the lower bumper bracket, one wheel hub, and one drive shaft, sounds like a lot but parts are really reasonable and shipping was cheap from Redcat, pretty sure it was all right around twenty bucks. We learned right away if you are going to have these things buy a nice toolkit to fix and maintain them. We actually had his older brother help fix it so all around it was actually a great teaching/learning moment about mechanics and how things work. The 8 year old nephew is a master at these things already though and does really well racing, driving, jumping his truck so that would probably be about the youngest I would go unless you want to fix them after each use. The Caldera is an awesome truck, super fast and durable. First thing I would do on all of these is put some lock tight on the screws that go into the front wheel hubs, if you are going to be jumping them you def need to do this, or else you will lose them and be waiting for replacement screws until you can drive again. And I agree with some of the other reviews on here you should either Gorilla Tape or Electrical Tape the entire inside of the body shells, they look great but aren't that durable when you send your truck sliding on its roof at 20-30 MPH. Anyway this trucks are a great deal for the money and the 4x4 is must, if you are just starting out you cannot do wrong with these things.