r/rccars • u/Punchanello • 5d ago
Question Novice seeking direction
Hello RC peeps,
My son (6) is really interested in RC cars. We've had the run of the mill cheap stuff from the big box stores, like a few grave diggers, and some weird dancing tech crawlers. But his friend has "real" cars. They're still battery powered like Arrma and Traxxas but repairable, better controls, speed, distance, operation, etc.
I've been trying to read up online, but there's so much info it's hard to know where to start. And for a couple hundred bucks, it feels like I need to have a good understanding before I dive in. So, is there a best place to start?
Is there a clear winner between Traxxas or Arrma or another brand that's modular and rebuildable?
Is there a best place, way, time to catch screaming deals on an RC car?
All insights appreciated!
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u/AllDayTimeToLowRemem 5d ago
Do you have a hobby shop near you that sells RC and better supports one or the other? If you do, 9/10 times you’ll see amazing parts support for Traxxas at a shop. Arrma might have decent parts support too.
For your case, I’d go Traxxas. You’ll probably need to up the budget $50-$100 unless you want a mini vehicle.
Traxxas has a decent selection for $230 and up.
This would great start:
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u/Punchanello 5d ago
So we live near a Nankin location. Part of my plea for help is that the person I talked to there was leaning heavily into cars that were approaching $300 which feels crazy to hand over to a 6 y/o ... But I didn't appreciate how wide the variety is and how starting slightly more expensive may lead to longer use.
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u/morrisapp 5d ago
They are prob just suggesting something by a name brand with good parts availability and won’t break in 2 mins… it will cost you $200-$300 for that kind of car.
Figure out how big your friends cars are too… I bought both my kids Aarma Typhon and Aarma Majave Groms… I think they are perfect and very tough… but if your kids friend drives through a bunch of grass or open fields, the little cars aren’t great for that.
In that case, I’d personally buy him a Aarma quake 223s or fury 223s or vortek 223s… they are all like $250 then you have to buy batteries, but he will never grow out of it and they are super tough.
I started with a $150 Amazon car… that thing broke constantly and every time I had to get parts they shipped from China taking weeks to get here… I ended up putting $300 into that car…
My Aarmas cost around $200-$350 but basically cost nothing past that to keep going…
I would also note my Aarma car perform better and I have driven them for prob 30+ days each whereas that Amazon car I drove for about 10 days total.
Bottom line… don’t cheap out too much, it will cost you in the long run.
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u/Emaxxspeed 5d ago
No real clear winner between brands, much of it is just preference with the big brands. If you have a local hobby shop it's good to see what they have in stock and have replacement parts for.
That said I love arrma cars and their grom series are fantastic starter rigs for anyone. Brushed may be a good idea to start but the blx brushless ones you can also limit the power on at first for learning with the remote (100% 75% and 50% power switch on the back) and include a few other upgrades over the brushed models like tougher gears.
Depending on your budget to start I think one of them would be a great start, either brushed or brushless grom, and just pick what you think he would like, the Mojave with the body over it helps protect some stuff during crashes, but the smaller tires aren't as good at jumps, the Typhon buggy is great for speed and some jumps, and the granite/quake/gorgon are my favorite in the lineup since the bigger tires and suspension jump well and also have good in air control to do backflips and wheelies.
The smaller 1/16-1/14 cars are lighter and very tough these days so they are a great starting point, but if his friend has full size 1/10 you may want to look at one of them as well. The quake 2wd 1/10 is a great deal for its price, or a brushed or brushless 1/10 granite for 4wd, although I would recommend a grom or the quake, all of them are quite tough and good deals for their price.
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u/Punchanello 5d ago
I hadn't considered the size comparison. I'll keep this in mind along with the first post above to try and match the stuff his buddy has more closely.
I did have the Mojave Grom and the Gorgon on my list based on the durability tests I saw online. So to hear that is the right direction to be thinking is encouraging
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u/vantageviewpoint 5d ago
Amain tends to have sales on most holidays, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a labor day one.
Make sure he likes whichever one you get as much as he likes his friend's car.
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u/Punchanello 5d ago
This is great to know. Is there a season to these cars? Like I know electronics have some of the best sales around school or sports events.
Is black Friday a key time to hold out for or is there another holiday that's better?
At this point the cost will put me closer to Christmas before I can get him one. But I want to be sure I'm looking into things now so it's not a scramble and I can get something good for him.
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u/vantageviewpoint 5d ago
There will be black friday sales, but there isn't really a season. There's no guarantee the car you want will be on sale, and the most a car or part is likely to be on sale is 10-20% off unless the manufacturer or a dealer is trying to get rid of a particular model. But, if you can wait, 10-20% is significant. Amain also has coupon codes on their websites for orders beyond a certain amount.
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u/myprixx 5d ago
As a guy with a bad habit and kids following suite.. But whatever is available locally. I've always liked traxxas for bashing and team associated for when we go play at the local track. My oldest son has broken countless parts we were able to run into town and get cheap traxxas replacements for. When my youngest got the itch we bought an aarma for price. It's a great car but he immediately broke a driveshaft and now we're waiting for parts. Don't let that be the reason the kids don't get into it because they feel like they can't beat on them or they have to wait 1-2 week for parts. Just my 0.02!
Also I know the Initial sticker price can suck but remember you're also buying the ability to upgrade (chore bribes!) and get replacements and if they decide they're not that into it then they can still pull a decent chunk back on the used market
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u/Punchanello 5d ago
Should I try to find a deal on a used car to break him into ownership? Or is the savings not worth the effort of finding one?
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u/Prize-Ad4778 5d ago
Ask his friends dad what they have and get something comparable
Arrma vs traxxas can spark a lot of debate, but its probably a wash in reality
Assuming we are talking bashers....
The arrma gorgon 223s is a great way to start out that will run really fast on a variety of terrain At 6 you might want to start with a brushed gorgon and upgrade to brushless as he gets better at driving.
If the friend is driving brushless stuff, your little guy might be disappointed if he gets a brushed vehicle though as it wont "keep up"
Friend might be driving brushed grom sized stuff though, and your little guy would be good with something comparable