At this point I have about 20 hours of crawl time on the Phoenix RTR. This includes pretty varying terrain... loamy trails of the forest floor, jagged granite, huge shale piles, sandstone, boulders, etc.. I put some pictures in the photo thread.

What I like:
I really like the VFD trans. Having the option to shift OD is really awesome. Dig is pretty killer if you know how and when to use it.
The suspension functions really well right out of the box. I love the way the truck sidehills and descends. I am happy with the way it climbs. I have zero brass on the truck and relocated the battery to the front with a home-made kydex tray.
I like the UI of the transmitter.

What I'm not a fan of:
The straight axles. Some will say they are more realistic or scale or whatever... But this is what I like, not necessarily what you'd theoretically like. I have had this truck out several times with guys who were running TRX4's in various configurations, and another Phoenix with portals. I was significantly limited by my axles to the point of 'significant frustration'. This includes times when another truck that was poorly set up and driven my someone with less skill was able to pass an obstacle or line that the little straight axle Phoenix couldn't. This happened too many times for the straight axles to be charming. When my axles didn't hold me up, I was able to pass lines that the other trucks couldn't. For me, this is too much evidence against the axles.
VFD. Shifting between OD settings can be finicky because you can end up in RWD at inopportune moments. It is sometimes precarious depending on the position the truck is in because the act of shifting combined with gear slop can be enough to roll the truck when you are at your limits in a sidehill. This thing is also very loud. Like ridiculously loud.
I don't like the body mounting hinge and the rear pin location. I'm not a fan of the body either. Maybe it's the boring grey color and lack of detail. Maybe its how heavy it seems with the rear cage. I'm not sure. I just never fell in love with it. ...And I daily drove an FJ for a decade...
The stock motor and steering servo are meh. By comparison, I have 40+ hours on my TRX4 High Trail and have never felt like I needed to change the motor. I did swap the traxxas servo out.
I don't like the location of the button for channel 3 because it is too close to the other controls on the radio which can get you into a settings menu when you really want to activate dig. It's user error but I think it's induced by poor design of the controls.
The stock wheels and tires came off almost instantly, even after trying better foam than stock.

I'm sure I could think of more but these things stood out the most and what led me to my decision and you're probably bored by now anyway, if you are even reading this.

I'm not spending $500 to put portal axles on a truck that should have come with them, cost less than the axles to begin with, and will not significantly outperform my $350 TRX4 Sport after I've added the portals. So what the heck do I do with this thing?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...7e99a01e4f.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...c161526f38.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...92086a577e.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...9116d9c191.jpg

Thats probably the first time ever I read that straight axles are "limiting"...somethings not right with your rig then :rolleyes:

You trolling or joking? I can't tell.

I had no idea I wanted crawler prior to joining this forum

Spent many years racing, bashing, whatever, and crawling is by far more enjoyable for me.

Well it depends...saying that Portals are flat out better is kinda off....it depends mostly on where you driving your car. So , at the last SUDICs competition in Portugal the first five runner ups in the Performance scale class were straight axles...thats pretty competive for me :rolleyes: