Looking for recommendations: 1st RC vehicle for my 4 year old son
#16

The Slash 2wd is always a safe bet, but I would go with an ECX Amp MT first and foremost. Super durable, parts are really cheap (even though you'll probably never break it in box stock form), and it has a very small radio for his 4 yr old sized hands. Best of all, they're only $139! Here's a picture of the transmitter from Big Squid RC's unboxing.


#17

Awesome gift for a 4-year-old...........or a 40-year-old!!! It's never too early (or late!) to get them started in this hobby

#18

Get him a cheap crawler that he can play around the home with for hours on a single charge
#19

I've got a used SC10 with a brushless system for $225 + shipping. You can put a block of foam behind the trigger so he can only pull the throttle back so far. Once he learns to drive you can remove the foam. It comes with a DX2E radio so it's ready to run. If you have a better radio, you can control the amount of steering and throttle power via software instead of a foam block. Having a mixing radio I found is really the key to make starting in this hobby easier. You can get the cheap TX/RX from Hobby King for $40 and up. The great thing about a better radio is it has multiple memory so one transmitter works with multiple vehicles making overall driving much easier. This hobby is about hand/eye coordination and muscle memory. Having one transmitter for all vehicles helps with muscle memory.
#20

Parts support locally, most likely they will break it. Most shops don't carry ecx parts in stock, the biggest problem I saw with ECX were the electronics, we did have a higher percentage of failures when compared to Traxxas, Traxxas parts for the most are available and in stock at most hobby shops, the local pep boys has slash parts in stock, mostly the parts that break..a arms, hubs and front end stuff. The slashes are a little more expensive than what Redcat or horizon offer but in the end you get what you pay for. And another I'd run nimh over lipos due to the fact that nimh can take more abuse without damage.
#21

Like a lot of other people have said 2wd Slash. I got my 4yr old and 6yr old slashes and they love them. They are cheap to fix and can take a beating. I also race turf and they like taking them out on to the track. We also have a big slash class at our local track. People of all ages run that class.
#22
Tech Rookie

Another vote for the slash. Just going down the same road with my youngest asking to be involved as well.
#23

My kids started with a crawler around the house at about 4. Then to a short course truck (SC10) with bumpers for a year or 2 of pure bashing. Started racing the SC on carpet and switched to buggies once they had descent car control.
#24

The Tamiya Fighter buggy has proven to be a solid starters buggy.
#25
Tech Initiate

I vote slash, best starter car in my opinion. Training mode, easy to find parts and lots of other parts if he really gets into it, lots of vids on youtube for mods, maintenance and repairs. Can't go wrong till you take it out of training and smoke that titan brushed motor lol.