yeah that's what I'm saying though, the monetary perspective. my friends, it was great for them to get a cheap redcat to bash and crash and break and fix, but i think that redcat's fundamental flaw is in developing business relationships, and design quality. and those 2 things put together, make it a company that won't last. i've heard from countless hobby shops that they are just a pain to work with, at best. they don't warranty ANYTHING, ever. no matter what, even if the hobby shop itself is saying, this came this way out of the box. so the hobby shops were eating the cost of repairs on manufacturing defects, and on top of it, their schematics are all wrong, their part numbers are wrong too. so they can't stock the parts themselves that need to be replaced out of their own pockets when redcat won't warranty something. this is the story i heard from quite a few places.<div>
</div><div>the design aspect, like i said before, this line is a *******ized version of the hpi rs4, made with bad plastic/metals. and i get it, its cheaper. thats the point, redcat is cheap. it's a great learning experience for somebody new. that's its claim to fame. then there's the people who try to make it something its not, and then there's people who dump waaaay too much money into it to make it competition worthy. but that's no longer a redcat, that's a piece of aluminum bought online in pieces and assembled, for over 800 bucks.</div><div>
</div><div>i'm just talking about my experience with these. i've personally been the fleet mechanic for 3 people with varying abilities and control, with various forms of redcat lol... and i can honestly say that the same parts break on all the cars. the shocks, towers, 2 speed clutches, servos, knuckles (not just snapping, but warping the bearing holder on the insides and literally losing the wheel, axle included), axles and dogbones bending with minimal abuse, etc. so in my experience with these, the price of keeping them going, over say a used better truck, just isn't worth it. you're so much better off getting something used if you can find something decent. i'm picking up a barely used slayer pro for my friend in a few days for 200. it doesn't even compare to the vortex and they are both at very similar pricepoints. i found it on craigslist, so it's not like some deal i'm getting from a friend of a friend or anything. he has a redcat shockwave, and the whole thing was literally done.. so i took my friend's s30 that he gave up on trying to keep running, and mixed the parts together until i built some sort of shornado hybrid with various rs4 parts i had laying around as well. </div><div>
</div><div>anyways, i really was just chiming in here because i had the full on redcat experience lol.. everything from eaten diff's to hobby shops telling me they can't carry their parts if they wanted to. the dude down the street from me, he said he only makes like 25 bucks on a slash, but he would make more on the redcat so he'd love to sell them, but they just don't want to deal with him. they said that they wanted to stay out of the straight hobby stores, and would only deal with hobby stores that exist online, and if they have a brick and mortar they can overlook that. weird right? i guess they want to cut back on the few warranty claims that they do honor. </div><div>
</div><div>when i was first beginning in the nitro scene, i blew my hpi .12 i believe. so i call hpi and i explain the situation, how the fuel tube came off, it was a really hot day, it ran lean and i heard rattling noise. what i know now is that the rod most likely blew.. anyways, they sent me a .18! for free! that's the kind of support hpi and traxxas are still known for. i've never owned a team or ofna or any of the other companies, so i can't speak for them, but redcat? they wouldn't even replace a carb that didn't function out of the box! i ended up using an hpi one. so that is something to consider as well for a beginner. </div><div>
</div><div>anyways, i didn't come on here to specifically bash redcat, god knows i should because they got a decent amount of money from me, and the truck has  absolutely no resale value, or use to me, but that was my mistake. i hadn't heard of them, mixed reviews, etc... you get what you pay for. but you're right, i wouldn't give my 9 year old a traxxas. at least not a new one.</div>