I myself have started to do the reasearch for an 1/8 scale buggy. I think, at the moment, I've got it narrowed down to the OFNA hyper 7 PBS. I haven't heard really anything good about the engines in the ofna MBX, 9.5....(.24 i believe) I'm sure for just normal backyard bashing around it's probably o.k.(what I'm gonna do). Everyone seems to like to throw out the "Kyosho" has won "X" amount of championships. LOL well, I'm not gonna race and I've compared some different buggies at my LHS and I don't really care to much for the Kyosho RTR buggies. But that's just me. I'm really new to all of this R/C stuff as I've only been doing it for a little while. Just thought I'd give you another car to think about. Oh yeah!! the GS Storm seems to get great reviews and it comes with a awesome FM XR3(airtronics i think) radio. It was a bit more pricier, but just thought I'd throw it out. Good Luck and let us know what you picked and why?

BTW- I noticed you are from R.I. !!!! you are in good company. LOL