RE: Diving in. - guidance needed.
What do you want to do with it? What scale? Nitro or electric? That's going to determine the kind of kit you should go for, in conjunction with personal tastes.
I personally like real engines and metal parts, so I go with nitro vehicles that have lots of aluminum & steel hop ups. What isn't available, I make myself. But I don't race, I just play & bash, so the vehicles being overweight, not well balanced & too powerful for competition use doesn't matter to me. If you want to compete, though, you need to consider that when selecting a kit.
Tamiya makes quality kits, but IMO, they are (for the most part) more along the lines of scale stuff rather than racing or serious bashing cars. Nothing wrong with them, but when it comes to competition use or seriously abusive bashing, most other makes are a better choice. If I wanted to crawl, though, I'd be deciding between Tamiya & Axial.
If you're just wanting a near-indestructible vehicle to bash with, I'd look at Associated, Losi, OFNA, HPI 1/8 scale buggies, truggies & monster trucks. 1/8 stuff is tougher and much more useable outdoors, whether nitro or electric. I have mostly 1/10 scale nitro, and while lots of fun and wicked fast, they get swallowed on a lot of the tracks that are designed to accommodate 1/8 and 1/5 vehicles, and they are also very susceptible to wind-especially on the sandy dirt roads out here. I love my RC10GTs, but my Losi Mega Baja 4x4 is far more useable in general.