Having been involved with modeling and having some experience with RC I would say go with the Tamiya. i have done it both ways. The thing is for most it is good advice to say get a less expensive model and see if you like it first. Problem with that is if they do like it then they are immediatly stuck with having to do a bunch of upgrades just to get the vehicle battle worthy. You will enjoy the p[process of building the Tamiya kit and the Tiger needs nothing. another brand will need upgrades right out of the box because they are not hobby grade. Even the more pricey Tiagens which are far above the HL brand is just above toy grade, Sorry Erik, LOL but that is a fact In order to be Tamyia battle ready you would still need to change all the electronics. So in the end run you are really not saving any money by starting in the lower price scale because they all wind up costing around 600.00 bucks by the time we get them to a point we are happy with.