Thanks for the link. The big squid RC page has lots of great resources.

i called Great Hobbies and talked to someone there. They are a bigger Canadian dealer and were very helpful.
He steered me towards the Traxxas Stampede and Slash but I get that they are maybe getting a bit out of date.
i an inclined to agree with a Stampede for my son just because they have the speed limiter to keep it slow while he learns. Great Hobbies also has a lot of parts etc for Traxxas (sounds like everyone does).

I really like the ECX Torment. I think it would be a great starter for me. The only downside that I can foresee would be that the Stampede and the Slash have some interchangeable parts and I am planning on getting extra Lipo batteries so I could swap them out between the Traxxas trucks (I am assuming Traxxas iD plugs only work for them or am I wrong? Are there adapters that would work for both? I really don’t get the battery thing yet).

Of course, I then looked at the 2WD monster truck shootout on Big Squid and the Arrma Granite came out on top....
Haha! Hard time making decisions. Even if I went for a Slash over the Torment, I don’t think I would be making a big mistake.