i dont know whether to feel lucky or well taught. my first rtr was a gs storm. i knew absolutely nothing about 8th scales. i was so ignorant that i thought this was 'the best' because its what everyone else was running (with a few ofna's here and there). when i picked it up at the lhs the owner sat down with me and pointed out everything i needed to do before starting it including thread-locking ALL metal to metal fasteners, adding diff oil ect. and then checking and double checking everything before i fired the motor. i never had one problem out of that buggy! in fact the only race i ever lost was the first weekend and even then i took second. by the next weekend i had swapped the steering servo for a faster one (like im accustomed to) and took first place every race after that. so to see all the complaints about rtr's is very troubling to me. perhaps if people were guided through the preperation like i was we would see fewer gripes and more people would stay with the hobby rather than thinking it was more work than play. i believe rtr is a misconception to most people and all the manufacturer is trying to do is help someone who does not have all the equipment get started. i learned a lot from that storm rtr and last year upgraded to a k2. i feel the rtr gave me a good feel of 8th scale w/o going all out and spending $1800 on a good buggy only to decide it wasn't for me. just my $.02