It could be awesome. Then again maybe not. I haven't been one to be the first to purchase a new design (exceptions being my Nissan Titan, and the '06 YZ450 I am about to buy). For the most part, you have to deal with all the bugs that the engineers missed. Plus, you are basically funding their R&D efforts if you buy early, because the price is still so high. If you have the patience to wait for it, you could try the Hyper 8. That way you could be my guinnea pig. I would still wait until spring though, thats when they plan on releasing the pro version.

The Hyper 7 is in like its third generation now, so other than the fact that the laydown servo faces inward (idiot engineer) the design has been foolproofed. Most people would recommend trying to find a Hyper that does not have that laydown kit on it. I would say get a Hyper PCR Pro kit, and then buy the stand up servo setup off of e-bay for like $30.00. That way you get all the PCR upgrades, without the servo issue.

Plus, its probably the most popular kit out there, so there is tons and tons of parts availability. The one thing I have noticed though, most hop up parts are OFNA brand. It seems like the other aftermarket companies ignore the Hyper. Which is pretty stupid marketing on their part. It doesn't really matter though, buying an 1/8th scale buggy is different from other R/Cs. You don't really have to upgrade them much, its mostly just different tuning options.

I made the mistake of buying used up front, which was bad (9.5 Pro). The only saving grace was that it was a used pro kit. Which meant that I had all the CNC and carbon bits (stole that term from our Brittish members) already included. That is the advantage of the pro kit. You pay more, but the hop-ups are damn cheap in kit form, as opposed to buying them individually later. This would be my honest recommendation. No matter what you get, be it OFNA, Mugen, XRAY, Kyosho, Thunder Tiger, Hot bodies, Sportwerks or whatever, get the Pro version.