I've ordered, and am about to receive in the mail, a Mini Lama V4/2006.
I'm not interested in graduating to better helicopters. I don't care for 3D, I don't have the necessary disposable income, and I just don't have the interest for serious modeling.
Plus I've read a lot here, and frankly, all the hassle of operating a standard, non-counter-rotating helicopter hardly seems worth the trouble to me. I am perfectly aware this makes me more of a toy flyer than a model flyer, and I don't have a problem with it.

Anyway, the mini lama is extremely likely to remain my only real heli for quite a while. As such, it'll get many hours of flying time. I've read a bit, and I understand the tiny brushed motors it uses are good for 20, maybe 30 hours before their brushes crap out, at which point the motors have to be replaced.
I've also read that brushless motors, when properly cooled, have a life many many times longer than brushed motors.
So I was wondering: would it be possible, when the mini lama's motor(s) crap out, to replace them with equivalent brushless motors and solve the issue once and for all?

At equivalent power/speed, do brushless motors have a significantly different power draw? Would the existing electronics be good to drive them?

As a side question: is it possible to open up brushed motors and replace their brushes?