Well Max, First let me Welcome you to the site. Tamiyas are great kits . I'm on my second Thundershot. The first one I owned was WAAAY back in 88 just after they first came out. I got interested in the hobby again about a year ago and picked up another one.

The kits are pretty easy to assemble, if you follow the directions.

As far as the rest goes.
1) Get a middle to upper end FM computer radio. You'll be better off in the long run. They are far more adjustable then the cheaper AM ones and you can, if you get more than one vehicale you can set up different models on the same radio. I have a Futaba 3PM
2) batteries. read around the site and you'll get an idea of witch ones are better.
3) chargers. get a digital charger that peaks the packs rather than uses time. the batteries will last a lot longer and give better performance. I have the dura-trax piranha digital AC/DC peak charger, about 50 bucks on towerhobbies. It can charge all of the batteries for my R/C equipment. TX,RX PPs.
just my 2cts. I'm sure other people will pipe up before too long

HTH

Jim