Boil all of the plastic (minus the tranny gears) for about 15 minutes as the plastic is a bit brittle. Also, good quality hex drivers are a plus as threading the plastic w/ poor quality hex drivers is going to lead to stripped hardware and or hex drivers. Hopefully by now Venom had corrected the over hardening issue w/ the axles. I had an early kit and had to ge replacment axles from Venom. The stock tires look good, but I would get a set of Panthers, Losi, HB, or Pro Line(G8 compound) tires. Be careful to not thread the rod ends more than 10mm or it weakens them.

Good luck!