ORIGINAL: Jeremy Z
Revos and Savages are both great trucks. Much more suited to bashing than anything by AE or Losi. Those are race trucks and are simpy not as durable.
I'd either go for an E-Revo (no need to settle for nitro) or an HPI Baja and go big. A brushless Baja would be really cool, but would be prohibitively expensive in a vehicle this size. Therefore, gas and not nitro is the way to go. With these, you'd need a lot of space that doesn't mind noise though. It is like a weedeater with a bad muffler flying around at full throttle.
Are you kidding me? A LST2 is 1000X more durable than a Revo, AE is just a race oriented company but they do have the MGT 8.0 which will compete.
Bajas are only as loud as you make them with the pipe that you put on them.
ORIGINAL: Jeremy Z
I like the 1/5 scale Bajas too. But $1000 is just for the car. It'd probaly be more like $1500 by the time you're ready to go.
For instance, I'm not sure the $1000 price includes the mammoth steering servo.
Talking to an owner of one in the LHS, he said prepare for how loud they are and make sure you have a lot of space to run them in.
It would be nice to have such a big model because one could run it so much further away from oneself and still see it well.
The bajas are pretty much RTR at 1000, you can pick them up for around 900 if not less and then just need to pay for gas and a screwdriver.
Yet again bajas are only as loud as you make them, It all depends on the pipe.
Honestly with a 1000 budget I would either get a Baja 5b or get a BL truggy. Since your looking at the 10-t, Why not just step it up to the 8ight-t its big brother and convert it to electric. It would be more durable than any MT and better handling than them. I think that would be your best bet.