RE: Kit or RTF????
To my knowledge exceed doesn't "make" anything, pretty much everything they sell is a rebranded walkera that they assemble and in some cases modify a little.
I don't have any firsthand with the 180, so I don't know how durable it is. The 100 has banged into stuff pretty hard and suffered no damage yet. But it's not quite 8 inches long and weighs almost nothing - it's almost like throwing a feather against the wall. Since the 180 is bigger and heavier I don't think it would fair to compare as far as durability so I really can't comment. I know the technology is the same - instead of a 90° flybar with paddles it has a 45° flybar with weights. Instead of a single axis gyro (rudder) it has a 3 axis gyro. Flying the 100 - as long as you don't overcontrol it's as stable as my coax. But unlike the coax, if you do want to fly it'll get up go. If you overcontrol it can get away from you in heartbeat, but so will pretty much any single rotor.
And please don't think I'm suggesting this is better than the two solman suggested - it's just another option to consider.
There is a dedicated eflight forum here [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_447/tt.htm[/link]
and a dedicated walkera forum [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_405/tt.htm[/link]