Cheaper would be better, also must be 1/10th scale and use standard stick pack batteries. A few I'm considering are the HPI Brama, Tamiya Grasshopper and Tamiya Rising Fighter. Any other recommendations? This would be for my 3 year old son so slowness will be to my advantage.

Any of those would be good, also consider the Traxxas Stampede. You can gear it lower or feed it less voltage to slow it down, and it's really durable.

Yeah, I like the Stampede too. I keep showing him pictures and he likes the Brama best. I like that it has full bearings and oil shocks. Its $170 but after the discount and rebates I can have it for $120. That's not a whole lot more than some toy grade cars.


I'm hoping the Brama is pretty durable like my E-Firestorm.

The Brama is an entry level hobby grade RC, perfect for someone that age with a father who knows what he's doing.

Yeah, I think it will be the one. I'm also thinking about getting a Cyber at the same time.

This kid's probably going to have so many RCs growing up. lol

I havent ever looked at the Brama.............nice looking, and all the steel and bearings for $120........wow, great deal for a higher end Hobby grade. Plus you get a torquey 35t for lots of low end (plowing thru taller stuff) and not too much speed as you had wanted. I am now considering the Brama for my son too.

I know you want 1/10, but look at the 1/16 brushed Slash and E-Revo. They are perfect sized, only go about 20 m.p.h. and they are the most durable trucks I have ever seen! Waterproof too.

anything traxxas on 6 cells

Those are very cool and I don't think they'd have any issues running through the yard, in fact would probably go better than my E-Firestorm through the tall stuff. lol The bummer for me about those is they take the small batteries, I would have totally preferred one standard size pack. (I have some nicads/nimhs laying around). Also the price is more than I wanted to spend. But on the other hand I KNOW they would hold up and grow with him. Decisions, decisions...

Man trust me I just got a Brama 10b and it will be PERFECT for a younger driver the thing is relatively slow and low priced (got mine for $100 NIB last week). Personally it was a little to slow for my taste (I own a pile of nitros ) it goes around 11 mph tops. But it will take any motor upto 21t (I do NOT recommend the venom 21d modified the motor sucks). Also the transmitter and receiver are pretty good I actually got the brama so far away I could hardly see it when it went out of range.

I actually bought it to race my nephew's stampede but its way too slow to compete so umm I'm in the process of upgrading it (I love challenges).

Pros (for the age your looking):
Slow, Easy to control, 4wd (so it won't get stuck in grass easy), and it looks to me to be pretty durable, pretty light so if he hits something it shouldn't cause alot of damage, it also has everything you need (-8 AA's for controller) including a 1500 mah battery to run it

Cons
it uses teflon bearings instead of Ball bearings, poor selection of replacement buggy bodies (went to my LHS (they have almost all the bodies tower carries) and none fit) so your stuck with what it comes with, also most of the parts are unique to the Brama incase you break any (- drvieshaft and like 2 others which are on the onroad version) but if you leave it stock I do not see any parts breaking.


BTW to all those Traxxas fans recommending a Stampede (or any other Traxxas vehicle) it would be a horrendous choice for a 3yo from my experiences with my 10yo nephew. He has issues not ramming stuff with it due to its fast acceleration, and with younger drivers you want anything but a speed demon. Trust me a brama as long as its using the stock motor is not going to break a part from hitting anything, the parts look fairly strong. A stock Stampede the same cannot be said my nephew hit something and broke his arm bent the screw holding it on and bent a shock I cannot for the life of me see that happening to a stock Brama with its ultra low end top speed.


Also lets face it by the time he can upgrade to a faster vehicle all these platforms will probably be way outdated and it will be so brittle its not funny so I personally wouldn't blow alot of cash.

I would buy a Pede and run it in training mode. I built a pede out of spare parts a couple of years ago. It originally had a Tamiya Silver can in it but when that wore out I put a 55T crawler motor in it. Kids been running it everyday for the past couple of year. He just turned 4 when I put it together and he's six no.

The Pede is a good choice.

the traxxas 1/16 come with a 6 cell nimh battery and charger, so you're covered for the battery. At tower hobbies you can get a 20 off discount too.

How long does the battery take to charge with the included charger? And can I just get an adaptor to charge it extra fast with one of my peak chargers? I'm thinking 2amp would be safe and fast, I can go as low as .9 amp.

It is a 12 hour wall charger, but you can cgarge it with your peak charger as long as you have a TRX plug