Help selecting something for an 8-year-old's birthday
 

My grandson has a brithday coming up. I asked him what he would like for his birthday. One of the things he said was a remote control car. There are so many products with so many options, I thought I'd get some help. This is a very "mechanical" kid. He builds huge Lego projects with very little help. I once watched him sit at the table for 5-6 hours carefully and meticulously following the instructions with only a few short breaks to finish one project with something like 3,000 pieces. He is also a wizard at Minecraft. Some of his creations are amazing and he does some joint work with some of his friends over the Internet.

The point of all that is that a kit that he has to assemble is fine and may have the advantage of something he could repair. But a ready-made car would be OK, too. He lives on several acres in a rural area with lots of open space with a lot of trees. He doesn't have a lot of paved surfaces close to his home. He could always go to a nearby school, but maybe something that can handle rough terrain might be a good choice.

The other option would be a drone.

I'll review the other posts in this section, but would appreciate any leads or insight here.

Thanks

PS: Price is not my main concern. I'm willing to spend a little more to get something that will last.

Stay with a car, he can learn the basics of RC on his own with it. One thing in particular is reversed controls when the car/drone is coming toward you. Also, while drones usually have full flight stability systems most planes don't.
My stepsons first car was a grasshopper. There are a lot of parts but good instructions. Sadly, he had no mechanical ability - and still doesn't 35 years later. The good thing about that is I got to build it:p

I love the 1/10 Tamiya kits they have and I am very partial to the but there are bunches of different ones. Those will run 100 to 200 and most require additional separate purchases of some electronics (radio & receiver, or motor, or speed controller, or battery & charger).
I don't personally own any Arrma rcs, but they are extremely popular right now. The Granite Voltage is on sale at Horizon hobbies for $100 and is ready to go out of the box.
Any discussion of new ready to roll rc should probably touch on the traxxas rcs. Parts in probably every hobby shop in the US. A common starter would be Rustler, Bandit, Stampede, or Slash (all very similar to each other, share many parts). The one I linked requires a separate purchase of battery and charger.
There are bunches of others, prices typically go up from there. I'd stay away from some of the import rcs on amazon. I know it's hard to tell the difference but you will have a hard time finding parts if/when they break. Read the reviews and you should be able to figure it out.