Gen 8 vs Everest 10 (Gift for 6 year old)

[goranovic]

TLDR: Should I buy the Gen8 as a our first RC Crawler or start off with the Everest 10? A 6 year old will be using this unsupervised and I want something that will last.

This comparison may not make much sense but I'm a completely newbie when it comes to RC cars and I'd appreciate some direction.

We bought my son a $50 new bright RC monster truck from a local retailer last year and the wheels fell off within a week. We then purchased a generic brand RC car with positive reviews from Amazon for $90 and the right wheel stopped turning due to a cracked plastic piece within 30 minutes.

At this point, I've decided to invest in something that will last but I'm trying to keep in mind that my son is 6 and I have no idea how often he'll really play with the RC truck. I've spent a number of hours researching crawlers and I'm debating between spending $160(Free charger and nimh battery) on the Everest 10 or the $400 on the Gen 8 (including Lipo and charger).

My son saw me watching videos of the Gen 8 and has his heart set on it but he'd pretty much be happy with anything. He'll primarily use it in the basement, back yard, and when we take it to parks/trails every so often.

Does it make sense to go with the Everest 10 as our first crawler and start experimenting with mods or is that money better spent on the Gen 8? I'm leaning towards the Gen 8 but the Everest 10 is definitely lower cost of entry and I know he'd have fun with that too.

I'm also somewhat nervous about having to worry about the LIPO and the Everest 10 nimh seems to put me at ease even though I know I'm better off with a LIPO 2S.

Apologies for the lengthy post and thanks for your input!