unlike the Barrage so they could be moved to a newer better truck later on if you wanted to.
The only thing not standard about the Barrage is the motor, everything else is normal 1/10 scale stuff.
The transmission is certainly not 1/10, arguably the most import driver line feature.
The Barrage is like a pig with lipstick, sure you can fancy it up but it will never be a beauty queen. I've seen lots of thread about people joyfully buying a barrage, and generally see no reason to be negative.
But lets be realistic. It has a tiny little 380 motor in it, regardless of how you gear it, or power it you will never achieve the wheel speed to bump over things. If you do manage it then you have to deal with having less low end torque.
I watched someone with one at a G6 this year and they might as well had their foot permanently attached to the back end as that's where it was most of the time I watched. The truck had neither the wheel speed or the power to navigate many gates, and even when it did manage to make it up something it just flopped over it as it does not have the weight to get the wheels back on the ground.
I tried entering the whole crawler thing with a slickrock, basically the same drivetrain. Sure I got it to where it was a little spider monkey and it was capable enough on a rock pile, but past that pretty uneventful and uninteresting.
For someone that is clueless and doesn't know what they are missing I'm sure it holds a certain amount of fun or neat factor. But once you start playing with a rig closer to what is considered 1/10 the smaller less capable rigs are a let down.
It is a big NO, NO telling a person how to parent, so forgive me if I boarder on that. My son is my RC buddy, and it isn't right not providing him with a rig that is as capable as mine. The reason being is that it is simple not as fun when you run together to wait for another rig, or to have to explain that it is the truck that is failing not the skill of the kid driving(even if it is).
My son loves to take the same line as I do, even better if he can do it when I can not. It drives him and keeps him interested in Scale crawling.
I get the prioritizing money thing too. You should really consider the tower hobby 3 pay program. Get another good quality rig that is as capable as the bomber you got yourself, and in the long run it will cost you less money.