Mike, the TXT is a great truck, but there are other trucks that have been out for longer that have had more accessories, and similar things made for them, like the clodbuster. For a first-time rc rockcrawler, I would recommend a Clod. There pretty inexpensive, easy to find, and you can use a bunch of chassis' with the axles. with shaft-driven, center-transmission rigs, like the TXT, you have to set up the trans. the way you want it, or shoehorn in a completely different type, like an E-maxx, which is what A LOT of people do on those rigs. Also-for a shafty- you have to get the length of your links right, or you will need to lengthen-or shorten-the driveshafts,they're typically also more top-heavy than a, and many suffer from torque-twist, where the driveshafts make the whole rig lean to the side that the motor(s) rotate towards. A clod really has none of these issues. Again, this is just my opinion, and I have nothing against a shafty.
P.S. My sig. line is just B.S. for the anti-Clod people.