Mrowka

You don't have to paint it box art.

I think my son's Christmas buggy cost less than $200 out the door with everything but the battery and body paint included. No worries about the "Camry" comment. Right now, the RC equivalent of a Camry is perfect for my son's needs, while the RC equivalent of a classic Ferrari would end up gathering dust. Me, I'm not brand-loyal, I didn't have a buggy of any kind growing up, so I'm not nostalgic, either.

I see that as a good thing, or at least as having a positive side to it. Replacement and modification parts for the Slash are cheap, available and plentiful, and there are all kinds of things you can do with a Slash, all kind of directions you can take it. Scale, drag racing, crawler, etc..

Well, for Christmas, my little man got a Traxxas Slash kit, which he built, doing probably 90% of the work by himself. It was a legit kit, for whatever that is worth, and my son could be genuinely proud. He loves that thing, and I have to say that it has proven to be stout, so far. The suspension works better than in his Super Sand Dragon (rebodied Hornet) and it has probably been tougher. He loves that buggy as well.

I'll second the above and go one more: Any additional grease is likely to trap any dirt or grit that gets in the bearings and keep it there. This can be a good thing. I often put a thin layer of grease inside gearbox covers, to trap dirt that gets past the rubber seal and keep it out of the gears themselves. This is good. For bearings, that grease would keep the dirt inside the bearings. This is not so good.

I'd be happy to drive a vintage shell on a modern chassis.

I'll take "What are 'Posers'?" for $500 and the Daily Double, Alex!

I just buy a separate Fky Sky GT2 for each new model. Then the kids and I can race. If I look around, they are sometimes available for a few dollars each, especially used. I just buy them when I find one for cheap.

At least you all have a LHS. Nearest to where I live is around 3 hours away.

Most of my buggies use Flysky GT2s of various sorts. Not much in the way of features, but all have worked flawlessly so far.

My father was a professional pilot. As a little boy, I would ask him what the best airplane was. The answer always was the same: "it depends on what you want to do with it." In some applications, a Piper Cub is a better airplane than an F-15.

Same. I put the dampers together (red or gold), added shock oil, closed up and that was that.

Glad you are feeling well enough to enjoy things again!

Do tell.

The ARRMA sensorless ESCs are powerful and work well. Reliability is an issue. They often can be found on ebay as pulls from RTR stunt truggies.