I'm a big fan of the Traxxas Stampede (brushless) for off roading. Super fun vehicle!

RC is one super addicting hobby, but it is a money pit. Especially if you like putting love and care into them with hop-ups. That's what I like about Traxxas RC's is there is a ton of support for after market parts and you can mod the hell out of them to make them your own. You have to be committed to this hobby or you will just end up blowing money and regretting it in the end.

http://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/6708stampede4x4vxl

I get it. Sort of a regressive retreat, where we can all bring our juvenalia for show-and-tell. This'll be cool. I'll bring my handpuppets and marionettes.

I have to admit, though, I've always been intrigued by the helicopter. I there weren't such a huge time/practice curve to learn it, I'd have already had one with a mini night-vision cam attached to it. And I'd already be in prison.

In Massachusetts, we use RC to plot against gvt. bldgs. A week after that idiot's arrest, an RC plane DID land on a US govt. bldg in the suburbs. The long-time hobbyist who lives near by had no idea where it had gone, until the Feds rang his doorbell. It was intact.

That transmitter that came with the helicopter got fried when I used a home-made transmitter to USB connection to use it with a flight simulator. It was odd. It worked for months before getting fried. Oh well, I had a "real" transmitter that I used with my airplane that has selectable channels on the back, so I just set up a "profile" for the helicopter and it works much better.

On a topic related note, I found out some of the ins and outs of drywall today. I was wondering why the drywall material quote I got was $1600 vs. about $700 that I thought it would be if I went to Lowes/Home Depot/etc... The BRAND makes a big difference. Not just in price, but in quality. Makes sense. I just thought, heck it is ground up and compressed gypsum sandwiched between two sheets of paper... Wrong! The stuff that the drywaller and the supply company were quoting is the good stuff. Not to mention, it doesn't have the "Chinese Drywall" issues. So I then priced up the same brands at the big box stores. Lowes wants $17.63 per sheet of 1/2" x 4' x 12' sheet. The drywall supply place wants $10.32 for the exact same sheet. So I am saving $7.31 per sheet, to then turn around and pay $1.04 per sheet to be delivered into the house and "stocked" in each room. Still a $6.27 per sheet savings and I don't have to haul the stuff, and it is quality product.

Hey BlueJay, yeah, I love the Traxxas stuff too due to all the parts available. As you saw from the photo my Slash is not stock - slowly replacing with hop up parts as I break them. Want to do an LED lighting kit this winter just because it'll be all shiny! My bro-in law and me both have the brushless Slash 4x4 so we have a good chance of fixing them on the spot if they break due to the common parts pool. Though they are very tough. My son launched it into the side of a house and hit about 5 feet off the ground (the jump was a real beauty) and it just drove away.

Good to know on the drywall quality Nick, I've always just bought the stuff Home Depot is peddling, never gave it a thought.

I guess that the preferred brands for the drywall hangers and for finishers are National Gypsum and United States Gypsum (USG). According to some drywall forums, pretty much all of the other brands out there are junk. Either they are flimsy, or have voids in the gypsum itself, not compressed enough, cheap paper that acts like a wet napkin when they try to mud it (creates little paper balls), etc...

And on the off-topic topic, I will see if I can easily get to my RC car box in the storage area and find out the nitro model I have.

I would probably have to do a full engine tear down, clean, and reassemble to get it to work. It was put into storage a number of years back and I don't think that I even cleaned the engine before putting it away.

It seems that the Lowes and Home Depot in my area, only carry these brands when checking online: Lafarge, Gold Bond, SheetRock, ToughRock. Anyone have any "good" experience with these?

After checking reviews:

Lafarge: Junk
Gold Bond: Made by National Gypsum
SheetRock: Made by USG
ToughRock: Made by Georgia-Pacific (Chinese drywall problems)

My local cost for 5/8 4x8 piece.
Lafarge: $8.44
Gold Bond: $10.87 (1/2" fire resistant)
SheetRock: $15.39
ToughRock: $8.44

Looks like good gypsum would cost me $15.39 each.

Gold bond I saw too, but never looked up the company relation. Again, numerous company names were mentioned on a drywall forum and the only, and I mean only, two companies that weren't ripped to shreds were USG and National....

I just put up 80 sheets of ToughRock (Lowes), had no issues with it.

I still have my first RC car called The Frog; here's a thread with pictures. It was really cool because you can easily turn it into a truck (one of the first I believe). I ended up breaking the steering mechanism after I installed a faster motor and drove it into a garage door, kamikaze style .

I would like to get a truck, but because I have very limited dexterity (can't move my fingers or hands), I would possibly only be able to operate one of the old box style radio controllers with the two stick-like controls. Unfortunately, all I've seen online are the gun style remotes.