Just something to jack around with. 4x4. I hear lipo brushless is the way to go, but I'm not trying to spend a ton. I saw someone post about that Traxxas is junk now, they were king of the hill back in the day, but I'm just looking for good bang for the buck. I like that Arrma Granite (not the maxx as suggested to avoid) but they seem to be out of stock everywhere...seems the part numbers recently changed so maybe an update just happened.
I have a few offroad RC trucks. Lipo is the best way to go, forget nicads. Brushless is great for going fast, but on a scale rig or crawler the Traxxas 550 brushed motor or a brushed Holmes Hobbies motor with a Hobby Wing 1080 ESC is a great $50 solution vs $150+ for sensored brushless. I have an Axial Yeti, Axial Bomber, and a Traxxas TRX-4 Bronco. Avoid Axial. They are ok rigs, but parts are harder to find. The Yeti is fast but needs some expensive upgrades to be reliable, then you still break something every other battery. I'm basically done with the Yeti, it's been broken for 5 months and I haven't bothered ordering the $16 worth of parts I need to fix it. I've contemplated buying a Slash and dropping the Yeti electronics into it. The Bomber, once upgraded, is bulletproof, but I spent $500+ over the price of the base car on new links, axle tubes, lockers, steering servo, steering links, 2 speed tcase. This is the funnest rig I have because I can drive it for 2+ hours per battery and it just works. The only negative is that it's too capable. If I replaced it I'd go with a 1.9 tire crawler. The Bronco is a cool rig, but I bought it a year ago and haven't driven it yet. I like the selectible locker idea, the portal axles, and the body is very scale. I looked at buying a Losi Baja Rey, but decided I didn't need another RC toy since I don't use the ones I have enough. The Losi looks fragile and parts aren't available locally.
For general bashing I would recommend buying a Traxxas Slash with a Raptor body, my buddy can beat his Traxxas far harder than I beat my Axial and his doesn't break. If you do break a Traxxas parts are everywhere. purchased a Traxxas Stampede for my buddy and his 3 boys about 2 years ago, other than a battery going bad he said it's held up amazingly well to lots of abuse. I sent him a few common repair parts with the truck and he hasn't had to buy anything yet. The Traxxas does have a half power “training mode” that allows it to survive his children.
If you want more of a crawler the scale rigs seem cool. There is a basic Traxxas TRX-4 that is well reviewed. The Gmade Scout is the last one I looked at, it looked like a decent build for $300.