I loved my 2 brushless rc18mt's. I sold the first to fund another project. And then I built up another brushless rc18mt. But then I sold that one too to fund another project... and now I really regret selling it. They are such a tough trucks and very fun to mess around with in the back yard, street or wherever you like.
I also only needed to upgrade the diffs maybe 3 or 4 months after installing the brushless system (Mamba 6800 system)... and I bashed it just about every day. however, I haven't tried any other mini's unfortunately to compare it too...