I'm right there with you guys as far as budget. It's hard to justify $7k-$10k on one unit, although if I won the lottery, I would by a full fleet of them! I've been researching options for months now and reached two options w/i budget.
I have the Hydraulic modified CAT 320 Excavator with sound and lights from
http://www.magomhrc.com/en/cat-320/5...idraulica.html sitting in a cart for ~$1k USD and a Bruder "toy" Cat from Amazon for 60 bucks waiting to be converted.
I think I'm going for the conversion with plans to use continuous servos for the drive and turn-table and firgelli actuators for the boom thanks to all the great build threads out there...
We'll see how it goes, but I suspect I will end up close to 500 bucks and probably still not as good (or Bar > 10) as those offered by Magom.
Thanks for your posts guys, good to know I'm not alone in making this decision. I hope I'm making the right one
