Beyond the car itself, the shopping list that matters most is: a second battery, a charger worth trusting, a few cheap spares that fail first (body clips, dog bones, tyres), and basic tools. In that order, this is what turns a first RC car into one you drive every weekend rather than one sitting on a shelf waiting for a part or a charge.
Get now: the essentials
A handful of items are worth buying alongside the car itself, before the first weekend rather than after a session gets cut short: a second battery, a charger that suits it, a basic hex driver or multi-tool, and a set of body clip retainers so the small clips holding the shell on don't vanish into the grass. If you're running LiPo, a LiPo safe bag belongs on this list too - it's where the battery lives while charging and in storage, not an optional extra.
If your first car came as a kit or a body-only purchase rather than Ready-To-Run, the shopping list starts earlier - a full R/C system, servo, battery and charger, all bought separately. We cover that ground in RTR vs Kit; this post picks up from the point where the car is already running.
A second battery: the best upgrade nobody mentions
One battery means one run, then a wait while it charges before you can drive again - usually a good deal longer than the run itself. A second battery breaks that cycle completely: swap the flat pack for a charged one and keep driving while the first tops back up. Of everything on this list, it does the most to turn a short session into a full afternoon, and it's the upgrade newer owners are least likely to think of before their first outing runs shorter than they'd hoped.
Match the second battery to the same chemistry and connector as the one that came with the car, and check the charger you own (or plan to buy) can handle both. Connector type is worth double-checking too - Deans, XT60, Tamiya and EC3 are all common, and a mismatched connector needs an adapter lead before a new pack will plug into an existing charger or car. Our RC Batteries & Chargers range covers NiMH and LiPo packs side by side, which makes finding a matching second pack straightforward.
Chargers worth having
A charger bundled with an RTR car is often a basic one - fine for NiMH, but worth upgrading if you're running LiPo, since a balance charger reads and tops up each cell in the pack individually rather than charging the whole pack as one block. That per-cell balancing is what keeps a LiPo pack healthy over its lifespan, and it's cheap insurance against a pack degrading faster than it should. We go through the day-one charging checklist in What You Actually Need to Start RC, and a full dedicated safety walkthrough - storage voltage, puncture risk, what to do if a pack swells - is coming in LiPo Battery Charging & Safety: The Complete Guide.
If you're still using the charger that came in the box and it's kept a battery healthy so far, there's no urgency to replace it - but it's worth knowing what a step up looks like before a pack starts charging slower or holding less charge than it used to.
The parts that break first
Body clips are the smallest, cheapest, and most commonly lost item on this whole list - they pop off during a rough landing or a tumble and disappear into grass or gravel almost immediately. Body clip retainers tether them to the shell so a lost clip becomes a rare event instead of a regular one.
Dog bones and driveshafts are next - confirmed directly with our team, a dog bone commonly pops out of its upright when steering is pushed to full deflection under load, and replacement dog bones are stocked for this. Foam bushings in the drivetrain help keep it seated, and restricting steering travel slightly reduces how often it happens on a car being driven hard. Both ARRMA and Maverick dogbones and hinge pins are well stocked here, alongside spares for Traxxas and several other brands - if your car isn't a Traxxas, our RC Car Parts range still has you covered.
Owners of ARRMA, Maverick and Axial sometimes assume spares support only stretches to the bigger Traxxas range - it doesn't, and both ARRMA and Maverick have deep spares ranges here covering the same wear items. Worth flagging directly, though: CEN and LaTrax aren't currently stocked in any form on our site, so if you're running one of those, check with us before assuming a specific part is available.
Tyres wear down with regular use and are worth keeping a spare set of once the stock rubber starts looking bald, particularly if you're running on tarmac rather than grass. Controllers rarely fail outright, but if yours starts behaving oddly - reversing but not driving forward, for instance - that's often a motor issue rather than the controller itself, and one our team can usually diagnose. Local customers can bring a car in for a free repair rather than trying to isolate the fault at home.
Get soon: nice-to-haves
None of these are needed on day one, but they're worth adding once you've had the car a few weekends: a basic voltage checker so you can tell a pack's charge state at a glance, a spare set of screws (small and easy to lose during any repair), and servo wire extensions if your radio gear sits further from the servo than the stock wiring reaches - these come in a few standard lengths and work across most servo brands, Savox included.
There's a middle path worth aiming for with spares generally: buying every part that exists before you've had a single breakage is overkill and mostly wasted money, but waiting for a Saturday afternoon breakdown to discover a part isn't in stock is the other extreme. The list above sits in that middle ground deliberately - cheap enough to buy ahead of time, common enough that most owners need it eventually.
Skip for now
Hop-up parts, aftermarket suspension and a bigger motor are all tempting on the same order as your first car, but none of them belong on a starter list yet. Learning how the stock setup drives - and what breaks under normal use versus hard driving - gives you a baseline worth having before spending on upgrades a beginner usually can't feel the benefit of. When you are ready, First Upgrades That Actually Matter: Tyres, Bearings & Steel Gears covers the handful of upgrades worth the money at that stage - tyres, bearings and steel gears, not a full hop-up shelf.
FAQs
What spares should I keep on hand?
Body clips, a spare set of screws, and - once you know your car's failure points - a dog bone or two are the cheapest, most commonly needed spares. Beyond that, spares are largely reactive: replace what breaks on your car rather than stockpiling parts you may never need.
Is the included charger good enough?
For NiMH, usually yes. For LiPo, a basic bundled charger works but a balance charger is the safer long-term choice, since it manages each cell in the pack individually rather than the pack as a whole. If your current charger has kept a battery healthy so far, there's no rush to replace it.
What do I actually need to carry to the park?
A charged spare battery, a basic hex driver or multi-tool, and a couple of spare body clips cover almost every common issue that ends a session early. Add a small screwdriver if your car uses any Phillips-head fasteners alongside the hex ones.
Browse RC Batteries & Chargers and RC Car Tools & Accessories to build your first accessories order, or head to Best Beginner RC Cars in NZ if you haven't picked a car yet. Questions? Message Us or visit us in Auckland.