I forgot to mention I live in Alberta, Canada and not in the UK. Recently, a pro hockey player's wife compared us to Siberia!
I registered with this site because I found a lot of stuff here, especially the reviews, useful.
I've been to around 5 hobby stores here and they carry a very limited selection. At least some of them carry parts for the B4. One small store here is trying to bring back the 4wds. They had a lazer zx5 and will bring in the B44's when they're out. Unfortunately, they are way above my budget. I am looking through ebay and online shops to find great deals. So far I found a decent deal on a B4 RS. I'm still debating if I should shell out $300 for a zx5 RTR. So far no stores here carry kyosho parts except for that one store that had a zx5 and as of now they still do not carry kyosho parts.
I would have to rely on online stores for hop ups if I decide to get the zx5 and shipping costs are going to kill me!
Everytime I look through the internet I'm practically drooling over the cars and the mods I could do to them. But like I said earlier, I'm now considering a mini especially after a couple of articles I read about hopping these up to go insanely fast (including the tamtech article here).
BTW, thanks again for the advice so far!