It's called ZALMAC and it's a material very prone to wear and tear. For instance, just by unscrewing base plates in order to mod your Throttle or Stick you'll cut new threads in material and screws won't hold two pieces together as they did before disassembly.
Honestly, I used stock Cougar for a year now, Gimbals weren't greased properly so stick centerplay became so obvious that my Cougar ain't sitting vertical when relaxed anymore like it should in X-0/Y-0 position. It leans left or right dependable on wind direction!
Throttle: Ooomph, PITA, Friction was good when new but dissapeared within a year, I actually have to hold it firmly throughout the flight to prevent handle falling to a Full AB or Idle position. I applied 7 wraps of glossy duct tape around main shaft to fix this issue and I had to grease it thorougly to increase precision! Ant Elevation pot missed central detent.
I payed 400 US$ + shipping + VAT fot Cougar HOTAS, now I'll probably spend 550 US$ more to mod it with U2-NXT, Hall sensors and metal Speedbrake and dogfight housings. I also might buy spare NXT springs.
In total that's over 1000US$ for a functional, faithful and trustworthy Cougar, but there's another option that's much cheaper. It's called X52Pro and costs 250US$.
I already have Saitek Pro Flight Rudders but I heard people having trouble with X52 (be it Pro or plain) and Saitek Rudders interferance (?!)
Personally, I'd like to get my hands on Suncom (F-15 look-alike stick) but these are very rare!