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What's new: Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

New Pre-Mounts From Pro-Line Racing

By Tim Mohr @ 2:31 pm. Filed in: New Products, Pro-Line

We really like pre-mounted tires around the office, they save us a bunch of time and work and they keep Brian from gluing his fingers together. Pro-Line is in the business of making lives easier so they’ve announced a bunch of new pre-mounted tire/wheel combo’s.

First up are their new Shockwave 3.8″ pre-mounts. These feature their new Shockwave tires mounted up on 3.8″ F-11 black wheels made to bolt right up on your monster truck. These lightweight tires give better than stock traction on all the surfaces that bashers like- grass, pavement, and of course in the mud. Street price for these monsters is $45 a pair and they have a part number of #1193-13. Click Here for more information.

Pro-Line has announced new Badlands pre-mounts as well. Badlands are perhaps the most popular bash tire here at BigSquidRC and the new pre-mounts come on black Renegade wheels in both Slash rear and Pro-Line ProTrac offsets. Part numbers are #1182-15 for the ProTrac offset and #1182-13 for Slash rear. Street pricing is $35 a pair, simply click THIS LINK for more information.

For you guys that do most of your bashing on the street Pro-Line has introduced new Road Rage 2.8″ pre-mounts. Road Rages give great traction on pavement and seem to wear forever. These come in two different offsets, #1172-12 and #1172-13 to ensure a proper fit on your Traxxas Stampede. Street pricing is $35 a pair and HERE is the link you want to get more information.

On the opposite end of the spectrum Pro-Line has you covered with new Sling Shot paddle tire pre-mounts for short course trucks. The new Sling Shot pre-mounts come in two different offsets on black Renegade wheels. Part numbers are #1158-17 for Slash rear offset and #1158-18 for Pro-Line ProTrac. Street pricing is $35 a pair, for more information THIS is the link you want.

The last set of new pre-mounts are Trencher 3.8″ mounted up on black F-11 wheels. Trenchers are a legendary bash tire that we use on a daily basis here at BigSquid because they work great on nearly every surface. These new pre-mounts come with 17mm hexes to fit vehicles like the Revo and the Summit and have a part number of #1184-13. Street price is $45 a pair and check out THIS LINK for more information (and even a BigSquid mention!).

Pro-Line Pre-Mounts Gallery

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FX Royal Racing Nitro Engines

By Tim Mohr @ 11:07 am. Filed in: Industry News, X-Ray

There is a new nitro engine company on the scene and it is called FX Royal Racing Engines. The man behind the company is Juraj Hudy who is best known for his work at X-Ray. FX Engines will be producing product targeted at the uber high end competition scene, but we know plenty of bashers who only buy “the best” and FX should be one of those types of companies. To check out the new FX Engines website Click HERE.

Are you a big fan of X-Ray? Check out more X-Ray news at THIS LINK right here on BigSquidRC.

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Driven Productions Shock Towers for Losi Mini 8ight

By Tim Mohr @ 8:55 am. Filed in: Losi, miscellaneous

The latest products from the guys over at TheToyz and Driven Productions are new shock towers for the Losi Mini 8ight buggy. The new towers are not only better than stock but their biggest advantage is they allow the use of different body mounting posts, thus making it easy to mount up all sorts of cool bodies to your buggy.

The new Driven Pro shock towers are made out of high quality delrin and come in three different colors- red, black, and dyeable white. Street price is about $14 each and the part numbers are #DP 705 for the front and #DP 706 for the rear. Hit up THIS LINK for more information over on TheToyz website.

For more Losi news check out THIS LINK right here on BigSquidRC.

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What's new: Monday, May 20th, 2013

Event Coverage – Show Me Scalers Top Truck Challenge

By Tim Mohr @ 2:40 pm. Filed in: Events, miscellaneous

Driving scale trucks is huge right now so Cubby and I decided to hit the Show Me Scalers Top Truck Challenge. The event was put on by the ShowMeScalers.com crew and consisted of three events – rock course, mud bog, and truck pull. The pulling event ended up getting cancelled, but for a good reason, the turnout was so big that they simply ran out of time.

Adam “The Uber Intern” had built a killer STRC equipped Axial Wraith for Cubby to drive and I drove our BSRC review Vaterra Twin Hammers. Both are tough scale machines that worked well for us all day long.

The event was held in Wentzville Missouri, a town on the north-western edge of the St Louis metro area. Competitors were divided into three different classes based on the truck they were driving. The three classes were 1.9, 2.2 and the crazy “unlimited” class.

The 2.2 trucks kicked things off, first competing on the rock course, then going over to the mud bog. The smaller 1.9 trucks got their turn next, and the “Unlimited” class trucks went last. The rock course was quite challenging and the mud bog was just plain fun. I had never competed in a “scale” event before, luckily the Show Me Scalers event was a blast and I look forward to hitting another one soon.

Event results-

1.9 Rock Course

1st – Aaron (Honcho SCX10) – 4:18
2nd – Doug W (SCX10 – 4:45
3rd – Jeff B (SCX10) – 4:56
4th – Brian (SCX10) – 5:06
5th – Bob (SCX10) – 5:34

2.2 Rock Course

1st – Jeff B (Wraith) – 1:48
2nd – John D (AX10) – 1:51
3rd – Chris B (Ax10/X-Trail) – 1:54
4th – Teddy (Wraith) – 2:17
5th – Danny (Wraith) – 2:24

Unlimited Rock Course

1st – Ken (6×6 SCX10) – 1:18
2nd – Curtis (6×6 SCX10) – 1:55
3rd – Chris B. (Summit) – 2:43
4th – Chad (Mad Torque) – 3:44

1.9 Mud Pit

1st – Doug (Rusty Jeep Comanche SCX10) – 5.9 seconds
2nd – Bob O. (SCX10) – 6.4
3rd – Tim (Twin Hammers) – 7.3
4th – Bob O. (Hi-Lift) – 8.0
5th – Doug (SCX10) – 8.1

2.2 Mud Pit

1st – Todd (Wraith) – 4.5 seconds
2nd – Danny (Wraith) – 5.3
3rd (Tie) – Brian (Energy) – 5.7
Brian (Wraith)
5th (Tie) – Jeff (Wraith) – 6.3
Ken (Wraith)

Unlimited Mud Pit

1st – Chris B. (Summit) 3.2 seconds
2nd – Ken (6×6 SCX10) – DNF

For more information on scale trucks and the lifestyle, hit THIS LINK to visit the Show Me Scalers website. Looking for even more information on scale realism? Try THIS LINK right here on BigSquidRC.

Show Me Scalers Top Truck/Mud Bog Gallery 1

Click below on the “Read More” button to see 8 more galleries full of the rock crawling and mud bog action from the event.

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ParkZone Focke-Wulf FW-190A-8 BNF Basic

By Tim Mohr @ 1:17 pm. Filed in: New Products, Parkzone

We’ve all had those days, the type that leave you needing to blow off some steam when you get home from work. Horizon Hobby has just announced their new ParkZone Focke-Wulf FW-190A-8 airplane, a perfect plane to get into a dogfight with your buddies and forget all about your bad day at the office.

The Focke-Wulf is an exceptionally detailed warbird featuring a functional engine fan and even a painted pilot figure. For performance this classic warbird comes with a 15 size 950kv brushless motor and an E-flite 30A speed controller to have some serious power up in the air. It’s a BNF, meaning the plane is pretty much ready to go out of the box, just bind it up to your transmitter, grab a 3S Lipo, and you are ready for flight.

The part number is #PKZ6250 and the Focke-Wulf carries a street price of just $199. For full information check out THIS LINK over on the Horizon Hobby website.

How about checking out what else ParkZone has been up to, right here on BigSquidRC.

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Review – ProTek 7.4v 2S 100C 5600 mah Lipo Battery Review

By Cubby @ 11:06 am. Filed in: Accessory Reviews, ProTek

THE ProTek 2S 100C 5600 mah Lipo Battery Review

The rc world is still dominated by electric power and that doesn’t look to be changing any time soon. That fact means that nearly every hobbyist is going to need a good battery pack for his truck. Today we’ll be putting the hammer down on the latest Lipo battery from ProTek, a Supreme Power 2S 7.4v 100C 5600 mah pack. Does it have good power? Does it live when you jump it off the roof? Is it right for the basher crowd? Let’s find out…

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New Pro-Line Scale Accessory Packs

By Tim Mohr @ 9:31 am. Filed in: New Products, Pro-Line

Scaler trucks keep on growing in popularity and the Pro-Line crew keeps coming up with cool products for them.

Pro-Line has just announced three new scale accessory packs for you guys that like your rigs to look perfectly scale authentic. All the accessory packs are incredibly detailed to take your trucks scale realism to the next level, and they look great thanks to their hand painted detailing.

The part numbers for the new packs are #6107-00, 6106-00, and #6105-00, and street pricing should be just over $20. For more information on scale gear at Pro-Line check out THIS LINK.

What else has Pro-Line been up to? Take a look at THIS LINK right here on BigSquidRC.

Pro-Line Scale Accessory Gallery

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THE Cub Report, 05.20.2013, Version- Give ‘Em Enough Rope

By Cubby @ 9:31 am. Filed in: cubby

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for tuning in to another Cub Report, my weekly smack talk on the world of rc.

Holly mackerel, RV2 pwn’ed the field at the 2013 opener of the motocross nationals over the weekend. RC and Bubba have had perfect outdoor seasons in the past and the way Ryan rode on Saturday it looks like he simply can not be beat. If the 450 class is going to be interesting this summer somebody has to step it up. Seriously, please, anybody. But… Bubba is toughing it out with a bum knee, Dungey looks as if he isn’t pushing very hard, Reed has been having issues, and the Honda combo of TC and Bam-Bam look to be a couple ticks off the pace. At least the 250 class looks to be a dog fight all summer…

And in the world of rc…

Our BigSquid Bash Crew member “Bill the Wrench guy” is big into those wacky looking “cartoon cars” on Facebook, he has those things littered all over his FB feed. I personally don’t get the attraction, they just look goofy to me.

Cue Kyosho with their announcement of their new “Comic Racers” at the Shizuoka Hobby Show last week. Now… I detest Mini-Z’s with a passion, they are simply to small to be used on rough surfaces, they are slow, and they are far too small for my old eyes/hands to even think about working on. However… I’m a huge believer in evolution. Everything in this world has to evolve, it’s just the nature of things, and the “Comic” look just might be where rc is headed because it is so unique.

So… rc has been going through this big resurgence of scale looking vehicles since the day the Traxxas Slash came out. Of course scale looks are great for the hobby but with them being so en vogue right now there inevitably has to be a time when it fades away and the hobby goes into its next phase of evolution.

So… I’m staring at the pics of the Kyosho “Comic Racers” and thinking to myself, “Oh noooo… I hope this isn’t the next big fad.”. I say that because I personally detest the look and UFO machines aren’t as good for our mainstream image as scale type machinery. But… I know the “Comic/Cartoon” look just might have a chance of taking off, after all Wrench digs them and so would a lot of people just looking for something new and different.

While the “Comic” look might not take off in the Kyosho/Mini-Z size, I know if Traxxas were to put out some sic looking 10th scale versions there are other big name manufactures who would jump right on that bandwagon. The “Comic” genre is somewhere rc has never been before, with manufactures always looking for the next big thing it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if we start seeing more of them hitting the market. Would I buy one? Oh heck no, I would burn them with fire, but then that’s what I said about the Slash and now I have a half dozen SCT’s in my garage…

Btw, I rarely speak kindly about Kyosho, but you gotta give them props for laying it on the line and putting out vehicles like the NeXXT and the Comic Racer, it takes balls to put out radically styled vehicles like those.

On a different note…

We are giving away a brand spank’n new Durango this week on our Wednesday night G+ Live show, check it out to have your shot at winning.

That’s it for this week ya’ll, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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What's new: Sunday, May 19th, 2013

Pro-Line Rat Rod Prize Pack Winner

By Brian @ 10:36 pm. Filed in: Contest, Pro-Line

Last week we asked our readers to send in pictures of their 1/18th Scale Revo type vehicles for to enter to win an awesome prize pack from Pro-Line Racing, and as usual, our readers did not disappoint!

Thanks again to Pro-Line Racing for the awesome Rat Rod prize pack, and thanks to all of our readers who sent in their “Mevo” pictures.

Our random official winner is Shelby S. of Croydon, PA. Congrats Shelby! We will be sending you an email to get your address and info!

We got a TON of enteries and some great pictures. Posted below are just some of them, I figure 30 should keep you guys happy.

Revo Contest Gallery

If you didn’t win this time, stay tuned, we have a bunch of great contests coming up including one that will be announced Monday!

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LEGO 1/7th Scale RC Caterham

By Brian @ 8:29 pm. Filed in: miscellaneous, video

Spotted this over at TheAwesomer.com. It’s a completely home built and amazingly detailed RC Lego Caterham in 1/7th scale. It has disc brakes, 5 speed + reverse, full suspension and the engineering underneath is mind blowing. Even the controller is built from scratch. If your a detail nut, or a LEGO fan, check out the video.

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What's new: Friday, May 17th, 2013

Pro-Line SHOCKWAVE 3.8″ Tires for Monster Truck

By Tim Mohr @ 12:23 pm. Filed in: New Products, Pro-Line

The Pro-Line crew has just released a teaser for their new ShockWave monster truck tires. If you are serious about bashing your monster truck, a set of these has to be on your wishlist.

The ShockWaves are designed for Traxxas style 3.8″ rims and will also be available as pre-mounts on black Pro-Line F-11 wheels with 17mm hexes. More information will be available on these very soon, until then HERE is the link to the official Pro-Line website.

Dare to click on a BigSquidRC TGIF Myster Link? You know you want to!

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Kyosho Comic Racer Mini-Z Subaru WRX

By Tim Mohr @ 9:11 am. Filed in: Kyosho, New Products

Our friends over at HobbyMedia.it have been busy covering the Shizuoka show this week. One of the coolest new products at the show has to be the Kyosho Comic Racer. The Comic Racer comes with a greatly exaggerated, cartoon like body, making it look much like the Car Town vehicles found on Facebook. The platform under the Comic Racer is the legendary Mini-Z, ensuring that spare parts and hop-ups are already on the market.

The first body to hit the Comic Racer line is a Subaru WRX STI NBR Challenge 2010. There is much more information to come on these in the near future, until then Click Here to check view other cool vehicles from Kyosho America.

Thank Goodness It’s Friday, check out This BSRC Mystery Link.

Kyosho Comic Racer Gallery

Check out the video below of the Comic Racer in action from the guys at TeamMiniZ.

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What's new: Thursday, May 16th, 2013

ASK Cub Reporter, 05.16.2013, Version- Legit Questions, Snotty Answers

By Cubby @ 12:52 pm. Filed in: Ask Cubby

Cubby – First off I would like to add some info/data to the answer I gave Dave B in last weeks ASK Cubby. Dave’s email basically said that “C” ratings on Lipo batteries seem to be a bit shady, and well, you need to read LAST WEEKS COLUMN to see how I replied.

A bit over a year we reviewed a Zeus 3S 850 mah Lipo pack. Our West Mountain CBA is fully capable of testing a pack of that size to its stated “C” rating, so of course we did just that. The pack was rated at 25C, which is 21.25 amps, and after testing the pack lived under that load. At 25C the pack exhibited a big horseshoe in the discharge curve, meaning it was being pushed to its limit, but otherwise it didn’t get too hot and lived to fight another day.
If anyone out there is looking for proof that not everyone lies about their “C” ratings, the Zeus pack we tested would make a good example. IMO a 25C continuous rating on that pack was in the ballpark, I would have considered it a rock solid 25C pack if there was no horseshoe in the discharge curve. When we dialed up the discharge rate to 30C (25.5 amps) the pack couldn’t take the load and dropped below 3 volts per cell immediately. HERE is the link for the review (with full graphs) that I am talking about.

But… a small capacity pack with a low “C” rating isn’t exactly what Dave was complaining about, so this week I broke out the West Mountain again. Yes, we’ve connected big loads to packs before, but we’ve never connected a big continuous load in a more controlled setting with the CBA. I took half of a 5000 mah 55C saddle pack and decided to go big with it, our West Mountain tops out at 120 amps continuous on a 1S/4.2 volt battery. So… what happened to our 1S 5000 55C Lipo under 120 amps continuous? It wasn’t good, LOL. The voltage immediately dipped below the 3 volt cut-off. By immediately I mean in less than 5 seconds. The curve looked like a cliff, the voltage went straight down to below the 3 volt cut-off. Also of note… I wired up the pack like it would be used in the real world, with 12 gauge wire and a Traxxas connector. The Traxxas connector got mildly warm, but the wire got straight up HOT (and I have a blister on one of my fingers to prove it). We knew the wiring was going to be the weak link in advance and our testing simply proved it. I then backed off the discharge to 100 amps with pretty much the same end result. Finally I dropped the load down to 80 amps where the pack behaved in a more “normal” manner, except the wire was still getting hot. The voltage dipped hard under 80 amps, but not below the cut-off value, and the battery itself stayed at a relatively low temp throughout the entire discharge. I am going to re-do the test later this week, this time with heavier wire and post the graphs in next weeks ASK Cubby. Is 120 amps continuous too much for the cells in a 5000 mah 55C Lipo or are they more than up to the task given heavy enough wiring? More info next week on this one.

Hello Bigsquid,
I have a brand new Slash, what is the first mod I should do? I was thinking a brushless system but don’t know what is a good brand.
Emilio

Cubby- Yo what’s up Emilio, thanks for the email and mad props for the super easy question. I have a very clear cut first mod on the Traxxas Slash- new hinge pins. The stockers are made out of butter and like to work their way loose. Uber hinge pins are a relatively affordable mod that makes the truck more durable, easier to work on, and can improve the way it drives. They don’t add to the bling factor, but good hinge pins won’t bend and won’t back out, making them worth their weight in gold. I’ve used two different brands- Pro-Line and ST racing Concepts. The Pro-Line Set runs about $22 and are super easy to install. The STRC set sells for $18 and I’ve also had good luck with them. Both sets can also take a pretty intense beating. You can barely tap a pipe and bend the stockers while after slamming a cement curb the aftermarket pins remain straight as an arrow. Pick a set and install’em, you’ll be thanking me later.

The next hop-up/mod I would recommend wouldn’t be a brushless system either, it would be a good Lipo battery. Not only will a good Lipo give you more power and run-time, but having an extra battery around comes in really handy. Check out one a 2S Venom 5000 mah pack, they have good performance, don’t break the bank, and are readily available from most hobby shops.

That’s it for this weeks “ASK Cubby”, send your emails to Cubby at BigSquidRC.com. All letters that hit the big-time get a free sticker pack while the one I proclaim as “letter of the month” gets a free BSRC t-shirt.
YOUR Cub Reporter

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