Welcome to yet another wonderful edition of THE Cub Report, the opinion piece that keeps industry types constantly hitting the refresh button.

Did you see the press release on the latest offering from Axial? Hubba, hubba! Axials new truck is called the SCX10, and is perhaps the best looking truck released in years. It’s intended for the crawling crowd, but its authentic scaling and trick looks will surely attract a much wider spread of the market.

Speaking of “scale” appearance- it’s seems our favorite sanctioning body wants all the body manufactures to start producing more “realistic” bodies in the truggy class. Now, since when has a truggy ever looked even faintly realistic? Why now should the bodies look more realistic while their wheels, tires, suspension, and ever other components can look like they were designed by a martian? Will a more realistic bodied truggy even enhance racing? I believe more scale realism will lead to more mainstream acceptance of our hobby, but that means the entire car/truck has to look scale, not just it’s body. The trend towards realism is good for our hobby, lets hope the sanctioning bodies get on board with more support of this trend. It might tick off the hard core racers (the type that run off noobs anyways) for a while, but the masses will come, and the increased revenue will be appreciated by everyone making a living in this hobby.

Brian hates it when I give props to any of the print rags, but this week I just have to. Once again the guys over at RC Car have put out a mag worth spending the $5 on. In their January issue, they have two outstanding interviews. The first is with the whole crew from AKA tires- Gil Jr, Pops, Joel Johnson, and Mark Pavidis. The second interview is from Jay Thames, the guy that did the docu/film about carpet racing called “Carpet Racers: A Crash Course“. You won’t find interviews like these in the other rags, and both only have one downside, they just aren’t long enough. Both interviews are good reading, something rarely found in the rc rags these days.

Once again, if you are a battery or charger manufacture, and want to be included in the next BigSquidRC shootouts, be sure and shoot us an email at Brian at BigSquidRC.com to get complete info on how to be included. Looks like we’ve got some big names already lined up, brands that consumers are really interested in seeing tested, so readers rejoice, you are gonna dig the shootouts when we’re done.

As I was having an email exchange the other day with a friend of mine in the industry, we were discussing just how many different genres of cars and trucks there are on the market right now. Then the convo turned to what we both thought our “perfect” cars were. Strangely, even though there are dozens of different genres of cars already out there, nobody makes the two “perfect” cars that my friend and I would really prefer. So now I am asking you readers to submit to us what your “perfect” rc car would be. If it’s already on the market, don’t bother emailing us, but if your true “perfect” car is not out there, shoot us an email and let us know what is it. For instance, is your “perfect” car an 8th scale nitro 4wd crawler? A 12th scale 4wd short course truck? Let us know, and if we get enough responses I’ll post what the “most wanted but not produced” rc car is.

That’s it for this week, support your hobby, hit your LHS and local tracks, and most importantly, have fun playing with your toy cars and trucks.

Your Cub Reporter

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Sorry, a little late to the party on this one.. but there are still a few hours left!! If you head over to the Pro-Line Racing site here you can get 25% a LOT of their stuff with free shipping! Just enter coupon code: GOBBLE25. Sweet deal!

You only have till Sunday at Midnight, so get ordering! I believe this should work for most their stuff, except the newest releases.

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Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to wish all of our readers a happy Turkey day from the folks here at Big Squid RC!

For those of you not standing in line already for some crazy toaster sale on black-Friday, I think a lot of the local tracks are open most of the day. So if you are looking to get in a few laps while someone you know is out there pushing and shoving, call your track and head on over.

We are actually expecting snow tonight here (another reason I have decided I don’t need to be in-line) … so we’ll see if that actually happens. Might have to invest in those Pro-Line slash snow tires!

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For those people looking to continue to bullet proof their Team Associated SC10, RPM is now offering their front bumper system. It’s a three piece design with a unique chassis brace. The brace bolts to the bottom, then the added RPM Skid Plate, and finally their front bumper which can also use the same can/light system RPM has put out for the Traxxas Slash! You can never go wrong with a RPM upgrade, so if you are looking to beef up your SC10, this is probably a good start!

Check out the RPM RC site for details.

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Wow, what a great system! We got our hands on the new Team Tekin RS Pro / Redline Brushless system, and it hauls! If you are in the market for a new system, you are going to want to head over to the RC Reviews section or click here to read the full Team Tekin RS Pro Redline Brushless Review!

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Days before iHobby we posted a sneak peak at the new BullDog body from Pro-Line Racing for the Team Associated RC8T. Here are the official shots. It comes clear with their Cab Forward Technology, and apparently guys like Ryan Cavalieri and Richard Saxton are digging the feel and performance.

“My truck just works better-more steering, more predictable and faster lap times. The narrow design allowed me to see what my truck was doing which made tuning even easier at Nitrocross,” says Ryan Cavalieri.

It’s definitely a change in style! You can visit the Pro-Line Racing site here.

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Word from ACER Racing is that they have a new Ceramic Ball Bearing kit for the XRAY T3. It’s a complete kit including steering and differential bearings. It’s available for both the EU Rubber Spec and Foam Spec T3 kits.

Head over to the ACER Racing Website for info.

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If you are in the UK, and looking to get into the RC business, I just got an email telling me they have a new opening and are looking to expand their engineer department! So if you think you can help design the next big hit vehicle for Schumacher, head over to their site. Sounds like a pretty sweet job to me!

For more info, hit the official Schumacher UK Job posting. Make sure to tell them you saw it on Big Squid RC! Heck.. that alone will probably get you the job!

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A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Tim Smith and Grand Motorsports for hitting some serious speeds recently at the International RC Speed Challenge in California. Tim established two new world speed records for the ISC 2wd modified and stock classes with his Grand Motorsports Dragsters! Tim’s yellow GMS dragster hit 101.61mph with a Speed Passion 4.5 motor and 7.4v MaxAmps LiPo’s becoming the first 2cell car over 100mph! Tim’s other modified GMS dragster with front wheel setup hit 126.50mph with a Tekin RX8 ESC and Neu motor to become the fastest two-wheel drive RC vehicle! Awesome!

Congrats Tim and GMS!

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It sounds like the RC Pro Products JVD RC Clutch System is off to a great start! Ryan Lutz used the system for the first time at the RC Pro Finals and finished 2nd in Pro Truck, and 3rd in Pro Buggy A Mains! Ryan’s clutch system was shipped to him at the event, these pictures were taken after about an hour of qualifying and the 1 hour a-main!

“I was extremely impressed with the amount of punch they had when they engaged. But it was totally manageable and they disengaged just as well to bring me back to my instant idle that I like.
I ran the same set-up on both buggy and truggy and while I never played around with springs at all, the stock package felt very good as it was with the 1.0’s all the way around.” says Ryan.

If they could take that abuse, I’m guessing they would hold up to some serious bashing!

Check out RC Pro Products for more information.

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to post a quick update that we have finally caught up on shipping all the stickers people have been ordering for the Big Squid RC Contest! The final batch to get us caught up went out this morning, so if you have placed a order, and have not received them, keep an eye on your mail box for the next few days. For the orders out of the US, they have also been shipped, but please give them more then a few days to arrive.

Now that stickers are back on track, we will start to get the contest pictures caught up, and the drawings going again! Sorry for the delay, the big iHobby production put us a little behind, but we are catching up!

Thanks for all your support and orders! I can’t believe how many we have been shipping overseas this year, it’s been awesome!

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Hey all, this is part two of the bigger than usual Cub Report, since the last one was a good chunk with all the iHobby talk, this part is a little different subject matter, but still stuff I wanted to talk about, it was just too much for one report.

Wow, I mean Seriously Wow! I don’t know who the guys behind RC4WD are, and I’m definitely not a crawler guy, but Wow, RC4WD’s new products look sweet. Realism is selling right now, and not only do RC4WD products lean towards scale realism, but they just plain look trick. For years and years rc cars have gotten farther and farther away from the looks of the real thing, nice to see the trend going the other way! New products from RC4WD include their 8th scale comp crawler kit, 10th scale metal chassis, and 10th scale Fracture V8 engine shell with transfer case that you install a normal 540 electric motor in. Trick, uber trick.

Parma! I gotta give the Parma guys some love this week, as their new Dune Buggy body looks really trick! The Dune Buggy body brings back so many fond memories, and is the best looking body to come out of Parma in quite some time. It’s intended to be bolted up on the Traxxis Slash chassis, and looks very much like the Meyers Manx dune buggies from the late 60’s.

Ofna has drastically cut back on advertising as of late, but they’ve recently released info on their new Hyper 10 4×4 SC truck. Most any truck that is a 4×4 is a blast to drive, and the OFNA looks to use a very beefy 8th scale’ish drivetrain for durability. Even though a heavy drivetrain is used, the truck is set-up to run a 10th scale power system on 2S lithium, saving loads of bucks over using an 8th scale power system and high cell counts. Easy to drive 4wd, beefy drive train, and SC looks, Ofna might have a winner on their hands with this one.

A note to ALL he industry folks out there. BigSquidRC will be holding a second Li-po battery shootout. We’ve shot out a ton of emails inviting everyone we could think of to be in the shootout, but it seems many of these emails go unread or are shot into spam boxes. So if you want in on our second Li-po shootout, send Brian at BigSquidRC.com an email to get complete info. If you are a consumer and want to see your favorite brand of Li-po battery included, and you have a inside contact at your preferred battery company, please invite them to shoot Brian an email to be included. We’ll start the second shootout the weekend of November 28th, so all packs must be received no later than November 25th.

We’ll also be doing a battery charger shootout in the next couple of months. So if you are an industry person and want your charger included in the shootout, shoot us an email at Brian at BigSquidRC.com for complete information on how the shootout will be conducted, and a time frame when we’ll need your charger for the shootout.

That’s it for this week, support your hobby/industry in any way you can, you Industry guys, start dropping Brian some email! (Not just the hate kind).

Your Cub Reporter

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A while back we mentioned the Schumacher Mi4 would be shipping soon with some cool features, well we just got a press release mentioning that it’s also shipping in a RACE version to help keep the prices low to get it into people’s hands, while also coming in KIT or Assembled form. If your an on-road guy, you should probably keep an eye on this one!

For more info, hit the official Schumacher USA website.

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With the holidays coming up, it’s always nice that ACER Racing sends out a coupon code to get a good discount on their stuff! This year, you can use the code ACR20 when checking out to get 20% off any order $200 or more! They have a few new Ball Bearing kits including the
Associated RC12R5.1 .

Head over to the ACER Racing Website for info.

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This week I guess I went a little long with all the industry quotes, so the boss man has asked that I break the report up into two parts… look for the second part to be posted in a day or so, it’s on some different topics than this part anyway.

Last Cub Report, we crushed the record for hate mail received at the BigSquid offices. Much of the email addressed the issue of me going off on the manufactures that did not display at the iHobby show a couple weeks ago. There are two sides to every story of course, so here’s part of an email we received from a west coast industry insider regarding the reasons why some west coast companies didn’t show at ihobby this year. West coast industry guy- “Simply put, the big manufactures did not attend not because all of them band together and decided to boycott the event together….. they have decided not to attend simply because for the $$ spent vs. the exposure they get, it is not worth it” This west coast industry insider went on to say- “iHobby as an industry representing show has really gone down hill over the course of the past 5-6 years and for what they charge, it just doesn’t work out for these big manufactures.”

So there ya go, the other side of the why show up for iHobby story. Yes, it’s expensive for any manufacture that has to fly people in and ship booth hardware to the show. There are a lot of reasons to not attend the show, yet, there are a lot of reasons to make it. In the end, I feel you only get out what you put into something. If you don’t show, you save some cash, but you get nothing out of it. If you do make the show, you may make that one industry contact that doubles your sales next year, or you may talk with lots of real world consumers that help you make smarter marketing decisions based upon your chats with them. In my mind the “real” best reason to be at iHobby is getting the chance to eat some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Awwww, the best pizza money can buy.

Seems we also started a firestorm in the last Cub Report with the mere mention of the “Asian Invasion”. The iHobby trade show cemented the trend of overseas manufactures selling straight to American consumers via the internet, bypassing the normal distribution chain in the industry. Here’s a hodgepodge of quotes from various email and phone conversions I’ve had about the subject of direct overseas selling over the last week…..

“the idea of American companies acting “shocked” by this is laughable. They were just trying to squeeze as much low-labor cost $$$ out of the deal as possible before the other shoe dropped…”

“the writing was on the wall for this one. You can’t be an American company sending your blueprints overseas to take advantage of “bowl of rice a week” labor, and then acting surprised and shocked to see your designs being sold under someone else’s brand name in a few months… ”

“HK (Zippy) works with factories over there to purchase all their “old stock” lipos. Basically they buy the cells/packs that have been sitting on the shelves for several years. They buy them in bulk at a very heavy discount because the factories are trying to unload them and can not sell them to any reputable companies. They also will take all of the ding/damaged/low voltage cells. They send the packs out without paying any import duties here to the USA by laying on the import documents and calling them a gift. Therefore, shafting the American tax payer and getting a tax dodging advantage on the US Companies…”

“(American manufactures) Need to figure out a reason for American consumers to buy from them, instead of a comparable product from an overseas company… Maybe it’s service, reputation, something… But the cost difference is SO great between the “direct” products and the “Brand Name” versions that people EXPECT a slight decrease in quality or service.”

“I have LOOONNNGGG said that the US Hobby Industry needed a REAL cohesive industry organization to stop (or at least discourage) these practices, but what do we get instead? The iHobby people gladly selling these companies BOOTH space, LOL!!!! It’s like nobody’s paying any attention.”

“Yeah, this is trouble.”

“Their (the overseas direct marketers) customer service is horrible. If you don’t believe that, just look on their own forums at complaint after complaint.”

“They are trying to establish themselves in the market with very cheap prices, but they will have to raise their prices to be a sustainable business model.”

“Now, it seems to be pretty much the EXACT SAME PRODUCTS that are showing up, not even Clones anymore!!!”

“Unless we here figure out a way to “add REAL value” to our brands, figure out something that would be difficult or impossible for the overseas manufactures to do, we can expect the loss of the American RC Hobby Industry as we know it within a decade.”

“Calendar year 2009 has been devastating to the Chinese factories. After years of ramping up production via manpower and larger facilities, the sudden sales slump took their feet right out from under them… late 2008 into 2009 saw orders drop so dramatically that the factories had excess stock for the first time, well…ever…. the ideology behind direct China factory selling is in my opinion, about 90% the direct result of simply having to move overstocked product somewhere else, and keep the factory workers busy by any means necessary.”

Those are just a few notes from close to 50 email exchanges and phone calls I’ve had over the last week on the subject of direct overseas selling to American end consumers. American manufactures can’t just say “Buy American!!” because American consumers will buy from who they see fit, you have to look no further than the full size auto industry to see proof of that. Time after time I’ve seen overseas manufactures screw over American companies that are sourcing product from them. In my eyes, it’s just a matter of time for them to start screwing over American end consumers as well. Once the American consumers lose trust in the dirt cheap overseas direct sellers, it won’t take long for it to spread via word of mouth. Screwing over just a few people here in the internet age will prove very costly to all the overseas direct sellers. The clock is ticking…

That’s it for part one, hate-mail is gladly accepted and appreciated, and support your hobby/industry in any way you can. Watch for part two soon.

Your Cub Reporter

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