Is it just me or are there some really Fugly trucks being released this year? It might just be me, but it seems like 09′ is a banner year for ugly truck releases. I tell ya, every week there seems to be another one that tops the previous fugmaster. This week it happened to be the CEN Matrix SC truck. Wow, one look at that thing will make you rip your own eyeballs out with the nearest rusty nail. Seriously, doesn’t anyone at CEN look at the body they are gonna put on their new truck? Anybody there realize that looks are half the reason a typical buyer parts with his hard earned cash? Anyone even think to just source a short course body from Pro-Line or JConcepts, both of which do incredibly good looking bodies? Some things you can’t unwatch, wish I’d never opened that email with the picture of the CEN SC in it.

Ever notice how “trophy race” entry prices are just INSANE now days? Just FYI local track owner guys, $75 per class for a local-joe-blow-trophy-race in sh!tkicker BFE is WAY too much. What are some of you promoters thinking? Yes, we know keeping a track going is tough. Yes, we know you aren’t making much money, even at that price point. But, for $75 per class to race hobby grade rc cars, your race had better be perfectly run, with a Perfect track, Zero computer errors, no hacking allowed, my pits better be air conditioned, the T-shirt you give me better be top notch, and I better be getting a BIG bag full of swag when I show up.

Neither of the big left coast hobby shows got much press last week. You’d think with all the time, money and effort they put into those shows they’d have better coverage for the bulk of the country that could not attend. Maybe next year they’ll fly BigSquidRC out for proper coverage. Just say’n….

Hobbico/Duratrax showed us their new 18th scale Vendetta based rally car this week. Rally car = low sales, short course truck = huge sales. The rally car genre has never been super hot, but it makes you wonder why they didn’t elect to pwn the small car crowd by being the first company to market with a short course mini. Just think’n out loud, thanks for listening.

That HPI Formula Ten looks incredibly trick, like way super dope even. I’m very biased of course, as I’m fanatical about Formula 1 racing, but dang, can’t wait to get my hands on one of those and put some Ferrari paint on it.

HAHAHA, I think Associated did our industry a big favor recently. How? They released their new SC10 truck as a kit first, before selling it in RTR form. This forced a lot of hobbyists that have never built a kit from scratch to do so. Everyone in this sport needs to know how to build one from scratch, and a lot of post T-Maxx RTR hobbyists got their first taste of kit building with the SC10. Props to AE on that one.

One last thing before I close. BigSquidRC is doing a huge Li-po battery shootout. If you are a manufacture and want your battery part of the mix, contact Brian(@thing)bigsquidrc.com for all the details. Otherwise we’ll be shooting out invites to participate in the shooutout to over a dozen of the best Li-po manufactures and see which ones have the stones to man up and submit a pack for an unbiased comparison to the rest of their competition.

Support your local hobby shops, support your local tracks (except for when entry prices are $75!! LOL), and get those rc stickers on your 1:1’s.

Your Cub Reporter

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Team Novak has just issued a press release about the new Brushless in a Box HV Pro 6.5 conversion kits. The kit comes with the HV 6.5 brushless motor, steel pintion gear, motor heat sink, two battery boxes, ESC cooling fan, motor cooling fan, antenna mount, hardware kit and instructions.

They now have a ton of kits available, and I’m guessing there will be one for the now popular Hot Bodies D8. We’ll have to wait and see, but till then, here is the current list!

#3100 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: Associated RC8
#3101 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: CEN Matrix
#3102 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: Hot Bodies Lightning2 Evo
#3103 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: Kyosho Inferno
#3104 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: Mugen MBX5
#3105 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: OFNA 9.5 Ultra
#3106 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: OFNA Hyper 8
#3107 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: OFNA Hyper 7
#3108 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: X-RAY XB8
#3109 HV Pro 6.5 System / Conversion Kit Combo: Losi 8ight.

Make sure to check out the NEW Product Forum for the full press release and details!

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Ok, normally I let Cubby do the ranting around here. 1) He’s good at it, and B) He likes the hate mail more then I do. That being said, I’m going to hop up on my soap box here for a minute and get something off my chest. Lately I have been starting to see terms and phrases that we throw around here at Big Squid RC often now being used by other RC magazines and sites. While plagiarism is often seen as the sincerest form of flattery, I would like to start to see a little thanks sent this way by the big guys. Now I’m not saying Billy or Bobby shouldn’t be dropping their Big Squid RC terms over at the RC Drag Racing Track, or Timmy shouldn’t be trying to impress the chicks at the RC Monster Truck bash with some knowledge he has read around here, but when the big guys.. the companies with the money start pretending they came up with this stuff.. that’s when I get upset. In the last few months alone I have seen RC Car Action using Bash-A-Bility now in their reviews.. really? Hmm.. wonder where they got that one from? Even our first reviews posted over 4 years ago use that term.

The newest offender, CEN. Now, don’t get me wrong.. I really like the newer CEN products, CEN Matrix, loved it, CEN GST awesome, but now when I see CEN’s ad for their new GSR 5.0 truck, with the heading Basher Approved! Uhm.. sorry.. NO! How do I know it’s not Basher Approved? Because it’s not in our Basher Approved section!
Just because we are a small company, it does not mean you can just push us around. Our readership and fan base is growing fast, and I’m pretty sure everyone loves an underdog. So play nice!

Sure RC Car Action needs to find more readers, heck, RC Driver and Xtreme are not far behind them, and I’m pretty sure we have more readers then they have subscribers. And sure CEN wants to be part of the basher scene, it does not get any bigger, but how about earning the respect instead of just claiming it?

/end rant
Ok.. sorry about that. It was starting to drive me nuts. Remember where you heard it first people, and thanks for all your support! (PS: Send the hate mail to Cubby!)

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I am Josh, and will be writing “mini-reviews” of new or interesting products and news in the crawling area of RC. Compared to many that have been involved in this hobby for many years, I am a relative noob. I have been really only involved at a hobbyist level for a little over a year, but I have really taken an effort to get to know many facets of the hobby.

I started about a year ago with my purchase of a CEN Matrix RTR buggy after reading Brian’s review on this site. That was the purchase that got me rolling. Since that day, I have been hooked. That buggy has been torn apart, modified, rebuilt, motor swapped, and reworked at least twice in this first year. Next up was a Duratrax Warhead Evo. This was also a Big Squid influenced purchase. I also obtained a CEN Magnum 1/10th scale stadium truck, and most recently I have been building a Mini-Chaos 1/16th scale buggy. That little thing is gonna fly. It is almost nothing like it was when it came out of the box.

This nitro obsession was slowed down a bit by the Chicago cold, so I needed a way to keep myself occupied. This is when I ran across crawling. In December I purchased the very popular Axial Scorpion. This truck gave me plenty to tinker with. Since its purchase I have pretty much replaced all components except the axle housings with various upgrades from many different vendors. This ever changing project is the basis for my mini-reviews. As I purchase new products, install them, and test them, I will be reviewing them and letting all of you know which products are working well, and which are not. So far I have found a lot of good products and vendors out there. Hopefully you will find some good information in these mini-reviews.

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So I made a few phone calls to our spys in the trenches and came up with these. I have been told that these are still in testing, and both vehicles may change before we see them for sale. This first vehicle is being called the CEN Baja Matrix STX. It’s a cool new trophy truck from CEN Racing based on the Matrix Buggy platform with a few changes including tires, wheels, body mounts and suspension. I think this will be a fun vehicle at the track for sure!
This next vehicle is a new monster truck! I was asked to not mention the name of the truck because it is still early, and might not end up being the final name. I was told it should be very competitive with the Savage as far as speed, durability and performance goes. It will be running a new Corsa .28 engine which is a new Italian brand of engines! I’m a big fan of the Genesis, so having a smaller version I think could be pretty cool!

Have a spy shot you would like to show off? Drop me an email, lets talk! I will keep any names/companies/information completely confidential!

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I don’t have much info on these new vehicles that some CEN Racing employee’s were out testing somewhere, but it looks like there is a new Matrix Buggy and TR Arena Truggy on the horizon. I’ll make a few calls and see what dirt I can dig out of some of our spy’s out there. For now, enjoy the pics.

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