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

Posted 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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THE Cub Report, 05.12.2013, Version- Day Zero

Posted by Cubby @ 9:26 am. Filed in: cubby

Can you hear those bells? I sure can, Alonso put his Ferrari on top of the box at his home grand prix in Spain over the weekend. It was a great weekend for the prancing horses as Massa also put it on the podium and Ferrari is finally getting aggressive again. 2013 was year when the drivers have been holding back to conserve tires, but not Ferrari last weekend. Ferrari decided to go WFO even if it cost them extra pit-stops and it paid off. I’ll be darned, 2013 just might end up being an epic season for F1 and maybe even for Ferrari.

Day zero hit on Tuesday for my homie that I mentioned in the CR last weekend, it was the day he got his bone marrow transplant. He now has new marrow, a new blood type, and even a new birthday of sorts. When I visited my homie in person a few days ago he was a freak’n rock, but on his blog he has been posting more in-depth feelings that show what he’s going through is rough, even for a manly man.

I’ve never been around the cancer thing before, so right now I’m learning a lot about it (to say the least), and the more I learn the more everything about rc seems unimportant to me. Rc is a fun hobby that people love to blow their time and money on, yet there are thousands of people every single day struggling to see the sun rise the next morning. I’ve had so many good times in rc, I don’t know how I’ve gone this long without realizing the more important things in life. I have never made philanthropy important enough in my life, it’s time I change that.

There are a lot of very charitable people/companies in rc. It’s common to see tracks promote special charity races and they are typically supported quite well by the race crowd. There are also several rc manufactures that have gone above and beyond for charity. Last year during their anniversary celebration Pro-Line would be a great example of that. There are a whole lot of people in the rc hobby who do have their heads screwed on straight helping out good causes.

Then there are people like me. People who knew they should have been doing more but because charity was so low on our priority list we didn’t get around to helping out as often as we should have. So… I’m gonna pull an “Inception” on ya (hopefully), just like in the movie I would like to plant a seed, a little idea to move charity up your priority list. Just maybe somewhere down the road this little seed will grow unconsciously to prompt someone into action. Whether it be an rc driver making an extra effort to support a charity race or one of the big manufactures creating a long term partnership with someone like St Judes Children Hospital, I’m hoping to use the reach of THE Cub Report to wake some people up like I have been.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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formula 1

THE Cub Report, 05.06.2013, Version- Swedish House Cubby

Posted by Cubby @ 9:06 am. Filed in: cubby

Hello everyone, welcome to another week in the rc hobby, and welcome again to THE Cub Report.

The 2013 Supercross Series is officially over but it went out with one heck of a bang. While the big boy pants class was all wrapped up last week, both of the 250 region titles came down to real nail-biters. On the East Coast Wild Willy Hahn won his first supercross title, but just barely. KTM rider Marvin “The Martian” Musquin came up about 10 feet short of making a last lap pass to rob Hahn of the title. For the West coat, Eli Tomac was the reigning champ and a huge favorite, but after a couple of mid-season crashes he ended up way behind on points. K-Roc capitalized and gave KTM their very first Supercross title. I can’t imagine how stoked the Big Orange team and Roger DeCoster are right now.

BTW, thank goodness the Lucas Oil outdoor motocross nationals start in just two weeks. If I had to guess, I’d say there is going to be a whole lot of orange up front there too.

I am soooo not the serious type, but… cancer Freak’n sucks….

A couple really kick a$$ rc guys are battling with cancer right now- Car Action’s Steven Bess, and a good friend of mine Richard S. (internet handle Go1die) from Missouri. You guys probably haven’t heard about Go1die, but he’s an old racing friend of mine who always made everyone around him smile, he’s a great hearted guy that always stood up for the right things, and is one of the few people walking this planet that I would actually trust my kids with. Go1die also helped me out tremendously a few years ago when THE Cub Report first went up on the web.

Go1die and Steven are both really cool guys, and both are going through the bone marrow transplant process right now, just like a lot of other great people are. I know everyone has their own problems, and everyone is busy keeping their own lives on track, but if you’ve been slammed with life and haven’t done anything charitable in a while please consider being checked out to be a bone marrow donor. It’s painless and fast to see if you might be a suitable donor. HERE is a Link with some info if you are interested, it might be the most important link you ever click on the internet. Seriously consider it, you, yes YOU, can save someones life.

And on to a legit rc rant that I am particularly fired up about. After the previous subject I hate to get all negative, but I am straight up pissed off about this…

Freak’n cherry pickers, enough is enough.

Recently a PR went out on how an IFMAR world champ and his uber-scoot factory teammate cleaned up the stock class at a recent race. W T F. That is wrong on every single level. The “stock” class never was, and never will be, intended for the elite/world class level of racers of the sport. The “stock” class was made for, and is still intended to be, for newer, lesser skilled racers. Shame on the factory drivers, sponsors, and the track involved.

Why should the factory drivers be ashamed? Because it’s cherry picking, no different than if Bubba were to drop down and pwn the “C” class on a motocross track. There is no honor in cherry picking. None. In fact it’s a responsibility of being a factory paid driver to set a good example, to show newer drivers what is, and what is not, good sportsmanship.

The sponsors of the factory shoes should be ashamed too, especially by advertising the fact their uber drivers dropped down to pwn the stock class. What’s next, are factory drivers gonna show up to my local track and race novice just to pick up some easy trophies? Are the teams so hard up for trophies they actually think cherry picking is acceptable? No, it’s sickening, pathetic, and looks terrible.

Oh and, lets not forget about the track that allowed the big names to compete. If I was the race director and had some multi-time IFMAR world champ (or any big name factory guy) show up and attempt to sign up for a “stock”, “super stock”, or “expert stock” class I’d say “Glad to see ya, thanks for coming, but have fun WATCHING the race today because you aren’t going to be in it.”, simple as that. Sometimes it takes the tiniest amount of balls to do what’s right.

Regardless of what you might think, racing is done for one reason, to sell product. Do certain manufactures actually think consumers are so freak’n stupid that they are ok with cherry picking? I talk to a whole lot of Joe Blow consumers on a daily basis, and I can assure you that even casual rc’ers freak’n hate cherry picking. If a company is really wanting to sell product, it’s about winning only the most prestigious of events against the best of the best competition. A whole lot of good marketing can be flushed down the toilet real quick by advertising/condoning cherry picking in action.

A whole lot of people have been turning their heads and looking the other way allowing blatant cherry picking to go on. It is about time some of the “big name” people in this hobby sit down and think REAL HARD about what is truly important in rc racing and to re-evaluate their priorities. Racing toy cars is enough of a joke without certain people doing more things to make a mockery of it.

That’s it for this week ya’ll, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can. Oh and, if you see someone cherry picking, why not speak up and tell them what you think about it…

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 04.29.2013, Version- Icona Chubby

Posted by Cubby @ 9:03 am. Filed in: cubby

Hola rc’ers, as always thanks for checking out THE Cub Report, the only way to start off the week if you are truly core in rc.

Wow, did K-Roc choke or what Saturday night in Salt Lake City? The guy went into Salt Lake with a huge/unsurmountable points lead and left only 5 points up over Team Geico Hondas Eli Tomac. Some would argue that ET also choked- getting off to a second place start in the main only to fade and lose valuable points, but I’d say Eli put in a smart ride. ET got so far behind earlier in the championship by “going for it” and crashing. Saturday night he kept it on two wheels ensuring that he’s within striking distance for the title this weekend in Vegas.

The “big boy class” got cinched up early by the Leap’n Leprechaun- Ryan Villopoto. Davi and The Dunge put on an epic chase, but RV2 clearly had them covered, not just Saturday night, but all season long. Here’s to hoping someone can step up and make things more interesting in the nationals.

How about on to some rc chit chat? Naw… ok, well sorta. Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Truck Series sponsored by Speed Energy and Traxxas went off huge Saturday night in the iconic El Lay Coliseum. I gotta say I was impressed. The track, which was said to be one lined and hard to pass on, was pretty dern cool, complete with an actual full size cross-over/do-or-die section, followed by a mammoth uphill triple (that nobody ended up hucking). The track also had a sand section, a large stretch of pavement, and metal ramps. That was a seriously rad track, kudos to the guys that thought it up.

To make it even cooler, they also had Super Buggy and BigFoot monster truck racing on the same track. Are you serious? Monster trucks hucking the cross-over? Oh HECK YA.

On the downside- the stands were mostly empty, which came as a bit of surprise for an off-road event in SoCal. But… if the SST series grows anything like TORC has, expect a lot more fans there next year. HERE is the link to the SST schedule, they are coming to such places at Soldier Field in Chicago, the Edward Jones Dome in the STL, Qualcomm in San Diego, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington TX, and the Georgia Dome in Hotlanta. The BSRC Bash Crew will be at the Chi-Town and STL rounds, hopefully we’ll see you there.

Ok, so I really gotta crowbar some real rc talk in here.

When I first got into the industry side of the rc scene I was very lucky to pick up the ear of a couple legends in biz. These two gentlemen work/ed for different companies, and were two of the key players for shaping the industry through the 80′s and 90′s. I got their attention because I was quite specialized on the development of “new aged” products, products that the icons knew would change the industry, but because of their backgrounds were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the tech. Anyways… I was lucky, I brought them up to speed on the new tech, and they taught me the industry ropes, caught me up to speed on the real history behind the history of the industry, and they helped lead me down the right roads.

I talk to both of these gentlemen roughly once a month, mainly phone calls where we just bench race about what’s up in the industry. A couple weeks ago one of my “mentors” called me because he wanted to converse about one of our reviews. My mentor wanted to know what the “real” scoop was behind the vehicle we reviewed. He told me that the dinosaur media and numerous on-line reviews said one thing about the vehicle in question, but we said something different, we were much more negative. First he wanted to know what the car in question was “really” like, and secondly, he wanted to know how we didn’t lose an advertiser over it.

Now obviously my mentor knows me better than to think I would just make up negative stuff up for a review. He knows all the reviews I write up are dead serious (unlike THE Cub Report or ASK Cubby), but I guess maybe he felt I had let some old axes to grind change my assessment of the vehicle. I assured him that the review was not a reflection of any bad feelings towards the company, it was simply the result of me/us putting in a lot more time into our reviews.

A couple of years ago we sat around a big table and decided that BSRC is all about “news and reviews”, and that we had to step our game up on the reviews. In our opinion, nobody out there was doing even a remotely good job on reviews, so we decided it was up to us to go above and beyond, to put in the stupid hours, and to do them right. Our goal was to make sure we reported all the “typical issues” a consumer might run across after purchasing a product, and to attempt to relay a feeling of what it was actually like to own the product. If we can’t do that then we aren’t really doing our job.

So after literally spending weeks at over a half dozen different venues, the review I wrote up was an accurate report on what it was like to live with, wrench on, and drive that vehicle for a month. In the review in question, I forgot to mention several things, good and bad, and perhaps made a big deal out of things some people don’t even care about (like packaging and body clips), but in the end it was a true reflection of what we thought of the vehicle.

My mentor already knew all about the politics behind product reviews, hell, he was there before all that started, and he knows what’s up with them today. I guess he was astonished that we’ve reported issues with a bunch of different advertisers products, yet they are still advertisers. Back in the latter part of his day, one negative sentence could have easily been the trigger for a company to stop cutting those ad checks. Yes, we have lost advertisers before after negative product reviews, but everyone knows we aren’t pulling any punches, and that a good review simply can not be bought here. A good review here actually means something, where as it means absolutely freak’n nothing at so many other places.

To wrap it up, the call with my “mentor” lasted over 3 hours and ended with him being amazed that honest reviews can still happen. After thinking about our call for a while now, I’m saddened he was amazed by that fact, honest reviews should be the norm, not the exception…

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 04.22.2013, Version- Moving Pictures

Posted by Cubby @ 9:10 am. Filed in: cubby

Hola amigo’s, I trust you all had an epic weekend and are ready for another grind. At least there is always THE Cub Report to get your work week kicked off the right way.

This is the second Cub Report I’ve typed up using 9 fingers. A couple of years ago while catching trucks falling out of the sky at our i-Hobby demo one of my fingers got chewed up by a spur gear, and I chewed up another one on Saturday. I tend to be pretty core though, I’m quite certain that even if all ten of my digits were FUBAR I’d be typing this out with my nose, one slow letter at a time. As they say- the show must go on.

Speaking of show… I’m official tired of the Vettel runaway show and want to change the channel. Even the uber robotic charisma of Kimi Räikkönen can’t overcome how tired I am of a Vettel dominating yet another F1 race. “Sigh”. Maybe the engine changes next year will put someone new at the front of the pack.

Even though I could easily bench race about F1 or Supercross for a couple thousand words a week, Brian insists that I actually touch on rc. “Double Sigh”.

We got to talking about “bubbles” the other day in the office, specifically it started with Bitcoins, then made the rounds to housing, the stock market, and then of course to tulips. The conversation eventually made a turn to rc, that’s what we eat/breathe/sleep around here, and because our hobby has never had a speculative “bubble”, it turned to talk about HPI and Associated.

It’s been a long time since HPI has announced a new car. Yes, sure, they’ve had some issues of late, no doubt part of the reason for their lack of newly announce cars, but is that even a bad thing? We’ve been “trained” for years now to expect a new car announcement from a manufacture every month or so, so when we don’t see it we kinda say to ourselves, “OMG, HPI hasn’t announced anything for like 6 months, they must be screwed!”. Hopefully the recent lack of new releases leads to a series of all new and uber HPI product for us all to enjoy.

Associated is a good example of a company that announces a new car very frequently. They just announced their new Apex 18th scale TC (and MT) which is basically their old RC18 platform re-badged under their Qualifier Series of bashing gear. Just what good is it to the hobby that AE decided to put out an old design under a new logo?

What causes an economic “bubble” is when the price of an item has been pumped up to be much greater than its intrinsic value. For example, the “new” Associated QS 18th scalers are old tech, yet their price is right in-line with what new tech would/should be. The product itself doesn’t do anything to take the hobby forward, yet it costs as much as a better, newer, product should. And its not like AE is the only company doing it, several of them are (hint, hint, TRX).

So how does this all tie in together? Putting out old and overpriced gear is bad for the hobby. Putting out new, original, and superior product is good. I think we’d all like to see manufactures put the time/money/effort into actual new product once every 6 months than to put out some old re-hashed car every 2 weeks. Old/overpriced gear leaves consumers ticked off, new innovative product makes for long term hobbyists.

Yes, it’s certainly tempting to make the short term cash of putting out a new car every week and filling shelves with inferior product. A lot of the makers and shakers in the hobby are getting older and staring right at retirement in the next decade, and a few of them act like they don’t care if they kill off the hobby 15 years down the road.

All I’m saying is that all that old regurgitated gear is wayyyyy overpriced for what it is, and that consumers deserve better. The companies putting out all this regurgitated gear should care more about their customers and the long term future of our hobby.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 04.15.2013, Version- El hombre que cambió rc

Posted by Cubby @ 8:35 am. Filed in: cubby

Hey now, it’s Monday and you’ve found THE Cub Report, sometimes it sucks, sometimes it good, here’s to hoping this is one of the “good” ones. LOL

I like boring people right off the start with some full scale racing news. I literally eat, breathe, and sleep full scale racing, so my entire life centers around the F1 and Supercross schedules. Brian says “Cubby- we need you to work on that XYZ RC review this Saturday”, and I’m forced to reply, “WTF are you crazy? I was up all night watching F1 qualifying and I am following/watching Supercross all day, tell Adam to do it.” You would think after all these years Brian would know better than bother me on an F1/SX weekend. “Sigh”.

Speaking of F1, Ferrari won again over the weekend. Alonso simply pwn’ed the field in China, it really was something of beauty. And… what a podium, Alonso, Robot Kimi and Moons-Over-My-Hammy (and no Vettel, whewww). Above all I’m hoping that somebody can give Red Bull a run for their money this season, and with a few more weeks like this it might just be a good season.

The Dunge caught and passed RV2 Saturday night to take the Supercross win in Minneapolis. I haven’t been a Leprechaun fan since he took out Dungey in the STL a couple years ago, so I was pretty stoked to see that big orange KTM come out on top Saturday night. Supercross is getting late in their season so I kinda doubt Dungey can wrestle that title from RV2, but that’s why they run ALL the races, so miracles can happen.

Oh ya, and then there is life in RC.

I am still amazed at how BigSquidRC has changed rc. I guess I’ve had that thought running through the back of my mind for the last couple of years, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually said it out loud.

And how have we changed rc?

Here is an example- I’ve been told by more than one manufacture that they’ve sat around a big conference table having a meeting about “What would BigSquid think?” about a potential new product.

How would that change rc? Because our angle, our view, is a lot different than what the “norm” used to be in the industry. The “normal/common” point of view used to be- how thick is that carbon fiber? What is the coating on the shock shafts like at a molecular level? Our view is- does it traction roll on pavement? Does it break when you drive-it-like-you-stole-it?

I’ve been told that in the “old days”, a certain manufacture would design a new car, drive it a bunch, refine it, hand it to team drivers, then ship it. But now days they beat it with a hammer, jump it off a roof, then hand the controller to the secretary (that is literally a quote). That’s one hell of a change, and I think one that ultimately helps the “average” end consumer. Sure, having some uber-nitride coating on your shocks is great if you are one of the very few people trying to smash the local lap record, but for the other 99% the ability to accidentally hit a curb and have it not be a day ender makes for a much happier consumer.

To boil it down, I think we’ve helped bring the hobby back to less emphasis on technically uber parts, to more of an emphasis on how it works in the local cul-de-sac. In the old days a whole lot of product was designed from the ground up for the local pro guys while not even considering what the guy who runs once every couple weeks in his backyard would think about it. “Average Joe Blows” tend to be a silent majority and I think we’ve become a big, loud, clear voice for them. We’ve taken what is being said a thousand times a day at local bash spots and put it where the people that make and shape the hobby can actually become aware of it, and… they trust us enough to listen.

There are other ways that I think we’ve changed rc, maybe I’ll go over them at some other time, the Lites class is getting ready to come on Speed, so I really must jam.

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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THE Cub Report, 04.07.2013, Version- Roll’n Toledo Style

Posted by Cubby @ 8:47 am. Filed in: cubby

Hello everyone, I am Cubby and this is THE Cub Report, a weekly look into the world of life in the rc world.

This can’t really be a Cub Report without some Supercross bench racing, so for those of you that follow the sport you already know that RV2 put on another clinic last night in Houston Texas. Ryan is just a steamroller right now, much like RC was back in his heyday. He pulls a top 3 start, gets the lead early, then checks out. To stop him is going to take an apocoliptic ride from the Dunge, Bubba, TC41, or Bam-Bam, but so far none have done it. One of those riders will have to run RV2 down, pass him, then pull away in order to crowbar some of that confidence away from RV2. Until that happens it looks like the RV2 will continue his reign on top of the podium.

I spent the weekend in the lovely little city known as Toledo Ohio. The BigSquidRC Bash Crew was there to cover the 59th Annual (no, that is not a typo, fifty-ninth annual) Weak Signals RC Model Show. Ok, ya, I know, you might very well be a “surface” guy and have never heard of it, but this weeks Cub Report is about that unique show.

So what’s it like to hit the Weak Signals show?

It’s crowed, very, very crowded for three days straight. Weak Signals is a “selling show”, a show where exhibitors can sell to the public, and that’s pretty cool for everyone involved. Consumers flock to the show, not only to see the hottest new products, but to also stock up on all the gear they need for the upcoming season. I know that even though I’m in the industry and most any product that I want is only an email away, that I’ve been to many a trade show where I would have killed to just whipped out some cash and taken home some uber little product from some small company that is rarely heard of. At the Toledo show all the consumers are treated to the fact that most (but not all) products were for sale, and most of them were at a discounted “expo” price.

For the exhibitors that were selling, they can actually sell a LOT of product over the three days of the Weak Signals show. An exhibitor might very well line-up multiple new dealers for sales around the year, but they can also sell a lot of product straight to consumers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “It costs us 10k to do XYZ trade show and we leave feeling like we wasted our money.”. At the Toledo show an exhibitor can easily do enough sales right on the floor to cover their expenses. It’s pretty easy for “Happy Flower Battery Company” to see that if the show cost them 10k to do and they went home with 20k, that they at least covered their expenses. When you add in all the exposure they got and all the valuable face time they spent with real-life consumers, the show is a big “win” for most exhibitors and that’s why they keep coming back. Heck, there is a waiting line for exhibitors to get into the show.

Something else cool about the Weak Signals show is its second level, it’s devoted entirely to hobbyists bringing in used gear to sell, and it costs the public nothing to enter that area. If you are a hardcore hobbyist it’s just plain fun to walk around looking at used gear. Some of the gear is straight up vintage, while other stuff is current but in used condition, you just never know what you are going to see up on the second level.

The Weak Signals show is held in a place called the Seagate Center. The Seagate is located in a decent and somewhat scenic area of downtown Toledo. The minor league baseball park is right next door, as is the river. Close parking is readily available (some of it is even free on the weekend!) and with the relatively small size of the venue, there isn’t as much walking as some of the other shows. The only downside to Seagate? Their food definitely left something to be desire. It was edible, but that’s about it.

Hobbico, Horizon and Hitec had large booths while most everyone else had smaller table style set-ups. There were a LOT of exhibitors, and every possible booth space was taken up. Also, while 95% of the show was airplane gear, the other 5% was rc boating and cars. If you are surface guy there just isn’t much on display, however the trip might just be worth your while to see the spectacle of it all and to see how “the other half” does it.

Also of note, there was a LOT of FPV gear at the show. While there hasn’t been a big push of FPV gear in the surface world yet, the air crowd seems to be all over it. There were lots of ridiculously cool cameras, video transmitters, monitors, glasses, etc on display at the show, more than I’ve ever seen gathered in one place before. We are huge fans of FPV here at BigSquidRC, we can’t wait for it to catch on to a large extent with the surface guys.

To finally wrap it up, we had a great time in Toledo, the crew running the show were amazing, it was great talking to all the exhibitors, and we had an even better time hanging with the consumers walking the show. We met a lot of new airplane people and just plain (plane?) can’t wait to get back there again next year.

That’s it for this week, support your local hobby shops and bash spot when ya can!

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 04.01.2013, Version- The Higgs Boson of RC

Posted by Cubby @ 8:18 am. Filed in: cubby

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to another exciting week in the wonderful world of rc. I hope you all got some trigger time in over the Easter weekend, we were fortunately to have good enough weather to bust out a bunch of packs. Unfortunately, both F1 and Supercross were off over the weekend, leaving the basketball Elite 8 games to fill up my enormous tv. Thankfully Supercross is on like Donkey Kong again this weekend.

So here is the big news for the day- BigSquidRC has official switched over to being a “racer” site. Yes, I know that might not be the best of news to some of you readers (actually, it will downright offend some of you), but we’ve decided that racing is where it’s at right now. The tremendous surge in sales of racing gear, along with the enormous popularity of all the sanctioning bodies, has proven to us that instead of being a basher site that we need to go all racer. I hope you are just as excited about this as I am, and I hope you are looking forward to all racer news all the time now from BigSquidRC.

In other news… the BigSquidRC crew will be covering all of the remaining ROAR national events, the IFMAR worlds, as well as the RC Pro Series national finals. We’ll be loading up Brian, Jeff, Tim, Bill, Craig, and tossing Adam in the trunk, to give these prestigious races the coverage that they so rightly deserve. Expect full coverage of the practice days, as well as up to the minute updates during quals and the mains. We are incredibly stoked to be bringing you a full weeks worth of intensive coverage per event. Brian is lined up to do all the videos, Tim and Jeff will be handling the pictures, while Bill, Craig and Adam will be searching out all the latest trick parts and hot news from the pits. Like I mentioned earlier, with our new format we’ll be all about racing from here on out.

March Bashness is still going off here on BigSquid. As I write this (Sunday evening) it looks like the Traxxas Summit is going to pwn the Vaterra Twin Hammers in one of our final four match-ups, then voting starts for the HPI Savage Flux and Traxxas Slash 4×4 tomorrow (read- today/Monday). I had personally thought the Twin Hammers was a lock to make it to the final, but all those pesky Traxxas fans have been voting in force.

Speaking of the Vaterra Twin Hammers, our very revealing review goes up on Tuesday. We’ve spent more on the Twin Hammers review than perhaps any other vehicle we’ve ever tested, mainly because it is so unique. Is it really a crawler? It is just a trail-truck? It is a perfect “all purpose” bash machine? Or is it simply a hodgepodge that is average everywhere but excellent at nothing? Yes, this paragraph has been one big tease, you’ll have to tune in on Tuesday to find out if we thought it sucked, or if we thought it kicked ass.

On a serious note, the BigSquidRC crew will be invading the Weak Signals RC Expo in Toledo Ohio this Saturday. If you are in the area we invite you to come on by and say hello to Brian, Tim and myself while we roam the arena doing show coverage. For those of you that may not have heard of the Weak Signals show is it primary an rc airplane event, but, it is a selling show, which draws a TON of people and makes it a whole lot more interesting. How many times have you went to a show and seen some incredibly cool looking gear, but then found out that you can’t buy it and take it home with you? At a “selling show” a lot of the booths (but not all) are actually selling their products, making it a whole lot more awesome. Anywhos, HERE is the link if you want to check it out.

That’s it for this week guys, as always support your local hobby shops, practice as much as you can at your local tracks, and race as many classes as you can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 03.25.2013, Version- The Grand Poobah Of RC

Posted by Cubby @ 11:07 am. Filed in: cubby

I am sure some of you guys stayed up late, crazy late, to watch the F1 Grand Prix from Malaysia Satruday night. Of course I watched it live, all the while texting fellow F1′ers and watching the fast moving F1 G+ feed while NBCSHD held a commercial-fest every 5 laps or so. What a pity that watching F1 in America is so awful. NBC’s F1 coverage is just downright appalling- they have so many commercials it reminds me of the dinosaur media rc mags. Anywhos, Alonso blundered early, the teammate wars boiled over, and Seb took home another win.

Speaking of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, I tried one of the new “Blue” Red Bulls the other day, it tasted just like a liquid Sweet-Tart.

March Bashness is off to an Epic start. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a great group of bash-mobiles in the Sweet 16 before. Every single truck was a pretty outstanding basher, but you guys have voted and we’ve now got our Elite 8.

So… in our Elite 8 we have two Axial’s, two Traxxas, one HPI, one Vaterra, one Thunder Tiger and one ARRMA. What does that tell you? Five of those are exclusive Hobbico lines, that’s what it tells me. The big-buck-basher-crowd is a highly sought after market and this year it appears Hobbico is putting out the kinds of products that consumers are really latching onto.

The non-exclusive to Hobbico brands, Traxxas and Vaterra, will certainly give them a run for the money. Traxxas has an enormous Army of loyal followers and the Vaterra Twin Hammers seems to have a perfect blend of features that appeals to an extremely wide variety of consumers. Yes indeed, the Elite 8 this year represents some incredible vehicles, vote for you favorite at THIS LINK.

On a different subject…

Did you see that Associated put out a full fledged bash-mobile, their new Rival Monster Truck? Associated has tried to be all hardcore “racers only” the last couple years, but then they put out their “Qualifier Series”. At this point Thunder Tiger (AE’s parent company) is kicking ass on the basher side of things, so AE could legitimately go uber-racer only. But… then they go and start confusing consumers by putting out basher gear. Hey, we are a basher website, the more bash machines the better for us, but confusing consumers just isn’t a good marketing plan (short or long term).

Oh and… in case you didn’t get the memo- 2013 just might be the year that big 4wd MT’s return to glory. Let’s see here, the old school Savage is still very much alive and kicking, the Revo is still incredibly popular among the bash crowd, the Thunder Tiger MT4 G3 blew up huge (and now has a brother called the e-MTA), and AE has their new Rival. Monster trucks ruled the basher world for years upon years, if we see a couple more new entries into the class I’d say it would be a full blown revival. ARRMA is rumored to be coming out with an uber 4wd MT, and if one of the Horizon lines were to jump in (hint, hint) I would think 2013 would be the best year ever for monster trucks. Any which way, consumers looking for uber-bashers have a kick ass selection to pick from this spring.

That’s it for now ya bunch of lunatics. Have a great week, vote for your favorite rigs in March Bashness, catch our Wednesday night G+ show if ya can, and as always support your local hobby shops and bash spots.

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 03.18.2013, Version- Life Is Always Better In Spurbury Vermont

Posted by Cubby @ 9:21 am. Filed in: cubby

Happy Monday morning everyone, and welcome to another week in rc.

Thankfully the F1 season kicked off last weekend. After qualifying it looked like yet another run-away year for the Red Bull team, but when it was all said and done my favorite robot Kimi Raikkonen was standing on top of the podium. The Ferrari team also gave me some reason to cheer. The last few years they have started off the season with cars obviously off the pace, but last weekend they walked away with the points lead and looked to have top notch machinery. Might this season end with bright red on top? I can only hope so.

And on to rc…

March Bashness is here folks. The Sweet 16 have been picked (by you, our readers) and the real voting gets started this week. Let me go “on record” with my picks for the top 3- Axial EXO, Vaterra Twin Hammers, and the Thunder Tiger MT4-G3. We’ll know in a couple weeks just how far off I am, but be sure and vote for your favorites and enjoy the fun of a bracket style elimination tournament for rc.

Yes, I was wrong. Yes, I am a total, complete, utter idiot. One of our readers shot us a link for the lawsuit info between Trinity (and friends) and ROAR. We posted the link on our BigSquidRC G+ page so that you can check it out too. To boil it down, the motor guys filed an injunction to force ROAR to include their motors on the “approved list”. WireGate just keeps getting more interesting all the time, and there should be a lot more to come on this one..

Rally car shootout? Oh no we didn’t, oh yes we are! Yes, work has begun on our BigSquidRC rally car shootout. Traxxas vs HPI vs Thunder Tiger vs Kyosho- yes indeed, this one is going to be a burn burner. We’ll post more information about it when we get closer to posting it, but I’d look for it around the second week of April.

I hear our homie Stephen Bess is still under the weather, so here’s a shout-out to Stephen to say that the entire BSRC staff is thinking about him and hopes he get back up to full speed reallyyyyy soon.

Adam “The Intern” has been posting some cool pics over on the BigSquidRC Tumblr page. I am soooo not into Tumblr (or Facebook), but it’s cool seeing what Adam puts up. It’s been a long time since I was 18 years old, and well, a long time since anything in rc was “really new and cool” to me, so it’s sorta neat to see his youthful exuberance. Adam has literally hundreds of cool pics and projects that he has worked on to post, I hope some of you guys check it out.

Speaking of Adam, he’s just about to graduate high school. The first time I met him was about 6-7 years ago when he was just a snot nosed kid. Even back then he was an incredibly die-hard (and I mean die-hard) rc fanatic. Now days he still is hardcore rc, but it looks like he won’t be going into the hobby as a profession. Adam works hard, has his head on straight, and has always went wayyy above and beyond for anyone that needed anything, he’s always been a good guy to be around. Not to mention he’s thick skinned- having put up with our constant verbal jabs over the years. It certainly wasn’t easy for him to be an “intern” for the BigSquid bash crew, as we are all professional bull-talkers, and we certainly shot our best at Adam.

So what was the point of the above paragraph? Because of his vigor for the hobby I was surprised to hear Adam wasn’t thinking about pursuing it as a career after graduation. But… he’s a grown man with a good head on his shoulders so I’m certain he is going to kick ass in the field that he goes into, all the while enjoying the rc hobby in the years to come. If you any of you out there reading this are also young and thinking about what you might want to do after you get out of school, yes, the rc hobby is a lot of hard work and often times not a lot of pay, but it can certainly be quite rewarding. Whether it be on the manufacturing side, the media side, the marketing side, the engineering side, or working the counter at an LHS, this hobby provides a living for thousands upon thousands of people across the globe. And… I’d bet “working in the rc hobby” is rarely, if ever, mentioned by any school guidance counselors. Pretty much whatever you might be good at, there is a place for you in the rc industry if you should chose to go that direction. Just take a look at the job listings at Hobbico, Horizon, or Traxxas if you don’t believe me.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 03.11.2013, Version- Paint it Black

Posted by Cubby @ 9:17 am. Filed in: cubby

Hello everyone, welcome to THE Cub Report, and I hope all you guys have a great week filled with trigger time.

First up- we are still looking for an account rep (or two, or three). The job involves being a kick a$$ guy (or gal) and taking care of our advertisers. If you know what’s up in the hobby shoot Brian an email. If you can’t figure out his email address chances are you can’t handle the job. LOL

Second up- Wavy Davi gave up the red plate last night in Daytona, “sigh”. 2013 was a breakout year for Millisaps in the big boy class but it seems a couple of injuries have thrown a monkey wrench into his plans for supercross domination. Lets hope RV2 doesn’t win out and make the rest of the season a bore. Btw, it was sure refreshing to see bright red Honda logo’s at Daytona instead of the Monster claws plastered everywhere.

Third up- The Formula 1 season is officially here! 6 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes and 51 seconds till the tone goes off in Australia for the first GP of the season. Alonso FTW, bank it! And… it should be interesting to see how the tv coverage on NBC Sports stacks up to previous years when it was on Speed and ESPN.

Fourth up- Don’t forget our Google + LIVE Show this Wednesday night. Last week Brian was wacked out of his gourd on Red Bull and Pez and couldn’t make the show, so this week expect something extra special from him. But seriously, we always seem to say something that ticks off half the rc community each week, so it can’t be all bad. Mark it down on your calender for 9 pm CST every Weds night from here on out.

Fifth up- The BIG news of the week is that BigSquidRC March Bashness is under way! If you are a new reader- March Bashness is the ultimate contest where you guys select the top bashers of the year, then just like in the basketball version, we do bracket style eliminations (based on your voting) to determine which is America’s favorite bash vehicle. Voting for the initial “Sweet 16″ is going on right now, click THIS link to get all the info on how to place your vote.

Hands down, March Bashness causes the most smack talk around the BigSquidRC offices. Brian has his favorites, Jeff has his, Bill always gets in his two cents, Craig lets it fly on his picks, Adam gets quite adamant about his fav, and of course I live to state the 82 reasons why my top bash-mobile is better than theirs. Here is a quick Cubby break-down on how I see March Bashness stacking up-

Axial- Axial doesn’t have a dedicated “racer” in its line-up, every vehicle they make can be considered a legit bash-mobile. Perhaps leading the pack for Axial would be the EXO and their new Jeep Wrangler.

ARRMA- The ARRMA Granite took home our “Basher of the Year” award (which was voted on by the staff here) for 2012, so it has got to be considered a serious player in March Bashness. The rest of their line are also bash-mobiles, so perhaps another one (or two) of the vehicles might be in the starting sweet 16. The ARRMA brand has been picking up momentum among the bash main-streamers, and it’s well known ARRMA is the “basher line from Durango”, so the odds of an ARRMA doing well in March Bashness look pretty darn good.

ECX- Mainstays like the Torment and the Ruckus have really taken off with the bash crowd, I would expect to see at least one go deep into the tournament. One of the new 8th scale buggies from ECX might also make it into the show.

Duratrax- Duratrax is known for their bash-mobiles, but they haven’t had many new releases the last few months.

Traxxas- There is no doubt Traxxas is the sales leader at local hobby shops and one of the highest regarded brands in the entire bashing world. Traxxas has several vehicles that should be capable of making it deep into the tourney. Their new LCG 4×4 Slash and Rally Car might very well be players in the big show.

HPI- Arguably the second biggest name in the bash world is HPI, and once again they have a half dozen vehicles that are enormously popular among the bash crowd. Their 5th scalers have an insane cult following, as does their Savage series of monster trucks. Will the Block Rally Car make the show? We’ll find out in just a few days.

Helion- The crew from Firelands Group took home a controversial win with their Helion Dominus last year. For 2013 they’ve got a new truggy and a monster truck on the way, but with the depth of the field it will be incredibly hard for them to repeat again this year.

Thunder Tiger- Just a few scant years ago Thunder Tiger was looked down on like their cars were made by Tyco. Now days, things are a lot different. Some key changes in their product line-up combined with a much improved marketing plan have resulted in a whole lot of happy Thunder Tiger owners out there. It is also a brand that many Traxxas haters have fled to. I would have to think their MT4-G3 and eMTA monster trucks will be in the hunt, as well as the truggy they released last fall.

Associated- Ummm… while their parent company is looking so good among the basher crowd, Associated has focused on re-hashing old platforms for the race crowd and fell off the face of the bashing planet. Certainly AE is still considered a good name in the racer game, but it is increasingly rare to see anyone actually bashing an Associated product.

Vaterra- The newest kid on the basher block is Vaterra. We’ve only gotten the chance to bash their little scalers and both of them took a pretty good beating. I would think their biggest threat to take home the March Bashness title would be their Twin Hammers crawler/basher, but I’ve yet to drive one, so I have no idea if it’s worth owning or not.

Losi- The 5th scale Losi 5T is a well regarded bash machine, as is their SCTE 4wd short course truck. Who knows, a Losi might just surprise some of us and make it deep into the bracket.

RedCat- There are a Bunch (an insane amount actually) of RedCats sold each year. Will they get enough votes from their hardcore army to make it into the show? RedCat has yet to place a vehicle into our sweet 16, will this be the year the RedCat faithful put a rig into the big show?

There are a bunch of vehicles I haven’t mentioned that might very well make it deep into the voting. I feel like I was only scratching the surface, there are simply a ton of great bash machines on the market right now. Everyone on the BSRC crew hopes that you take the time out of your busy day to vote for your favorites, wear your brand loyalty proudly, and show not just the other readers of BigSquidRC which machine is your favorite, but show the entire industry what machines are hitting the mark with the bash crowd. We don’t do the voting to try and spam you or get your email address or phone number, we do it simply because we want to learn exactly which bash vehicles are the best ones in YOUR eyes. This is entirely your vote guys, we hope you have a blast with it.

And on to…

Sixth up- Last week I asked for you guys to shoot me proof that the class action suit against ROAR actually exists. We have yet to receive anything from anyone other than the original PR. Are the courts just that slow down in Florida or….. Ya guys, if you can dig up some concrete proof the the suit is legit shoot it to us so I can post what an idiot I am for even having questioned it.

Seventh up- Adam “The Intern” has a new job around here- he’s the head of our New BSRC Tumblr Page. Look for a post on our front page early in the week with a link so you can check it out. Tumblr is the big player of social media with the “young” crowd and Adam has tons of cool pics and things to share with the sub-20 crowd. If you are “young” (in body, or at heart) and looking for something more your style, checking out the BSRC Tumblr page should be a must.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 03.04.2013, Version- Living All KCCO

Posted by Cubby @ 9:49 am. Filed in: cubby

Hey gang it’s Monday morning and time to bust out another work week. Wherever you are I hope you kick ass and the week flies by.

First up is some actual rc news, and relatively big news at that. We reported a few months ago about the Thunder Tiger eMTA. If you are a core basher you already know what it is, if not, it’s a new brushless monster truck that features a rather futuristic chassis. Battery packs fit in the eMTA sideways instead of front-to-rear, it utilizes laid down shocks with a rocker arm system, and it generally has a much different look (under the hood) than a “normal” monster truck. Anywhos, the eMTA was first released overseas but now it’s headed to our shores, a fact that has many hardcore bashers rejoicing. Not many “new” platforms get released in the uber monster truck category, so the eMTA is a big deal to those guys fighting for king-of-the-hill at their local bash spot every weekend.

Speaking of hardcore bash machines… our “March Bashness” contest is right around the corner. Of course we’ll need your guys help filling out the starting bracket of the 16 top bash-mobiles, look for a post containing more info in the very near future. “March Bashness” talk around the office has heated up, we all have certain favorites that we would like to see make the sweet 16, but there are so many good bashers out there that making the top 16 isn’t going to be easy. For example- long time bash legends like Traxxas and HPI have lots of great choices, but you also have to factor in some of the new faces like ARRMA, ECX, Vaterra, and several vehicles from Thunder Tiger.

Our last two March Bashness contests have been freak’n insane, I can’t help but think this years is going to be the craziest yet. The #1 thing I’ve learned about March Bashness is- never underestimate brand loyalty, people go to great lengths to see there favorite vehicle come out on top.

And to another subject…

So… arguably the biggest news from last week was Trinity putting out a PR stating that they have (along with a few other companies that sell re-badged motors) sued ROAR. First things first- I have attempted to look up information on the case, you know, just to make sure it was actually filed, and I’ve yet to find that it exists in the real world. Ya, maybe I’m a total moron at using Google, so I’m going to ask you guys to help prove that I am an idiot. That should be easy enough right? Please feel free to shoot me proof that the class action suit was actually filed- links, a phone number, whatever. I’ll gladly post the information next week and freely admit I’m a total moron (if you guys can come up with concrete info).

So… “if” the there is a class action suit against ROAR, there are a bunch of different opinions floating around. Some people say it’s a disgrace to see it come to this, others are totally on the motor companies side, while ROAR fanboys are screaming how bogus it all is. Personally, I’m not a fan of either group, but it sure will be interesting to follow as it unfolds.

I would guess that a “worst case scenario” for ROAR would be that it ends up folding due to litigation. In case you haven’t already heard, a group of four men have apparently started a “new” sanctioning body called RCRAA, “ready” to step right in should that ever happen . No doubt rc racing needs a huge overhaul, so whether or not ROAR ends up kick’n the bucket, perhaps RCRAA can help further the sport. The RCRAA guys say they are hoping to sanction races as early as this summer, best of luck to them, they’ve got a long, tough, nasty road ahead of them.

Btw… RC Pro Series is still up and running, if people think ROAR sucks so bad why don’t they just support them???

Different topic-

So… over the weekend some of our moto industry friends gave the BSRC crew some VIP love at the St Louis Supercross. I am lucky and get to attend multiple rounds, but for some of our other contributors they just hit one, the St Louis event. This year the racing was as good as ever with Bubba, RV2, Bam-Bam and Reedy having a great battle in the big boy pants main. If you’ve never been, it’s worth your time and cash to see these guys risking life and limb for your entertainment.

As many of you know, Traxxas has stepped up their support of AMA/Feld Supercross this year. In case you can’t make one of the races, Traxxas has one of their try-me-tracks set up in the pit area and they get a short demo on the track right before the night show. At the STL round they had a pair of Revo’s huck’n one of the triples. Unfortunately they could only double in and ended up breaking one of the trucks, not exactly an ideal performance in front of 50,000 people, but none the less, still better than nothing. Traxxas keeps going huge exposing the masses to our wonderful hobby, once again props to them.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

BigSquidRC Supercross Gallery

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THE Cub Report, 02.25.2013, Version- THE Fig Leaf Edition

Posted by Cubby @ 9:38 am. Filed in: cubby

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to another week in the wonderful world of hobby grade rc. Whether you work at a manufacture or an LHS, or you are simply a hardcore enthusiast, I hope you have a great week.

Brian’s favorite Supercross rider (lol), James “Bubba” Stewart, took the win last night (Saturday) in Hotlanta. Using his proven recipe of “holeshot then 20 perfect laps” Stew lead from gate drop to checkered flag. I’ve never been a big Bubba fan but even I was stoked to see him win last night. The wins came so easy early in his career, now they come so hard. I’d have to guess that the wins now days mean a whole lot more to him than they used to. Anyways, the SX circus rolls through St Louis Missouri this Saturday and the BigSquidRC crew will be there in force.

And on to rc…

Our first ever Quadcopter Shootout is going live this Tuesday. We pitting Traxxas against Heli-Max against Ares to find out which little quad was the best of the bunch. We’ve been flying (and crashing, and demo-derbying) the shootout quads for weeks finding out how they compared to each other, even if you aren’t in the market for one I hope you find the shootout interesting. Oh and yes, I’m 90% sure the winner will surprise you.

Also in BigSquidRC news- we are hiring account reps. Some of the qualifications required are- you have to be kick a$$, you have to be able to sell snow to an Eskimo, you gotta be service oriented, and lastly, you gotta be hardcore about rc. If you are all (or some) of those things don’t hesitate to shoot Brian an email (brian at BigSquidRC dot com). We are beyond slammed and seriously need the help.

It looks like ROAR decided their reputation hadn’t been slammed enough this year, so they put out information saying they’ll be using the new MyLaps RC4 system this year at most of the nats. To translate this to you guys that don’t follow racing- the new scoring system doesn’t work with all transponders, meaning some people will have to buy new transponders for the ROAR nats. This really doesn’t affect that many people, however, it certainly shows that ROAR is busy screwing around with the dumb stuff (and ticking off more ROAR members) instead of fixing its core problems.

Sorta on that note…

The SCT class is “our” great ambassador to noobs, outsiders and main-streamers, can’t we keep from ruining it?

JConcepts has been putting out some cool gear as of late for the bashing crowd, but, last week they announced their new “wheel dishes” for their scale short course rims. To translate this to the non-racer crowd- these are disc’s that pop into the wheel to make the scale looking JConcepts SCT wheel look more like the “dish”‘ wheels that “racer types” run at the track. I’m not gonna bag on JConcepts here, they are making the wheel dishes because the “racer crowd” wants to buy them. However, who I am going to bag on is ROAR. While they are screw’n around with wire diameters and transponders there is something more important on their plate- making rules to maintain the scale integrity of the short course truck class. Every day it seems a little more “liberty” is being taken on short course trucks, give it a few more years and they’ll look like UFO’s (just like every other class).

It is in ROAR’s (and the entire hobby’s) best interest to maintain the scale look of short course trucks (and SCB’s). ROAR has let the tires slide as they no longer look like anything authentic, the roof-lines on SCT bodies keep getting lower, and now dish wheels are trying to work their way into the class. For whatever unknown reason, racers still listen to ROAR, so they (ROAR) should be putting out rules to make sure SCT’s continue to look like their full scale counterparts. There is a place for “anything goes” tires, wheels, and bodies, but it is NOT the SCT class.

Lastly…

What’s going on at BigSquidRC this week? As mentioned earlier the Quadcopter shootout is going up on Tues, our review on the Venom Medion Dual Charger (the one with the speakers built in) will be going up on Thursday, and Brian should be posting a pretty cool car review this week as well. Oh and, as usual we’ll be doing our Google Plus LIVE show at 9PM CST on Wednesday night. Last week was our best show to date, I think we are finally getting that thing worked out.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

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