A couple of months back we mentioned that the Hot Bodies TCX kit would most likely be shipping in August, well guess what! Hot Bodies just announced the new HB-TCX kit is starting to ship!
This thing has a TON of features that make the on-road guys weak at the knees like 50/50 centralized weight distribution, narrow bulkheads, LiPo/Life ready, dual link steering and a bunch of other stuff.

Check out the Hot Bodies site for more info, specs, and pictures.

Wondering when you will be able to get your hands on the Hot Bodies new TCX Sedan? Well wait no more! I have heard that the TCX will be shipping at the beginning of August!

Check out the Hot Bodies site for more info, specs, and pictures.

Hot Bodies has a cool new sedan.  The TCX is a very high-end race bred kit built to meet the exacting demands of hardcore racers.  It’s a LiPo/LiFe ready chassis that features 50/50 weight distribution, plenty of adjustment options in the suspension, and tons of great looking purple aluminum and carbon fiber.  As with most high end kits expect to provide pretty much everything to get it running and you’re going to end up paying out the nose for this bad boy at a MSRP of $930.00.

Check out the Hot Bodies site for more info, specs, and pictures.

Hot Bodies has a bunch of new tires for the various short course trucks out there. All of these tires are molded in Hot Bodies’ soft Pink compound for use on ultra-low traction surfaces. Check out the tread patterns to see which one might work for you.

Clockwise from top left you got the Beams, Megabite, Megagrid, and Rodeoo treads.  The Beams tread is great for hard-packed clay and blue grooved tracks.  They also an ideal tire for indoor tracks.  The Megabite tread is best for hard-packed clay with some light dust, and also regular clay.  It’s got a ton of small pins around the tire and also has a double row of wide pins down the center of the tire.  The Megagrid tread is the most all-around tread of the bunch, useful in multiple off-road and on-road conditions.  It’s suggested as the starting point tire when you are looking for a new setup at different tracks.  Lastly the Rodeoo (the extra “o” is for “oooooohhhhh”) tread is a realistic looking tread pattern.  They say it’s for the spec racing market, but before you slap these on your spec class truck you might want to check the rules.

All of these tires have an MSRP of $21.00 per pair.  Check out the Hot Bodies web site for more info.

Saw this over on our good Italian friends site Modellismo Hobby Media who have some pics from the Nurnberg show. It looks like HPI is going to be releasing a 1/18th scale Savage called the Savage Dwarf! Odds are good that’s just the European name, it will probably be called something like the Savage Mini here in the USA, if it comes here. It looks a LOT like the Hot Bodies Minizilla! But that’s a good thing, I love my Minizilla, and would gladly take a little bit more durable Savage version!

If you are running a Hot Bodies D8, your probably in the need of some new air filters. The folks at VP-Pro have you covered with their new high performance filters.

Long time no see, but welcome back to yet another edition of the industries most litigated opinion column, THE Cub Report.

So what’s the scoop on some of the newest product releases? Well, let’s just dive right in.

RPM is in the Big Squid RC Basher Approved hall of fame. They are one of the few companies that actually have their heads screwed on right, making good looking, good fitting, and no hassle product. Well, they recently shot out pics of their new Slash rear bumper/Mud Flap combos. Awesome, just awesome! I hope they sell a zillion of them. One step closer to realism, with the uber reliability of RPM. If you’ve been watching the 1:1 Torc series races on ESPN, you’d notice the only major cosmetic difference between your Slash and those racing on tv is the lack of mudflaps. The RPM bumper/mupflap combo is just what your Slash needs.

Seen the new Traxxas teaser video? Pretty much any type of “teaser” makes me want to have rabid multi-orfice fun with a porcupine excited now days. With that said, I give the new Traxxas teaser vid a B-. Slick production, but just slightly above average as far as general hype goes. I figured they would have waited to unveil their new beast at iHobby, as you could do one hell of a cool intro in front of the masses, but I hear they’ll be unveiling yet another platform at the show.

Big Props go out to Traxxas and RC Pro Series for their support of Rick “Too Hip” Johnsons Torc series. Awesome tracks, all the big name players, decent tv package, and Traxxas is plastered everywhere. Most media exposure ever for our industry. Even if you aren’t into short course racing, try to catch one of the 1:1 Torc races on the tube.

Horizon released info on a left hand thread kit for their 8 and 8T series of 8th scalers. What this boils down to is a few left hand screws for 5 bucks that should have been a running change on the new kits, but are being sold as a hop up. The HPI/Hot Bodies 8 series buggies and truggy come standard with these, cost far less, and won the worlds last year. Hummmm… wonder what the better value is.

Speaking of HPI/Hot Bodies- their Blitz’s are almost here! Get on the pre-order list at your LHS ASAP.

RC Pro Products released info on their uber new 8th scale wheel wrench. Nice to see a product designed by actual common sense racers, built to last, works correctly, that doesn’t empty the bank account. Quality tools are worth their weight in gold, thankfully, the RC Pro Products have all the quality but not the insane price tag.

Every JConcepts body I’ve ever seen looked uber trick. All their bodies for “race” type vehicles are really cool. Sadly, JConcepts has released pics of their new Slash body called the BAJR. Lets say you took the top off a VW body, the rear off a quad racer body, and the front off a Herbst truggy body, then molded them all into one- then you’d have the JConcepts BAJR. Wow. Like, you gotta be kidding me kinda fugly. If you want to turn your good looking Slash in a sort of Martian Turd looking machine, the BAJR is the body for you. Excuse me while I wash my eyes out with battery acid.

Well folks, you made it to the end of yet another Cub Report. Thanks for reading, and please get out and support your LHS’s and local tracks.

Your Cub Reporter

So you have already seen the official Hot Bodies Ve8 Unboxing pictures, so it’s time to get going with some of the kit build pictures! It’s late, (or early, depending on how you look at it) so not much of a description for these. Note, you will be cutting your motor shaft so it fits where the battery sits, and even then it’s a TIGHT fit.

Click Here to see all the build up pics, including the final setup, just awaiting the body.
Read the rest of this entry »

What seems like one of the most anticipated buggy releases in a long time, the Hot Bodies Ve8 buggy has arrived for it’s unboxing ceremony!
Here are some of the first photo’s of what you can look forward to when yours arrives!

Wow, a true kit! Haven’t seen one of these in a long time! It doesn’t even come with tires! First reaction, the chassis is good and stiff. No flexing this with your bare hands. We were not really expecting that, but glad to see it. It’s going to take a few days to build up, and I’ll make sure to post photos as we go.

Make sure to visit Hot Bodies Online for details or where to get yours!

Pro Driver, basher, occasional writer for Big Squid RC, and awesome guy, Tim Mohr has officially signed on with Hot Bodies racing! Tim will be racing the new Hot Bodies Ve8 Electric buggy! Congrats and good luck Tim!

Holy Moly, look at this buggy! The new Hot Bodies Ve8 looks sweet! Some of the big highlights, Molded composite chassis, big bore shocks, fit Novak, NEU, and Castle Motors, Optional Mechanical brake!!
Talk about trying to revolutionize the 1:8 buggy market, these guys are pulling out all the stops! I really look forward to seeing if that chassis can take a basher beating! One probably with current buggy design for bashers, after a day of big air, your chassis looks like a pretzel. Optional Mechanical Brake?!!? How sweet will that be? Spiral cut diffs, your gonna need them with the brushless power this thing is going to handle!

I’d like to see a little more realistic / scale body with that being the current trend lately, but I’m sure someone will come out with something for it. I look forward to giving this vehicle a good bashing! Can’t wait for the release!
HPI and Hot Bodies have really been making waves in the RC industry lately! I’m glad to see it.. the people on top have been taking it too easy up there, they keep resting on their names, and HPI/HB is going to be king of the hill before too long.

Get it? Gaining Traction? Made that up myself! Anyway, news from Hot Bodies about Jesse Robbers big win at the 2009 ROAR Fuel Off Road Nationals warm up race over at the Leisure Hours RC Raceway just up the road from us. He was running the new Hot Bodies Khaos Tires on his D8! Congrats to Jesse and HB on the Win!

One last post for the day from our good Italian friends site Modellismo Hobby Media have been covering the big Japan Hobby show, so we are going to try and cross promote and bring you some of the news.

Hot Bodies is introducing the C10 RC Rock Crawler. It looks like this is a pic of the prototype version they were showing last week. Hard to tell from this pic if it has anything special to go up against the popular Axial products.

Our good Italian friends site Modellismo Hobby Media have been covering the big Japan Hobby show, so we are going to try and cross promote and bring you some of the news.

Now this is some exciting news! Hot Bodies is introducing a D8 Flux Edition! Basically a Electric Brushless D8! Take the winner of the IFMAR 2008 Worlds and make it electric. Seems like a good plan!

Available for the Cyclone, Hot Bodies has introduced the smooth Murdelgo body in 190mm form! This design allows for awesome downforce and excellent steering response on the track. Includes window masks for easy painting, decal sheets for adding a realistic finish, plus all the mounting screws and nuts.

Stop by Hot Bodies to check it out and then jump on over to your local shop and get yours!