My goal for iHobby week was not to punch anyone… and I was successful. As much as I hate trade shows, and as much as I hate having to sit around during long boring meetings I actually had a fantastic time spending 5 days in the Rosemont Convention Center (of course the absurd amount of money Brian was paying me to be there didn’t hurt). So here is Cubby’s official iHobby breakdown…….
Traxxas- God bless Traxxas, they are the best ambassadors in the history of our hobby. The moment you walked through the doors of the convention center Traxxas had their “try me” track up and running. Anyone could come up and drive a genuine “hobby grade” rc car, there is no better way of showing off our hobby to the masses than that. I can’t say it enough, thanks Traxxas for all you’ve done for our hobby.
Traxxas part deux- Every manufacture has new product coming down the pike, I mean they’d go out of business if they didn’t, so it wasn’t any surprise when RCCA posted some moronic “Traxxas has something big coming” news last week, duh. Not to mention it was iHobby week, the one week of the year most likely for manufactures to unleash “big” news. Well… Traxxas didn’t show much new at iHobby, certainly nothing “game changing”, but… we were able to twist some arms and find out some actual scoopage on the new release- it’s gonna be big and it’s gonna set ya back close to a grand. Our post lead to dealers from across the country calling Traxxas attempting to place pre-orders. So let’s think about this for a second- dealers from around the country are pre-ordering a new Traxxas product (that cost close to a grand) without even knowing what it is or even when it will ship. That is kinda mind blowing, but it shows just how dominant Traxxas is now days.
Losi- I got some serious wheel time in with their new Mini 8ight buggy. Their is a greater chance the Earth will stop spinning and we’ll all go flying off into space than of BSRC getting a unit for review, but I will say it seemed to drive well and took a pretty good beating in the hands of all the noobs wheeling it on their test track.
Associated- They didn’t show. They used to show. Maybe they don’t care anymore? (I think you can safely remove the word “maybe” and the “?” from the previous sentence.)
Kyosho- Of course they weren’t there, I mean it’s hard to tell if they even sell product in the states anymore, but…. rumor around the show hall was they have either linked up with Horizon or are very close to a deal. It’s no secret Horizon has lost several big names in the last year (AE, HPI, Axial) and getting exclusive distribution of the big K would be great move for both companies.
GP- Great Planes had an uber new booth right up front. Myself and several others from the BSRC crew had a great time playing with their remote control tanks and hand crank slotcar demo’s.
Duratrax- If you haven’t noticed there is a whole new attitude over at the DTX and it showed at iHobby. They are seriously working their butts off to put out the best product possible at a low price point and they’ve come a longggg ways in the last year. They’ve seen the movement away from racing that has went towards hardcore bashing and are diligently working on putting out trucks that are right on the edge of what consumers are looking for.
ARRMA- The new ARRMA line made their debut in the GP booth and had a great looking display. While you might not have heard much about ARRMA yet but they’ve got their stuff straight and look like they are going to be a major player in the market given a couple more years.
ECX (formerly known as Electrix)- Some people might overlook this line entirely because of its pricepoint but they had a nice section in the Horizon booth and are obviously gaining traction in the marketplace. If you are a seasoned hobbyist, the ECX vehicles are the perfect backyard “bash-mobile”, if you are a parent they are a perfect choice for your kids, or if you are noob looking to get in they are arguable the best and most affordable choice on the market. We’ve beat the crap out several ECX products and all of them have lived. As long as their product can continue to take a severe beating it’s going to take off. Seriously, I don’t think the time when ECX outsells Losi is as far away as most industry types think. Btw- look for a full review of the new ECX Torment later this week here on BSRC.
Speed Passion- The SP crew was out in full force showing new product and generally putting a smile on everyones faces. Their new 4wd short course truck looks sic (in a good way of course).
Tekin- The Cambell crew was in full effect, they’ve had a banner couple of years, and they were there showing their support of the hobby. I think Ty had the fastest lap of the weekend with the BSRC Track Drone, he was hauling.
Track Drone- WTH is the BSRC Track Drone? Remember that “remote video controlled” truck I teased about in previous Cub Reports? Well we finally came up with a better name for it- the Track Drone. We took a Traxxas 4×4 Slash, installed a camera in it, then drove the truck remotely via watching the video feed on a monitor in our booth (steering wheel and foot pedals were mounted under the monitor). I am extremely biased, but I’m gonna huck out there that our Track Drone was the hit of the show. The Track Drone we used at iHobby was one of our earliest test units, but…. you wouldn’t believe the amount of attention it received. Industry types were studying it, consumers couldn’t wait to drive it, it was simply a hit and I’ll tell you why- the Track Drone is the next evolution of our hobby. It’s exciting to drive an rc car normally, but driving it from an in-car perspective takes the realism to a completely different level. When driving an rc car in the traditional style (via pistol from where you can actually see the car) you say to yourself “Ooopss, I think my car is gonna hit that wall, hope it doesn’t break an a-arm.”, while driving the Track Drone you see the wall coming up and say “OMG I am going to hit that wall!”. Even just putting around becomes exciting again, the in-car perspective changes everything, everything becomes interesting again. With the Track Drove it’s interesting just driving through a pile of leaves. Seriously. Anyways…. look for more info on the availability of the BSRC Track Drone in the coming weeks….
3D- While on the subject of BSRC, our 3D rc movie also was a big hit, once again because of it’s added realism. It was fun staring at the people watching the movie- watching them actually duck when they saw a Traxxas truck coming right at them, watching them put up an arm because they thought they were going to be splashed with water, etc. Brian did an incredible job on the 3D movie and it showed.
Demo Track- Oh yes we did. We went bigger and harder than ever this year. The crowds were huge, the screams were deafening. Seriously, if you’ve never seen one of our demo’s in person you are missing one of the craziest spectacles in rc.
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