I wanted to mention someone we missed earlier in all of our iHobby Expo 2009 news. The new guys from Overdose Racing with their first big product The Car Stand which is really making some waves right now in the industry! If you are looking for a new RC car stand, or to upgrade from that PVC pipe you have been using, make sure to check this one out!
Visit the Overdose Racing Website for more information and details, and make sure to tell them Big Squid RC sent ya!
For those of you who just want to see good quality video in the player, the ihobby video is now up on HobbyZip.com as well! Their embedded player stuff always looks better, and they have good RC vids there, so make sure to check it out.. don’t forget to rate it!
Finally, video of our demo times! For those of you that missed the awesome demos we were giving at the iHobby Expo 2009, now you can see what all the fuss was about.
Not only did we hit the track banner this year, we jumped OVER it, AND got a vehicle stuck up in the rafters!!! Some note worthy parts in the vid, the yellow 1/18th scale pulling a triple back flip, the crowd starting the banner chant on their own, obviously getting stuck in the rafters, the 1/8 buggy slamming into the SC truck on the way up, and still making it over the banner. I turned all the volumes way down, it was amazing how loud the place was this year!
Thanks to all of our fans for coming out and making it a great show! You guys rocked!
Thanks to Channel 9 news for the mention! Anna is probably one of our new biggest fans! 
When I posted the video, it was still processing the HD version, but it was shot and should be ready to view in true HD shortly. Please rate/vote for the video. Rendering a smaller version for hobbyzip viewers asap.
This is about the last of our iHobby Expo 2009 pictures to put up. There are a bunch this time around, but I didn’t want to end up with 10 more picture updates! It was a really great show, as we have been reporting. More write up’s and video coming soon!
We handed out a TON of t-shirts that weekend. Hopefully some of the younger fans remember where they got their start into RC! John did a great job working the mic for us on our final show day!
I wonder if the airplane marketing guys know something we don’t know. Naaaa.
Pro-Line gives away a Traxxas Slash to a lucky winner!
Castle Creations had their latest electric conversion kits to show off, while RC-Monster and Fastlane had their uber conversions on display. Drool!
This real car is always a head turner.. one of the cool things about being at the show, is during setup, I get to see them drive it in, and wow does it sound incredible! Another lucky Big Squid RC fan with a new shirt!
Did you get a flyer?
That’s about it for pictures for this year! Remember to hit this link for all of our iHobby Expo 2009 coverage as we post it. Watch for the video of our demos coming soon!
Word from the International iHobby Expo folks is that 2009 was quite the success! Saturday’s attendance was their biggest ever with over 12,000 people! And trust me it felt like it. The aisle’s were packed with hobby enthusiasts! We got to meet a ton of great people, and also see some familiar faces. Make sure to mark those calendars as the dates have been set for next year! October 23,24 2010!
We’ll have our final write up and video soon! Till then check out all of our iHobby Expo 2009 here.
Another iHobby Expo has come and gone, and I was lucky enough to attend one industry day, and one consumer day. So here’s the scoop from the show.
The biggest news? Ever heard of Zippy packs? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t, but to boil it down for those that have not, Zippy/HobbyCity battery packs might very well mark a big change in the way the rc biz operates here in the states. With Zippy/HobbyCity packs, you order a ridiculously cheap battery on-line, send your money overseas, and get your pack in the mail a couple weeks later. Essentially, you shoot your American money straight to Asia, then skip all the steps in the “traditional” American distribution chain. A normal rc product sold in America goes from the manufacture to Hobbico and/or Horizon distribution centers, then to your local hobby shop (LHS) to finally be sold to the end consumer. When the uber cheap Zippy packs first started appearing, most people in the industry, as well as consumers, thought they had to be far too cheap to be of any quality. Consumers also worried about sending their money directly overseas, and about customer support issues should they have a problem with the product. So far, those problems have not been too much of an issue, so now when you hit any track in the country, you can’t help but see an increasing number of people using these batteries. So how does this relate to iHobby? Well, those direct sellers from overseas have been doing quite well in battery market, and from looking at some of the vendors/manufactures at iHobby, it’s quite obvious they aren’t going to stop just there. They are looking to take over chassis, chargers, tires, transmitters/receivers, pretty much every other sector in the hobby. In years past, there might not have been any exhibitors from overseas looking to sell directly to American end consumers, but this year, not only were there more overseas exhibitors than ever before, but nearly all of them are looking to sell directly to end consumers, bypassing Hobbico, Horizon, and your LHS.
I talked to several exhibitors (and a LOT of consumers) that were none too happy that Associated decided not to attend iHobby. They weren’t the only “heavy hitter” not in attendance. No X-Ray, no Ofna, no Kyosho, no HPI, no Trinity, I could go on and on here. Are trade shows a dying breed? Perhaps, but while the show enjoyed near record attendance by consumers paying hard earned cash to get into the show, it suffered from lack of interest by the manufactures. At the end of every Cub Report, I always say “support your sport”- the consumers more than held up to their end of the deal at iHobby, but the manufactures did NOT. If you are a manufacture that did not attend, get off your as$es and show consumers you give a sh&t by at least showing up next year.
On a lighter note, as I mentioned above, consumer attendance was at record levels this year, which was Awesome! This was due to several factors including lots of advertising by the iHobby staff, poor weather, and generally increased interest among consumers. The show as a whole was perhaps one of the best ever, and could definitely be considered a success. The BigSquidRC booth doubled in size this year, and once again was graced by hot booth babes. The BigSquid demonstration team played to record crowds on the demo track, and I even heard that one of their guys got their buggy stuck in the rafters of the convention center after going big during one of their shows. Buzz around the BigSquid booth was incredible, it seems BigSquid has made the transition from “who the F are they” to “BigSquid is what’s hot right now”. Congrats to Brian and his entire crew for finally getting some respect within the industry.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading, and support your sport, no matter who you are.
Your Cub Reporter
As we all get back to the office, and try to recover from the recent iHobby Expo 2009, I thought I would take a moment and post up some more pictures. We’ll have a huge write up coming in the next few days, but wanted to keep the pictures coming!
Pro Driver Tim Mohr walks the track as he tries to find a worthy fan to take home the new HPI Blitz! The crowd was going so nuts, they pushed in the barriers on all the sides. It was painfully loud! We were also giving away t-shirts and hats!
Probably the happiest kid at the whole show! His dad said he’s never seen him smile so much before.. lol.. we’ll we gave him 3 reasons!
A few random shots while walking the floor.. good to see the guys at the Novak booth so happy! It’s always fun to snap a shot of poor Drake having to drive something in the Horizon booth. This year he was their rock crawling expert.. this was a rare shot with his eyes open.
The Castle Creations booth was looking pretty busy. Another lucky hat winner!
Looking for more iHobby news? Here is the link for all of our iHobby Expo 2009 coverage! This link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
For those of you who haven’t made it out to the International iHobby Expo this weekend, Sunday is the last day! Today was the first day it was open to the public, and the crowds were insane! The place was crazy, and with our demo’s happening throughout the day, it was tough to grab pictures, so I’m just posting a few this time around, with a little more write up.
First up is a great shot of Ben with our ‘live camera’ attachment.. on his head! I’m pretty sure he knew it was there. Ben and his father were invited out today to do a little guest bashing with us on our race track. Ben was one of the winners at the Bash-A-Palooza event we did this summer, and has been a good friend of Big Squid RC’s for a while now. He is going to be a great basher when he grows up! Thanks for breaking stuff with us!
During our bash sessions we toss a few t-shirts out into the crowd, and afterwords spotted a few of them walking around and invited them back to the booth for pictures.
One kid was happy about the shirt, but looked a little scared of the girls, while he dad was like.. come on smile!! The other two kids looked like they knew what was up! 
Congrats to all the people we gave shirts to! More coming Sunday. Yes, those are your favorite Big Squid girls that we had last year as well. Anna and Ewa! Thanks for all the help ladies!
Geno and Bill really did an awesome job this morning helping set up the booth! By the time I got in through all the traffic, they had most of the booth dialed and ready to go! Thanks so much for your help guys!
Our demos have been going very well. Just like last year, we had the crowds pumped! 100′s of people were yelling and screaming, and we were told it could be heard throughout most the show floor! Thanks to all of our fans that have been coming out to support us! You guys rock!
Looking for more iHobby news? Here is the link for all of our iHobby Expo 2009 coverage! This link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
Byron Fuels going RC Drag Racing! Cool to see the drag racing scene starting to get noticed by other parts of the rc industry! RC Monster and Fastlane had some cool kits and conversions! Look for some of their stuff in upcoming reviews!
RJ Speed had some interesting new products like the Sport 3.2, the late model class slash body, and these muscle car bodies for the Duratrax and Associated 18th scale vehicles!
Why do most people like to come see our track demos? The carnage of course! Check out Bill(Firesprink) and his latest cracked chassis to add to his collection! A few insane RC pulling vehicles. These things are HUGE and Loud!
Redcat Racing’s 4wd electric 2 speed short course truck. Should be able to see it on the Demo track this weekend.
Looking for more iHobby news? Here is the link for all of our iHobby Expo 2009 coverage! This link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
Yep! More pics and info for your viewing pleasure!
Here we have a shot of the Big Squid RC Booth almost all set up and ready for action! Make sure to stop by and say hi for free stickers and some other surprises! We have a lot of the latest and greatest HPI and Hot Bodies vehicles in our booth like the HPI Blitz and Pro Driver Tim Mohr’s HB Ve8!
Pro Driver, and Pro-Line Racing guru Scott Hughes doing a little guest driving during the Traxxas Slash 4×4 Demo at the Big Squid RC track! Make sure to stop by the track to see all the action! Gil Losi at the AKA Tires Booth.
Check the new Heat Sync color of the speed control at the Tekin Booth. Their first run was in the straight black, the newest is in red to match the motor can. I really like the red/black look.
Looks like we are still one of the only places to get your iHobby Expo 2009 news! This link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
Are we on part 5? It’s all a blur at this point.. with doubling our booth size, answering all the questions, and trying to talk to all the trade show people.. I don’t even know what day it is on the 3 hours of sleep we are getting. Remind me to punch Cubby.. about 20 people wanted his head today! LOL.
Stopped by the Castle Creations booth, they had a pretty nifty little blower system. It has a air intake and a fan that mounts to their motor cooling blades.
Parma had these pretty cool looking buggy bodies for the slash. Personally, I’m glad to see someone doing something besides the perfect short course body. Yes, I like the SC bodies coming out, but as a basher, I like different, and this buggy is it! Quick shot of the Losi micro crawler. They were not running them much.. nobody brought any pencils or keyboards to drive on apparently.
Futaba has a nice ESC coming.. the sweetest part, it’s programmable from the 4PK!!!! I have no idea how this works, or is going to work, but the fact that I can do it, makes me want it! No lugging around a PC, just change the settings from my radio! AWESOME! Good job Futaba! Team Checkpoint has some new and improved LiPO’s on the way.
Checked out the new Losi TEN-T Truggy. While it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before with the onboard starter, it will be interesting to see how a 1/10th scale truggy handles. Will it be more like a monster truck? Or actually feel more like a truggy at this scale? Time will tell.
Remember, where to get your iHobby news first! This iHobby Expo 2009 link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
So, stopped by the Traxxas booth early day 1 to present them with an official Basher Approved Award for the Traxxas Slash. Without a doubt the Traxxas Slash is deserving of one of the highest RC awards right now. It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it takes a beating like nothing else! Peter Vieira did the accepting for Traxxas. The future will tell if the 4×4 can follow in it’s footsteps! Congrats Traxxas!
(Bigger more official write up coming once the show is over, and we can all breath again!)
While at the Traxxas booth, we had to check out the Traxxas Slash 4×4! Notice the Monster Max system in the second one! LOL.. that has to be insane!
Something we noticed while there.. check out the front skid setup on the 4×4 vs the original Slash. It’s a little slicker, and felt a little more durable. I like they way it’s more of a one smooth piece setup! (Slash 4×4 is on the left, original on right.)
Remember, where to get your iHobby news first! This iHobby Expo 2009 link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
Breaking iHobby Expo News! Guessing at the name on this one, but I think it’s the DuraTrax MX450. The video of this off road dirt bike in action was pretty cool! The fact that it’s brushless, AWESOME! Looking forward to bashing the heck out of one of these! Will get all the details when the show opens.
Remember, where to get your iHobby news first! This iHobby Expo 2009 link will get you all the 2009 updates as we post them! So keep an eye on it.
