JConcepts is giving the new Kyosho Ultima SC some love today. They have announced that their very popular Illuzion Dare and Illuzion Manta bodies, which have been dressing up the Slash and SC10 since those heady early days of the short course class, are also a direct fit for Kyosho’s hot new entry in the short course arena.

The Manta features modern short course styling and an optional rear spoiler, while the Dare is patterned after the larger Baja style desert trucks with huge racks of lights on the front bumper and visor. Both bodies have extra fender clearance for using the lastest tire and wheel combos and come with window masks, decal sheets, and overspray film. MSRP for the Manta is $42.00 and the Dare is $40.00, check with your local hobby shop for availability.

These are some great looking bodies, those of you that have a Kyosho Ultima SC should give them a peek. Click through to JConcepts’ site for more info.

Hey Cub-ster,
I know you guys are all about bashing and so am I (hence the reason I bought a Savage X as my first RC in twenty years and is my first nitro truck, I love it!). However, I am thinking about getting into RC racing and I think a good place to begin would be 2WD stock CORR events at a local track. Which truck is better between the Associated SC10, Traxxas Slash and the HPI Blitz? How about a shoot-out between the three?

Also, I know batteries have come a long way since I was a kid with a Tamiya Hornet but the batteries out now are making me nervous about making the jump from nitro to electric. The battery performance that I remember as a kid (run for 20 minutes then back in the house for four hours to recharge) and the cost of extra batteries are keeping me from plunking down my hard earned cashola! Please help!

Thanks,
Dean T. (aka- Captain Khaos)
—–
Well hello Captain Khaos, that’s a true bashers handle right there. I think my wife might call me that at times after jumping my Revo off the roof of my house and accidentally landing on top of her Audi. But such is life……

Btw, CORR died a very sad death. The CORR sanctioning body folded before they even got to hold there season finale event a couple years ago, which left a lot of driver, spectators, and sponsors with a bad taste in their mouths. Two new sanction bodies have picked up the flag since then, The Lucas Oil Series (that AE is involved with) and the TORC Series (that Traxxas is Huge into). So instead of using the CORR label, using the term short course works a lot better.

The 2wd short course class is a great class to get into. All the trucks are pretty durable and you just can’t beat how damn cool they look going around the track. So what’s the best SC truck to race with?

If your local track has very low traction and is fairly rough, the Slash is still a great bet. Traxxas really hit a sweet set-up right out of the box. The progressive springs and light compression and rebound damping work great right out of the box on the slick stuff. The only weak spot are those pesky shock caps that like to come off at the worst possible moment, but that is easily fixed by putting metal caps on (assuming your local track allows that mod, most tracks do).

If your local track is high bite and smooth, or you plan on racing mod, the HPI Blitz is the truck to get. The Blitz has class leading mechanical grip in the corners, and it’s a lot easier to get a good set-up on it than the AE SC10. To boil it down, it’s super easy to drive, and it’s just plain fast. Races are won in the corners, and the Blitz has class leading corner speed on high bite tracks. The main downside to the Blitz is the steering. If someone is a total noob, the stock steering is awesome as it’s set up to not steer too quickly. If you are an experienced driver, you’ll be looking for a higher torque servo and a tighter turning radius. Throw in a servo with at least 100 oz/in of torque, and do a little grinding on the front hubs and hub carriers to gain more turning radius, and you are dialed.

A short course shootout would be awesome. We already have a test Slash, Blitz and SC10. However, I think my constant bashing of Horizon and Kyosho are preventing the BigSquid crew from acquiring a Losi Strike and a Kyosho Ultima SC. That or those two simply don’t have the balls to see how their trucks stack up.

About today’s batteries- they are no joke. Good packs aren’t cheap, and all of the packs out there can be dangerous if not used properly. Go too cheap on a pack and the cells are prone to early failure and are just plain slow. If I had to recommend one pack to you, it’d be a Ni-mh 5000 mah pack like this ONE. There are tons of chargers on the market that will charge Ni-mh cells (and Ni-mh’s are not prone to thermal runaway like some of the Lithium based cells), and with 5000 mah of capacity on tap, you’ll have get a ton of run time. Enjoy.

That’s it for this session of Ask Cub Reporter. Send your questions to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Check out a few pictures of this new 1:9 scale (that’s not a typo, they are saying 1/9th scale) ride from Kyosho called the Ultima DB. The DB stands for Dune Buggy, and is influenced by the actual buggies raced in the Baha area. The chassis is based on the Ultima SC and is stretched enough to be considered a 1/9th scale vehicle! It comes RTR and is supposed to be race ready. I’m not sure if these will catch on or not, but it is cool to see Kyosho trying another direction in the new realism craze that seems to of helped the short course trucks take off.

You can hit the Kyosho America site for more details.

Our good Italian friends site Modellismo Hobby Media has scored us a few pictures of the new Kyosho Ultima SC Short Course Truck! These were taken at the Tokyo Hobby Show that was happening. Looks like a pretty sweet ride. There are going to be so many short course trucks this fall, the tracks are going to be insane. Heck.. all the coverage the last few days here has been short course this and that!

Geezus have things been boring in the industry. Come on you guys, get to making some news out there or I’m really going to have start making things up! LOL

It’s about that time, the time of the year in the temperate climates to make the switch from racing nitro 8th scale off road to running indoors on carpet. The main difference this year? Less touring cars, and more Trans-Am spec cars hitting the tracks on the Paragon soaked tracks of the north. Touring car is a somewhat “scale” appearing class, but the TA’s are more so, and because they are a “spec” type class, are far less expensive to compete with. Death of the touring car class? I highly doubt that, but a nice change more towards the real world.

I’ve heard some hate from the bashing crowd out there. Seems “some” bashers think I only race. I bash and race, but I write more about the racing side because what exactly is it I’m supposed to write about on bashing? Does anyone give a crap I tagged a curb at 40 mph with my Savage? I think not. Do people want to read about how trick the new Traxxas crawler is going to be? I think so. Not that I’m saying they have a crawler coming, it’s just a dream I had after taking way too many Yohimbe tablets.

I dig the crew at AKA tires. I do not dig their new short course rims for use with 8th scale tires. Short course racing’s popularity has a lot to do with scale appearance. So if you are one of those d$#chebags running 8th scale tires on your Slash, or if you are a manufacture encouraging the use of “non-scale” looking equipment, just quit it. It’s a step backwards, not forward.

The Kyosho DBX VE. I mentioned this buggy briefly last week, and “official” pics were released this week. Others in the industry think it’s an interesting platform- a stab at bringing more durability, drive-ability and lower cost to the 10th scale 4wd market. Because of it’s size, 2S lithium batteries can be used, saving big bucks compared to the 4S packs needed for 8th scale electric use. It’s a 4wd, making it easier to get around an off road track than a 2wd, and it looks to be a scaled down 8th scale to help increase durability. What do I think? All I can say is “WTF”, and “those are the ugliest rims I’ve ever seen”. But just the fact that it’s different and getting some buzz means it might have a shot at moving some units. Too bad Kyosho is distributed only from Kyosho (ok, and a bit by HRP) and most hobby shops will never order the buggy in, nor stock parts for them.

In general, buyers are looking for three things right now.
1. Low price- which doesn’t bode real well for high end luxury touring cars or esoteric works 8th scales.
2. Availability- being able to find a kit or part on-line doesn’t quite cut it when you break an A-arm early on a Saturday morning and are looking to drive your truck all day. Traxxas really is the only company universally stocked by nearly every hobby shop in the country. Every other company seems to be focusing on their on-line sales, which is fine, but far from optimum. Few consumers want to buy a brand “XYZ” truck if their LHS does not stock any “XYZ” parts. Some consumers are willing to wait 3 days for their parts, most aren’t.
3. Ease Of Use- Does it take a long time to break in the engine? Do you have to assemble a kit? Is it time consuming to get the trims set right? Do you have to blow 30 minutes reading a manual before you know how to start the car? Is it easy to program the speed controller? Consumers want/demand easy to use products. The longer and harder it is get make a new rc truck hit the track, the worse it’s going to sell. This isn’t twenty years ago when the majority of consumers enjoyed spending a week assembling a new kit. Consumers now days want to hit the track within an hour of buying the truck, and have it work/drive decently with nearly no set-up time. They are willing to give up cutting edge performance for slightly lower performance and more ease of use.

Last years iHobby Expo show was perhaps the largest ever, both on the industry and consumer sides. This year looks to be a different story. Recession is still heavy on everyone’s mind, and it’s easy to see on the floor map of the iHobby show. Many manufactures are electing not to get a booth this year, and many more have downsized considerably. It’s roughly a month till the doors open at the show, and while I have no idea if they are cutting some incredible deals on booths or not, I have the feeling if you are a manufacture and contact them about getting a booth that they’ll do their best to get ya in the show for a good price. So call them and buy some booth space! BigSquidRC has increased booth size this year, is the track sponsor for the second year in a row, and will also be increasing the number of hot booth babes. At least somebody is growing in this hobby. If you are a consumer, feel free to drop by the BigSquidRC booth and grab a bunch of stickers, say hey to the entire BSRC crew, and I’ll be autographing ladies cleavage, and mens foreheads all day on Sunday. If you are a manufacture, drop by the booth, give me the evil eye, then grab Brian by the arm to have him show you the insane traffic BigSquidRC is pulling now days.

That’s it for this weeks edition. It’ll do you some good to get out, hit your local track or bash spot, and stop in and say “hello” to that goofy crew working at your LHS.

Your Cub Reporter

See the teaser for Kyosho’s latest and greatest, no not their entry into the SC market, but for their DBX VE? Let’s say you take an 8th scale buggy and shrink it down a bit to use 10th scale speedo’s, motors and a single 2S battery. Then you put on a buggy body that any Trekkie would approve of, and finally throw on some over sized truck sized tires. Only then would you have the new DBX VE. It’s outside the box for sure, but I’m starting to dig it. One of the real “fun limiting” factors of many of today’s rc’s is that they are hard to drive on bombed out dirt tracks. The DBX has both 4 wheel drive and large tires, both will aid considerably in making it easier for an average driver to get around a track without crashing 5 times a lap. It’s looks a bit weird, but then, so did the Traxxas Slash at first, and it ended up being the second coming of the T-Maxx.

Kyosho, seemingly in envy of Horizon’s limitless teaser output, also put out a “teaser” for their upcoming SC entry, the Ultima SC. Being an Ultima series truck implies that it will be an electric 2wd, a direct competitor for the Traxxas Slash, AE SC10, HPI Blitz, and Horizon Strike. Just how much longer till the short course type trucks make all the AE T4’s and Losi XXX-T’s obsolete? Humm, I’m guessing not long.

More and more 8th scale electrics are hitting the market, and last weeks entry was the HPI Vorza Flux HP RTR (say that 10 times fast!). The Vorza HP uses some parts off their World Champion D8 buggy, and should sell for just over $600 at your favorite hobby shop. The one part of the design that really stood out to me was the motor mount, perhaps one of the slickest designs out there. I keep seeing more and more 8th scale electrics showing up at local tracks, maybe with all the new entries to the class it might just take off after all.

Horizon showed their “new” HighRoller micro 36th scaler last week. I’m trying to think of a deader market segment than 36th scale, maybe 2wd gas truck? Naw, I know several guys that have bought 2wd gas trucks this year, but I can’t think of anyone I personally know that has bought a “micro” 36th scaler. The HighRoller comes with larger tires than the Micro-T, so if you’re in the micro market, it might be worth a look.

The last few months, I’ve made a habbit of reading Waldo’s column in R/C Car. It’s not polished, nor rocket science, nor in the same league as Super Hunky’s rejects, but I found it a good read. Well, this month (November issue) Waldo’s column disappeared. WTF, seriously? In it’s place was Jason’s World written by Jason Yu. If you are an industry person, or a traveling racer, then you’ll know Jason. He’s at most of the big races and trade shows with 10 grand worth of camera swinging around his neck, is very polite but holds his ground, is somewhat soft spoken but gets his point across, and is nearly invisible, yet you know he’s always there. I really don’t know him very well, but from what little I’ve interacted with him, I was expecting a very conservative write up for his first time at bat with a featured opinion piece. To boil his article down, he talks about why he doesn’t race anymore. Jason states that he just enjoys driving his rc cars more than he does racing them. I can definitely see his point of view. I’m also sick of getting hacked, piss poor marshalling, outrageous race fees, and retarded track designs, among other things. His article made me think to myself- would I just be happier being a basher type guy, and do I have the balls to just quit racing so I can actually enjoy the sport? Or does the entire racing system need to be changed to ensure more fun and less b*llsh*t? Just the fact his article made me think at all is awesome, props to Yu on a great column. I hope Bess opens up an extra page so that both Yu and Waldo can have their say each month.

To hit on a completely different tangent- is it just me, or is there a LOT more theft going on at the races this year? Personally I’ve had several “items” just disappear, and I’ve heard of more theft in the pits from other racers than I’ve ever heard during any race season before. Since the beginning of the hobby we’ve always been able to just leave our tools and cars laying out in the pits with nearly no fear of them getting stolen while we are out marshalling. I actually know of one track where the majority of racers shove all their tools back into their pit boxes when they go out to marshal. Out of all these thefts, I’ve heard of two people being caught, both just punks too lazy to get a job and earn their own rc gear. Unfortunately, neither were prosecuted, and one wasn’t even banned from that track! If you are a track owner, perhaps it’s time to address (or preempt) this issue by whatever means necessary.

There are a couple of important events coming up that you should try to attend. October 17th is a big BashFest at Slot and Wing Hobbies in Champaign Illinois. Contact the guys at Slot and Wing for more information on that one, and BigSquidRC will have a couple guys out there to bash hard and do a write up for the site. The second event is the iHobby International Hobby Expo on October 24th and 25th at the Rosemont Convention Center in Chicago. Head over to iHobbyExpo.com for complete info.

That’s it for this week gang. Support your sport, hit your local tracks and go in and say “Hola” to the crew at your local hobby shops.

Your Cub Reporter

ps- And I want to give a quick shout out to my homies over at modellismo.eu, Hola!

Finally some images of the new DBXVE. The new brushless buggy from Kyosho. “VE” stands for Vortex Experience since the vehicle is running the Orion Vortex brushless motor ESC.

According to the Kyosho Europe site, the DBXVE will be available in November 2009, and that 60% of the parts are compatible with the DBX/DST chassis.

It looks like Kyosho wants in on the 1/8 electric scene and they are going to enter with guns and brushless motors ablaze. The Inferno VE Readyset is outfitted with Team Orion’s Vortex brushless system and the chassis has been redesigned from the ground up to be a RTR brushless beast. Not to mention, props go to Kyosho for including a body that actually looks good!!

Look for the Inferno VE Readyset to be available in October.

Want to drive like Travis Pastrana? You might not be able to hop behind the wheel of a real Subaru Rally car, but Kyosho has released a 1:10 Subaru that is sure to make rally fans happy. Based on the DRX (Drive Really Xtremeley?) platform, this car is loaded with cool features. The drive-train uses three differentials to distribute the power to all four wheels. The power is put down onto the ground by some gnarly looking rally-treaded tires that are wrapped around wire spoke wheels. All the suspension components match front to rear, so finding the right components is a snap. The suspension is also highly adjustable, and allows for stability on dirt and pavement at any speed. The power is produced by a GXR .18 engine and is delivered by a racing type 2 shoe clutch. A 103cc fuel tank allows for upwards of ten minutes of runtime. When it’s time to stop, the dual disc brakes slow the car down. The DRX rally car is currently available in (very detailed) Subaru livery.

The body itself has functional light buckets and spot-on decals for all the scale fans. Thanks to the downward angle of the exhaust pipe stinger, there’s no need to worry about putting a hole in the body or having to clean exhaust residue off the exterior. It should be available in the United States some time this September. If you want to see it running, check out this video Kyosho made, it looks like the real deal in the dirt and on tarmac!

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome back to yet another edition of THE Cub Report.

Ready for a battle of the titans? This coming weekend, Air Age Media (producers of RCCA mag) and their RCX hobby expo will go head to head against the HPI, Kyosho, and Tamiya mini-show of the “Radio Control Motorsports Experience“. Both “shows” are held at the same time, both in SoCal. Perhaps the three largest exhibitors from RCX have broken away to take their radio control wares to the full scale racing masses at the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach. Word is that booth space for the RCX show has been free, yes free, for the past several weeks in an attempt to fill up the venue. I was talking with an RCX exhibitor 3 weeks ago about how much they paid for their RCX booth, and they said “dirt cheap”. My response to them was, “well, if it wasn’t free, you paid way too much!”. Can’t wait to see attendance numbers after both these shows. The Radio Control Motorsports Experience (in conjunction with The LifeStyle Expo) are expecting an attendance of over 180,000 people over four days. Wonder how many peeps RCX is expecting this year?

Word on the internet this week was that JConcepts officially killed “the Slash class”. Seems some dolts believe that the new and uber grippy JConcepts GooseBump tires are not in the “spirit” of the class. While it is true their tread pattern does not maintain a “scale” appearance, they are certain to offer much more grip than what’s currently available. All currently available tires are certainly very realistic looking, but suffer horribly in mechanical grip because of it. This makes every short course truck significantly slower than their better shod counterparts on the track, such as T4’s, XXX-T’s, ect. I’m all on the JConcepts bandwagon. Their GooseBumps fit the stock Slash and SC10 rims, physically are the same size to somewhat maintain scale appearance, yet will offer tons more grip. So props to JConcepts on this one. GooseBumps are a good thing, bolting 8th scale tires on a Slash (like others would like to do to get more traction) is idiotic and truly not in the spirit of the class.

See the worlds worst rc advertising teaser this week? For an ad to be a good teaser, it’s got to give the illusion of bringing something new and trick to the market. Losi’s new teaser of a truck they are showing for the first time at this coming weekends RCX show doesn’t show squat, essentially wasting everyone’s time. Might be time for a good a$$ chewing of their marketing department on this one. AE owns, and has always owned the teaser ads.

Ok, so what’s up with Trinity? Lot’s of emails getting fired around the industry on this one. For those of you not “in the know”, the news being that Trinity is throwing away millions of dollars in former brand recognition advertising by changing their name to “Epic”, and also moving from New England to Florida. On one hand, the Trinity name is perhaps the second most recognized in the entire industry behind Associated. On the other, the Trinity brand name has suffered in recent years- from the importing of junk Chinese trucks under their banner, to the infamous “brushless sucks and brushed motors are way better” ads, to non-existant customer service, to a general lack of quality control across the board. Some, or should I say most, factory insiders think this will be the finishing straw to break that camel’s back. Others say it might be exactly what the big “T” needs to get back on track and to put them back to their former glory. I think they “jumped the shark” at the brushless ads, and are looking at an incredibly tough road uphill road that few could ever overcome, the changing of name will only make that road harder. Their doors are still open for now, but I think most in the industry have them on a death-watch countdown.

That’s it for this week ya freaks. Support your local hobby shops as much as you can, support your local tracks (if they ever get dry enough to race on), and get those rc stickers on your 1:1 rides.

Your Cub Reporter

After weeks of total boredom within the industry, it was only a matter of time till things picked up.

Seems ROAR has made a couple giant strides in the right direction. Word out of the ROAR camp is that two major announcements are about to be made. The first being they are close to sealing a tv package with the autosports channel Speed for coverage of all of ROAR’s 2009 nationals. The second of which is the nearing announcement of Monster Energy Drinks as title sponsor for their 2009 nationals. It has been said that most of the nationals will be aired with a one week delay, except for the 8th scale dirt nationals, which will feature next day coverage. The addition of Monster Energy as the title sponsor was part of what ROAR brought to the table at Speed, and seems they liked what they saw. Now, it’ll be interesting to see if the cameramen at SpeedHD can keep up with how fast our cars can go.

In factory hot-shoe news, former Ann Arbor Michigan resident, and favorite rc racer of the public, Adam Drake is making a big change. After years upon years of being Losi’s number one paid racer, seems Drake is moving out of the rc world permanantly. He’s stepping into the big league as a partner to Scott Taylor on his Skyjacker team running the entire Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. Will Drake step right in and pwn the 1:1 full size racing world like he’s dominated the rc crowd? That remains to be seen, but I’m betting that The Drake will have no problems running up front no matter what form of racing he might be involved in.

Another rc factory shoe is in the news this week as well, Taylor James. Nike is rumored to be announcing that KC’s favorite rc native is the latest conquest of Nike 6.0. Taylor’s model like looks, combined with his personable attitude in the pits, has landed him a big fat Nike 6.0 contract. He’ll be joining fellow Nike 6.0 teammates like bmx’er Mike Spinner, surfer Casey Brown, snowboarder Broc Waring, and mx’ers Ryan Dungey and James “Bubba” Stewart. Taylor will be nothing but an asset to Nike’s “alternative/extreme sports” division.

In corporate news, what’s the best way of dispelling bankruptcy rumors? By expanding! Kyosho America has recently acquired another 30,000 square feet of space in southern California. This gives them much needed room for additional inventory, and room for yet another new tire company. Combine the added space, with several new key employee’s, and you’ve got the makings of a company on the rise.

That’s all for this week folks. Always remember to support your local hobby shops, your local tracks, and get those rc stickers on your 1:1 rides!

Your Cub Reporter

So here is an interesting twist on this weeks Cub Report. Normally I’m here opening my big mouth and waiting to get a phone call from the Big Squid about how he can’t believe I would post that… well this week I got a little help. Seems someone under the name “R/C Ninja” sent Brian a little fuel for the industry rumors that have been floating around. How I enjoy posting news that nobody else will talk about, and then having an anonymous industry insider help out with some of the stuff I touched on! If any of you industry types want to send us some anonymous news, feel free! While the magazines wont post this stuff, we sure will!

Please note, all of this information is still being posted as RUMOR! It’s very hard to confirm this stuff, when most places hang up on me! “Hi, this is Cubby from Big Squid RC” *click*, Hello?

First up, a company we don’t talk that much about, Serpent.
A while back you might have heard that they went bankrupt and was sold to a Chinese manufacture. Serpent representatives quickly came on all major R/C message forums to clarify that the company is doing fine and it has not been sold…well, IT IS TRUE! Serpent had gone bankrupt a few years back and once a high-quality, high-end racing European company is now indeed owned by a Chinese manufacture by the name of World Model (owner’s name is Mr. Shiu) The price tag paid for the purchase of Serpent was told to be around 3 million USD…however, the word on the “street” is that Mr. Shiu regret just about every penny that was paid for the purchase. If you look at the latest Serpent offering (the 1/24th scale and 1/12th scale) these are the type of vehicle that Mr. Shiu’s company; World Model is known to produce after market option parts for…and the reason for the insanely high price of Serpent products? Well, Mr. Shiu no longer owns any of his own factories associated with his original company World Model as he sold them awhile back, so he actually has to contract out Serpent’s production and manufacture requirements thus raising the cost of Serpent products. With the high price of their product and the racing market being just a small segment of the industry…I find it hard to see Serpent being a viable company in the future.

Up Next, Kyosho America. (Hi Sr. and Jr. Losi! We really appreciate you reading the column, and the emails from your guys, but this is news we have to post.) This one is really filed under the VERY RUMOR section because the sources are not the most reliable here.
Well, AKA is out of the building and now its own entity, and the real hurt starts now for Kyosho America. Team Orion (part of Kyosho) is not doing well, and I was told that Kyosho actually over paid what Team Orion was worth to acquire the company (other companies like HPI, Yokomo, were all approached by Team Orion, and most if not all of the manufacture thought Team Orion’s asking price was insane). The new rumor is that, by summer time, Kyosho products will be housed in the same warehouse as…..*drum roll*…..HORIZON WEST (basically in the same building as Team Losi in Horizon’s Ontario warehouse (also known as Horizon West). For the many years that Kyosho America existed, they have not turned a profit, however, the years when Tower Hobbies/Great Plane was handling Kyosho product, it was at least profitable for Kyosho Japan. Thinking that they can do an even better job in capturing US sales and eliminating the idea of internal product competition (Kyosho products vs. Duratrax…etc.) Kyosho Japan decided to setup Kyosho America and unfortunately the rest is sad history. So Kyosho Japan realize Kyosho America is a failure, but they still want to sell products in the US, and now actually have a decent following customer base they need to take care of…Tower Hobbies/GP is not going to take Kyosho back, when they split, it was a nasty divorce that left virtually no room for reconciliation. So thinking they need to partner up with a big distributor again, the only option left is Horizon. And how ironic is all this for Gil Losi Jr.? He left Horizon after Losi was bought and he went to Kyosho and now Kyosho is getting back in with Horizon?
Like I said, until we hear more, this is pure rumor. I’m sure mine or Brian’s mail box will get a flood from friends of Gil or Pops, or Horizon to put this one to rest!

That’s it for this week. Hit your local hobby shops, hit your tracks, heck, why not find yourself a new vehicle to get ready for this summer?

Your Cub Reporter

So if you are a regular reader of Big Squid RC, you will know that there has been more then a few stories and rumors about Losi and Kyosho America floating around here. Well, adding a new plot twist to the whole thing. It looks like AKA who was part of Kyosho for a long time has moved out, and their web page now show’s the official address change . Just a few weeks ago the address was listed as Kyosho America 20322 Valencia Circle, Lake Forest, CA, but today it’s in Murrieta CA. The phone numbers have also changed. Is this the beginning of something bigger? The Who We Are page has also changed to add full bio’s of the big three. (Mark Pavidis, Joel Johnson and Gil Losi Jr.). Since I know Kyosho and Losi both read Big Squid RC, if anyone would like to drop us an email shedding a little light on the subject, feel free to let us know what’s going down. We’d love to hear from you!

The The RC Pro Series Australia received confirmation today from Ryan Lutz with Tamiya that he will be attending the RC Pro Australia event July 2nd - 5th at the the Mooloolah Valley Raceway.

They also have a interview with Ryan that may be one of the longest in RC history. It’s an interesting read though, some good insight on how Ryan got started. You can read the full thing here: Read the rest of this entry »

Acer Racing has announced the release of their Ceramic Nitride Pro Series Bearing kit for the Kyosho Ultima RB5 2WD Buggy. If you are looking for a bearing upgrade for almost any RC vehicle, make sure to head over to the Acer Racing site and check them out.

Recently we posted a rumor about Losi buying Kyosho America which we heard from a pretty reliable source, but I just got an email from someone sitting next to Mr. Losi saying that it was only a rumor, and that it is not true.

I still have a feeling that there is some big news coming out of the Kyosho America camp, so we’ll have to wait and see. I’m glad to see Pops, or at least someone close to him reads Big Squid RC to keep up with the latest in RC news.

HPI Racing in conjunction with Tamiya America, Inc. and Kyosho America announce today their participation in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 16-19, 2009.

The three largest hobby manufactures in the world will be joining forces at the 2009 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach [LBGP], in the first “Radio Control Motorsport Experience.” This collaboration within the hobby community is aimed to increase awareness for the hobby grade radio control market. The combined marketing forces at HPI Racing, Kyosho America and Tamiya America, Inc. are prepared to take their respective companies to a broader audience than what is currently available within the radio controlled hobby industry.

The Lifestyle Expo contains many attractions for Grand Prix attendees, including a Kids Zone. HPI Racing, Kyosho of America and Tamiya America, Inc. will showcase numerous products as well as demonstrate R/C Drifting, R/C Rock Crawling, R/C Tanks and Mini R/C tabletop race cars.
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I’m glad to see some big companies getting together to help spread the word about RC! The more we spread the word the better! If you are in the area, you should take some non-rc friends with you and check it out!

As everyone has already heard, perhaps the best known media man in our industry passed away this week- Chris Chianelli. Yes, I’ve got my stories about Chris (just like everyone else that has worked in this industry) and all of mine involve huge smiles and good times. He was a man of tremendous charisma, as it was always a pleasure to be around him. I hope tracks around the country pause for a moment of silence in his honor this weekend.

Chianelli- GodSpeed to you. Where you are at I hope- all the tracks are perfectly watered, all the marshals fast, there is never a computer glitch in the timing system, parts never break, batteries never dump, and you know all your work in this industry has been immensely appreciated.

Hard to move on from that subject, but let’s jump over to something happy, like Ryan Cavalieri re-signing with Pro-Line for 09′. While many people say all the top drivers are “helpful and nice to everyone”, Pudge truly is the nicest guy in the pit, and one of the few elite guys that is cool to even the biggest squid at the track.

Ok, ok, yes, yes! It’s time for the scoop on Kyosho America. Last weekend, Gil Losi Sr. announced (gave some people heart attacks) at the Chili Bowl race in Oklahoma that he had bought Kyosho USA . Now, for most rational people who weren’t there, it just had to be a rumor and/or joke. Turns out the scoop is that Pops was just testing the waters of the public opinion at the Chili Bowl with his announcement. So no, he did not/has not bought Kyosho USA. But, the rumors that Kyosho USA is in financial trouble have grown stronger and stronger the last 6 months. Perhaps Kyosho USA is looking to sell. Any which way, here’s to hoping that Gil Sr skips anything and everything that has to do with Kyosho, and starts up a new company all together. Rc racing in America needs a US based high end/race oriented company.

That’s it for this week gang.

Your Cub Reporter

Since our breaking news post about Gil ‘Pops’ Losi Sr. buying Kyosho America rumor, we have been flooded with emails for us to try and confirm the news. Believe me, we are doing our best! We have phone calls into a lot of people, and will post any and all info as soon as we receive it. I did get another email confirming the story, but it was not from an ‘official’ source, so until then, we are still going with ‘rumor’.

Remember where you read it first! Big Squid RC!

OK, right now this is just a rumor, but I got a phone call that this week at a Losi Race, Gil ‘Pops’ Losi Sr. had mentioned that he was buying Kyosho America! We are doing our best here to confirm or deny this rumor. It it does happen, this is pretty darn big news!

Anyone who was at this race want to drop me an email and let me know if you also heard this? Anyone from Kyosho or Losi care to chime in?