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‘Losi’ Category

Losi Strike Short Course Truck RTR

Posted by Nick @ 4:04 pm. Filed in: Losi

Losi SCT Short Course Truck

You knew it was going to happen! The Scale Losi Strike Short Course Truck is finally announced! The Strike SCT RTR will be RTR and comes with a 2.4GHz Radio! That’s a nice touch! With so many new people getting into RC with the great price point of these Short Course Trucks, at least they won’t need to update their radio to hand with everyone else on their block!

Features:
Losi receiver and transmitter with Spektrum 2.4GHz DSM technology
Water-resistant LiPo and NiMH compatible reversing electronic speed control
All metal 3-gear transmission with full bearings and slipper clutch for effective power handling
12T 550-sized high-speed motor performance motor
“Internal” mounted motor and transmission design
Adjustable, aluminum oil-filled shocks
Multiple shock and upper suspension link mounting locations
Narrow, center channel chassis for ultimate handling
Adjustable battery placement to tune vehicle handling
Custom screened Short Course Truck body in red and blue colors
Realistic front and rear bumpers for racing protection
Scaled chrome wheels equipped with all-terrain SCT tires
Vehicle tangles limited by Nerf wings lateral body support
Precise, digital steering servo
Full ball bearing equipped for efficiency and speed
Metal universal joints provide incredible driveline strength in race and bash conditions
Super efficient planetary differential
Adjustable turnbuckles for fine-tuning the handling
Oversized, captured ball ends for ultra smooth suspension articulation
Specs:
Type:Short Course Truck
Scale:1/10
Length:22.76 inches (578.1mm)
Width:11.65 inches (295.9mm)
Wheelbase:13.2 inches (335.2mm)
Weight:4.3 lbs (1.95kg) without Battery
Tire Type:All-Terrain SCT
Motor or Engine:12T 550 Performance Motor
Speed Control:Water-Resistant, with Reverse
Radio:Losi Radio System (both Receiver and Transmitter included) with Spektrum 2.4GHz DSM Technology
Batteries:7.2V NiMH or 7.4 LiPo (Not Included)
Kit/RTR:Ready-To-Run (RTR)
Shock Type:All-Alluminum, Oil-Filled
Body:Custom-Screened SCT in Red or Blue
Ball Bearings:Complete

Losi SCT Short Course Truck

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THE Cub Report, 07.05.09

Posted by Cubby @ 10:01 pm. Filed in: cubby, Horizon, Lipo, Losi, ROAR

Welcome Squid fans, to yet another riveting edition of THE Cub Report!

Rc’ers are still talking about ‘The Hack’. So what was ‘The Hack’? Well, it went down at the ROAR electrics nats last weekend in Nebraska. In the first A-main of 2wd Mod Buggy, Maifield and Tebo were running first and second. On the last lap, Tebo pulled a spectacular pass for the lead by jumping over the top of Maifield. The next corner, which turned out to be final turn on the track before the loop, was a fast sweeper. Ryan Maifield tried to force a pass there, but got in to Tebo, causing both to crash, letting the uber affable Ryan Cavalieri take the win. Remember me bitching about one lined tracks a few weeks ago? The Omaha track, like 99.9999% of the tracks in the country, was extremely one lined. The only option to get by another driver of similar speed was to take a big risk, or wait for them to bobble. In the Maifield vs Tebo case, Ryan made a bad decision and tried to pass where it was simply impossible. A true “hack” is classified as being intentional, and I have no doubt that Ryan wasn’t trying to take out Jared. Many people are flipping out that Ryan intentionally took out Tebo, but their crashing together dramatically decreased both their chances of winning the 2wd mod buggy title, and in fact, Cavalieri ended up winning the overall.

ROAR has started trying to enforce a more strict “rough driving” penalty. Once again let me appeal to the tracks, as contact will always be a factor the more one lined a track is. Btw, I heard ROAR’s enforcement is partially due to me talking about how nice the RC Pro Series is because they constantly monitor rough driving. If The Cub Report is partly responsible for this, I’m very flattered, but something they should have been doing without constant prodding.

So, several of the racers at the ROAR electric nats left their trophies behind. A racer leaving their trophy on their pit table, or throwing it away, is the worst insult a racer can impose on an event. One of the head cheeses at ROAR went on-line after the event to cry about the racers doing that. They also post veiled threats to unnamed racers that because they chose to leave their trophies behind, it will be held against them in the future. First off, racers only leave trophies if they feel like they’ve really been sh*% on, and it takes a lot for racers to even consider leaving trophies behind. Secondly, like I’ve mentioned in previous editions of The Cub Report, the sanctioning body at a race is there for two reasons- to provide rules, and to provide officials. It is not appropriate for a sanctioning body to make veiled threats to unnamed racers on internet message boards. It only proves how unprofessional they are. If the sanctioning body truly has an F’n problem with a racer, suspend their membership, ban them, whatever, just don’t cry about it on-line.

So Horizon has been getting their butt kicked on new truck sales. You see a kid walking into a hobby shop with $200, you see him walking out with a new Slash. Well, last week Horizon released a teaser on their upcoming short course truck under Losi badging. It’s about damn time they jumped into that game, and very unlike Horizon to be so far behind in a product segment. Let’s hope the extra time it took them to jump in results in something truly spectacular, like electric 4wd with working lights and a chrome package.

Btw, I am constantly begging Schumacher to use their proven Cat 4wd platform as a base for a gnarly short course truck. So far, I’ve been deprived. I guess I can keep dreaming about throwing a massive 3S Li-po roost off all four tires of my brand new Schumacher short course truck at all the lesser 2wd’s. I love to dream.

All the pieces are in place, the Big Squid RC Li-po Shootout is gonna go off this weekend in Chicago. Yup, we’ve got the balls to do it, and yes, there were even a few manufactures with enough balls to submit packs. At this point, it looks like a real war is brewing. Thunder Power, SMC, CheckPoint, CORE, and more are ready for battle. We’ll be testing 10 packs total, with only ONE winner at the end. We’ve got 6 test drivers, ten ICE chargers, a half dozen power supplies, a CE Turbo 35, and a half dozen Slash’s lined up for testing. As a teaser, the testing criteria are- 1. Capacity, 2. Top Speed, 3. 30 amp discharge voltage under load, 4. Weight, 5. Price, 6. Fit, and lastly, 7. In Car Performance. Yes indeed boys and girls, we’re gonna make a bit of rc history this weekend, doing on honest shootout.

That’s it for this week. Support your local tracks and hobby shops!

Your Cub Reporter

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THE Cub Report, 05.25.09, Version Memorial Day

Posted by Brian @ 8:29 am. Filed in: cubby, Losi

Wow, there hasn’t been crap going on in the industry lately. No big news coming out. No big products, just lots of boring. So how about some “in’s” and “out’s” for this weeks episode?

Anodized blue parts are “out”, and “gun metal” anodizing is “in”. I’m guessing a lot of car manufactures haven’t gotten the memo yet, so there it is, in black and white.

Body clips are also “out”. Look at the new Associated SC10, notice how they’ve eliminated the body clips on the battery strap? Well, body clips suck, they always get lost. They need to replaced by higher tech securing devices, yes, even to hold the bodies on. Remember those pain in the azz E-clips? Remember how many of those you’ve lost over the years as they were shot at near light speed across the room while you attempted to remove/replace them? Well, the industry has gotten smart and found other ways of securing hinge pins, the exact same thing needs to be done to rid the world of the ever disappearing body clip.

Horizon 2.0′s, both buggy and truggy are “in” right now (at least with the racing crowd). Personally, I think the truggy is one of the ugliest trucks to ever grace our industry, and probably makes Pops and Jr wince every time they see one. But as much as I hate to say anything nice about the newer Losi branded products, I’ve got to say they look high tech on track, and make all the rest of the field look like something designed in the late 80′s. They don’t seem to have a lap time advantage, nor reliability advantage, this is strictly a looks thing, but to the racing crowd, their ultra low look is a big turn on. Too bad their look is in the opposite direction of where our sport needs to go (towards realism).

AKA tires are “in”, and in a big way. Finally the dream team has something to show for all their work. They’ve actually put out a product that is a big leap in the right direction. If you’ve never bought a set of AKA tires, you need to do yourself a big favor and do so. They have two huge advantages over the other manufactures tire line-ups. First, the tires last a Long, Long, Long time, saving you a lot of money. Their other big advantage is their foam inserts. You can actually wash your tires, get water inside the tire, and not ruin the insert. Do you know just how many sets tires I have sitting around with decent tread but the foams have long since become dust because I got them wet? Hundreds of dollars worth. The AKA’s seem to have plenty of traction, but save you a lot of money in the long run.

Skins are “in”, in fact, too far “in”. Why is it that the slowest, biggest hacker on the track has a skin on his transmitter, charger, transmitter case, starter box, body, rims, pit light, wing, fuel bottle and laptop? Boy I hope this is a short lived fad, because when every dork/hacker in the pit has “custom” skins on everything that will hold still long enough to apply, it just can’t be cool anymore.

High priced entry fees are “in”, but need to be “out” ASAP. If your local track is charging more than $10 for a normal race, or $30 for a “trophy” race, you had better have the best run facility in the country.

RC magazines going all internet hip is “in” right now (but it’s not working). You can take your typical rc rag, put them on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, do a “live” show ever 10 minutes, and have a private pay area (LOL), and they still won’t capture the internet market. Why? Because their hands are tied, they have to kiss manufactures a$$es, and internet readers just aren’t going to waste their clicks on boring a$$ chit like that. Give me some honest, no holds barred insider info/opinions from Masi, Skinny, or Bess, and I’d love to read it. Give me what they “have” to put out right now, and it’s just boring.

That’s it for this week. Read your BigSquid daily, support your local tracks, and be sure to support your local hobby shops.

Your Cub Reporter

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Losi 8ight-T 2.0 RTR Announced

Posted by Brian @ 11:34 pm. Filed in: Losi

So Losi finally stopped with the teasing and unveiled the new Losi 8ight-T 2.0 RTR Nitro Truggy. Off the bat, I have to say 2 things really stick out.

The crazy low profile body.. the thing looks like it was squished. Probably a real nice low CG! And the fact that it ships with a Spektrum DX3S 3-Channel 2.4ghz radio. I have to admit that’s a nice touch for anyone that hasn’t upgraded yet, and is looking for a truggy.. sort of 2 birds with one stone here.

Call me when there is a brushless conversion for it.

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THE Cub Reporto, Versiono 04.12.09, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

Posted by Brian @ 8:41 am. Filed in: cubby, HPI Racing, JConcepts, Kyosho, Losi, Team Associated

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

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Pro-Line Racing SHIFT body for the Losi 8ight-T

Posted by Brian @ 3:32 pm. Filed in: Losi, Pro-Line

Keeping the trend going, the new SHIFT body style from Pro-Line Racing is also available for the Losi 8ight-T fans. These SHIFT bodies have a super low CG and really fit snug to the vehicles.

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Pro-Line SHIFT now for the Losi 8ight 2.0

Posted by Brian @ 12:29 pm. Filed in: Losi, Pro-Line

It looks like the new SHIFT body style from Pro-Line Racing is starting to catch on as they start to produce it for some other vehicles. If you have a Losi 8ight and have been waiting for a cool new body, that time has arrived.

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Exotek Racing Mini LST Wing Mount and Wheelie Wheels!

Posted by Brian @ 5:08 pm. Filed in: Exotek Racing, Losi

First up from Exotek Racing is a true heavy duty wing mount that is 100% compatible with the stock Mini LST Shock tower (mini lst2/buggy/Raminator also). Features adjustable wing height. Note the wing is NOT included. For all those that want the cool wing look as well as getting some actual usefulness that a rear wing can provide, the Exotek guys have you covered.

Next up are these awesome looking Wheelie Wheels! This actually seems like a really cool idea!

For all those bashers out there like us, who just happen to put a little too much horse power in your mini’s, these wheels will help protect your wings as well as let you do some insane wheelie passes! The kit comes with 2 wheels, 2 axles and screws. Pretty cool.

Jump over to the Exotek Racing and check out all their stuff! Make sure to tell them Big Squid RC sent ya!

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Exotek Racing Mini LST Wheel Adapters

Posted by Brian @ 1:02 pm. Filed in: Exotek Racing, Losi, Mini RC

Exotek Racing, who seem to be the masters of new Mini hop-ups have just released their new Mini LST 1/10th Wheel Adapters! Now you can mount up some true race compounds! The adapters also widen your Mini LST to 217mm, and still work with the stock axels or CVD’s.

The current list of compatible rims include Hot Bodies D4, Kyosho Buggy, HPI Brama and MRC Academy! That vehicle looks like it could take a serious bashing!

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THE Cub Report, Version 02.27.09

Posted by Cubby @ 1:45 pm. Filed in: Kyosho, Losi

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

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More Breaking Kyosho AKA news?

Posted by Brian @ 1:36 am. Filed in: Kyosho, Losi

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!

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Rumor Squash – Losi and Kyosho

Posted by Brian @ 9:01 am. Filed in: Kyosho, Losi

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.

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Gil Losi Sr. Buying Kyosho America Follow Up

Posted by Brian @ 9:00 am. Filed in: Kyosho, Losi

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!

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