[Update: The nomination period is over. We'll be putting together the top 16 bracket over this weekend and voting will commence on Monday!]

It’s March and that means one thing around here. March Bash-ness. Last year saw the HPI Savage Flux HP in a neck and neck race with the Traxxas Slash 4×4 for the title of 2011′s Ultimate Basher as voted on by you, our readers. The Savage Flux ended up taking the title, but just barely, it really did come down to the final seconds. Just like last year, we’ll be pitting 16 vehicles against each other in a bracket that you choose and vote on. You nominate the contestants, you vote in each round of the bracket, you choose the Ultimate Basher. It’s that simple.

The big question among the staff here (actually, it’s just me, none of the other guys have said anything) is whether or not you will side with us and pick the ThunderTiger MT4-G3, which we named as our bash vehicle of the year for 2011. Or will you decide another vehicle is more deserving of such a prestigious title?

But for now, let’s get on with the nominations. The comment section is open on this post, so go ahead and make a few nominations of your own. After a week, we’ll collect the 16 most nominated vehicles and start the bracket. Just a note, your nomination can be any r/c vehicle from any time period, it doesn’t have to be recently released, and you can nominate as many vehicles as you wish. If you’re not sure where to start, check out our reviews section.

Oh, and did I mention that when it was all said and done last year, we, along with HPI Racing, gave away a Savage Flux 2350 to one lucky voter? I didn’t? Well, there ya go. I wonder what we’ll be giving away this year…

The peeps over at RC Pro Products are having a big sale from now until the end up September. Click Here to head over and get ya something cool!

Head on over to Team Durango to get that order placed now!

Evan’s comes to us from Indiana and been in the RC world for a few years now. Somehow he has almost as many vehicles as Wrench, and hasn’t been in it nearly as long. Seems like every time I ask the gang ‘ok, who has a (fill in ANY car name here)?’ Evan is quick to raise his hand.

I’m gonna have to snap a pic of him in a Big Squid shirt for the site. Hopefully not doing his best ‘Micro Man’ pose!

Anyway, welcome Evan! It’s good to have you on board. Keep up the great work. And if Cubby tries to sell you an ‘elevator key’ to the ‘rooftop lounge’, you may want to ask Jeff, Adam and Bill about theirs!

Update: Now with pic!

Maybe because we have just grown so much bigger and it’s the same percent of people, I’m not sure, but the mail box was flooded today! From fans, readers, and companies! Sorry to bust all our competitions’ bubbles, but we were NOT bought out, and we are NOT going anywhere! It would take serious yacht money for us to loose this baby with the growth we have been having. (B. Gates.. call us!) But until then, your stuck with myself and the rest of the Big Squid RC crew bringing you your daily awesome RC news and reviews!

For all of this years foolery click here.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled rc news!

So I’m sure you all heard about the March Bash-ness craziness we have had going on, and Jeff mentioned we were going to give away a vehicle from whatever company was crowned the winner from your votes! Well, we grabbed all the people who commented, tossed them into a huge spreadsheet, mixed them up, then used a random number generator to pick the line number of the winner.
It picked #204 Adam ###### who’s email greenblitzbrushless@####### we will be contacting. The comment he left : “Let them have a round of tug of war and the one that loses get blown up. Poor little slash its gonna go BOOOOMMM” Note: we don’t condone blowing stuff up around here, seriously!

Thanks for participating Adam! Congrats! You have won a brand new Savage Flux 2350 RTR!!!! Special thanks to HPI Racing for providing an awesome prize! And a THANK YOU to everyone who participated, voted and left comments! Stay tuned for another contest REAL soon!

Nine days ago we started March Bash-ness with 16 trucks. After all of you guys cast nearly 6,000 votes (most of which were legitimate!) over that time, 15 trucks have been sent home and we now have a winner.  The Ultimate Basher as decided by the fans is HPI Racing’s Savage Flux HP!  Though just barely, when the final vote was cast, the Savage Flux and Slash 4×4 were only separated by 2%!  The Savage Flux HP squeezed out the win with 51% of the nearly 1,000 votes cast over the last two days!  It was so close that we weren’t really sure who would win until the poll was closed.

While the Savage Flux HP drives away with the trophy, Traxxas fans shouldn’t feel defeated, it was a hard fought battle and the Slash 4×4 is certainly a worthy runner-up, just making it to the final was a feat in itself.  This was a fantastic showdown between two heavyweight contenders, and the back and forth fight was proof of that.

Giveaway Info: I imagine you’re all wanting to know about the giveaway.  We will be announcing the winner this Friday, April 1st, after we go through all the entries and get the official prize from HPI, so check back then for the official drawing.  But you know, we’re in such a giving mood after this and we’re so close to 500 Fans on our FaceBook page, that Brian has decided to give something else away when we break 500 Fans.  So click on over to our FaceBook page and click the big Like button at the top, then keep an eye on the front page for news about what we’re going to give away when 500 falls.

Click to embiggen

[Update: Polls and comments are closed! Thanks for voting and hit up the front page tomorrow for the official crowning of The Ultimate Bashing Truck, then check back on Friday for the announcement of the giveaway winner and what he or she has won!]

[Update from Brian: I have to admit the excitement of the final March-Bashness round is killing us! Myself, Jeff, Cubby, Evan, Wrench, Adam and the rest of the gang are sitting here watching the screens and counting down till midnight! I can’t thank you all enough for casting your votes! The kind words about how we ran it, (not just asking for votes and then picking a motorcycle) and emails have been awesome!

The back and forth today between the two trucks has been insane! I couldn’t believe it when the count was around 630 votes and they were tied!! We really do appreciate all of our fans and the support! Thank you all! ]

[Update: Apparently there's some morons people out there still that don't know that we can track every vote that happens on these polls.  Spamming the poll with a few dozen votes for your favorite truck is just going to make us mad.  Alright Adam, we still rolled back your votes, but apology accepted.]

Round 3 of March Bash-ness was an exciting one to watch.  Was Traxxas going to make the final?  Would the 5B knock off the Slash 4×4 and guarantee the March Bash-ness Crown went to HPI even before the last round?  Around the office we were all on the edge of our seats as those two battled for a spot in the final round.  Lucky for Traxxas, the fans came out and rallied around the short course master.  The Slash 4×4 took an early lead and never gave it up, though the 5B did battle back a few times, it just didn’t have enough momentum to pass the Slash at the finish line.  The Savage Flux HP managed to do something no other truck could in this bracket, and that is fend off an orange and black ATTK from the Blitz.  It not only fended off the Blitz, the Savage Flux managed to completely dominate the voting, racing away with well over 2/3 of the vote.

And then there were two.

So it’s come down to this.  Savage Flux HP vs. Slash 4×4.  HPI Racing vs. Traxxas.  Two bashing superstar companies are facing off, and you get to decide which one offers the Ultimate Bashing Truck.  There’s no telling who’s going to win, but one thing we know is that it will be a hard fight to the very end.  This round of voting will go until 11:59pm CDT, March 30th.  The winner will be crowned on the 31st.  This is it, the big showdown, the final faceoff, the last dance, [insert last cliche here].  Who will win?

Giveaway info: We know why you’re all here, you want to win something.  Here’s how to get your name in the hat.  The comments on this post are open, vote in the poll below, then drop down to the comments section and leave us a note, make sure you enter a valid email address in the email box.  You must leave a comment to be entered! The comments section will close at the same time as the poll, 11:59pm CDT, March 30th, no entries will be accepted after that time.  After the poll and comments are closed, we’ll collect all the names and a random commenter will be chosen from all who entered.  We will announce the winner soon after.  The prize has yet to be determined.  If the Savage Flux wins, then HPI will be offering up a new truck, though not necessarily a Savage Flux HP.  If the Slash 4×4 wins, Traxxas will be offering up one of their trucks, though not necessarily a Slash 4×4.  Rules: Only one entry per person, a valid email address is required, you must be 13 years of age or older, or have your parent or legal guardian enter for you.  Keep the comments civil, no flame wars.

We would very much like to thank HPI Racing and Traxxas for their support of March Bash-ness, without either of them this wouldn’t have been the success it’s been.  And we wouldn’t have an awesome prize to give away.  So make sure you give them some gratitude when you get a chance.

After you’ve voted, make sure you help spread the word via Twitter, FaceBook, and email!  It’s because we have a huge, dedicated, and growing audience that we can put on events and giveaways like this.  The more people you convert to the Dark Side, the more stuff we can give away!

So without further ado, if you’re on the home page click the Read More button to start voting, else, scroll down and get your click on.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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[Update 2: Voting for Round 3 has now closed, click here for the Final Round and Giveaway entry!]

[Update: Due to a d-bag spamming our poll, I had to go back and edit all 180 of his/her cast votes from the polls.  That user has been warned, if it happens again, the ban will be permanent.]

Round 2 of March Bash-ness has passed and four more trucks have been sent home to momma.  Brushless proved to be the dominant power source as the Savage Flux HP beat out it’s nitro sucking brother, the Savage X 4.6, it wasn’t even close folks, the nitro-heads in the audience should feel embarrassed.  Traxxas’ little truggy that could, the 1/16 E-Revo… couldn’t… losing to the orange and black of the Blitz, though it certainly gave the Blitz a run for it’s money.  In the monster truck versus short course truck battle, the Slash 4×4 took the win by a decent margin.  And the Baja 5B continued it’s domination of the Revo family, handily handing the Revo 3.3 it’s… rear end.

Moving on to round three, we have the Final Less Than Five but More Than Three (please don’t sue us NCAA).  The first fight of the day is between HPI’s two titans, the Savage Flux HP and Blitz.  HPI is guaranteed one spot in the Final, which truck will it be?  And in the second, we have Traxxas’ last chance to make the Final, the Slash 4×4, but it’s going up against an imposing opponent in the Baja 5B.  Will Traxxas’ fans rally around the Slash 4×4 and push it through?  Or will HPI dominate March Bash-ness?  As the Bash-ness draws nearer to close, we are nearer to giving away a brand new vehicle.  More info on the giveaway will come during the Final Round, so make sure you come back.

If you’re on our home page, click the Read More button to start voting, else, just scroll down and get your click on.

Please vote for one vehicle in each poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Click to embiggen

[Update: Voting for Round 2 has now closed.  Round 3 voting is open!]

March Bash-ness round one is done, the winners have moved on and the losers have gone home. To recap the first round of voting, the young and spry Savage Flux handily trounced the great-grandfather of monster trucks, the Clod Buster. The Stampede 4×4 VXL and Savage X 4.6 battled back and forth, with the Savage X just squeaking by at the end in the closest of all first round battles. The little 1/16 E-Revo VXL beat up on it’s bigger, older sibling, the Stampede 2wd, and took the victory by a respectable margin. HPI’s Blitz went up against a much larger opponent in the SC8, but even the SC8′s roll cage couldn’t protect if from the whooping the Blitz delivered. Slash 4×4 vs. Evader DT… what can I say? The Slash 4×4 got a clean knockout early in the round and sent the diminutive desert truck packing. The E-Maxx Brushless Edition took on the father of R/C short course, the Slash, and wound up taking the victory, but just barely. The 8ight T 2.0 and Revo 3.3, in a battle of race-bred machines, the results were much closer than the numbers might indicate, but the Revo powered on and the 8ight T drove home. The final battle, the E-Revo and Baja 5B, was the most hard fought, with the 5B eventually taking the victory after a full day of back and forth tug-of-war.

The second round will see a Nitro versus Brushless battle between two big monsters, the Savage Flux HP and Savage X 4.6. A battle of the ages. The next match sees another faceoff between industry giants HPI Racing and Traxxas, with HPI’s master of the short course, the Blitz, taking on the small in stature but big in heart 1/16 E-Revo VXL. The third match pits two more members of the Traxxas family against each other, with the Slash 4×4 avenging it’s father’s loss against the electric monster E-Maxx Brushless. And the final match of Round 2 is the Revo 3.3 vs. the Baja 5B, it’s sure to be another epic battle between two much loved and respected vehicles.

This round of voting will go until March 26th 11:59pm CDT. Then come back Sunday for round three, the Final Last Four, which will be open from the morning of March 27th, until one minute before midnight on the 28th. The absolute final round, the big showdown, the great faceoff, will take place on March 29th and 30th. The winner will be crowned March 31st. And the giveaway will happen a couple days after that. What are we giving away? Well, you’ll just have to come back and see. But for now, if you’re on our home page, click the Read More button to vote, if not, scroll down and get on with the voting!

Vote for one vehicle in each battle.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.