Wow. I just got a letter from from Scooter telling me he has left
Team Tekin! Scooter has been the face of Tekin for years now, and it’s always great to talk with him at the iHobby shows. If you ever get the chance to meet him in person you will see he is one of the most passionate people about RC you could ever know.

Scooter has started his own thing called Scooter Motor Works. There isn’t much there on the site yet, but it sounds like he will have everything from Li-PO’s to new brushless esc’s! We will make sure to bring you all the future announcements from there.

We wish both Scooter and Team Tekin the best of luck in the future, I’m sure both will come out just fine.

Since we are talking about Scooter, check out our footage of him from last years i-hobby show, it’s probably the last time anyone will see him in front of a Tekin sign!

High Res version here:
Big Squid RC iHobby 07 - Meet Team Tekin!. Please ‘right click, save as’ for best viewing.

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Do what you are good at, leave the other crap ALONE. Does Ferrari make motorcycles?
Does Krispy Kreme sell pizza?

This week two speedo companies made announcements showing just how far they will sink to try and make a buck. First off is LRP, with news of their totally non-awaited S8 TX nitro truggy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that LRP sourced the truggy from some el’ Chineseo’ company. I mean, it’s not like they grabbed everyone off the speedo assembly line and threw a bunch of truggy parts in front of them. This just screams “Here at LRP we can’t make a living selling speedo’s anymore so we have to branch out to nitro truggies!”. All things considered, LRP makes arguably the finest speed controllers on the market, and electrics as a whole are making a resurgence, so is there really a need for them to diversify to being a nitro kit re-seller?

Speedo company number two isn’t make quite the stretch. Still, Tekin announced this week their new 3400 mah Li-po battery pack. Tekin in itself is quite the story, having been pronounced dead and buried slightly over a half decade ago, to being snatched up and resurrected by Jim Cambell. No, I am not privy to Tekin’s inside market strategy, but what sense does it make to just jump on the bandwagon of companies that source Li-po’s from China then put a sticker on them? The Tekin name is based upon electronics, GOOD electronics, not energy storage devices.

Mark my words here, the only people that are going to get rich from Li-po’s are going to be lawyers. They have yet to stick their dirty claws into Li-po companies, but the current generations of Li-po soft packet cells are dangerous, too dangerous. Sooner or later, all those blood hungry lawyers will be bending over Li-po re-badgers all day long. In my opinion, the good guys (and gals!) at Tekin should have leapfrogged the current Li-po fad, and jumped forward to newer technology.

The A123 Li-Fe Lithium Ion cells are by far the safest thing on the market. Instead of sourcing soft pack Li-po cells, Tekin should have shipped a bunch of A123’s over to China and had cells reverse engineered, except for a better form factor. The A123’s are Tough, they can be charged at insane rates, discharged even harder, and were engineered from the ground up for safety, thus being somewhat lawyer proof. If Tekin would have done this, they’d be offering a superior “next-gen” battery to the marketplace, and be sitting at home laughing while competitor after competitor is being dragged into court and milked dry financially over their Li-po soft pack cells.

One more quick mention in this weeks report- the winners and losers at the 08′ ROAR 8th scale buggy nats. Mikeee Truhe brought home the win with his Losi 8, while fellow teammate Billy Fischer brought home second place. First off, props to the Fish Man on yet another incredible drive. Fish is easily the most versatile driver from America, as he’s proven he can run with the most elite drivers in not only nitro buggy, but any type of oval, on-road, and even tiny 18th scalers! He’s hard working, hard driving, and has more fun at the big events than any other pro I’ve ever seen. Secondly, AE has yet to win a “big one” with their RC8. Just goes to show, you can hire the best drivers, throw truckloads of cash at it, but the competition at the very top of 8th scale buggy is INTENSE! Perhaps even more so than the height of 2wd mod electric buggy in the mid 90’s.

That’s it for this weeks folks. Drive fast, turn left, support your LHS and tracks, and be at Bash-a-poooloozza or be square!

Cub

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This video was with everyone’s favorite RC tech guy, ‘Scooter’ from Team Tekin! This one had a pretty funny blooper, as another company at the show kept running some electric turbine jet thing at full throttle every few minutes. It was loud and annoying, and had good timing. Enjoy.

High Res version here:
Big Squid RC iHobby 07 - Meet Team Tekin!. Please ‘right click, save as’ for best viewing.

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