Hello, sorry I didnt know who else to ask, so maybe you know. Will the carisma M10DT volkswagon beetle desert edition come to the U.S?
I sure hope so, it really looks sick.Thanks for your time, oh I love your website.
JA Sugar

Cubby- Hey what’s up Sugar?

The Carisma crew has introduced a bunch of new trucks lately, all of them look like prime bashing mobiles and we have been getting a bunch of emails about them. Back in the day, Carisma was distributed by Horizon here in the States, but not any longer. We’ve heard some rumors of Carisma possibly getting picked up by another distributor here in the states, but as of right now they’ve yet to work out a deal. To boil it down, if you want a Carisma product you’ll have to buy it from overseas. This might be expensive (and a huge PITA), but you will instantly be the coolest guy at your bash spot. If you do pick one up send us some pics.

Hi Cubby my name is Matt got a little problem and thought you might be able to help. I just got a hot bodies dirt demon for 99 bucks and it ran good for about a week and then the trans went to crap. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on replacing the hole trans with something ells being as they do not make the spur gear and more no one does it sucks . If you got any thoughts its a god rc just bad that they do not make the 4wd trans any more. All the help will be helpful .
Matt H.

Cubby- Yo what’s up Matt? That HB Dirt Demon was a cool monster truck back in the day. And… that’s exactly the problem, it’s an old platform.

I haven’t dug into it, so I have no idea what other spur gear might work or which tranny might drop in. The reason why I haven’t researched it is because even if you can find another tranny to drop in, that doesn’t really “fix” your problem. What if you break an a-arm? Or a hub carrier? If you drive your truck at all you are going to break other parts sooner or later.

So.. what I’m going to recommend is two routes for you. The first route is the cheap one. If you have a GOOD hobby shop near you, take your truck in. A good hobby shop will look through their parts supply and figure out what they have in stock that can be used to get your Dirt Demon back up to speed.

The second route is a bit more expensive but it’s the one I would take if I really liked an older platform vehicle. Search around on eBay, Craigslist, and the forums, then buy any complete Dirt Demon you can get your hands on. If you stockpile a
couple of complete trucks you should be dialed for at least a couple of years.

I bought a HPI 2WD Electric Blitz for myself and my son.. Both trucks have the same problem… Press full throttle forward and sometimes no response.. battery is fully charged and I believe to have set up the truck correctly.. I must be missing something???
Please help!!!
Randy

Cubby- Thanks for shoot’n us an email Randy, make sure to send Brian your snail mail so we can hook ya up with some stickers to plaster all over your Blitz’s.

I really like the HPI Blitz. It drives well and the RTR version can take some serious abuse. Sucks to hear you are having a problem with yours but that is part of the “fun” of our hobby.

If both your trucks have the same problem it sounds like you may not have calibrated the transmitters to the speed controllers properly. What this involves is having the speed control “learn” where full throttle, full brake, and neutral is from your transmitters. Read your manual for exact instructions, but this typically involves turning on your radio, then turning on your truck, then going from full throttle to full brake and then to neutral in the first couple of seconds the speedo is on. Depending on the speedo, you might have to press a programming button to accomplish
this task.

If it isn’t a calibration issue then it might simply be there is a lot of lag/delay between reverse and forward. On some speedo’s you can instantly go from reverse to full forward, on other brands it might take a couple seconds. It’s been several years since I have driven a stock brushed Blitz, I can’t recall off the top of my head if the Blitz had a bunch of lag/delay or not.

That’s it for this week folks, shoot me your questions, smack talk, or whatever else is on your mind to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com. If your question makes the big-time you get free stickers, if I pick yours as “letter of the month” we hook you up with a BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter

* Centralized chassis weight for superior handling
* Monocoque style suspension arms for strength, stiffness, and ease of cleaning
* HB Big Bore threaded aluminium shocks
* Race-optimized steering
* Long stroke shocks for long suspension travel
* Lightweight drivetrain gears have less rotational mass for quicker acceleration
* Lightweight aluminium axles
* Graphite steering knuckle arms
* One-piece engine mount for easy engine installation without resetting gear mesh
* Aluminium front and rear shock towers
* CVD boots to retain grease in axles and keep dirt out
* Adjustable hinge pin heights, kickup, and anti-squat angle
* Adjustable rear toe-in (inboard and outboard)
* Steel skid plate in chassis to extend chassis life
* Aluminium front caster blocks
* Aluminium rear hub carriers
* One-piece radio tray
* Fuel clunk for continuous fuel pick-up even when upside down
* Low-profile air filter
* Front and rear anti-roll bars
* Threaded outer hinge pins
* Steel turnbuckles

For more information on all of Hot Bodies fine products hit up their Official Website, and for more HB news on BigSquidRC hit up This link.

* Nitro belt driven 4wd
* Centralized, low center of gravity weight distribution
* Titanium tie-rods, rear camber links, middle shafts and rear sway bar joints
* New fuel tank equipped with EZ cap
* 4 piece engine mount, works with both OS and Novarossi
* High precision brake rotor and pads
* Direct fit wing mounts on rear tower
* PTFE coated oil shocks
* High quality universal driveshafts front and rear
* Hard coated aluminum pulleys (except the rear diff pulley)
* Quick and easy diff change and drive belt tension adjustments
* Servo saver with one-touch Ackerman adjustment system
* Multiple suspension pivot point adjustment system allows for fine roll center tuning
* Efficient .08 module gears
* Length: 366mm
* Width: 200mm
* Wheelbase: 261mm
* Weight: 1700g
* Gear ratio: 1st=7.56:1.0 2nd=5.27:1.0
* Does not come with engine, exhaust, body or electronics
* Part #108382 HB R10 KIT

Street price for the R10 will be $600, hit up the official Hot Bodies Website for more information.

Want to see more HPI news? Hit THIS link.

*Rear gear diff
*More compact motor mount
*Compact bulkheads
*More narrow chassis
*One piece top deck
*Full set of sway bars
*Upgraded shocks
*Chassis optimized for Lipo batteries
*Flipped belt drivetrain

Priced is listed at $950, and we haven’t received information on a release date yet. HERE is the link you want for complete information.

Looking for more HPI news here on BigSquidRC? Hit THIS link to see more.

Oh and… Michael Schumacher made it back to the podium for the first time since his return to Formula 1! I think you could tell by the glimmer in Schu’s eyes that the older you get, the sweeter those podiums are. Podiums once came to him in buckets, now I’m guessing he will savor each time it sprinkles. Schu put on his own epic drive, coming from out of the points to the podium in the closing laps. It’s been a long time coming for Schu and his fans, I think that makes it that much sweeter for all involved.

While Alonzo, Schu, and the Iceman were putting on a miracle show in Spain, America’s best rc’ers were going at in in Pennsylvania. I’ve gone on and on about how screwed up rc racing is, but no matter how messed up the system is, our 2012 national buggy and truggy champs were determined today.

Let’s take a look at how the ROAR buggy and truggy champs were determined. Thursday was “practice” day, but it wasn’t really “practice”, as your fastest 3 consecutive laps in “practice” determined what qual you would be assigned the following day. If you didn’t bust out 3 fast laps in “practice” you’d be stuck in a qual with all the spodes, hurting your chances for a fast time in your first qual. The next two days included 4 round of qualifying to determine a “TQ” of sorts, and to determine the order in the euro ladder style of qualifying races that would finally determine who would make it into the “grand” final. The final day finally got down to some “racing”, with the TQ’s having to earn their way into the “grand” final via qualifying through one of the tree/ladder mains. Yes, you could have qualified for two entire days and earned TQ, yet not made it to the “grand” final.

That’s a whole lot of qualifying don’t ya think? And a whole lot of qualifying for the TQ’s not even to earn their way into the “grand” final. Which begs me to ask, what is the big boner ROAR (and IFMAR, and the Euro’s) have with all this freak’n qualifying? It also begs me to ask, why do the racers even put up with it? That’s an assinine amount of qualifying, period, I don’t care how you look at it. In larger, more professional forms of racing, the actual racers simply wouldn’t put up with 3 and a half days of non-sense before finally being able to “race”. At what point does someone finally raise their hand and say “Geezus, can we get down to some F’n racing?”. Just freak’n say’n…. (yet again, for the millionth time)

Have I mentioned how both an 8th scale buggy and 8th scale truggy look more like something driven on the planet Mars than something driven on planet Earth? ugghhhh….

And have I mentioned a national championship should really be determined by a series, not by just one weekends worth of racing? uggghhh….

Yes I do believe in miracles, I honestly do believe that someday, somebody, is gonna have the balls to fix the issues we have in rc racing. To fix the issues so that rc racing can take the next step towards being more professional and being more respected. There are so many people (and companies) that pour there hearts and souls into rc racing (and empty their bank accounts into it) that it is unacceptable that most normal/average hobbyists could care less who wins a big race because even they don’t respect what rc racing has become, let alone all the people outside the hobby that think rc racing is nothing but a silly joke. Rc racing isn’t a silly joke, people devote far too much of their lives to it to be a joke, how fast the elite racers go takes such a vast amount of time and skill, yet because of a few issues with how the racing is done the vast majority of people out there have no respect for the racing or the racers. But while that fact may be sad, it is something that can be fixed.

Anywhos… the young new school guys put the pwn’n on the old school guys at the ROAR nats this year. HPI/Hot Bodies/Pro-Line driver Ty Tessman took the win in both buggy and truggy, with another young gun, Dakotah Phend putting his Pro-Line shod Losi’s into second place in both classes. I think TT putting his Hot Bodies on top once again shows you don’t have to use the most expensive car to win, and Pro-Line going 1-2 in both buggy and truggy shows that arguably the most important piece of equipment for winning any race is tires.

Btw… Pro-Line Blockades won both buggy and truggy, and I hear we’ll be posting a Blockade SC tire review this week. Obviously they jam when used at the most elite levels of racing, but how do they stack up for us average Joe Blows when we hit bash day at the local track? Keep your eyes peeled on the main page to find out.

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

YOUR Cub Reporter

39 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and 51 seconds till the cars roll off for the season opener in Formula 1. Just say’n…

If you are a noob and have ever wondered “What is the biggest rc race in the world?”, well the answer is Snowbirds and it was held last week down in Florida. Snowbirds routinely pulls over 800 entries, enough entries where they run the on road classes during the day, and oval classes overnight, yes indeed the racing goes on 24 hours a day! The heavy hitters of the on road world were in attendance this year- Lemieux, Blackstock, Hebert, Haynes, and Matsukura just to name a few. Props to all the peeps that raced Snowbirds this year- for living the lifestyle and being core enough to keep on road alive through this rough patch it is having at the local level. On road rc racing will make a come back at some point that is for sure, I only wonder what the catalyst will be that breathes new life into it?

The second most uber rc hobby show on the planet (with America’s iHobby leading the way) also went off last week, the German “Toy Fair” in Nuremburg. Luckily for us our homey Igor was there to shoot pics, rub elbows with the “in” crowd, drink fine beverages, and generally live the life of an rc journalist. I don’t talk much about Igor, he’s kind of the quiet but deadly type, but to boil it down he splits his time between Germany and the Chicago metro (seriously, I’m not just making that up like I do most of the stuff in THE Cub Report). Anywhos, the BSRC front page has been filled with his coverage of the show last week, props to Igor for work’n his butt off so all us rc nerds can see what the rc companies are up to.

So, to boil it down, what was the biggest news from the Nuremberg show?

1. HPI 8th scale gas engine- I’ve already gone over this one, it might be the best thing since sliced bread, or it might be an epic fail, we’ll see.
2. Hot Bodies/HPI Comp Crawler- MOA (motor on axle) full comp crawler from the HPI crew. About time a big name gave Axial some competition.
3. Traxxas 16th scale Grave Digger- 4wd 2WD, big brushed motor, and monster truck tires should make this reincarnation of the 16th Revo chassis a blast to thrash.
4. Axial Ridgecrest- For those of you who like bash’n crawlers, this one’s for you. It’s not a comp rig, it’s set-up for having loads of fun.

Also from the Nuremberg show- one of the guys in the Carisma booth was wearing a way super dope t-shirt. On the back it read “… If you shout at the marshals you’re only identifying yourself as the moron who crashed”. Now that is freak’n awesome! That t-shirt alone makes me want to support the Carisma guys. For you noobs who don’t know who Carisma is- they sell some product under their own label, of which they are probably known best for their mini scale racers right now, but they also do a lot of OEM work for others brands. Chances are you probably own/have owned several buggies/trucks made by Carisma but never knew it.

Robin Schumacher is a remarkably cool guy that puts out some killer product. The Schu crew was showing off new upgrades to their 2wd Cougar SV2 off road buggy and Mi4 CXL touring car at the Toy Fair. I wish Schu still had an office and made more a push here in the states, they do have some cool gear… just say’n…

On a different note…

For our “Tuesday Review” this week we’ll be featuring the Duratrax Evader Brushless 2.4 GHz RTR. This truck runs about $250 smackers and while I didn’t get a lot of trigger time with it, it seemed like a fun basher when I drove it (read- attempted to destroy it). Brian and Bill beat the heck out of our test unit, so check back Tuesday to see what they broke and if it is worth your cash.

Also… this Wednesday night I’m inviting you, yes YOU (read- Y O U) to join the entire BSRC crew on our forums for a good ole’ fashioned bench racing/smack talk’n/BS session. Brian, Bill, Jeff, Adam, Evan, and yes, even I will be there. At 10 pm CST (it’s all about CST here because most of the BSRC crew lives in the Midwest, sorry East Coasters) Brian will start up a “Wednesday Night Smack Talk’n Thread” where we’ll be talk’n about whatever comes to mind. So if you’ve ever wanted to give us hell, give us suggestions, or simply wanna read the ridiculousness that is bound to come out of our mouths (read- fingers) feel free to check it out. We want to hang out and have some fun, so come join us, we’ll try not bore you to death. To boil it down- Wednesday, 10 pm CST, on the BigSquid forums, see ya there.

That’s it folks. Support your local hobby shops (<- Seriously), tracks and bash spots!

YOUR Cub Reporter

It was recently announced, and now we have some shots from the Nuremberg Toy Fair of the new HB Competition Rock Crawler. These shots show what the crawler looks like in rapid prototype form. This is a quick way to make parts and prototypes while giving you a good idea of what the product will look like, but rapid prototypes are usually pretty fragile.

It’s going to take a while to get used to the HB instead of Hot Bodies, but they are off to a good start under the HB name.

Catch all of our Nuremberg coverage by hitting this Nuremberg Toy Fair Link .

A sneak peak from the Nuremberg show, it looks like Hot Bodies is going to throw their hat into the RC Rock Crawling arena with the introduction of their new Competition Rock Crawler. Only time will tell if Axial has some ‘Competition’ on their hands.

The Hot Bodies website other info. Watch for our Nuremberg show coverage this week.

It looks like Hot Bodies is making a special Hara Edition of their 21XZ-B .21 race engine. This engine is supposedly the exact same spec as the engine Atsushi Hara used to take his second 1/8th buggy Worlds podium in Thailand in 2010. First his own buggy, now the engine to go with it!

This hopped up monster features the following:

- Race legal 3.5cc capacity
- Type 21Jslide carburetor (wider range of needle adjustment for easy setup)
- Lightened Hara Edition cooling head
- Hara Editon reducer and DLC coated crankshaft
- Perfect fit for your D8 Atsushi Hara Edition or any top-spec racing buggy

It looks like this will be avaliable exclusively at Hot Bodies Online for $499.98.

Hot Bodies has decided that Atsushi Hara is deserving of his own kit.  The D8 Atsushi Hara Edition features many upgrades over the stock D8, including a thicker, 3mm chassis, lightweight drive train components, aluminum spindles and hubs, and upgraded shock towers and new longer shocks.  It also comes out of the box with all you need to replicate the world champion’s personal setup, including the proper shock oil weights and gear ratios.

Be sure to check out the Hot Bodies web site for complete details.