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The Backyard: Conservative Motors, Occasional Chaos
Happy Friday and welcome to The Backyard! I’ve come to accept something about myself over the years — when it comes to power systems, I’m generally a pretty conservative guy. I don’t automatically go for the biggest/highest KV motor that my vehicle can safely handle. I’m not usually chasing the highest cell count an ESC can tolerate. Most of my trucks are [...]
The Backyard: Monster Trucks Finally Got Monster Truck Tires
Happy Friday and welcome to The Backyard! The recently updated Traxxas Stampede is actually what got me thinking about this week’s topic. Traxxas quietly refreshed the truck with proper chevron monster truck tires — and not just any chevrons, but ones that actually look like scaled-down versions of full-size monster truck rubber. Tall sidewalls. Aggressive V-pattern tread. Proper proportions. It finally [...]
The Backyard: JConcepts Reactor Monster Truck — Deep Dive
Happy Friday and welcome to The Backyard! Settle in, all ye monster truck faithful, because this week I want to spend some time talking about one of the most interesting announcements we’ve seen in a while — the newly revealed JConcepts Reactor Retro Stage II Monster Truck. After years of releasing aftermarket accessories for the solid-axle r/c monster truck world, the folks [...]
- 2/6/2026
- 7:51 pm
- JConcepts
The Backyard - By: Doug
The Backyard – A Truck Guy’s Take on Nuremberg 2026
Greetings all, and Happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard. The Nuremberg International Toy Fair is officially in the books, and as always, it brought a flood of new R/C announcements with it. There were plenty of on-road cars, off-road racers, and competition-focused machines unveiled over the past week — and while all of that is cool, longtime readers know I’m a [...]
- 1/30/2026
- 3:23 pm
- The Backyard
- By: Doug
Rumor: Hot Wheels May Release a Tyco Turbo Bandit–Inspired…
Long-time R/C fans may remember the glorious era of toy-grade R/Cs during the late ’80s and ’90s. Few vehicles from that time period were as iconic as the Tyco Turbo Bandit off-road truck. Fast and flashy, the Turbo Bandit carved out a permanent place in R/C history — and who could ever forget that legendary Turbo Mode? Well, it looks like [...]
- 1/23/2026
- 3:27 pm
- Rumor Mill
- By: Doug
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The Backyard – When Kyosho Finally Goes Crawling
Greetings all, and Happy Friday! As winter weather is about to wallop a good portion of the U.S., I find myself hunkered down in the workshop, coffee in hand, doing what many of us do this time of year: scouring the internet for release news ahead of the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, which opens next week. One of the first big pieces [...]
The Backyard – What Might Tamiya Unveil in Nuremberg?
Happy Friday all, and welcome to The Backyard! This week I’m in a bit of a ponderous mood, what with the Nuremberg International Toy Fair set to kick off in juuust over a week — January 27th through the 31st in Nuremberg, Germany. While a wide range of R/C companies will be announcing products and showing off new wares at the massive [...]
- 1/19/2026
- 12:10 pm
- Tamiya
The Backyard - By: Doug
The Backyard – It’s All in the Rubber
Well, we’re officially here — the first real Friday of the new year. Last week doesn’t count; the working world was still half-awake and surviving on leftover Ferreror Rochers. But now? We’ve had our first proper Thursday release, and it’s a good one. Axial just dropped the 1/30 Axial SCX30 Chevrolet K10, and wow — if you’re even remotely into old [...]
- 1/9/2026
- 4:33 pm
- Axial
The Backyard - By: Doug
The Backyard – My Predictions for the Hobby in 2026
Greetings all, happy Friday and happy new year! It’s that time again — my annual look ahead at what I think the RC hobby has in store for the coming year. And, as tradition dictates, we’ll circle back on this list at the end of 2026 to see how I did… for better or worse. Looking back, 2025 felt very much like [...]
The Backyard – So… How’d I Do With My 2025 Predictions…
Happy Friday all! Welcome to The Backyard. A year ago, I kicked off 2025 by rolling the dice on some hobby predictions — not insider stuff, just guesses about where the hobby might be headed. Now that we’re near year’s end, it’s time to take stock and see how those predictions held up. Retro Racing Truly Arrives in Force? This one feels like [...]
The Backyard – The Case for Unfinished Builds
Greetings all- Happy Friday and Happy Holidays! With the holidays creeping up over the next couple of weeks, a lot of us are starting to shift gears a bit. Travel plans, family time, colder weather, and end-of-year chaos have a funny way of slowing things down — including time at the workbench. And if you’ve been in the R/C hobby long [...]
The Backyard – AI Slop is Ruining R/C Facebook Groups
Happy Tuesday all! Welcome to The Backyard. (Sorry for the delay, I couldn’t get something up on Friday due to some last minute running around I had to do!) There’s no doubt that AI has plenty of legitimate uses, and it’s clearly here to stay. I’m not here to argue either of those points, and I want to put that qualifier [...]
The Backyard — The Times They Are A-Changing (In Distribut…
Greetings all and Happy Friday! If you’ve been paying even casual attention to the business side of the hobby over the last couple years, you’ve probably noticed the ground shifting beneath our feet — and not because your buddy finally upgraded to 4S. I’m talking about distribution. The “who gets product from who” part of the hobby that most consumers never [...]
The Backyard - Black Friday Edition AKA I Don't Need It But …
Greetings all, and Happy Friday — and more importantly, Happy Black Friday! Every year, my local hobby shop rolls out an in-store–only Black Friday deal that’s just too good to ignore. I always tell myself I’m “just stopping by to look,” but the moment I walk in and see that glorious store-wide discount sign, it’s over. Next thing you know, I’m [...]
The Backyard: The Scottsdale That Rekindles the Retro Monste…
Greetings all and Happy Friday! If you’re a fan of old-school scale trucks — and let’s be honest, if you read this column you probably are — RC4WD just dropped something that hits every retro nerve in the best possible way. Their new TF2 “LWB” RTR W/ Chevrolet K10 Scottsdale Hard Body Set (Scale Dept. Edition) is a full-on love letter to [...]
