The Backyard – Golden Age Colors Never Fade

Happy Friday all and welcome to The Backyard!

This week Team Associated announced another version of their RC10GT stadium truck – the 1/10 RC10GT Richard Saxton Edition Kit, and once again it’s wearing that classic look from RC’s golden age. It’s hard not to smile when you see those old-school stripes and sponsor splashes come alive on a brand-new kit.

I mean yeah, seeing another release of a gas stadium truck kit in 2025 is a great thing in and of itself, but I’m wanting to specifically talk about said “classic look” in this weeks post!

For those of us who grew up in the heyday of off-road racing, the liveries were just as iconic as the machines themselves. Bold blocks of color, high-contrast designs, and sponsor logos that felt larger than life—those paint jobs didn’t just decorate the trucks and buggies, they defined an era. You saw them in the pages of RC Car Action or at your local track and instantly knew what you were looking at. They had personality. They had identity.

Fast forward to today, and many modern liveries lean toward intricate, digitally-styled graphics—busy fades, pinstripes, tribal shapes, almost like a motocross kit transferred to lexan. They look sharp, no doubt, but they don’t always carry that same timeless punch. The golden age designs were simpler, but in that simplicity came something enduring. A clean stripe, a bold splash of color, and the right logo placement could make a buggy-scheme legendary.

Seeing all these re-released kits come back along with the vintage liveries is a visually wonderful sight to behold. It isn’t just nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake—it’s a reminder of the sport’s roots, and the aesthetic that helped capture so many of us in the first place.

You can see that the classic style is bleeding over from the vintage rides/classes into the current crop of 1/10 and 1/8 vehicles at any given regional or national race these days. Many racers (or their painters, in this case) are using vintage-inspired designs. Seeing a modern machine wear those classic colors is like hearing a favorite old song played live on new instruments. It’s familiar, but also fresh.

Yep, these old school-styled schemes look good EVEN on the “cab forward” body design that is so prevalent in today’s off-road scene.

Here’s hoping this trend continues even if the re-re fad slows down. Those golden age designs always look good and those colors never fade!

Have a safe holiday weekend out there all. Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!