ASK Cubby – No Questions, Just Best Of The Year Commentary
Nope, you won’t be finding any questions (or answers) in today’s ASK Cubby. However, what you will find are some of thoughts on our “Best of the Year” winners. First up is rc product of the year, so lets get to it!
2019 Bash Product of the Year- And the winner was… Pro-line 2.8″ Belted Trencher HP tires. OK, so my personal vote went to the belted Trenchers. Exactly why? Because they are, IMO, game changers. First you start off with perhaps the best all around bash tires ever made. Then you put some high-tech belts inside to keep them from expanding, and presto, you have not only an outstanding product, but one that is changing the game as we speak at bash spots around the globe. And while there were loads of outstanding products produced last year, I felt like the belted P-L tires are going to have the biggest impact in the years to come.
Speaking of other products, several stand out. JConcepts put out loads of gear last year, some of which was designed for uber performance, while others had some pretty incredible scale realism. RC4WD was another company with a slew of jaw dropping releases (pretty much ANY of their aluminum wheels, that crazy lift, etc). Spektrum brought some serious innovation with their new SMART technology line-up, the Hitec crew blew us away with their latest waterproof servo (the D956WP), etc. There was no shortage of kick ass rc products released to hobby shops last year, our crew felt as if the P-L belted Trenchers were the very best of the best.
2019 Scaler/Crawler of the Year- With the winner being… the Axial Racing Capra Kit. Here is another “category” where the competition was pure INSANITY. Last year, multiple manufacturers dropped awesome new rigs. Carisma went hardcore with their scalers that proved to be very solid. The new Associated/Element truck turned out quite capable. Traxxas was not playing around when they announced the TRX-6, then there were other companies with solid trucks like Gmade and Cross RC. However, after we got done voting, it was the Capra that took the top step on the podium. The Capra brings a new generation of crawler to the Axial brand, and boy is it hardcore out on the trail. With stock dig and portal axles, the Capra is the rig to shoot for when the going gets really tough.
2019 Bash Vehicle of the Year- While every year I say “Voting was tougher than ever before!” I truly mean it this year. In the end, it boiled down to a 3 way battle between the ARRMA 8S Kraton, the ARRMA 6S Infraction, and the Traxxas 1/10 Maxx. All three trucks in a “normal” year would have easily won the title, but seeing as how they were all released in 2019, it made for an epic battle.
My personal vote went to the 8S Kraton. I have become a large scale fan as of late, so the 8S Kraton is simply the truck that I would grab first before any of the others. The biggest Kraton has easy to use power and can take a good sized hit without breaking, but mostly I love it because of the way it handles. Then there was the Infraction, which garnered several votes among our staffers. The Infraction has legit “crazy power” and did a great job of helping to revive the on-road scene after it was released.
However, taking the win over those two epic bash machines was the Traxxas Maxx monster truck. Why did the Maxx get more votes than the Kraton or Infraction? It is simply a solid truck from nose to tail. With a huge driveline and massive VXL power, the Maxx is basically the perfect backyard 1/10 bash truck. It has electronic goodies like “auto marshal” and TSM stability management, plus parts are super easy to get at nearly any local hobby shop. Is the Traxxas Maxx the “perfect” 1/10th backyard bash machine? Not quite, but it is oh sooooo close that it ended up beating some very burly competition! Congrats to Traxxas on crushing it once again with the mighty Maxx!
Sp there ya are, ya bunch of raving lunatics, that’s all I have for ya this week. Feel free too send me your rc related questions or comments- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.
