ASK Cubby, Version- More Dodging The Truth

“Vaterra

Cubby,
I’m a daily passenger on the Big Squid Express. Great job. I’ve been a big fan of Vaterra since they came on the RC scene, but have been a little dissappointed lately with their off road selection. I know it’s hard to come up with the more innovative products like Axial’s Yeti every year, but I’d really like to see a true 1/8th scale MT or even updates on their current products. I own or have owned every Vaterra product except the Rally car. I love all of them. They are by far the cars with the lowest down time due to breakage, but I’d really like to see something new from them.

Have you heard any rumblings from the rumor mill around Vaterra? Thanks.

Dave F.”

Cubby- Yes David, I’ve heard some news about products coming from Vaterra, but no, I can’t say anything. That’s just the way it works in this, or any other industry really. The manufacturers have a certain process that they follow to announce/release their products in the best way they see fit, and us media types have signed confidentiality agreements to not say anything until given permission to do so (companies that we have not signed with are a completely different matter).

And btw… I can assure you it is zero fun to sit on really hot rc news. The Axial Yeti and Yeti XL from last year are good examples. We had held, driven, thrashed, crashed, videoed and photo’ed the Yeti & Yeti XL months and months before given the ok to help announce them to the world. Both vehicles were huge news and we are always bombarded by people asking for a scoop, yet day after day we had to not say one single word about their existence. In the end I think it really paid off for everyone. The way the vehicles were intro’ed turned out fantastic, not only for Axial, but for end consumers as well.

To boil it down, we’ll see what we can do to tease some new Vaterra gear for ya Dave, who knows, they might even let us.

“Hey Cubby,

In the May 4th Cub Report, you mentioned the Pro-MT and DEX8 as part of your personal bash lineup, which brings me to my questions. Aside from these, what other kits are truly bashworthy? Is the Pro-MT really ‘tough-as-nails’?

Thanks,
Steve G.”

Cubby- Yo heyyyy now Steve, thanks for the email.

Is the Pro-Line PRO-MT really tough as nails? Yes, it is really tough. I have personally abused several of them with less breakage than I thought they should have had. Of course, just like anything else, they can be broken, but overall it takes a seriously nasty hit to have to order new parts.

What other cars are truly bash worthy? As far as hardcore toughness goes, here are the two that really stand out in my mind- the Helion Verdikt SCT and the Carisma GT16MT. Both of those vehicles did NOT want to break, even after doing repeated stupid stuff that you should never do to an rc car. Now… neither vehicle was incredibly fast, both had top speeds under 30 mph, so that certainly helped a lot, but I will never forget how much time we put into trying to destroy them, without success. Btw… that is not to say that Murphy’s Law might kick in if you were to buy one of those two vehicles. Heck, we’ve received many emails from people saying “You said the Happy Flower SCT was rock solid and I broke mine by barely touching a pillow!!!”, but we report what we experience, and our test trucks for those reviews were absolutely “tough as nails”.

Hey, quit being a slacker, shoot me that question that has been rolling around that head of yours the last 6 months. My email address is Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com and I can assure you that one of my interns might actually open and read it at some point. If your letter makes it all the way to the big time you’ll win a free sticker pack, and if I proclaim it as “Letter of the Month” we’ll hook you up with a BSRC t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter