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The Backyard – Don’t Flay Your Local Race Director, Please
Greetings all- Happy Friday and welcome to The Backyard! Outdoor racing season is upon much of the US, with many of the cold winter climate regions having just kicked off or about to kick off their Spring/Summer seasons. It’s a time for excitement as many racers are knocking the dust off their racing vehicles, finalizing new builds, and getting the spare part [...]
The Backyard – The LMT 2.0 is Legit
Greetings all! Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Horizon Hobby Factory Tour stop, which took place at my local hobby shop- Mark Twain Hobby Center in St. Charles, MO. It was a lot of fun! The Horizon team had various vehicles on hand for hobbyists to try, and it was a great opportunity for both seasoned or prospective [...]
- 4/18/2025
- 4:17 pm
- Losi
The Backyard - By: Doug
The Backyard – King Haulin’
Happy Friday everyone, welcome to The Backyard! This is the first week since late January where a major r/c release hasn’t been announced, so it’s a good time to talk about what’s on my bench! After finishing my Vanquish H10 Optic build a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to try my hand at building another Tamiya semi truck. I [...]
- 4/11/2025
- 11:55 am
- Tamiya
The Backyard - By: Doug
The Backyard – The Losi LMT Gets a Firmware Update
Good day folks, and a Happy Friday to you! Welcome to the Backyard! This week is gonna be a throwback to my Monster Truck Madness days, because it’s all about a new monster! The Losi LMT 2.0 has been announced, and the Losi team has done a good job of making several significant updates to the platform. You can read the [...]
The Backyard – Vintage Goodness and Old Man Yells at Cloud
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Welcome to the Backyard! This weekend, the JConcepts Vintage Clash of Champions is taking place at the Hoosier Hobbyplex in New Albany, IN. If you want to see all the classes being ran, check out this post. This event has drawn an insane amount of entries, and I’ve been drooling at all the pics coming in. So [...]
- 3/28/2025
- 4:20 pm
- The Backyard
- By: Doug
The Backyard – Big Dune Buggies and the Year of Niche
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard. Another week, another huge release! This week, the Traxxas Pro Scale X-Series Sand Car was announced- a large scale sand rail that’s around the same size as their vaunted X-Maxx. The announcement has generated a lot of buzz and discussion. I’ve seen some full scale motorsports news media outlets discuss the rig, which [...]
The Backyard – Round and Round
Greetings all and a Happy Friday to you! Welcome to The Backyard. I really appreciate running this post every Friday, because Thursday is the day that the hobby industry drops most of its news. And this week did not disappoint! Out of nowhere, the Losi 22S Sprint Car was announced! Losi 22S Sprint Car was announced! This is both a surprising announcement but [...]
- 3/14/2025
- 6:26 pm
- Losi
The Backyard - By: Doug
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The Backyard – “Rotten Apple” Vanquish H10 Optic Kit Build
Hey everyone, Happy Friday! I have finished my Vanquish H10 Optic kit build! At some point I’ll share some detailed post-run impressions after its had a few trail runs under its belt, but in the meantime I wanted to talk about my build experience. The kit is top notch. This is my first experience with a Vanquish rig, and its made a [...]
- 3/7/2025
- 11:14 am
- The Backyard
- By: Doug
The Backyard – ReRe-Mod
Greetings everyone and happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard, my little slice of the Internet. Off-road Retro Re-Releases are mega hot right now, as many of the hobbyists today have the disposable income to happily sling at the vehicles they either owned as a youngster, or wanted to own but didn’t quite have the money for. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all [...]
The Backyard – Building a Vanquish H10 Optic
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Well, out of nowhere last week I decided to do a thing- I ordered a Vanquish H10 Optic kit. I have been eying one of these rock buggies since they were announced as an RTR last year. Late in 2024 a kit version was announced, and since then the rig has been receiving rave reviews online. [...]
- 2/21/2025
- 7:17 pm
- The Backyard
- By: Doug
The Backyard – It’s Pronounced He-la-mon and other news
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Several big bits of r/c news dropped this week to help break through the monotony of winter! The 1/8 Axial AXP8 Gilamon 2.2 4×4 RTR Brushed Trail Buggy was announced yesterday after several days of being teased. This is a totally new Axial release featuring all new parts/moldings and the big feature of which is the new ASD [...]
The Backyard – Winter Paintjobs Drag Me Down
Greetings all and happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard, my little slice of nonsense on the Internet. If there is one thing that absolutely grinds my winter r/c projects to a halt, it’s needing to lay down a paint job when the weather is frigid. I currently have 3 projects totally backlogged because of this- a modified 4×4 pulling truck, a mini [...]
The Backyard – 2025 gets rolling with some new releases!
Happy Friday all and welcome to The Backyard. Lots of news this week, as various companies, most notably Tamiya and Kyosho, announced their 2025 releases at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in Germany. Sadly for me, another year without a Juggernaut 2 re-release. Fans of on-road cars and buggies are probably happier though! Tamiya has the BMW license again, and they appear [...]
The Backyard – I Got A Tamiya BBX Kit
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard. A little surprise followed me home last week from the local hobby shop. I didn’t intend on buying anything, but they had a “20% off everything in the store” sale, and I couldn’t resist grabbing the Tamiya BBX 2WD Off-Road Buggy Kit (BB-01) that they had on the shelf. I have been eyeing [...]
The Backyard - Musings About Getting Back into Off-Road Raci…
Happy Friday all and welcome to my little slice of the Internet, The Backyard. Over the last two weeks, I’ve been looking at returning to what originally got me into the hobby 30 years ago, off-road racing. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in to it. I spent the last 10 years seriously racing solid axle monster trucks, and before that [...]
