Everybody’s Scalin’ – Busy Summer

With Memorial Weekend just around the corner, business is about to pick up!

We spoke with HPI earlier this week and were notified that our Venture FJ Cruiser review kit will be showing up very soon! Not only that, but they reiterated their confidence in the vehicle and dared us to drive it like we stole it. Challenge accepted.

You may think “well duh, every company says that”, but they do not. In fact, many companies dislike that we go so hard on their vehicles as we do not offer a “paid review” as some other outlets do.

It’s nice to see some bravado out of HPI. They are very aware that marketing alone isn’t going to bring them back to prominence; it will be kick ass rigs that people feel they need to own. They want us to give it hell and share our experience, and give it hell we will! I will be heading up the review, and I’ve got several gnarly areas mapped out to push the Venture hard.

And hey, I know that many of you have wanted more video content from us and that’s what you’ll be getting. Be it on our dotcom or social media, you’ll be able to see the Venture in action. We hope to do this a lot more in the future.

Right around the same time, Traxxas will be dropping the bomb that is the TRX4. We are just as jacked as many of you are to see how it performs. As soon as we get one, the flogging will commence!

Not to be outdone, the Redcat Everest will be making its debut mid summer. The full specs were just released and they sound great. $199 for all of that? We plan on beating one of these up just as soon as we can to see if it’s the real deal.

It’s interesting to see that all three of these hotly anticipated vehicles are coming out right around the same time. In one corner you’ve got a fallen name looking to make a big comeback (HPI), in another you’ve got the big dog on the block entering completely uncharted waters (Traxxas) and in the final corner you’ve got a company known for producing budget vehicles looking to provide a premium experience at a much lower price point than the competition (Redcat).

You know who is winning this battle? Hobby shops. The word on the street is that pre-orders are doing nicely, and this is an industry that isn’t really big on that sort of thing. Hobbyists are traditionally more a “show-me first” group. In this case though it’s been awhile since we’ve had a big release and customers are hot and ready for them (my local shops deal with HPI and Traxxas, so that’s what I’m referring to here).

You know what else will come from this? We finally have enough top flight entries in the scaling genre to put together a big shoot-out. Cubby has mentioned this before, but one is definitely on the docket.

The challenge when putting this together is that we can’t use standard bashing metrics to decide a winner. When talking scale crawlers, who really cares how far one jumps or handles on the pavement? Nope, it requires a different set of criteria. We’ve got some pretty good ideas on the drawing board though. These poor, poor vehicles 🙂

It’s gonna be a fun, busy summer folks. The wait is finally coming to an end!