Everybody’s Scalin’ – The Next Generation

Like many of you out there, I have an SCX10 II pre-ordered and am anxiously awaiting the shipping notice. And while waiting on the post man is never a good thing, it does give me a minute to wax poetic about where things stand right now in this corner of the industry.

I view the SCX10 II as the jumping off point for the next generation of scaling. Some of you old timers may remember the buggy/stadium truck wars of the 90’s. That’s when all the R&D and experimentation of the 80’s gave way to the dialed, purebred race vehicles that were everywhere by the mid 90’s. I think that’s about where we are.

There have been many nice vehicles the last few years, but most of them still needed a tweak or two out of the box to really work great. Some needed whole hog modification. It would appear that these next gen trucks are ready to climb mountains right outta the box…all the while holding together and looking great doing it.

While the Axial offering is the big kid on the block, let’s not forget the Venture FJ. HPI had been in limbo but that’s finally taken care of and now the company is looking forward to releasing the baby Toyota as soon as they can. In talking with a friend that works for HPI, they are VERY excited about having this “bullet in the gun” once their affairs are in order.

I’ve also heard rumblings that the good folks at RC4WD have their “fingers in the cookie jar” in regards to a hot new rig that is in R&D (as well as plenty of accessories for the aforementioned trucks). Hopefully Horizon isn’t far behind either as their Ascender was one heck of a start.

The rumor mill has also been very hot the last couple months that a certain well respected company has their first scaler on the docket to be released in 2016, one that if it’s true is gonna turn a whole lot of heads. Sorry for being all “neener, neener, I know but I won’t tell you”, but Brian would have me beat with a switch should I reveal who (if it’s even true, at that). And no, it’s not THAT company you may be thinking of.

So here we are. This lil’ ol’ section of the hobby has finally graduated from high school and has some maturity under its belt. While scaling may not have as much novelty as it did when it was new, it has become a celebrated pastime with legions of hardcores all across the country. Consumers are also demanding a lot more out of their trucks nowadays, so these new vehicles had better be up to task.

Let’s hope we have as much fun with the next crop as we did with the last!