Monster Truck Madness – Predictions for 2024
Hello everyone- happy Thursday and happy New Year!
The first post of the new year means I get to do my yearly predictions! Last year I hit 75% so I’m gonna try and do the same here….although I’ve got 3 predictions and not 4 so if I wanna go above that mark I’ll have to hit ’em all!
As always, these predictions are things that I think have a reasonable probability of actually happening by way of “educated speculation”- it’s not just a personal wishlist or something like that.
Traxxas releases a new monster truck platform
The big T keeps itself busy with releases every year, but I think 2024 sees some sort of new monster truck platform. I’m going to give myself some leeway here too, as I think a big refresh of a current existing platform is going to count if it’s a “legit” one.
The last big release in the monster truck world from Traxxas was the XRT, which was in 2022. Given how competitive basically ALL genres of r/c monster trucking have become, I’d expect they put something out that causes a stir in 2024. And who knows, maybe it will be…
A real competitor to the Losi LMT will arrive in the solid axle monster truck world
As we sit here at the beginning of 2024, the r/c solid axle monster truck world is dominated by the Losi LMT. Whether the standard version, TLR tuned version, or even the mini version, if you want a performance based solid axle monster truck that gives you the type of thrills the full scale monsters do, it’s your ticket. Horizon discontinued the SMT10 last year, which was the only other legit challenger to it. I mean, ok, I suppose the Clod Buster is too, and it’s obviously still here (and will always be), but the Clod is a bit of a different animal in that you can’t just open the box and let it eat. It takes mods, know how, etc to get it up to the level of the LMT.
I think the LMT has proven successful enough that there is definitely money to be had in this segment of the hobby, and it’s been a few years since the release for a well thought out competitor to hit the market. What company could it be though? I’m not sure. I actually don’t have inside knowledge of one specific company or another releasing a new solid axle monster truck, but I’ve heard rumblings for awhile now through distribution circles that several have been working on them.
An old school “1980’s style” monster truck will get released
Ok so this is the one prediction I made last year that I got wrong. Well, I’m going at it again. In the scale dominated landscape that is the current hobby world, I am SHOCKED no one has released a proper old school monster truck. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and I think legions of hobbyists would partake in something letting them to relive the glory days of 1980’s monster trucking.
Tamiya would have this the easiest, as a simple re-release of the Juggernaut II would do the trick, but many companies already have scale crawler chassis platforms that could be adapted for this, so no clue who does it. I suppose if I had to put money down on who eventually does this kind of truck first, it would be RC4WD as this kind of thing is in their wheel house…but I know various folks at different r/c companies who grew up with the golden era of monster trucks and are still fans of it, so it could be anyone.
I figured for sure it would happen last year but it didn’t, so I feel even stronger it’ll happen in 2024.
And that’s what I got! I thought about making a few other predictions involving Arrma and RC4WD, but they were a bit too vague and I’d rather these stay sort of on money. We will review next year and see how I did!
Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!
