THE Cub Report- 05.16.2011- The Gas Face Version

Hola rc fans from around the globe and welcome to yet another funk-a-licous episode of THE Cub Report.

No F1 over the weekend. No Supercross, no TORC, and no LOORRS. America did host the USGP of motocross at Glen Helen over the weekend (heard they were selling deep fried Snickers bars there!), but because there were nearly no Americans racing, who cares? Brian was busy watching Global Rallycross on ESPN, but there just aren’t enough jumps to interest me there. Throw in some whoops and a step-on to step-off section and I’m all over rallycross.

I saw an interesting thread over on VitalMX titled “Traxxas RC Cars… junkity junk junk”, you can see it HERE. VitalMX is a motocross site and it’s interesting to see their take on our hobby. It’s also interesting to see how the Traxxas sponsorship of the AMA/Monster Energy Supercross Series resulted in direct sales to the moto crowd. Even more interesting is reading about how bad total rc noobs are tearing up their new Traxxas trucks. Funny how most of us long time hobbyists “learned” how to drive rc’s on tame 100 watt brushed motors and 6 cell NiCd batteries, while todays noobs are “learning” on 40-60 mph 4S lithium/brushless rocketships. No wonder an rc noob might think that Traxxas break easy if everything they hit is at 50 mph. We know here at BigSquid that Traxxas are some of the toughest trucks out there, it makes me wonder just what pile of rubble some of these rc noobs are leaving lesser trucks in.

I spent most of my week out on the right coast, and while there I had the pleasure of visiting legendary New England hobby shop RC Madness (located in Connecticut). Every time I’m there I leave amazed. The guys at RC Madness are freak’n on the ball- they know their inventory, they know all the latest trends, and they are willing to do anything to help a customer out. I find it impossible to put into words just how different their shop is than 99.9% of the others in America, so if you are ever in New England- RC Madness is a MUST for you to visit. It’s an American rc institution, one that every consumer (and even shop owners!) should visit. Trust me on this one, they are the best of the best for service.

So… Brian, Wrench and I were sitting around the office the other day debating about an “ultimate basher” shootout. IMO when you hit a bash spot the brushless E-Revo and Savage Flux are the kings of the hill, so that’s the category of truck we are wanting to shootout. We’ve got the uber new Thunder Tiger MT-4G3 monster truck in-house right now testing it, and I think it should be included. IMO it’s not a “true” monster truck, and there is no way in hell I’d ever try racing one formally. Wrench thinks there is no way it should be included because it looks like a morphed truggy and comes stock with a center diff. Brian, well, I think he wants it included because it’s got huge tires and is a freak’n animal while bashing. Should the TTR be included? The debate rages, shoot us your opinion if you are feeling the love for an uber bash shootout. Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com.

So… after the “should the TTR be included?” discussion, we went on to consider other monster trucks that should also be in that type of shootout. And we kept thinking, and thinking, and thinking… the only other truck we would put in the same category as the Revo and Savage is the Traxxas E-Maxx. Which got us to thinking, if the Revo and Savage arguably pwn all the local bash spots, just why aren’t there more trucks in that product category? AE, Losi, Kyosho, and well everyone other than Traxxas and HPI seem to have no problem putting out a constant flow of race vehicles, yet they overlook the the king of the hill bashing category? Hit any bash spot and you grow tired of seeing Revos and Savages because there are so many of them, you’d think some of these other manufactures would want a piece of that big ole’ pie (electric, 4×4, monster truck). There is a lot of money to be made there, and yet once again the rc industry would rather produce “racing” models than those designed from the ground up to be used by bashers (who are the vast majority of hobbyists). If a company were to sell a zillion units to bashers that would generate a LOT of cash to be used on their race team and uber new race models. Just say’n…

That’s it for this week, support your hobby- visit your local hobby shops, tracks and bash spots!

YOUR Cub Reporter