THE Cub Report, 07.08.2013, Version- Gotta Launder My Karma
Hola rc fans and welcome to another high zoot edition of THE Flip’n Cub Report. I have zero time here, so let me get right down to it…
In BSRC News-
Adam “The Intern” smashed his existing world record over the weekend by vaporizing a Five Guys hamburger in just under 5 seconds. Mental note to self- keep arms/hands away from Adam’s mouth while at a burger joint.
We are done with our Rally Car Shootout. All the testing, bashing, smashing, and hucking is done, now we just have to shove it all into WordPress and see who the winner is. We are really going to try and get it up this week (famous last words). Who’s in the shootout? The Traxxas 10th scale Rally Car, the HPI Ken Block WR8, the Thunder Tiger ER-4 G3, and the Kyosho DRX VE Demon. 5 testers, 4 cars, and a whole lot of driving (read- crashing) went into this one and hopefully you’ll find it enjoyable and informative.
We’ll be covering the HobbyTown USA Convention in Lincoln Nebraska this week. Expect a couple scoops plus some cool show coverage. Also, if we can get a connection with a decent upload speed expect our Weds night G+ Show will be live from the show floor. That should be great fun for you and for us.
Speaking of “scoops”, it was great fun to watch the other media sources scramble after we posted the LaTrax news on Monday. Especially fun to watch other sources CCP our work without reference or link back, but then that’s the difference between us and the posers/wanna-be’s.
So… LaTrax is the big news. Some consumers are stoked, some are baffled, and well, they aren’t the only ones. I’ve spoken to more than one industry type the last few weeks about what they thought about LaTrax and they had some major questions about the line. The two big issues seem to be- LaTrax is a perfect line for Wally World, except it doesn’t have a big ole’ Traxxas sticker on the side. And number two, Traxxas doesn’t need a “low end” line because they ARE a low end line. To boil it down, Traxxas has spent millions marketing their brand name into being worth something, and for this new line they decided to ditch it. That doesn’t make good marketing sense, nor does it make good common sense.
Also, we’ll learn more this week in Lincoln when we talk to Traxxas in person, but one industry type I talked to insinuated that the new LaTrax Rally car wasn’t even designed by TRX, it was spec’ed from an overseas manufacture, sorta like what they did with their quadcopter. I can see TRX wanting to go the cheapest possible way with their new “ultra-low-end” line, but TRX are a designer/manufacture, it’s what they’ve always done, it’s where they’ve made their bones, and to depart from that formula is a great recipe for losing street cred with their core market. Speaking with a buddy of mine that works at Traxxas, even he was like “WTF” on the LaTrax line.
Personally… if I was in charge of the new LaTrax line (LOL) I’d change a couple things. Cubby’s LaTrax series would be vintage vehicles. Vintage for some goofy reason seems to be of interest now days, so “Cubbys LaTrax” would include re-issues with some modern updates (read- RTR w/ 2.4 GHz). My Wally World line-up would be under the Traxxas name and would be all new platforms just a notch above toy grade. Just say’n…
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading and support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.
YOUR Cub Reporter
