THE Cub Report, 07.15.2013, Version- Statement of Integrity

Hello everyone, we are having some epically great weather here in the Midwest this weekend, absolutely perfect for spending all day outside pulling trigger and hang’n with the guys. I hope you were lucky enough to get your bash on over the weekend too.

Indoors there was no F1, nor AMA Motocross. “Sigh”. Yes I know there was a lot of “other” racing on, but no thanks, I’m not a fan of cars going roundy round.

Couple quick BSRC notes here-

1. Our Swap Meet and Bash is coming up fast. It’s in Orland Park Illinois, a burb of the Chi-Town metro. We’ve had some interest from manufactures to set up tables/easy ups. Shoot Brian an email or give him a ring if you want to bring some product to display. It’s free and if you don’t make it out bashing as much as you should, you can probably learn a LOT about your consumers.

2. Our Rally Car Shootout is soooo close to being done. Hpi vs Traxxas vs Kyosho vs Thunder Tiger, I swear it’s going up sometime this week, just keep an eye on our front page.

On a different note…

I was stuck on the right coast this week, but our guys Brian Smolik and Tim Mohr got to enjoy the HobbyTown USA Convention in Lincoln Nebraska (great town btw). The HT show isn’t a consumer show so our guys learn a lot about the hobby from the dealer point of view. Each hobby shop is like a fingerprint, absolutely unique with its staff, its inventory, and its clientele. Talking to hobby shop owners is one of my favorite things, not just talking about what the hot sellers are, but about the true “war stories” of everyday life keeping the lights on, the good times, and the occasional wacky customer.

Also from the show, Brian and Tim got a couple good ole’ butt chew’ins about things I’ve said here on BigSquidRC from the manufactures. On one hand, yes, it would certainly be easy to bow down and only kiss everyones butts like other media sources tend to do. On the other hand, we wouldn’t have any readers if we kissed everyones butts, but more importantly, we would have to lie, and that’s not something we are going to do here. We had a “big meeting” years ago, one of those “nobody leaves until our core values are set in stone” meetings, and one of the key points was that our website was going to present the most honest take on things that we could do, regardless of the consequences. Even if it ment losing every single reader, even if it ment losing every single advertiser, even if it ment getting our butts chewed at every trade show.

Now… being completely honest, or giving everything a “fair shake” might seem quite easy, but it’s not. For example, even though I hate on-road, and I hate nitro even more, a couple months ago I was assigned the task of reviewing the Duratrax Nissan GT-R. The GT-R is both an on-roader and nitro, I swear it was payback from Brian for some of the more devious things I’ve pulled on him. The Duratrax turned out to be a great bash-mobile, which certainly helped overcome my pre-conceived biases, but I’m confident that a reviewer that was pro on-road and nitro would have given it an even more glowing review. We go out of our way to reduce/remove biases, both aware and un-aware, and while we try to not let them affect what we think of a product, I’m not dumb enough to think we can completely pull it off.

Some manufactures have received negative reviews and commentary from BSRC and looked at it like “Ya, that product wasn’t quite on the mark”, or “Ya, we had to go a little cheap on the plastic to meet the price point”. Then there are other industry types that might think we are ripping them just for fun. All kidding aside, the only people we rip for “fun” are people that work here (just ask Bill, Adam, Tim or Brian). When it comes to products or their manufactures we are dead serious, and sometimes they don’t like that. We have a large, somewhat trusted podium for getting the word out to the manufactures what people on the street are saying about them, good or bad. A million anonymous posts on a forum saying Happy Flower Car Company sucks can go unheard while one mention here is instantly in the spotlight. Consumers and manufactures alike care and actually listen to what is said here because of our previous track record.

To get to the point here, no matter if you are a guy walking the street, a manufacture, or a media source, respect must be earned and integrity has to be proven. Every day around here we do what we can to earn your respect and to attempt to prove that yes indeed, if anyone has any integrity in the media, it’s us. If you are a reader/consumer it is proven when you buy a truck from Happy Flower and everything that breaks on your truck was mentioned in our review. If you work on the industry side it’s proven when we don’t go all rainbows & puppies when another manufacture announces a product that is obviously a POS. When we comment negatively on one of your own products, you should be smart enough to know that not every single product you put out is going to be looked at as perfect by the bashing crowd.

The only thing that makes a good comment/review of ours worth anything is the fact that we also have negative comments/reviews. We aren’t in the same boat as most media sources where everything they say, every review they do, is the same and sounds like it was written by the manufacture themselves. Anything they say is instantly dismissed because of their track record. We are different, and we’ll never change, ever. If anyone feels the need to rip someone a new a-hole send me an email, Cubby at BigSquidRC.com, I’ll gladly send you my cell phone number, and gladly take you out to lunch at the next trade show where you can go full blown meltdown in person. However, don’t expect any amount of reaming to even remotely change our integrity, that can not, and will not happen, regardless of who you are, or how deep your pockets may be.

That’s it for this week ya bunch of goons, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter