THE Cub Report, 09.15.2014, Version- Go Hardwell Or Go Home
Hello RC World, thanks for making your way to BigSquidRC, and welcome to yet another Cub Report.
First up, BigSquidRC News…
Have you noticed, we’ve been on a roll the last couple of years. If you have not, you sure will in a few weeks at iHobby. We’ve got multiple HUGE things going on in our booth. Like… make the dinosaur media sit around big tables scratching their heads for weeks kinda big. We WILL be the talk of the show this year, come see our booth in person October 4th and 5th in Schaumburg, IL. If you can’t make it, we’ll be having EPIC coverage live from the show so you can enjoy it at home.
I still can’t believe we have been around for a decade now. It seems like just yesterday I met Brian and we started plotting to take over the rc world. So far so good, and to celebrate the fact we haven’t gone belly up yet, we are holding a blow-out-uber-bash on October 19th at Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet Illinois. You, yes you, are invited. There will be food, there will be bashing, there will be Loads Of Free Prizes. We are still working on some of the details, so we may have even bigger news to announce at the event. 🙂
What is this week’s review? The Axial Ram Power Wagon, look for it on our front page in a few days.
Hey, have you seen our ARRMA Granite Contest? The Granite is a great bash machine, get entered for your chance to get one for free.
Where in the H E double hockey sticks is our Gasoline Monster Truck Shootout? Well… we’ve worked on it. And worked on it. And well… we’ve had a lot of issues keeping both trucks running at the same time. Hey, we are big fans of new technology, heck, we’d love to see gasoline take off and rule the world, but you won’t be seeing our Gas Monster Truck Shootout any time soon. Here is to hoping the second gen trucks stay running more easily than the first gen…
Where the heck is our website face lift? Ya, we’ve been working on that for months too. Unfortunately our uber-web-guy Jeff Hoy has been busy living life and kicking ass, and not spending so much time giving our website a much needed new look. The latest I hear is our new look will go up sometime in December, I’m sure it’ll be high zoot as Jeff is the best in the biz when it comes to such things.
Ok, so my brief BSRC news update went a big long… so I’ll keep the “meat” of this week’s CR “brief”. LOL
Everyone is a gamer now days. Either on-line, on your phone, or via PS4/X-Box, nearly everyone games. You hardcore gamers will already know about GamerGate, for those of you that don’t, there is a big uproar right now about journalistic integrity in the gaming media. While journalistic integrity hasn’t blown up to be a huge issue in rc, it certainly could, so I’m using this CR to let everyone know where the crew at BSRC stands.
Hit the “Read More” button below to read the rest of this week’s Cub Report.
Myself- Yes, I’ve worked in and out of the rc industry for years, but mostly well before BSRC started cutting me checks. While I’ve written up many reviews here, I only allow myself to give input on reviews that do not included companies that I’ve worked with in the past. When it is a review of a company that I’ve worked with, I gather input from the rest of the BSRC Bash Crew and write it up.
Brian (owner BSRC)- While now he is certainly a big part of the industry, he has never worked for anyone in the rc industry.
Tim M.(PR and test driver)- Our guy Tim has previously worked within the rc industry, and has been a factory driver for companies like MaxAmps and Castle Creations. Now days he still drives for Castle, but BigSquidRC is his only other gig. Tim is not allowed any input for reviews that regard Castle or MaxAmps products.
Jeffery H. (web guy)- Jeff has never worked within the rc industry, and quite frankly, I think he despises most everyone in it.
Hot Sauce (Kevin R.- Air guy)- Yes, Tomatoe Sauce works daily in the rc industry at a HobbyTown USA retail store here in the Chi-Town metro. Therefore, he is not allowed to give input on reviews for HobbyTown exclusive lines like Helion and Ares.
Other contributors like Wrench-Bill/Iron Mike/Adam The Intern/Sam the Noob/Dougie Doug/3D Bill/Hawaiian Chris- None of these people have ever worked within the rc industry, they are hardcore bashers just like you.
In the early years of BSRC, none of the people who wrote material/posts were paid a cent. There wasn’t much traffic, so there was basically no server bill either. The site was up for the love of the hobby, and everyone that posted did so just for fun. However, traffic exploded, resulting in a make or break it point for BSRC. We either had to take on advertisers to pay for the servers, or die, so we elected to keep the site up. We also had multiple people who had put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the site for free, so we brought them on and made BSRC their full time gig.
So yes, certainly BSRC receives money from advertisers, it could not exist without it. But… advertiser money has never, and will never, get a company a good review from us. Because Happy Flower RC Company has an ad banner on our site means just this- they buy space on our site to show our readers that they support BSRC and bashing in general. By buying a banner they are telling you that when you go to spend some of your hard earned cash on rc, that they want your business because they support bashing. And that is all they get with that flashy ad of theirs.
In the gaming world, there has been a big problem with companies flying media people around in hopes of getting (buying) a good review. While it has been offered to us, we have never visited a manufacturer on their dime, it has always been 100% ours. Oh and, we have never charged a company to review their product, nor have we ever been paid money to review a product.
Food? Yes, we have eaten on a manufacturer’s dime before, but that wasn’t without a fight. I have personally seen Brian literally get into a wrestling match over a check, only to lose because he was slower and weaker than the guy from the manufacturer. So while we have eaten for free, it was not our intent, nor would we ever let a black and blue steak change the score on one of our reviews.
Misc free stuff? While we do get some “free stuff”, that “stuff” gets reviewed or is used in our demo vehicles. Oh and, not everything we review is free. Yes, we still go out and pay cash for some items that we review, I don’t know how many other “big” media sources (of any type) can say that.
To boil it down, it is impossible to keep from being completely unbiased (anyone who says otherwise is FOS), I don’t care who you are. However, we want to be as unbiased as possible and do everything we can to keep it to a minimum.
If you are an avid reader and have more questions about our involvement with manufacturers and people within the industry, hit that “contact us” link at the top of the page and we will answer your question. We have absolutely no issue being transparent about our involvement with anyone in the industry/hobby.
That’s it for this week ya freaks, support your local hobby shops and bash areas when ya can.
YOUR Cub Reporter
