THE Cub Report – And The World Champion Is…

Hello there rc fans, thanks for visiting BigSquidRC. I hope you enjoy your stay on our website, after all, it is loaded with rc news, views, and reviews.

First up this week is the IFMAR 1/10th scale world championships. Now, BSRC isn’t a “racing” website, but even we think it is important for bashers to know when the “really” big races are held. The tenth scale off-road worlds is composed of 2wd and 4wd classes, and is held on the “odd” years (every two years). This time around American Spencer Rivkin took the 2wd championship with his Associated buggy, while Xray’s Bruno Coelho took the 4wd title. Rivkin is an extremely likable young man that has shown extraordinary calmness during critical moments that have broken other drivers. Coelho is even more affable, and is absolutely building a resume that will put him with the very elite of rc racing in short order. Then, Coelho is even more of a beast on-road than off! It is always good to see a guy that is at the very pinnacle of more than one genre. Huge congrats to both winners, winning an rc world championship is harder than we will ever know, props to you guys for putting in the time and the sacrifice needed to be the very best among a truly elite field.

Yes, the racing was hardcore at the worlds. Yes, the buggies were faster than ever before, just like the drivers. The racing was truly elite, the field was loaded with not only incredibly talented drivers, but also incredibly dedicated. These guys spends Thousands of hours racing/practicing/wrenching every year.

However, current rc racing just isn’t very friendly for actual marketing purposes. For a Joe Blow Mainstreamer, the format is hard to follow, and “watching the racing” is also hard. The cars are so small, yet are going so fast, that the best you can do to make out any car on the track is to look for different colors on the bodies or wheels. It just isn’t fun for a “non-rc’er” to watch an rc car race, instead it is confusing and hard to keep up with. Which also means, racing isn’t doing a whole lot to sell cars to people outside the hobby. The cars need to be larger, while the speeds need to be slower, to help make the cars/trucks/buggies easier to actually see as they go around the track. The crazy rc racing format could easily be switched out for something much easier to understand by someone off the street. IMO, rc racing could be doing more to help bring people into hobby shops, but sticking to a formula created in the 1980s just isn’t working in the year 2019…

In BIG product news, Traxxas has officially dropped the 1/10th scaled Maxx monster truck. The 1/10th scaled Maxx looks a whole lot like the larger X-Maxx and seems to be pretty much perfect for backyard bashing. It has 4wd, it has big brushless power, and it costs a whole lot less than the large scale X-Maxx. It will also be timed quite well for the holiday season, so I can see a lot of these under X-Mas trees this winter. The shocks on the thing are huge and it comes with a 4S power system out of the box.

Also in the Heck Yes category for product releases last week- the Pro-Line Jeep Gladiator monster truck body, as well as the 1969 Chevrolet Nova drag racing body. The Gladiator is one of the hottest off-roaders on the streets now days and the P-L licensed version looks sharp on a monster truck. Also, that murder Nova looks Very Cool, so cool that it makes me want to grab a Slash off the shelf and start a no-prep build just to use it! Very nicely done on those two, can’t wait to start seeing them in the wild.

So that’s it for this week ya bunch of freaks. Until next week, support your local hobby shops and bash spots whenever ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter