THE Cub Report – Social Distancing Since Birth

Well hello there fellow hobbyists, I hope you and your family members are well. The BigSquidRC Bash Crew has been doing fine, we’ve all been doing the social distancing thing to keep healthy, and, so far, so good. Shall we jump right on in???

So… you would think that the Covid-19 pandemic would be a crusher to the rc hobby. And yes, for certain parts of our industry, they are a hurt’n something fierce. However, there are companies in rc right now, setting record sales numbers. There are success stories out there, and in times like these, that is great news for the future of our hobby.

So… who’s doing well? A bunch of companies actually, but I think you can put RPM in there for having a super strong Q2 of 2020. RPM makes a bunch of different types of plastic products, with some of them being for the medical field. RPM is open and absolutely crushing it right now. Also, with several companies looking to source products a bit closer to home than mainland China going forward, RPM might be looking real good in the coming years (can I buy some RPM stock???).

Another company crushing it right now is Traxxas. Traxxas is hiring like crazy, which is a great thing to see for our hobby after Covid-19. Traxxas made a big push over the last half decade or so with their dot.com, so right now they are busy shipping out as much product as they can. Between tax return cash, the $1200 that the American gov is sending out to some people, and most Americans spending a lot less on certain things (no movie tickets, no eating out, buying less gas, not picking up extra stuff at Wal-Mart, etc), there is still some cash around.

And yes, there is also the ugly side of Covid-19. There are a LOT of hobby shops that have been forced to close right now, and some of those guys are truly hurting. Local hobby shops are the “men and women on the ground” for our rc hobby, and a whole lot of shops are not working at nearly 100% right now. To help local hobby shops, Horizon Hobby has organized a fundraiser. How can YOU help? Simply click This Link. If you are fortunate enough to have some extra scratch laying around, local hobby shops would surely be thankful.

OK, before I get out of here, there was also some pretty cool rc news last week. While there is no racing going on right now, there certainly are some cool new product releases. As far as who “won last week” with the coolest new release, IMO that goes to Axial Racing with their revamped Bomber 2.0. The original Bomber was probably my fav release from them over the years, mostly because it came with bigger tires (2.2) to get up and over some pretty crazy terrain. The new version gets updated electronics, plus some very cool scale upgrades. Very nice!

So there we are party people. I do hope that all my smoker friends out there have a kicked-back 420 2020, and until next week, try to support the hobby any way that ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter