THE Cub Report – Think’n Of go1d1e

Hello there to one and all, good to see ya once again. Actually no, of course I can’t see you through your computer or smart phone. Or can I? 🙂

So how about that fight? Yes, I’m talking about the McGregor/Mayweather boxing match that took place on Saturday night. While I watch very little boxing, I am a big MMA fan, so like many of you, I couldn’t wait to see how Conor would stack up against one of the best boxers of all time. Eh, the fight was “OK” (I didn’t say it looked rigged, seriously I did not), but I did have a fantastic time being surrounded by a roudy bunch of my rc friends. Now all I wanna see is another McGregor/Mayweather fight, this time with MMA rules. Just say’n…

This week’s Cub Report is all about my friend, Rich Smith, who I always called Goldie, although his internet handle was actually go1d1e. I was doing some Subaru research and ran across one of his old posts on a forum, which immediately made me think about him. You super fans will remember that I have actually mentioned him in a Cub Report before, years ago, about the same time as one of the rc magazine guys was going through the same thing he was, leukemia treatments. Unfortunately, like so many others, Goldie lost his battle. He was instrumental in my first rc website, without him THE Cub Report simply would not exist. It’s been over 3 years since Goldie passed, needless to say, he is still dearly missed by so many different people.

I considered Goldie the Jon Snow of rc. He was the good guy, and it was not superficial like so many people in this industry. He truly was one of those those guys that would give you his car to race if yours was broken. He was the guy that would drive 4 hours, each way, just to get you a part before you had to leave for a big race. He was the guy that would donate hour after hour of his own free time to help better our hobby. And perhaps more importantly, he fought the good fight. By that I mean, sometimes hard choices have to be made, he would always be behind the way that was best for the long term benefit of the hobby, no matter how hard it might have been. I never once saw him chose the easy, short term solution, at the rc track, or anywhere else in life for that matter.

The point that I am slowly getting to here is… our industry could use more people like Goldie. Yes, we do have a lot of industry people that have their heads screwed on straight and are looking out for the long term welfare of their company and families, but there are other people where it is all about the quick buck. I’ve seen too many shady companies just trying to snatch away short term money, regardless of how poor their product is, or how bad they maim the industry while doing so. I am no spring chicken here folks, my ever growing collection of grey hair proves it, I know there will always be scum out there, but I am just so F’n sick and tired of the counterfeiter products, knock-off artists, the people that sell product that they already know is defective, etc. Those are problems as old as retail itself, but if there were only a few more Goldies in the industry, the hobby would be soooo much better off now, and 20 years down the road. If you are a knock off artist, instead of looking at someone else’s product and wondering how fast you can have it replicated, how hard can it be to look at the product, give it a slight improvement, then ship it? Or, if you are straight up ripping people off by selling products that you know are steaming piles, why not do a little more R & D BEFORE ordering a container load? Sigh…

So that’s it for this week ya bunch of hooligans, see ya back here next Monday. Until then, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

PS- Miss ya like crazy bro…