THE Cub Report – Traxxas On The Attack

Here we go folks with another tantalizing week in our wonderful hobby. With every week that passes we get that much closer to spring. I for one can’t wait for the cold weather to disappear (only to be replaced by 90 degree temps with 90% humidity). Thanks for joining us on Big Squid, let’s jump right in shall we?

Yup… it’s been a while since Traxxas has released an all new platform, but we all knew it was just a matter of time before it happened again. Over the course of the last week, Traxxas announced not one, but two new platforms. While other companies announce new platforms from time to time, they just don’t generate the buzz, or make the overall impact on the hobby, like those from Traxxas.

The biggest announcement from Traxxas has to be the Land Rover D110 Scale Crawler. I know of more than one company that were dreading the day when Traxxas decided to hop into this ultra-hot market segment, well, that day is here and it looks like Traxxas did not miss the mark. It brings portal axles to the plate, as well as remote locking diffs and a 2 speed tranny. Oh and more importantly, it has all the little scale details that are such the rage now days. While some companies may have hoped that their entry into the scale crawling market was going to be a “little bit off”, or at least enough to have the ridiculously fickle scale guys thumb their noses at it, that does not appear to be the case. Traxxas did their homework on the Land Rover and they are literally going to sell a million of them. Hello hobby, you’ve been looking for a BIG breathe of fresh air to kick start sales again, the Traxxas crawler just might be it.

The second vehicle announced was the Traxxas Ford GT on the new 4-Tec 2.0 chassis. The GT is a very interesting release, and for several reasons. While the hobby as a whole is having a rough time, on-road has been hit particularly hard (almost as hard as nitro), so I find it interesting that Traxxas would cough up the cash for a new on-road platform. However… good for Traxxas for putting up the cash to help revive the on-road scene. The GT also sports an immaculate body with injection molded parts. Not only did Traxxas go for it with a new on-road car, but they did it right with lots of scale detailing. No, the Traxxas isn’t another high-end, carbon fiber loaded, on-road car that simply won’t sell to more than a handful of people, it is a great looking bash oriented car made for the masses. And right now, our hobby needs that.

One last note here before I wrap things up… For years our guy Igor has covered the Nuremburg show for us. This year the people behind the Nuremburg show kept stumbled on his badge in the weeks before the show, but Igor drove the 8 hour trip (each way) to hit the Toy Fair in the hopes of sorting out his badge issues at the venue. Once Igor arrived, the show people still denied him entry. BigSquidRC has done a lot over the years to help promote the Nuremburg show, which in turn helps to promote our hobby which is suffering right now. Needless to say, Igor isn’t exactly stoked at the Nuremburg people after driving 16 hours for no reason, neither are we, and neither are our readers who missed out on a ton of cool show coverage.

Yup… I know this week’s CR sounds like a Traxxas love-fest and you are right, it is. But then, when a company does something right, in this case two things, it needs to be applauded. Ya, I know the internet haters are currently tearing both vehicles apart, but they don’t see the grand scheme of things. They don’t know that Traxxas sales are a HUGE part of keeping the guy behind the parts counter at your LHS paid. They don’t realize that Traxxas mainstream advertising brings a lot of people into hobby shops. They can’t wrap their heads around the bump any new release from Traxxas gives to dozens of different companies in rc, from distributors to even their own competitors. Based on what we’ve seen from Traxxas so far in 2017, they look to have a BIG year ahead. My question is, do they have even more in store for all of us? I can’t wait to find out…

There ya go freaks, another CR is in the books. Like always, get out and support you local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter