THE Cub Report, Version 06.14.2010
BigSquidRC, once a tiny unknown entity, has blown up lately. Ya, ya, we still have a long way to go, but our progress the last 6 months has been well beyond expectation. It seems that a lot of people are reading us daily as their guilty lil’ pleasure. If you are reading BigSquid, I’m certain you’ve asked yourself, “Just who the hell is BigSquidRC?”.
So what does a whois Google search yield for BigSquid? I’ll save you the effort- it gives you the site owners (and editor in chief) name, Brian Smolik, and also that BigSquidRC is based out of Naperville Illinois. You’ve probably never heard of Naperville, but to boil it down, it’s a burb of Chicago, a stones throw away (if you have a really kick a$$ arm) from where the iHobby expo is traditionally held, and just a couple hours drive from arguably the epicenter of the rc universe, Champaign Illinois.
About editor Brian, well he’s a true hardcore basher. Any day the weather is good enough to be outside, he’s jumping curbs and tearing up the sod in the local ball field. Ever notice that bashing is 90% of the market, yet all the mags and message boards cater to the racing crowd? Well Brian saw the need for a website that would finally cater to the majority of rc’ers, so he started BigSquidRC.
And then there is Bill. (firesprink281) He’s the poor guy at BigSquidRC responsible for building and fixing everything. If Brian and I go out and taco a new 8th scale on the first tank, it’s Bill’s job to get it running again. It’s also his job to build ramps, shoot video, get trade show stuff together, and give input on product testing. Bill is 10000% a bashing guy, and he looks at test product strictly from that perspective. Bill doesn’t care how fast it can get around a track, he cares how well it works, how much it costs, and if it doesn’t break when you jump it off the roof of your house.
Pro Driver Tim Mohr who has won more 1/18th scale races then I can count. He has been doing a little more writing around here lately and is a huge help behind the scenes, as he is one of the more technical guys. He and Brian have been good buds since the beginning of Big Squid RC, and Tim has been a great ‘go to’ guy whenever we need an opinion from someone with some racing knowledge.
Jeff is the new guy. He’s responsible for helping to get up new press releases and such. We get a lot of PR’s here, so Jeff and Brian censor out the “German Mini-Z Girl Nationals Won by Liz Lolita” press releases and try to only post the ones relevant to the bashing crowd. Anyone can post all the junk that’s out there.. Jeff does a great job of bringing in original content people actually want to read.
It’s impossible to get enough different opinions on testing product, and even more impossible to get them from a true electronics guru. That’s where Jim comes in. His day job is working on multi million dollar electronics, his night job is giving well educated opinions on test products for BigSquid. Jim has been racing for decades now, but he’s not strictly a racer, as you are just as likely to see him blasting an RC18 up and down the street at 60 mph as seeing him busting out laps with his B4.
Of course then there is me, the Cub-meister, but everybody knows who I am. 🙂
Last but not least is a dozen other people that BigSquid could not exist without. From Chris(thenewguy821), to Geno, to Tiffany, to Jason, to Wes, to on and on and on, it takes a lot of people to put on various events, a decent iHobby booth, test product, and post original material. These are the unpaid people that are helping out just for their love of the sport, and we appreciate their help immensely.
That’s it for this week, as always thanks for reading, and support your LHS, bash spot, and local tracks!
YOUR Cub Reporter
