THE Cub Report, Version- And Justice For All

Hello everyone, welcome to yet another edition of THE Cub Report, the weekly source for an inside look into the industry that we are all addicted to. For consumers they get a tiny glimpse into what an industry type is thinking, for industry types THE Cub Report hopefully makes for some spicy water cooler fodder every.

I am typing this out while on vacation (again). Actually, I am not “fully” on vacation, I mean this is actually getting typed. So… this week I’m gonna go old school, like super old school, and comment on some of the new product releases from the last few days->

Vaterra hasn’t been announcing many new products this year, and no, I don’t have any inside scoop as to why (<-Lie. actually I do of course), but I was pretty stoked to see their ’68 F-100 get announced last week. Sadly it didn’t look like an exact copy of the Fast-N-Loud shop truck, but it does look really trick. BTW, with as F’d as on-road car sales are, they probably won’t move many of them, but at least they continue to build the brand with really trick looking vehicles. Which brought our staff to this question- “If the new Vaterra F-100 came with a sound module, working lights, doors that opened, a smoking exhaust, and fully detailed interior and motor compartment, then would it sell?”. Ok, before I get the call from Horizon, listen I know you will move plenty of those units, however, IMO with on-road being as dead as it is, the numbers won’t be stellar (and if they are, congrats to you). Anyways, once again IMO, on-road is so dead that even the best/trickest/most-scale-accurate on-road car in the world isn’t going to bust out huge numbers. To boil this one down, on-road really needs to get fixed before anyone moves many cars in that genre ever again.

Pro-Line put out all the details on their PRIME 2.8″ monster truck tires. First off, a LOT of popular bash trucks can use that size of tire. Secondly, like everything they do, it looks like Pro-Line did the PRIME tires right, designing them for good traction, long life, and putting in close cell foams to keep up with current tech. Perhaps even better, they were designed to fight off expansion while doing speed runs, something that is very important for the bashing crowd. Seriously, P-L will drop by the ball at some point, but they haven’t for as long as I can remember.

Pro Boat is another brand owned by Horizon and they announced a new Deep V last week. New boat announcements don’t happen that often, but the people that are into boats are gnar-core about them and not afraid to spend some bank (kinda like 5th scale owners). I don’t think I saw that the new Pro Boat has an auto roll over feature, (I’m sure I’ll hear about it if it does), which seems to be a requirement on today’s boats.

RC4WD put out some comp tires that look very similar to some form of Bow-Tie or Losi Eclipse. I found those tires as a shock, as RC4WD is trying to be the king of scale realism, and their comp tires are quite a departure from that.

In another piece of Horizon news from last week, we were the first to report that they were going to begin to distribute products from Sphero. Ya, I know you’ve never heard of them before (although you’ve probably seen them in a mall), but to me that was pretty huge news. Why? Because quadcopters/drones have exploded in sales in the last 24 months and droids (like those that Sphero is primed to sell) could do the exact same thing. The big news is that Horizon is trying to be on the front end of a potential droid explosion, instead of being a couple steps behind like all the traditional hobby companies were with consumer oriented drones. I see the Sphero distribution as some serious forward thinking for Horizon, props to them.

Ok… you all know me, I could go on and on and on about every little piece of rc news, but I do need to wrap this thing up (there is a swimming pool that is calling my name). Have a great week and support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter