THE Cub Report, Version- Didn’t See That One Coming…

We really messed up this time, and by “we” I mean a whole lot of people in the traditional rc industry. We totally underestimated the entire quadcopter/drone phenomenon. What could have been a cash cow, a savior to our industry, many of us basically looked at as yet another small fad. Instead it has turned into a behemoth.

In case you didn’t already know, quadcopter/drone manufacturer DJI is squarely looking at a Multi Billion Dollar Evaluation. Did you just hear that noise? Yes, that was my brain exploding. You see, when I first saw a “quad”, I thought, “Ok, that’s neat, I hope they sell a million of them.”, but it never crossed my mind that they would actually cross over to the mainstream where every housewife and Grandpa in America would want one.

From our coverage of quad news here at BSRC, to many of the traditional hobby air manufacturers, we just didn’t take drones seriously enough. And now someone else (DJI) is at the head of the consumer drone pack, being the Wall Street darling, getting a multi-billion dollar evaluation.

But… like any other hot new tech segment, things change quickly. The Sales Forecast for consumer drones looks outstanding for the foreseeable future, so there is a lot of money up for grabs. With that much money to be made, and now that all the people in our industry know that drones are perhaps the biggest wave we will ever see, there is some serious midnight oil being burnt. The advantage that DJI has will right now will be hard to keep. There are a whole lot of incredibly smart, innovative, and hard working people here in America who now have their eye on perhaps the biggest prize our industry has ever seen. And yes, that is a great thing for rc in general. If you are Mr Backyard basher and feel like your rc car company has betrayed you/sold out if they also sell quads, don’t worry. The more money your rc car manufacturer makes by selling quads to your Aunt Mildred, the more money they will have in the coffer to develop new bash-mobiles and other surface products. The more quads your local hobby shop can sell, the more inventory they can stock for your favorite truck. Seriously, big quads sales can bring a whole lot of good things to our hobby.

On a slightly different note, while our “air guy” Special Sauce Kevin does a good job, quads are generating a lot more news than he can handle by himself. If you are a quad/drone enthusiast and have a spare hour a day, send us an email. We need someone to work on more quad/drone news and you would make some decent bank while doing so.

That’s it for this week, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter