THE Cub Report – Where Do We Go From Here?
So it happened, our friends over at Hobbico have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. For you noobies out there, which there are a lot, you might not understand everything in this Cub Report, but it is a sign of the times in our hobby. For those not in the industry, Hobbico is the parent company of Great Planes distributing that sells products to hobby shops, Tower Hobbies which might be the biggest mail order rc retailer in America, as well as product lines like Duratrax and Axial Racing (ARRMA seems to not be included because they are in Europe).
Sitting here today, I still can’t believe it. A couple months ago when I posted a couple of hints about this actually going down, I just didn’t think it was possible for our hobby’s biggest company to be in that kind of shape. Sadly, all the insider talk was true, and Hobbico ended up filing. As a long term, hardcore hobbyist, as a person who only wants to see our hobby grow, I just feel gutted to see another one of our biggest companies run into serious issues because of the state of the industry/economy.
Where do we go from here? Well, it isn’t over till it’s over folks, so don’t count Hobbico out yet! While you might not get to rub elbows with the folks from Hobbico, we do, and they are genuine hobbyists just like you and me. There are so many good folks at Hobbico just trying to make a living in the hobby they love, the crew here at BigSquidRC are committed to doing whatever we can to help them turn things around.
Also, we will be posting more Hobbico news as it becomes available. Please try to remember that all the loud mouths on FB/G+/various forums/etc typically have Zero freak’n clue what is really going on. Like I mentioned in ASK Cubby last week, when we have official news that is the real dealio, we will post it here ASAP. So more to come on this one folks, hopefully on the positive side of things!
On a different note…
An all new scale realistic line is about to be launched? Not sure about this one yet folks, but IF it becomes a reality we should learn more at Nuremberg (which is at the end of the month). From what I am hearing it would be an American company with most of the products being aimed at the lower end of the market. We’ll see in a couple weeks if they decided to cut the check and go for it!
Plus…
What, Brian, the owner of BigSquidRC making some big news himself? Some of you industry guys already know what’s up, for the rest of you we’ll do a post early in the week to fill ya in. But way to go Brian, hopefully you can do a great job helping out the industry.
And for this week’s ROAR spotlight…
So which one of you do I need to chew on about stock motors in ROAR? If you’ve read any of my recent Cub Reports, then you know that myself and some of the BSRC crew members are getting ready to go “racing” again. I built my CRC using a 17.5 Duratrax that we had laying around, but then I started pricing “stock” motors for when I would need to put in a replacement.
Are you FREAK’N kidding me? Good freak’n $##%@@#! If you aren’t a racer, and I know most of you reading this are not, but racing oriented stock motors seem to start around $90 and go up to around $180. On just what planet is a $180 STOCK motor a good flip’n idea? Hell, I still remember the good old days when a stock 27 turn brushed motor was price locked below $40 via the rules, a fairly reasonable price for casual racers. But $180 for a 17.5 motor that puts out Jack-Diddly for wattage and is useless for most applications? Seriously ROAR, this isn’t even funny any more. ROAR seems to be as useless as a one-legged man in an azz kicking contest now days, and they seem to be getting even worse, who knew that was even possible?
So there ya have it folks, another Cub Report is in the books. Thanks for reading, and until next week, get out and support those local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.
YOUR Cub Reporter
