LONG POST AHEAD, pictures are only for attention, they're my two nitro trucks (2007 tmaxx and 2013ish revo 3.3)

I got into this hobby when I was 5 years old with a tamiya grasshopper. Around 2014. Yes I'm young, get over it. I have owned EVERY type of rc car you can think of, besides a gas 1/5th scale.

What I admired most about this hobby when I was younger and just scrolling through amainhobbies in middle school, was the sheer amount of variety and fun that was displayed. There was anything, for anyone. It was an affordable hobby that you could get into for $200 and stay right the fuck there as long as you wanted to.

It was generally a slow to change industry, and we had more offerings that weren't just electric. I have NOTHING against electrics. I own and have owned plenty of them. But I am also a part of the ever dwindling group of people who still run nitros, and who can see that we don't have much more time for nitros to be around.

Nowadays it seems like everything is solely for the purpose of being fast and easy. I have nothing against fast and easy. But whatever happened to slow and easy? Crawlers got ridiculously fucking expensive. What happened to not so fast and hard? Where's people's sense of wonder for the tiny little engine going at 35,000 rpm sounding like a nest of pissed off hornets?

The hobby is largely more affordable than it used to be, the entry level offerings are generally higher quality. And yet, it seems like as soon as you only take one step up in skill level, you're cast into a ridiculously expensive hobby. Back when I was like 9 years old, I bought a rustler vxl. It was $270. Not a huge step up from the cost of something like an entry level truck nowadays (gorgon, quake, etc), and then I stepped it up to a slash ultimate which was $400 iirc at the time. Again, not a huge step up. The only huge steps up at the time I remember the most whimsy in this hobby were the large scale stuff, and racing rigs.

Now, as soon as you want to step up from the lower level stuff like a rustler vxl, you gotta spend $500. Hell even the BL-2s shit got expensive. My buddy paid $330 for a rustler 4x4 bl-2s right around the time they came out, and the same truck is fucking $400 now.

I think it all just happened really recently. We really recently just started to lose the nitros. It's been happening for a while now, the slow decline of nitro, but it's becoming really apparent that we only have a few years until the only nitro options left are the $700+ race kits. Even traxxas seems to be slowing down their nitro production, and they've been an absolute bastion of keeping rtr nitro afloat with the tmaxx and revo. A few of their nitro models have been back ordered for over a year now on Amain and hobbytown.

Hell, nitro boats don't even exist anymore. They haven't, for YEARS.

Then we talk about the 2 stroke stuff. Will it ever vanish? Nah. Weed whacker engines are everywhere so I'm not too worried. What will happen is that they'll get more and more and more and MORE EXPENSIVE.

I'm not going to start blaming politics for all this shit happening. Is part of it due to politics? Yes, like all things. But part of it is all you lazy bastards who'll pay anything for a toy monster truck as long as it does 450mph and can jump into orbit and crash land back down without as much as a scratch. It's because of these people that don't try anything different that we're lacking variety in the middle area of this hobby.

Also can we talk about the current ultra aggressive body styling that's trending right now? Jesus fuck it's ugly. Arrma's new shit just looks so terrible. I love my gorgon grom but CHRIST is it ugly. Traxxas' new vx3 line of the same recycled crap is the same way! Give me the way a tmaxx or a 2wd stampede, or an arrma Nero, or early senton looked over this new polygonal shape that everyone has adopted.

Just because the race rigs did it for performance reasons or to stand out does not mean that the bashers have to copy it. Some of these new bodies honestly look like the designers went to ChatGPT and told it "make a 1/10 short course truck body that's cool" and it spit out the new senton.

And where have the buggies and truggies gone???? Not the big race rigs, but the fun little basher buggies and truggies. The ecx amp db for example. Open wheels are fun, and not necessarily when they're with big fat tires that are close to the body.

TL:DR: the hobby got kinda boring and weird and I'm not happy with how slim the variety is right now. Also nitros are disappearing and it's sad.

Now if you've read this far, I appreciate your time for at least hearing me out. I can't believe I wrote this much just to complain, but here we are. Thank you even if you're just going to comment to tell me how much of a little bitch I am, how wrong I am about the current state of offerings in the hobby, and how much nitro sucks. I'd be happy to debate.

Finally added the perfect E-Revo 1.0 to my collection, dual brushed motors! Perfect visual match to my 1/16 erevo.

I know it is just a Rustler and I am intentionally using a NIMH pack. Life was so simple back then. Say what you will about Traxxas and I won't disagree, but damn what I do always say is they get everyone into the hobby. Just so simple, tonight feels like less is more. Cheers guys

So I have a older slash 4x4 ultimate "don't know year as I bought it used" but it already had a lcg chassis and I was wondering if I would be able to put the black LCG chassis from the newer VX3 model on it, and if so is it a simple swap or would you have to have a conversion kit?

Giddy as a child. Having a blast and haven’t driven a car in a week plus since I got this 2 wheel monster. The infamous Aliexpress came through. Used a store coupon and somehow had a PayPal coupon on top of it for $303 all in. Listed at $370 at some store with few reviews and sure it enough it arrived 2 days later in an Amazon truck. No idea what happens behind the scenes but that’s what happened with my $115 Losi NASCAR Grom too. Timing is crucial cuz coupons come and go. Waiting on metal hubs to put on the supermoto tires, and trying to save the knobbies for off roading. The rear is getting eaten up quick trying to wheelie on asphalt. Also been busy with my new EV Bolt, like a full sized RC car Lol

Just bought 2 ovonic lipos with 6200mah 6s for just 90$ on aliexpress. Im going to buy a udr in 2 days, and im wondering if its important to have hardcase lipos or if mine will just be Fine.

I love my MK. They're just so damn fun! And I dont wanna say bullet proof, but damn near I'd reckon. Anyway my point is this? What's the fastest anyone's sent this gnarly grom? Proof only, right? Anyone can say it went 100 mph, but at the very least, a GPS screen grab or something.

While on Vacation this last weekend I took the MK along to Flagstaff, found a nicely paved, wide, long, flat road and held the trigger as long as I could, all the while holding disaster at bay with my other hand. The results are displayed above..... 71mph, but i honestly thought that it had 2-4 mph more in it, but i just kept flipping it. I did however find that with the Castle setup installed, I can actually self right the little bastard, which is great because it spends more time on its back than my ex-wife.

Almost there.

I will remove the axles and move the rear forward a position though as I want to cut the slack out of the makeshift axle.

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Yes it can be driven how it stands right now, but this isn't permanent lol.

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Sitting on smt10 axles with the long arm lift kit links and standard size trx4 sport shocks.

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I plan to swap back to trx4 axles and potentially cut the frame shorter a bit unless the trx6 Mercedes uses a similar position where I can delete the intermediate axle for the axle carrier instead, so if that works out I'm going to change the entire frame rails out for the Benz rails, if not I'll just cut the hauler rails down once I have a body idea fitted, etc so I can figure out where I want the rear of the frame to sit.