The HPI Blitz

Well, I have to give the team over at HPI some huge credit. I have driven the Blitz over the past few days and this truck rocks. Now, in full disclosure, my RC license should probably be revoked, for whatever reason if there is 1 rock, or 1 tree, or 1 curb within a mile, I have the talent to hit it at full speed, so while performance matters to me, durability and fun matters most. I have jumped the truck, I have crashed the truck and I have raced the truck against my neighbors stadium truck, and this is truck delivers the most important result we all want in RC: FUN. Out of the box I put in a Hienergy 4500 (changed to deans plug) and I was good to go, plug and play at its best. To date, I have yet to break a part, but I am sure I am close. Here’s what I like most, the drive train is smooth, the body looks hot, the truck handles perfectly, it is tough as nails, and each time I finished up for the day, I knew I wanted to get back out there. I have a great park nearby that has a perfect bowl for bmx riders and RCers, and the Blitz handlers the dirt and wants to jump. There is no doubt in short time I will need a brushless system, and after talking to the HPI team they assure me the truck was designed to handle the power. This is a hobby truck, one you can modify and change to suit your needs. I am no racer, but the guys in our stores are already racing these at the track with superb results. Congrats to HPI and to our customers, enjoy. Heres a link to the HPI gallery page at hobbypeople.net Please know we have good stock in our stores now, but we have sold out online so our warehouse is empty of blitzes. We will be getting more anyday, so backorder yours today in time for the holidays.

The holidays are coming

Everywhere I look, the holiday lights and decorations are out. I am absolutely amazed that Christmas is so near, but more than anything, I am shocked that the Walmarts, Toysrus, and others are already advertising, yet Thanksgiving hasn’t even stuffed my gut yet.

Without a doubt, we at Hobby People are gearing up for the holiday, both personally and for our customers. We have worked hard to stock the items you want, while making special buys to save you big money, and most importantly, to serve you better. I am shocked at how full our warehouse is already, with many more containers set to arrive this week.

On Friday, we recieved our largest shipment of Airtronics ever, with M11Xs, SD10s and servos filling us to the rims. We are absolutely convinced that Airtronics is set to explode this holiday. We have had incredible success at the tracks and flying events, as our pilots have been winning and showcasing the finest radios in the world.

We also received more Phase3 Squalls, which have been our hottest EDF. There is a superb review in the January Model Airplane News that is a must read. I believe we have enough stock for the holiday, and this is one superb airplane. Thanks for all the support.

And more electric helicopters arrived with more coming. We have received a big shipment of Dragonus’, an excellent flyer for you builders and CP pilots. We made a really special buy and we are saving you $50++++ on this heli. We also just received a big shipment of MASH RTF helis. We had been out of stock for much too long and now we will have them back in stores next week. We upgraded the tooling and this is a great beginner heli. For all of you who have been waiting for the Hobby People Mystery CP RTF, we will have them in stock for Christmas. They are in transit, and I am really proud of this heli, we have spent 2 years in its design and really believe this is the finest RTF CP the world has seen. And as always, we will save you money.

I can go on for hours, as we have so many new items, but I will end with the Hobby People Aeron. We received our 1st shipment about 30 days ago, and will be getting Holiday stock this week. For many years we have wanted to design that would be the absolute perfect beginner plane, strong enough for those tough landings, easy enough that it is really charge and fly, exciting enough that everyone would want one, and priced for our customers. I have been out flying the Aeron with my kids for the past 3 weeks, and more than ever believe this is a must have for the kids and adults who want to try flying RC. I absolutely love this plane. If you are looking for a perfect gift for your kids, or friends, the Aeron is it. Its more than a toy RC plane, it works and is an absolute riot to fly.

Yep, the holiday is coming, and Hobby People is the perfect place to get your RC fix, BH Models, XTM, Traxxas, HPI, Magnum, VQ, and so much more. We sell hobbies. We sell fun. We look forward to serving you.

I thought this post was interesting

This is from a modeler named Eric, and I thought you would find the question and answer interesting.
“Hi,
Im an avid sailplane pilot/builder/ designer and just wonder what happened to the great sailplane kit selections Hobby People used to have. One in particular is the GIGOLO aerobatic model.

I knew the original designer of this plane, even scratch built one prior to HP taking on the kit. Slope aerobatics is really starting to get into swing in 2009 with a great future ahead it appears.

Another question i have, does Hobby People (old Hobby Shack) still own the rights to this plane? If not i would be interested in speaking to whomever in order to revive this great flying plane. I have also revived the GRYPHON flying wing of late (video on my website) with the authorization from its owner.

Thanks for your contribution to RC and may the future hol”

My Reply:

Mike Greenshields and I sat around talking about this and he still has a Gigolo a Gryphon still in parts somewhere at my Dad’s house. That’s some “vintage”stuff! Yes we own the Gigolo plans and based on interest, we can re-release going forward.

With Airtronics reputation in gliders, including sponsoring many of the best pilots in the world including Skip Miller and Cody Remington, the idea of getting back into the category and selling
Airtronics gliders is intriguing. .

As this is a category that we are not presently supporting, you may find Skip Millers website interesting. Click here. One other thought… you ought to tell him since we don’t have sailplanes. Skip is introducing many new sailplanes and is one of the most knowledgeable and good guys in the hobby.
AND since you like sailplanes. be sure to check our the PREMIER glider radio, the SD-10G.. THE radio flown by ALL 3 members of the
2010 F3J World’s team and the 1st and 2nd place winner of unlimited at
Visalia this year! Yes, I’m bragging.

(From Mike) One of our other pilots, who was in the top 5 at the Junior F3J worlds in
2008, AJ McGowen, (still a teenager) took 1st in Discus handlaunch
sailplane at Visalia. What made it great was that in the final round
flyoffs, between the two people with the best scores (he and the guy that
ended up 2nd), he flew the entire round with the airplane inverted and had
a special flight mode setup on his SD-10G so that the airplane still flew
well even when inverted! INCREDIBLE!!!

We understand the great interest in sailplanes and with Airtronics releasing radios that lead the industry and designed to make flying better, and the fact that we have the hobby’s best advising us, I believe our selection will improve and we will better serve you in the future. For now, we will work with Airtronics to make more servos to serve you.

Take good care and thanks for the great interest.

Matt

Customer Comment

Last night I received a really nice response to one of my posts. Below you will find Jason’s comments, and my answer.

(From Jason) Hello I first off wanted to say thanks for the great support and awesome selection of hobbie goods. I have been into RC for a long time. Not to long ago there was only a few hobby shops and the prices were a lot higher. I have been talking with a few of my friends who buy a lot of hobby goods from hobby people and we all agree there needs to be better batteries. One of the things I like about hobby people is I can go there and get instant gratification and buy what I need in the store. But when it comes to batteries I have to order them and wait a few days to get them. The reason I do this is because I can’t get a high C rate (30/60c) battery at hobby people. These high C rate batteries can charge a lot faster and put out a lot more power. The difference is so big that my friends have been asking me where I get those batteries. I leave this post in hopes that hobby people will start getting better batteries and I can once again get every thing I need in one place.

I wanted all of our customers to know that we are committed to offering lipos that are not only of superior quality but also at great prices. We have been testing a lot of cells and we believe we have found a top company to supply us lipos that achieve our specifications. We will have a huge line of lipos to fit our customers needs. We hope to finish all testing within the next 10 days, and then hope to have stock by mid December.

Additionally, we have testing many chargers to best serve our customers and have brought in many from Hobbico. To add to our selection, the new Propeak Cavalier is now in stock, and has been a huge seller because it is the best value we have seen in a charger. A tremendous charger with features modelers want and a price that will impress. We will be adding more of the Propeak Chargers to our selection and we should be receiving stock within next 60 days.

As we list these cells, I will let you know so you can review them on the hobbypeople.net site.

Jason, thank you for the great comments, and know we are working to solve this issue. Take good care, and great modeling.

The Electric Revolution is in Full Swing

As I am sure many of you are experiencing, the flying fields and tracks have been flooded with electric power. Over the past few years, there has been a huge push from glow to electric, but the past 6 months have been nothing less than amazing. On the car side, it seems that new brushless systems and RTRs are being released daily, trying to catch up with the already more mature electric airplane movement. We are seeing explosive (no pun intended) increases in battery capacity, both in Lipo and NiMh, and as happens in a dynamic market, prices coming down. Competition is fierce, with the best values in performance making faster cars and airplanes far more economical.

The pilots at Hobby People have been very active testing lots of new airplanes, with lots of battery and motor combinations. The hard core are constantly pushing the envelope, with higher performance discharge batteries and incredibly powerful motors, while trying to find the most efficient prop. RC has always been a brain game, challenging the modeler to think outside the box to get the best performance most economically. We have been very lucky to work with many of the Airtronics Flight Team and they have been greatly helping us with testing, performance benchmarking, and seeing what peak performance in the hands of an elite pilot can really do.

Our sponsored Airtronics Drivers have been sending us equally impressive information. While I think my driving skill might cause some to want to take away my license, my son and I have been racing a HPI Savage Flux, which is a brushless 1/8 Scale Monster truck. This is one powerful and incredible fun truck that has been designed to withstand the rolling, crashing and all out beating from people like me, who are as likely to only have 2 wheels ever on a jump at a given time and end up rolling, twisting, flying around the asphalt.

With the incredible interest in electric, we are going to be releasing lots of new airplanes and cars that will peak your interest. Please know that we are also intensely focusing on supporting all of our glow fans. The great think about the hobby is that it is never a either/or option, it is more of a let’s do both.

This holiday season promises to be a hobbyist’s heaven, so much product that will perform better than anything the hobby has seen before, at great prices too. Hobby People is releasing many new helis, cars, planes, batteries, and charges that will bring the hobby to new heights. Be sure to visit your local Hobby People store, or come to hobbypeople.net to see all the new stuff today. Take good care, and we will look forward to seeing you soon.

Hobby People brings in 40 new airplanes

I hope your flying season has been successful and really enjoyable. Over the past few weeks we have been surveying our customers to ensure that we are offering the best products. Based upon the feedback, we realized that our customers want more choices in their airplane selection, and as the saying goes, your wish is our command. We have added over 40 airplanes in just the past 10 days, click here for the RC Glow section, and click here for the Electric Section. The new planes are Glow, electric, giant scale, park flyer and everything in between.

One other suggestion that we received was a request that we lower our 1st Class shipping option. We have seen a huge increase in small orders, in all categories, and our customers asked us to save them more $$ on shipping, so we have done just that. Effective immediately, the Hobby People 1st Class shipping option will be at $3.99.

To all those who gave us their suggestions, thank you and great modeling.

Phase3 Squall

If you love jets, check out this video on youtube. Click here: The video was shot in the UK by our friend and business partner of the new Phase3 Squall.

We should have information and static shots of the Squall on the website in next few days, and stock should be arriving within the next 10 days.

I think this is a must have airplane for airplane lovers.

Enjoy.

Airtronics and many new BH models

I apologize for the complete lack of posts lately, but unfortunately life got in the way.

Here is an update of new products recently released, Airtronics has just released the new Mx-Sport 2.4g Computer 3 Channel car radio and it is a real game changer in the hobby. Never before has there been such an affordable, feature packed radio for $99.99. We just received our 1st shipment and demand has been off the charts. Click here for details as we will most likely run through this shipment within next 10 days. More will arrive mid August.

Airtronics has also just released the new 7 channel full range receiver at a really affordable $76.99, but now on sale at hobbypeople.net.

On the airplane front, check at the new BH model planes, like the gigantic T-28, which will be featured in the October MAN (Model Airplane News). Click here for info on BH models. Know that we will have proper information on these models in the coming days.

Finally, I must say I am really impressed with the hobby industry in general, as there are so many new products being released. In difficult economic times, many industries go into hibernation and just shut off their R&D, but not the hobby industry. So many items that make the hobby more interesting, more affordable, and more fun are being released, and I am sure are making life better for so many of our customers. Just know there are a lot more to come, so keep enjoying the hobby. Click here to see new items.

Take good care.

Matt

SD10G, M11X, and receivers

To all you Airtronics fans, I have great news. I have received confirmation from the factory that our shipment of SD10G the newest and finest 10 Channel radio we have ever tested, and the M11X which is the fastest, most feature packed car radio in the world have shipped by air tonight. This is our 3rd shipment of the M11X have almost sold out this shipment like the first two. Receivers are coming as well. The not so good news on the SD10G is that we will not be able to fill all orders with this shipment. Airtronics is working around the clock to build these radios so we can support all of our customers. Thank you again all you Airtonics fans, I think you will be excited as we are to receive your new radios.
For all you you who have yet to order, be sure to ask your dealer to order 1 for you, or go to www.hobbypeople.net and backorder one today.

take good care,
Matt

Electric vs. Nitro

Over the past few years the interest in RC electric airplanes, helicopters, and cars has grown steadily. However, in the past 12 months, the transition has exploded. Every day the percentages of electric compared to nitro grows. I understand the interest in electric, but I am surprised by how quickly the transition is occurring. So, I am asking all of you who read my blog to let me know what they are using, and why. Personally, we are running electric trucks now, and were running nitro a few years ago, but my son and I will have a nitro buggy as our next project. We are interested in the brushless electric, but for now, the nitro fascination is calling us.

Take good care, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Matt