3D Printing technology is here and its popularity is growing rapidly! Printers are being used to create everything from prototypes, to art pieces and of course even RC model parts, basically anything you can imagine being printed in plastic can be. Turnigy saw this rapid growth in popularity and the need to fill the void by offering a 3D printer at an affordable price.

At RC Driver we get to drive a lot of cool vehicles for testing, but there have been times recently where we’ve been jealous of the editors over in our sister magazine’s offices on what they are testing. Lately they’ve been raving over some FPV racing drones coming into the office. We see them testing out new goggles at their desks and flying the racing drones in our parking lot. That of course got our minds working on how we could use FPV in RC cars.

For a few months now, Hobbico has been teasing the RC masses with sneak peek videos of their new release. Vague, super sci-fi looking videos tantalized fans, but cut to the end before any real info was revealed. Well, the news is out and the Nero is about to hit the streets. We, at RC Driver, heard about the truck quite a while ago, but were not made privy to exactly what the details would be.

Nitro off-road 1/8 buggy racing is still a strong competition segment in the hobby and with so many advances has become a battle of equipment along with skill. The battle of equipment certainly means more cost and to some its difficult to pay out to stay on top, so when choosing equipment you have to choose wisely and within your budget.

Outdoor racing is in full swing and it's interesting to see where the classes have progressed to this year. It seems as if the truggy class has expanded from nitro only to both nitro and electric. It appears the club racer may lean toward the electric side, while the devoted competitor still leans toward nitro. I could just be rambling on, but this racer tends to gravitate to nitro and when I saw the 8IGHT-T 4.0...

Heading out on the water during the summer on a real boat in order to simply run RC boats has become a common pastime with a few of my RC buddies. About twice a month, we pack up food, beverages and as many RC boats as we can on a pontoon boat and spend all day in a remote cove just enjoying the model boat side of the hobby. On one trip one buddy arrived with his Pro Boat Blackjack gas boat converted to electric power.

Way back around 2005 we reviewed the Nitro 6 from Truckstop Racing. It was an Associated Nitro MGT that had been converted to a 6x6 monster with the cab of a tractor trailer. It was a beast and a half and was one of the most unique offerings of that era. After the initial review I did a follow up in mid 2006 and treated the truck to a host of hop ups and a new body…this time a pick up truck.

As off-road RC trail truck driving increases in popularity, the demand for vehicle body styles increases and RC4WD has been offering up lots of scale goodness. It seems just a short while back when we reviewed the RC4WD Trail Finder II and the Gelande II Cruiser and now we’ve got our trail truck hoarding hands on one of their newest releases, the Gelande II D110.

Team Energy is quickly gaining traction among the Exceed RC line of vehicles available at Nitro RCX.The new T8X electric 1/8 buggy is no exception to that rule and offers up a hefty dose of beauty and brute force in a single, economically priced package. Building off of the wildly popular G8X nitro buggy

This has to be one of the coolest points in our hobby. Never have we had so many scale offerings to choose from. Axial, Tamiya, Vaterra, HPI and many other companies are working with full-scale vehicle manufacturers on items ranging from bodies to accessories to bring realistic replicas of full-scale products to our scaled-down RC world.

If you just sit back and take a good look at the RC hobby, it’s amazing how many vehicles are offered and then backed up by a seemingly infinite number of option parts. Traxxas is a company with a large selection of vehicle offerings and the majority of those are supported by after market manufacturers. With so much going on around the TRX offerings, it’s no wonder that Traxxas vehicles are often selected to build projects with.

This month’s Backyard may be a little more serious than usual but I wanted to share how I was able to use our hobby for something more than just fun. It really doesn’t take much to convince me to go play with my toy trucks. This past July, however, I had an opportunity to not only play but to support and help bring attention to the Nathan Chris Baker Foundation here in Eldersburg, Maryland.

Several Months ago, I introduced you to Bryan Davies of Port Deposit, MD and his Dash 4 Cash quarter races. Since then, Bryan has taken an interest in scale and trail trucks so he immediately began developing plans for a new event to offer the RC addicts in the area.

So what do tomatoes, bowling pins and mud have to do with one another? Not a damn thing until now! We have your attention right? We can get pretty creative in the RC Driver offices and we’ve come up with a lot of wild project builds, but we wanted to do something that strayed far from the RC norm and that’s when we saw the Tamiya Kumamon DT02 buggy.

With any sport or experience, there are always some who have no problems spouting off their thoughts no matter how good or bad. More often we hear about the negatives and equally as often those who do the talking are …