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R/C eXpo 2004
Yokomo USA
The hot new Drift cars were on display, including 3 body styles and rep Chris Chan's personal car and a show model. Chris said he has tried many different setup changes on the car, front/rear oneways, etc., but "everything made it worse" versus the stock setup -- the box stock configuration seems to be amazingly well-dialed. The only issue with the drift car product lineup is "drift ring" wear. The rings are molded polycarbonate, and the rest of the tire is vinyl. The rings wear out after a reported 6-7 charges when run on unsealed asphalt (like most public streets). Sealed asphalt such as playground tarmac significantly reduces wear, however, and you can go quite long on actual prepared R/C tracks. The drift tire system even works on carpet.
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Venom Racing
Mini Giants were out in force on the stunt track, strutting their stuff. They were quick and surprisingly nimble. On carpet, they could go up on 2 (side) wheels with ease or flip if pushed too hard. The stock suspension seemed just fine for normal running, though softer springs on a hopped-up model gave a noticeably more supple ride, recommendable for mini-crawling action. You'll be seeing a lot more of the Mini Giant on a URC Network site near you in the forseeable future.
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OFNA
Ofna was showing off their new upcoming truck, the Blazer SST. This vehicle is based on the 9.5 Violator outlaw 1/8th scale buggy (wider than legal a-arms) with new shock towers & body mounts and unique "stadium truck" tires & wheels which fit standard 17mm hubs, but are larger than 1/8th scale buggy sets while smaller than standard 2.6" monster truck units (such as those for the T-Maxx, Savage, etc.). With the large Dominator-style body they're using and the medium-sized wheels/tires, the result is a vehicle which has a well-balanced appearance. The slightly widened buggy platform at the core of the truck should help it to perform quite nicely on tracks as well. Expect to see Blazer SST's heading off to distributors around mid-June.
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Next up in the new product lineup was the Hyper GTP 1/7th-scale onroad car. This new vehicle is the response to critics' complaints that the 1/8th scale Ultra GTP onroads looked out of proportion and "cartoonish." The Hyper is roughly the same width, with Hyper 7-derived suspension, but is significantly longer for a true scale appearance. Evidently Ho Bao designers weren't happy with the amount of unused chassis space this left them with, so to help use it up they installed a 2-speed with an add-on reversing unit. The car will ship RTR and include a 3-channel radio system to cover shifting duties.
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But, wait, there's more! Also on display was the Hyper GP4 and its RTR counterpart. This is an entirely new platform aimed at pushing Ofna deeper into nitro onroad competitive territory than they've ever been. Unfortunately the vehicle is still quite the new arrival, especially on American shores, and the Ofna reps didn't have have any paperwork to distribute nor a sales speech to deliver about it. Hopefully some photos will do plenty of explaining for themselves.
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Adam Drake was hanging around the Ofna booth chatting with Paul Coleman, and I inquired about the Jammin' X-1 CR prototype Adam brought out to the RC Pro Series race at Delta R/C last year. He happily reported that the project is coming along well and is on the home stretch towards production. Most of the one-off parts on The Drake's prototype car have been replaced with production-design pieces. Unfortunately it's still just a tad early to be talking about release dates & such, though.