wil21lee

What is the best rc magazine
R/C driver
Car Action
Xtreme R/C
Looking to subcribe what good reviews, tips ect.

Nathan

My Feedback: (12)

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/]RCU Magazine[/link]. The best, most complete reviews all for FREE

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

Ya get what ya pay for!



ThunderbirdJunkie keeds

Argess

I like Xtreme RC. Reviews seem a bit more honest and the "Ask the Professor" section is a bonus....LOL. Mind you, RC Driver and RC Car Action are good, have more info, but reviews are always so positive. Of the last two, I'd say RC Car Action is a bit better.

I used to pick up some of the mags every month, however with the proliferation of rock crawlers and electric in general, I've stopped and do most of my research on the net now. This site is very good for reviews as well as the info available in these forums....of course.

T.L.A.R. eng

The magazines seem to be nothing more than advertizing flyers anymore, lots of frills, fillers, bling, etc....very little "real" substance in between the covers.[sm=49_49.gif]

Just my observations.[:-]

Access

I totally agree, I've thumbed through the mags and so much of the time now I just shake my head. The age of the print magazine is pretty much behind us. In addition to the failure to look at bad products with a critical eye (ie. bad product -> bad review), the lag between products are released and reviewed is often too long, and so on.

The Mad Modder

+1 Even poor cars get pretty good ratings. It'd be nice to have a mag with truly honest reviews...

The Mad Modder

I think that the reason RC car action is thicker than RCC or RCD is the ads. That's the reason I stopped getting RCCA.

TIGER76

agree with the guys seems 70% of mags nowadays are ads which are nice to see new products and whats out but apart from the boca girl ads too many ads suck lol

My missus always asks why boca always have some half naked girls showing there products - my answer cos they can

Chris_RC

If a mag had poor reviews and if they would nit-pick everything wrong with it, it wouldn't last more than a couple issues because mfg's would stop advertizing.

Xtreme RC is the best IMO. Derek and the guys are great.

Access

The real problem is timing, the 'lag' between when an article is written and it appears on the newstands is around 2-3 months. So the only way to have a review ready before the product is actually released is to maintain a good relationship with the manufacturer, get those products to review early and write the review months in advance. And if you review a product badly, there goes your good relationship with that manufacturer. This is why I say the age of the print magazine is long over, an internet magazine does not have that lag so they aren't necessarily reliant on manufacturers to get their product to review.

T.L.A.R. eng

I remember years ago, and I'm not that far over the hill, most magazines were worth the monthly wait.

You were privledged to see others interesting projects in the making or completed, and there were many learning articles of how-to and

articles of news worthy things going on in the hobby. Usually there was sufficient magazine content that it was good for a couple of

days leisure reading, and so much to learn!

Now a brief thumb through at the local box-mart magazine isle is enough, so why buy the magazine?

guys2nv

ive subscribed to mostly all the mags-what i figured out is that mags dont do the r/c hobby justice b/c ur just looking at pages of a truck jumping off of a ramp-the best way to enjoy this hobby ive found is to get out there and run um-more fun then lookin at a mag or youtube vids help to. im gonna be getting a slash 4x4 and the mag reviews r good and great pics but u can get on youtube and watch it run in the real world-although my fav parts of mags r the readers rides or project builds

DerekBuono

I've posted this before. The internet has been "mainstream" for about 12 years now. In that time the only thing that changed with magazines is them trying to be a newspaper, or real time news source. The magazines that didn't change to become more of a educations, indepth, entertainment magazine are the ones that "struggled"

Magazines, if you like it or not, provide a relaxing reading experience not clouded with 100s of nameless opinions. There is a value to that, and just relaxing and reading about a subject matter. Aside from the last year when advertising dropped in all forms of media, our magazine has grown every year despite the internet. So those who say magazines are done, really just need to stop sitting on the computer all day, lol.

theRCreverend

I think they're all pretty much worthless in the sense that they never tell the complete story in their reviews. They could review the worst piece of garbage vehicle out there and it would still have a nice write-up. The best source of information is the internet, reading reviews from people who don't have an interest in the product.

SAVAGEJIM

Magazines have done positive things too for the hobby. Sure, some reviews form ALL magazines might be biased in one way or another, but magazines have done things to clear up alot of internet clutter and lay it all out in a nice and concise summary.

Think of shelve magazines vs the internet forums as like the newspapers vs twitter. The forums are full of all sorts of crap, some are true, but alot are also extremely false and way more biased than what a magazine will ever be. And ther is way too much useless banter that go on and on and never seem to get to a direct point. When a mag does a review, it comes to a point and clearly states so. The forums are in most cases just opinions, and oftentimes, very heavily biased opinions far from facts.

Likewise, twiter is full or useless banterings where a shelf newspaper that covers the same story gets to the point based on soposed facts they are able to investigate and verify.

I am not saying that mags and newspapers are not themselves influenced by their own biases, but lets face it, our biases here in the internet forums are way worse. Serious fanboyism flies everywhere. People will pump up a brand like nobody's business and spew lies and exaggerations that are bold face lies just because they are so loyal to their brand. And example is HPI (my first brand choice) and Traxxas (I also like Traxxas for the record). I have seen HPI fans and Traxxas fans literally throwing death threats across the net just because one person has the gaul to say anything bad about the other brand, even if the bad is based on truth and personal experience.


Also, lets do give Derek credit. Especially for his efforts to introduce a standardized means of reporting nitro engine horsepower. If it were not for Derek and BK of Nitrodyne, then all of these lying nitro engine advertisers and sellers would still be hiding behind their lame excuses of "There are too many variables to report true horsepower" when they dare claim that a nitro engine as small as they are can produce as much HP as your lawnmower!

Access

I don't think it was ever a question of forums replacing magazines. It was more free, online 'magazines' like the one on this site replacing non-free, print magazines.

rast4man

My Feedback: (10)

If newspapers are becoming obsolete, magazines are absolutely next. Don't be naive. The Internet is what caused the newspapers to fold.

DerekBuono

Again, we're not NEWS. NEWS is now instant and online. People still read books. The internet ruined things because once it's online people think it's free. Forums are good for many things, and I'm not dumb to think magazines are forums, but forums are confusing and not guided. What many magazines feel is that they will become online versions which will never work because people steal anything online. So therefore it can't be the same as a magazine because it will have to follow the same format. A great example is our Beer Magazine, which we like XRC offer a digital format. IT's now the #1 stolen beer magazine title online with 6-10,000 people downloading issues. The internet and other forms of digital delivery are going to cause the collapse of many things. Music, movies, TV..even the internet which is large funded by advertising (youtube lost like 100 million last year) so when people think the internet is the future...I see i different. Tell me what you do for a living and I'll say forums are better and steal everything...lol.

Online gives you lots of space, and sometime lots of space to just waste space (people don't really read). But lots of the online reviews I've read are actually more favorable and ass kissing than magazines. Give a free kit to somebody online and they will overly love it. IT's free. Do it for a living and you have much higher standards. Just because most people seem to think that the word SUCKS isn't in a review it doesn't point out negatives. But people don't read, or really the read what they want to read and pull out bits that support that.

As I mentioned the internet isn't new, and we're not going anywhere. The only reason we had a tough year was the economy took a dive. major advertisers pulled out of every marketing venue...NASCAR, F1, WRC, Magazines, the internet...everywhere. Our numbers are still growing and we haven't even come close to our potential. So any comment about magazines being dead or worthless are pretty much a reason why they won't be. People online like to think if they say something "shocking" they are more truthful or "telling it like it is".


My challenge of somebody who thinks a car sucks is to review it and point out what sucks....sucks, like looks, are subjective. Things can be "fun" and suck on the track.

And another thing. When somebody asks a question why do forums think it's helpful to not answer the question. Like saying I want to buy eggs...and people say "hey beef is good."

dan42

I think magazines are great! There are pages to turn and you can read reports ,not opinions, on products and events. I also think there is something to be said for the photography in the magazines. The prices of the magazines have gotten a bit steep, which is disapointing and is probably the real reason no one buys them.

burnineyes

Until I get internet in my bathroom Ill always buy the rags.
But seriously its relaxing to read without thousands of 10 year olds telling me how much faster their Tmaxx is in my thread about touring cars.

I think they could be a bit more direct in judging the reviews, but of course manufacturers would not send them the nice new cars to test if they got bad reviews. Im not looking for the word "sucks", but I cant ask them to recommend another vehicle in the same article either. To me it seems like they all do a pretty good job considering the circumstances. If you know what you are doing then you will already know the Evader they gave great reviews to is not your best buy, even if they said it was a good choice. But if you have no idea, then it probrably is a pretty good truck for you to start with.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

Interesting your point of view, because ThunderbirdJunkie has always thought the Evader is a nice truck.

Argess

Oh, I don't know......the diff in a nitro Evader seems to self-destruct quirte easily unless you have it adjusted "exactly right", and even then, keep donuts to a minimum. Not terribly encouraging for Newbies.

oh-oh......off topic.

As someone mentioned above, mags make good bathroom reading. Even with wireless, I don't want to balance a laptop on my knees.

And the Jan issue of Xtreme should be out soon....with all the "Professors of the Year" in it, but of course I only read it for the articles!!!

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

This is par for the course when it comes to ball differentials. Even as a veteran, ThunderbirdJunkie has toasted three diffs THIS YEAR in his AD2 due to misadjustment...which is exactly what Derek was getting at.

Something one person says "THIS SUCKS, it breaks" may be the most durable, and longest lasting part another has ever owned.

Who are the magazines to tell you "YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A-BIG-A-PROBLEM-A WITH-A- THIS-A KAR"? They don't know YOUR skill level.

Jeremy Z

I would probably read here for most stuff, and maybe subscribe to RC Car Action's online subscription. I like that we can read past reviews there without having to keep paper copies of the mags.

The reviews here are very good, but pretty low in volume compared to one of the big print magazines.

One thing I do is go to the local bookstore, buy a tea and a snack in their cafe, and read their magazines. Yeah, I know that is not good because I'm not supporting the mag. But if the mag had more than about 5% that I wanted to read, it might be a different story.