New Site Format
     As you know
  StampedeProject has
  become way more than
  just Stampede, Traxxas,
  to now include other
  RC brands, accessories,
  and cars. I still don't sell
  anything, I just
  enthusiastically promote
  those RC products I think
  are great.
     Take a look through
  the above links.
  I simply had too much
  information for my
  old site format.
  More fun projects
  coming...
  - Tony

  StampedeProject.com

  Please Private Message
  me Here on the
  Traxxas Forum    

  Copyright 2007
  all rights reserved 

For the Love of Writing

"Tony - You are like the luckiest guy in the world with your site and writing for RC Car.  You get all the free stuff you want for the asking and get paid to do it... "

The truth is far from that statement.  If I had a dollar for every email I receive like this I would actually be making money from this hobby and the on-staff writers for magazines would be millionaires.  The reality is quite different and on occasion more like work.

For the Ego
My dad always said be careful what you wish for and writing in general is definitely in that category unless you are a best selling writer.  I love to write, I have co-authored a book, and write extensively outside the hobby on various topics, but for me writing is the part I covet most about this hobby.   As a "geek with an MBA", I though it would be fun to write for an RC magazine and Stephen Bess (editor or RC Car) was willing to give me a shot even though I had no magazine experience.  Stephen has been really great and has given me tons of trust and an extraordinarily long leash, probably more than any other writer simply to see what my non-mainstream fishing expeditions come up with next.  Although I am not "that" guy, I am like a little kid every time I see my article published.  Call it ego, but it's one of the little highs that keeps the geek in me going.  The funny thing is that although I feel I have reached some important milestones in my life, education, great wife, career, etc., my writing career has been one of my top personal accomplishments. 

For the Money... what money?
Although a little less naive, my hope was that as a contributing writer, article payments and products would somehow offset the costs of the hobby for me. RC Car and my relationship as a Beta tester for a variety of manufactures has certainly allowed me to do some very interesting projects and integrations, but when the dust clears I absolutely in the financial hole from tools, parts, pieces, and equipment.  Let's say you do beg for a new whatever to test, you still may need to go buy a couple hundred dollars worth of parts to make it work. My wife reminded me the other day that since I started writing for RC Car, along with my typical hobby expenditures which shall remain un-accounted, I spent roughly $2000 in tools, $500 on shelving and storage, nearly $1000 on photography equipment, site hosting expenses which are not cheap, $500 for upgraded landscaping for product photos (that she was OK with), and all the stuff on Ebay she doesn't even know about (which was a lot by the way).  She knows those were just the apparent expenses, there is a lot of other stuff that creeps into the shopping cart at Lowes or Home Depot that is clearly a hobby expense. She walked away mumbling something about she could have bought a new REAL car.  [Someone asks] "Yeah, but what about the paychecks?" RIGHT, unless you are on staff, payment will most likely come in the form of products and at the rate of about $50 a page, you do the math... writing for RC sure isn't about the money. 

Labor of Love
My relationship with RC Car magazine has become quite the labor of love which ends up being 95% concept development, photos, writing, editing, wrenching, and researching, 2% writers block, and 3% actual driving and testing - I probably put in 15-20 hours a week just on RC Car articles and another 5-10 hours maintaining this site and hitting my favorite forums. After banging out three articles in the last two weeks, I realized I hadn't driven just for fun in over a month - testing testing testing everything is analytical.  I typically have a couple dozen articles going and with deadlines looming overhead, adhering to magazine formats, staying under word counts, self editing, getting the right pictures, and pulling it all together, writing becomes the hobby for me and can seem like work very quickly if you don't love it.   Honestly, I feel for the magazine staffers, because this is their full time job and at times I know there is more work than fun.

The Price of Fame
Yeah so I get my name in lights once a month and people are starting to know me in industry circles as that brushless fabrication guy, however sometimes it's not all grins and giggles. 

Then there is the target on my back where every idiot with an opinion wants to tell me how much smarter they are or how wrong I was in a write up, or that I am a sell out because this brand is definitely better than... well you get the idea.  Unfortunately the level of maturity in this industry is pretty low.  This is one reason I participate less and less in forums, everyone wants to take a swing at you and it's just not fun.  The forum post that ticked me off the most was regarding a regarding my Castle Creations Mamba Max RC Car article review.  The post become a bitch session and personal attack on me because they couldn't figure out how to set up their cars with the controller and I must have be bought off - one of those imbeciles actually emailed me later for help after flaming me in the post.  There are plenty of people that genuinely ask for help that are nice people, I'll give them my time, the schmucks in the group I will ignore and they can fend for themselves.

Integrity for Sale...
Fun and games aside, I have made a valiant attempt to remain completely un-sponsored and devoid any "advertiser biasing", however I am sorry to say some bias has happened slowly and completely innocently.  As mentioned, the immaturity of the industry and some dishonest behavior ticks us all off.  Some days I get a happy call back, sometimes I am ignored or even bitched at.  Luckily in this industry there are some honest professionals (young & old) who will take the time to call a person back, even if it is to say "we are not interested". 

How rude has it gotten? I actually had one emerging manufacturer tell me that he "didn't really have time to talk with internet review site owners, because we were a very insignificant part of their PR plan."  Another manufacturer bitched me out because he though I was from a competing magazine with very similar title.  Turns out he was guaranteed a good review with the purchase of an advertising contract.  Make a note of how many times you see "most fun ever", "best RC we have tested", and similar logically contradictory statements all in the same issue of magazines. So you thought somehow the RC industry was buffered from bribery, think again?

Some manufacturers don't take criticism very well and others boarder on dishonest. Point out obvious manufacturer flaws or shortcomings in this youthfully operated RC business and it feels more like a bad dating experience.  I have also had more than a couple smaller manufacturers and even a larger very prominent manufacture attempt to bribe me to control the testing outcome on an article - for the record I walked away from those proposed articles in a rage.  From an integrity perspective it's tough to look at those manufacturers the same way again and makes you wonder whether they have always bought their ratings.

The point is when company X blows you off as a consumer, writer, or even as a retailer, no matter what the reason, it does affect how you think about their products and what your buy next time you are at a hobby shop or thumbing through a distributor catalog to fill a purchase order. In my case it does affect my reviews, who I call to work with on my next crazy project, or in some cases articles ideas I just toss because "that manufacturer is just a pain to work with".

Great People
Where the idiots would make me walk away from the hobby from time to time, the wonderful, caring and helpful people I have met through this hobby will bring me back and keep me here for a lifetime.  Thanks to everyone who has sent in fan mail to RC Car and the nice emails directly to me - it keeps me going.  For the most part I think manufacturers are remembering this is a hobby of fun, however as we just saw with Gil Losi Jr's move to Kyosho, sometimes business gets too serious.  Of course some manufacturers are bigger than others, but I see behind the scenes that many are having a blast, developing, marketing, and just having fun. 

It's a small industry where everyone bounces around within.  Talking with some new friends at Pro-Line, HPI, MaxAmps.com, and A123 Racing, it occasionally seems I am the one behind the computer the most and not out having fun. I am happy to be part of the success that the previously unknown ultra premium brushless motor manufacturer Neumotors is now experiencing on the RC Car side of the industry - it feels good to help promote great products.  Some new friends at the restarted Tekin Racing have definitely been having fun that's apparent from their marketing and test videos.  What has been a real blast is getting non-RC companies involved, such as the Garmin and Lawrence GPS, WD40, Hitchi powertools, and even Dremel. These huge companies can bring sponsorship opportunities and long-term stability to our hobby which can elevate exposure to a completely new level nationally and internationally.

Ranting
This is what I love most about the hobby, finger to keyboard, blathering on and on about this subject or that, it never gets boring. 

Overall the good outweighs the bad by a long shot, but product for free and money for nothing is off base by a mile -  I simply love writing and hope I keep you honestly informed and entertained in the process.

Tony - StampedeProject.com