Builder of the Month: Craig (November 2023)

Craig from Victoria, Australia is our November Builder of the Month! He runs an amazing YouTube channel where he tests and reviews RC rigs. Craig's passion for RC cars started when he was young, and he believes that taking your rig out on the trails is a perfect way to de-stress and make new friends. Read on to learn more about Craig!

Boom:

Welcome to the Builder of the Month! Can you tell us about yourself and how you got into the hobby?

Craig:

Hi, great to be here! My name is Craig and I live in Victoria, Australia.

Craig, scoring at ECCF in March 2023

Things that go have always captivated me from my earliest memories. Growing up in the 80s, the state of electric toy cars was changing. Tamiya and Kyosho were releasing crazy new things every few months, it seemed, and the difference between an October 1984 buggy like the Hornet and a 1985 buggy like the Hotshot was staggering. There were trail trucks and monster trucks too, of course - and from even in the 80s, people were experimenting with making rock crawlers out of those. Oh boy, they were out of my reach, but I still went to hobby stores and looked at them carefully, thinking, "One day."

In Australia, Tandy Electronics was a big electronics retailer, part of Radio Shack in the USA. They also had a hobby and toy section, and it was there that I first encountered the Tamiya stuff. Underneath those shiny boxes were also Tandy's own line of gear, including the Red Arrow Buggy - my first hobby-grade RC car. I drove that thing so much! I had a box of spares for it, an entire rear floating axle and motor assembly was replaced, many wheels, and the list went on! I was in a constant state of saving up to buy more gear to keep it running. 

Radio Shack Red Arrow Buggy - my first hobby-grade RC

And then, I found a Tamiya Stadium Blitzer kit that included a Futaba radio, NiCad battery and charger. Awesome, I built that, now in the early 90s, and that was it, I was hooked on RC for life. We camped and traveled a lot around Australia for my parents' work, which involved a lot of time in the bush. I always took some car with me, but really what I didn't know I wanted was a crawler. The stuff that's available today, decades later, is simply astounding, and the BRX01 and BRX02 are part of that top echelon of quality and performance that, for me, epitomise just how far the hobby has come!

Boom:

How did you discover Boom Racing?

Craig:

I read about them online but didn't pay close attention at first, being busy with RC4WD and others. But then Simon, a friend of mine, turned up to a trail run with a BRX01. It kinda blew me away.

Simon's BRX01, running a Scale-1 course

He'd taken a bit of a leap with them, as he wasn't overly familiar with the brand otherwise. He has a low number of them, one of the first batches. Wow, what a machine. I was hooked! I ended up buying one and have since featured it on my website (the BRX01 article is here and yep, the car is a beauty!). Haven't looked back, I love these cars and quality parts.

Boom:

Can you tell us about your Boom Racing vehicles?

Craig:

Craig's Boom Racing rigs, and an RC4WD rig with BRX80 axles under it.

I know this is for a blog, but my videos will tell the full story of each rig if you're interested:

- Here's my BRX01: https://youtu.be/IGvkUnnUKQA

- Here's my BRX02 series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP6qQhzesLdqEDw7a3bcTByETkRWNp24-

- And here's my BRX02 6x6: https://youtu.be/OL8x2ps9HXo

Craig's BRX02 6x6

My BRX02 6x6 is not really finished, but it's 'complete' per the kit. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it quite yet, but it currently looks really pretty on a feature shelf in my office!

The first Boom Racing rig I built was my BRX01, which you can see here:

Craig's BRX01 towing a 3D-printed trailer.

We love to get out and tow with our BRX01 trucks!

Simon also recently built a BRX02. He's ahead of me, as I've got my chassis done but not the body yet. I actually have a polycarbonate 60-series Landcruiser body I'm thinking of fitting to it, as I've got the BRX02 with the full leaf spring kit. I also have the Defender hard body in its box, but I haven't quite been able to bring myself to make that decision yet. I'm leaning toward the Landcruiser!

Simon's BRX02 and Craig's red BRX01

And you should see his interior!

Simon's BRX02 interior. Ooooh yeah!

My BRX02 is drivable at this stage, and it's currently living in my live-stream studio. It gets pulled into frame whenever I want to tell my viewers about how to make a gorgeous and durable crawler - the BRX series of rigs are just spectacular, in my opinion. I LOVE these things.

Craig's BRX02 leaf-sprung chassis on the rocks

Lastly, I have a few RC4WD rigs as well, but I keep breaking the Yota II axles. It's become quite frustrating. I even sold my Beast II, which was a beautiful 6x6 truck, but the links and axles kept breaking and I was so tired of it! For my Gelande II, I've fitted a set of BRX80 axles under it - these are the same ones that come under the BRX02 6x6.

BRX80 axles fitted to RC4WD Gelande II

The body still needs babying on the rocks, but the driveline is now up to the job! 

Gelande II running BRX80 axles

I still haven't decided where to use the Boom Racing Muscle winch, but the RC4WD winch in my Gelande II failed on the first use and so I'm leaning towards that!!

 

Craig:

I'm lucky to be surrounded by quality people. There's a healthy social scene and we're looking to build up the club for more competitive events in and around Melbourne next year. I owe the website an update for the 2024 comp calendar, but this is us: https://melbournecompcrawlers.com.au/

There's a great bunch of folks involved with scale rigs and comp driving in Australia. Check this video out that covers my time at ECCF in March this year in Boat Harbour. It was such a great long weekend on the rocks!

Boom:

What cars or upgrades do you hope to see Boom Racing make next?

Craig:

Just one thing on my wish list from Boom Racing: please, pretty please, give us remote locking diffs in the next version of BRX axles. It would make my scale life complete and they'd sell like hotcakes, mark my words!
Also, I love trucks. If you guys ever consider doing some 1/14 stuff, make it off-road and make it multi-axle. You already have solid driveline components to use and even a 6x6 chassis. How about a comp truck type thing, something that can crawl and trail? That'd be sweet!

I love trucks!

Boom:

Do you have any tips or advice for others in the hobby?

Craig:

Get out there. Bring a spare rig if you can. I actually have a few videos about this very topic (playlist here), as taking care of your mental health and of each other is dear to my heart. Walking a trail with a tiny truck or two is PERFECT social lubrication. You'll make friends, de-stress, and just feel better when you get out there with others and drive an RC car. It's one of the best elements of the hobby, in my opinion.

Thanks Boom Racing, you guys rock. I'm a long time fan and I'll keep sharing my experiences with your rad products on my website and my YT channel, RC-TNT. Thanks for having me on today, I really enjoyed sharing! Cheers :)