As you may have caught in our recent Facebook Live video, I’m leading the charge here in the Shapeways’ New York office to delve into the RC Car world. We have a huge community of designers modeling accessories for everything relating to RC, and we can’t wait to try out some of their creations on our own car.

After some initial research to determine which type of RC car I wanted to hit the (off)road with, my heart was set on the Axial SCX10. But, as it turned out, they were really, really hard to find (factory drama, as you all know). I swung by a number of hobby shops, and folks kept recommending I pick up the Traxxas TRX4 Land Rover Defender. Eventually, after a lot of phone calls, I found  an RC shop in New Jersey (shout out to cool folks at Shadow Hobbies), where I had the chance to choose between an Axial SCX kit or the Traxxas Defender RTR.

Between being intimidated by the kit-building and having been consistently hearing that the Traxxas’ performance was incredible right out of the box, I went with the Defender. It’s an expensive car, but it’s also a reliable model that I can confidently run and take to crawler events (I’m tackling Conquer the Giant in August).

 

 

Of course, I’m still curious about how the Axial SCX10 stacks up against the Traxxas, so I checked out a few comparison videos on YouTube (the one below is especially well done), and it seems like the Traxxas TRX4 is going to give the Axial SCX crawlers a run for their money. If you’ve tried out the SCX10, definitely let us know in the comments. I’d really want see them go head to head (bumper to bumper?) in real life.  

I’m psyched to see how my Defender holds up to my driving and mods. Because image is key, I’ve bought a clear Axial SCX10 body to paint and will be ordering some 3D printed RC car accessories from our marketplace. I want my Traxxas to be memorable down to even the smallest detail. The first ideas? Pink beadlock rims and a custom license plate that says “CAR4ANTS.” I know it’s an extra letter but I’m going with it anyway.

As an aside, since there seem to be several styles of rock crawling, I’m excited to take this tiny car outta the big city. Our community manager Andrew wants to take it out and slowly tackle some serious terrain. I want to jump it off stuff and drive it through some mud. Keep an eye out for more Facebook Live videos and our YouTube series. We’re going to get a little (actually, a lot of, if I have my way) mud on these tires!