Traxxas High Voltage Lineup 1996

[Dangeruss]

Traxxas' lineup of recently released electric vehicles from 1996:

Rustler: 1/10 2wd stadium truck released in 1994, spearheaded Traxxas' second generation all plastic platform.

Bandit: 1/10 2wd off-road buggy released in 1995, a narrower track shorter version of the Rustler stadium truck.

Stampede: 1/10 2wd monster truck released in 1994, a lifted version of the Rustler stadium truck with plastic skidplates and tunnel style chassis.

Spirit: 1/10 2wd on-road truck released in 1995, based on the ifs/solid axle Cat chassis from 1987.

[1911Colt]

Is this the official turning point when Traxxas gave up trying to beat AE and Losi at the racing game and decided to focus on basher/fun type vehicles?

[juicedcoupe]

Is this the official turning point when Traxxas gave up trying to beat AE and Losi at the racing game and decided to focus on basher/fun type vehicles?

From a business standpoint, it was a great decision.

AE and Losi are now owned by other companies and Traxxas is a titan. As a whole (not their individual brands), Horizon is their only real competition.

[1911Colt]

From a business standpoint, it was a great decision.

Absolutely! I was shocked when I returned to the hobby and discovered that "good but not good enough" Traxxas basically owns the hobby now. Never mind hobby shops, you can buy Traxxas at the hardware store, the bait shop, the auto repair shop....

As a racer (albeit a terrible one) I had tunnel vision. I only saw who won races, and it usually wasn't Traxxas. Little did I know 99.99999999% of RC vehicles never see a track. It is like real cars. MaClaren and Ferrari fight for F1 titles. Meanwhile Toyota quietly sells a billion Corollas and could buy MaClaren and Ferrari with money from their coffee budget.

[Dangeruss]

Is this the official turning point when Traxxas gave up trying to beat AE and Losi at the racing game and decided to focus on basher/fun type vehicles?

94-95, yeah. To me Traxxas looked at it as an opportunity to "Win on Sunday sell on Monday" that just wasn't as profitable as their other models so they ended their racing program.