Hobby Outlook Vol. 3 Issue 1

HOBBY

OUTLOOK YOUR HOOK-UP TO THE HOBBY WORLD | March 2012

INTRODUCING THE

Ultra Micro, Ultra Awesome Ares MD500D CX 100

INSIDE:

Blade mQX, Associated SC10 4x4, Lego Heroica: Fortaan, HO-Scale Engine Review, Pinewood Derby Tips

Exclusive Interview

BASHING ON THE GO

Modding the Helion Dominus 10SC

Pro Tour Magic Player and Editor of Channel Fireball, Luis Scott-Vargas outlook

outlook Editor-in-Chief Lauren Larsen laurenl@hobbytown.com

Design Kayla Lounsbery Writers Cody Carlson Brandon Halvorsen Lauren Larsen Bill Launius Jr. Kayla Lounsbery Tim Mohr Dave Nolte Craig Trachten Special Thanks Big Squid RC Bill Launius Jr. Luis Scott-Vargas Craig Trachten

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Hello Hobbyists, It is hard to believe we are already approaching March 2012.

Spring has “sprung” in Nebraska and winter is on its way out. My parting words to the blustery weather? Sayonara, adios and good riddance. Bring forth the sunburns and outdoor hobbying!

With the year already ¼ of the way over, I’ve been thinking a lot about making this year count. Bright-eyed and optimistic – that’s how I’m moving forward. Are there any New Year’s resolutions set in place for Hobby Outlook?

Absolutely.

Here is how we intend to better ourselves is 2012: • Be relevant. We will be your source for the latest in industry news.

• Be helpful. We promise to provide tips to help you better your craft and teach you more about the topics you love.

• Be active. We’ll find events and cover them – for you.

• Be fair. Your interests are diverse – we understand and will work hard to cover all types of hobbies.

• Be humble. We are nothing without our loyal followers.

We are thankful for your readership and will fight hard to keep your support.

We appreciate you.

We respect your hobby.

We admire your passion.

In the words of Dr. Suess, “Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.”

Happy hobbying,

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Lauren Larsen Editor-in-Chief

Index

Outlook Spring 2012

IN THIS ISSUE COVER STORY

6 Ultra Micro, Ultra Awesome

Ares MD500D CX 100 EXCLUSIVES

12 Bashing on the Go

Modding the Helion Dominus 10SC

16 Team Associated SC10 4x4

A Powerful RTR for Dirt or Street

22 HO Alco S4 Diesel

Bachmann's DCC Sound-Equipped Engine

24 Luis Scott-Vargas

Exclusive Interview with a Magic Pro REGULARS

4 Hobby Talk

Best Part of My Local HobbyTown USA®

5 Hobbies in the News

National Model Contest

8 Craig’s Pick

Blade mQX

28 HTUniversity

Pinewood Derby® Tips

30 Gaming Corner

Lego Heroica, Fortaan

22 HO ALCO S4

Sound of Fun

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Ares MD500D CX100

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Free Hobby News!

Associated SC10 4x4 outlook

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Hobby Talk

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numbers

HOBBY TALK

# of Dominus mods detailed

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# of tips for a faster Pinewood car provided by Derby Worx

The following comments are responses to one of our daily status updates. Want to participate? Get connected below and be a part of the Hobby Talk!

The best part of my local HobbyTown USA® store is .

They're there with the goods when I need them.

-Mark The family-like atmosphere!!!!

-Stacy Aaron Mermin, the greatest R/C manager ever!!

-Ellen They have everything you need.

-Chris

The friendly, helpful staff, and all of the cool & unique inventory. I can always find great stuff other places don't have.

-Jennifer Definitely the helpful staff and all the cool inventory. Great place for all kids young and old.

-Kevin The HUGE variety!

-Andy

GET CONNECTED TODAY To get in on all the “Hobby Talk” and stay connected, check out our Facebook page. We answer and post questions daily. We’ll also keep you up-to-date on the latest hobby news!

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The best part of my local HobbyTown USA® store is the owners & staff & the model cars & trucks & the model trains too, in Springfield, MO! -Nicholas The people.

-Jerry The staff in Gainesville are a great team. Eric and Alan are the best.

-Bobby

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# of active links in this issue

Hobbies in the News

Hobbies in the News Model Contest Season is Upon Us! Modelers assemble! National Model Contest season is upon us. During the month of April, several HobbyTown USA速 locations will be hosting model contests where customers who place will be eligible to compete in a national modeling competition. The winners of the national competition will receive a $250 HobbyTown gift card, honorary plaque and national attention. This year, HobbyTown will also be hosting a People's Choice Award online through Facebook. Fans will vote on their favorite model and the winner walks away with a $250 gift card. Let the spirit of friendly competition begin! For more information, stop by your local HobbyTown or check out the Facebook page.

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, o r c i M a r t ! l e U m o s e w A a r t l U

Review

n o s l r y Ca

d o C y B

Get a closer look at the Ares MD500D CX 100 online by clicking here!

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Review

I must admit, I was pretty excited when I was asked to review the new Ares Ultra-Micro MD500D CX 100. I have had a chance to play around with this model a few times since its release and have enjoyed every minute of it. The CX 100 comes loaded with features that distinguish it from the other ultra-micro scale coaxial helis out there: from its great MD 500 scale body to the myriad of small details built into the platform, the CX 100 is overall a great value and an awful lot of fun to fly.

The very first thing you notice about the CX 100 when taking it out of the box is the body styling. This heli just looks good; the body is a scale model of the MD500 helicopter (the civilian version of the US Army’s OH-6 “Little Bird” scout helicopter) used by police forces across the country. The tough plastic body of the CX 100 comes in two color schemes (blue and red), and the box includes a decal set with the markings to make a police, fire or news helicopter.

In order to maintain the scale look of the model, the CX 100 also comes with a battery compartment accessed by a retractable door on the underside of the fuselage. To plug the battery in, you simply lower the battery door, slide your new battery into the connector and close the door back up leaving the battery secure and the scale look of the model intact.

CX 100's stability and ease

of use also stand out. Now the stability of the coaxial platform is a well-known fact of life in the R/C heli world, but the CX 100 has a few characteristics that really make it special. From the first flight, it is easy to feel just how smooth both the throttle and directional control are. The CX 100 is by far the easiest micro heli to fly that I have seen yet, able to hover at a lower throttle setting than the other models I have had the opportunity to fly, as well as possessing a much more forgiving throttle control than most. The Ares CX 100 also comes equipped with a four-channel 2.4 GHz radio with a digital display making it extremely easy to see at a glance what your trim settings are when flying your model. The CX100 is the only ReadyTo-Fly ultra-micro heli to come with this feature.

Altogether, the Ares Ultra-Micro MD500 CX 100 is a solid machine wrapped in a high-quality and very good looking body. With top of its class features, and all around quality of its components, the CX 100 easily beats out many of its more expensive cousins in the ultra-micro heli market. Packed full of innovations like the retractable battery door and digital radio display, as well as the inherent stability of its platform, the CX 100 is an excellent first helicopter for beginners. I recommend it to anyone looking to get into the R/C heli hobby, or even experienced veterans looking for a fun model to fly around the house on a rainy day. outlook

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Review

The mQX

from Blade

By Craig Trachten HobbyTown USA® New Milford, CT

Quad-copters, hexo-copters, octocopters and such have been around for a while: some short kits, some just plans and very expensive RTFs (Readyto-Fly). A friend of mine paid $10,000 for an octo-copter he intended to use for aerial photography. The manufacturer has had it more than he has, trying to make it work as advertised. Most of us aren’t out to spend thousands, we just want something that flies as advertised and that we don’t have to take out a second mortgage to own. Leave it to the Blade team at Horizon Hobby.

Every time we think, “They reached their limit. Where can they go from here?”

Well, the mQX is where!

The mQX is a quad-copter that anyone who is ready to move up from a coaxial machine can fly. If you are already flying an mSR or a 120SR, you will be scooting around the room or sky like a pro in minutes. The mQX is available in two flavors, RTF and BNF (Bind-n8

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Fly). The RTF comes with everything that is needed for flying, including the 4-AA batteries for the transmitter.

A 1S-500mAh LiPo and variable rate charger with A/C adapter supplies the power for the mQX. Extra blades are provided. A unique feature of the mQX is it can be flown in either an “X” or “+” configuration, the blades are changed (black or white) to help with orientation during flight.

You have to rebind the mQX if you choose to change flight orientation.

It’s really easy to do this. As soon as the transmitter goes into bind mode, move the rudder stick to the left for “X” mode and to the right for “+” mode. The RTF versions come set on “X” mode. Although the “X” mode is more responsive than the “+” mode, I would start out as is. Just press down on the pitch/roll (elevator/aileron) stick until you hear the click to activate the dual rates which will tame the mQX

Review

With two flying configurations, the Blade mQX is primed for indoor fun that knows no limits!

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Review

down. You don’t need me to tell you that once you get comfortable with the flight characteristics, go to high rates.

After flying her around a while with the RTF transmitter, I bound the mQX to a DX7i. I was using a DX6i for all my store demos, but I ran out of model memory. What a shame! I had to break into the showcase for the 7 so I could test the mQX on a different transmitter.

Life's tough.

All kidding aside, as much fun as it was flying around with the RTR transmitter, binding it to a DX6i, 7 or better will allow you to really dial in on your most comfortable flight settings. Since I demo mine in a store with people standing around, I programmed in 40% expo to really tame down the flight characteristics. Outside or in a large indoor facility, I will go full bore. You have the ability to adjust your settings 10

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based on where you are flying.

With the popularity of the reality show “The Biggest Loser” and New Year’s healthy resolutions, we (temporarily I hope) lost our gym for indoor flying. As much as I love flying, I hate the cold more. With the local temps hanging in the 20s and 30s, my flight testing was restricted to the front of my store.

If nothing else, it has proven that the mQX can be flown and is still fun in small spaces.

After the required ogling of the aircraft and a read-thru of the documentation, I loaded the AA batteries into the transmitter, borrowed the flight battery from my 120SR (couldn’t wait to charge the supplied battery) and fired her up. It took about five seconds for the jaws, to drop! I slowly throttled up and lifted to about four inches off the ground, a few blips of trim to stop some drift and there

Review

Click here to see the mQX doing some crazy flips!

she sat! No drift, no ground effect, just rock solid. To keep the jaw wide open, I slowly moved the mQX around using just pitch/role stick. The heading was solid and the altitude didn’t change more than ½ inch from the starting four inches without touching the throttle. I brought her up to eye level then put the transmitter on the counter. She hung there like a balloon on a string.

By now the other flight battery was charged, so I swapped it out to continue with a fully charged pack.

Besides being in confined quarters, I was also hampered by 8-foot ceilings.

Nothing was going to stop me from tooling around and I did have all of 2 ½ - 3 feet of airspace between the top of the shelves to the ceiling (just a visual to illustrate how little space is needed to have fun). I gave her all I could but, could not wring her out.

There are plenty of videos on YouTube and other places on the net to see what she is capable of doing. I flew into my counter, bounced her off the ceiling, I even flew into the peg wall. I have yet to spend three seconds on a repair.

Add durability to the long list of features offered in the mQX. I am a better pilot than photographer; not that I’m a professional in either area. Every still shot I tried to get I tried to get in flight came out like the mQX was hanging by a string. No tricks here.

If you look closely, you will see some blur in the blades.

I really hate to be repetitive since I’ve said this before, but where can the people from Horizon go from here? It seems like it’s all been done. We all know that there will be more and all I can say is; I can’t wait to see what’s next! Have fun; fly safe. outlook

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Guest Columnist

BASHING on the Y I D e j pro ct

GO!

parachute effect.

Venting those area adding holes to the bed side windows and final from the taillight area, a escape.

Modding the Helion Dominus The experts at Big Squid RC know how to make something great even greater. Here are tips for modding the Helion Dominus 10SC.

Drilling pilot holes with

By Tim Mohr Big Squid RC

Reducing the Parachute Effect

The parachute effect happens when air gets trapped under the body causing the truck to hang in the air, or in severe cases, even flip over backward. The key to eliminating this is to cut holes, allowing the air trapped under the body to escape.

The Dominus body comes with several areas ripe for being vented. Helion included scoops on the front fenders, hood, behind the cab and on the sides of the truck. All you have to do is cut out the backsides of these scoops, thus allowing air to escape and reducing the 12

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Use body scissors to trim

Use hobby knife to stra

Guest Columnist

as, plus three others, d area, then cut out the lly remove some lexan allows even more air to

body reamer.

Finished example.

Creating the holes is simple and cheap; you can use a Dremel or a body reamer along with body scissors and a hobby knife.

After these few simple steps, your Dominus will fly much better in the air. The results will be instantly noticeable, and landing those big jumps will be much easier.

More Example Vents

m to size.

aighten lines. outlook outlook

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Guest Columnist

Installing Street Tires, Setting Camber and Ride Height If you aren’t always in the dirt with your Dominus and want to have some fun on the street or in parking lots, there is no reason to tear up your off-road tires. Here are some simple tips to make your Dominus a little more onroad friendly.

Our choice for best street tires for any short course truck is very easy: Pro Line’s Street Fighters (part #116701). The Street Fighters give excellent traction, look great and last a long time.

The factory rims on the Dominus use the standard 12 mm hexes, but are a slightly different off-set than anything else on the market. After looking at virtually every rim on the market, we mounted the Street Fighters up to Pro Line Split Six bead-loc wheels (part #2715-04), shown below.

These are the same off-set as Slash 4×4 rims, and while they make your truck slightly wider than the stock 14

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Helion rims, they don’t cause any clearance problems and look great on the Dominus. An added bonus from the Pro Line bead-loc rims is that the tires don’t have to be glued on; you simply tighten up the bead-locs and you are ready to rock.

Next on the agenda is properly setting the wheel camber and the truck's ride height.

First up was the camber, which was easily accomplished using an RPM Camber Gauge (part #70992). Our Dominus came out of the box with zero degrees of rear camber, and +1 degrees (top of the tires were angled outwards) on the front. Using the RPM camber gauge, I set the rear camber to -2 degrees (top of the tires angle inwards) on the rear, and -1 on the front to improve mechanical grip in the corners.

The ride height on the Dominus is set up for true bashing out of the box. The drive bones are way above level, both front and rear. To gain corner speed you can lower the truck to where the drive bones are just above level. On the rear this was easily achieved by removing the stock pre-load spacers.

Guest Columnist

The front of the Dominus was harder to lower as it didn’t come with any pre-load spacers to remove. You can cut one and a half coils off (shown below) the front springs to bring the front ride height down to where you want it.

You can do all this in under a hour.

Once you are done you will notice a

big improvement in the steering and cornering traction, as well. Shown below is the finished product, ready for the streets.

So now you are ready for big air or street action with your Dominus. Both sets of mods will make a big difference in the feel of your vehicle. Now get out there and have some fun!

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R/C Gear-Up

Team Associated's

SC10 4x4

By Brandon Halvorsen

The Team Associated SC10 4x4 is a high-end RTR (Ready-To-Run) that is ready for the track. Upon unboxing, I was impressed with the quality artwork on the body and the fit and finish of all the parts.

After the first run, I was even more impressed with its performance.

This truck uses a composite modular chassis that is designed for a low center of gravity and low polar moment. Directional inputs are immediate and precise. The first thing I noticed was the slick chassis design. All the components are not just screwed together but formed to one another. Secondly, the battery compartment uses a clever cam locking mechanism to hold the battery in place. The suspension system uses big 13mm aluminum bodied shocks complete with rubber boots over the shafts to keep dirt and debris at bay and low friction X seals to provide smooth and fast suspension action.

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More than a pretty face, this truck has great suspension and durability, for the track or driveway.

Check it out here!

R/C Gear-Up

Report Card: SC10 4x4 RTR Good

Great

Awesome

Suspension: Appearance: Electronics: Speed: Durability: outlook

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R/C Gear-Up

The body is officially licensed and is modeled after a championship winning full scale race truck. It is an excellent, high-quality body with great detail and appearance. The wheels are also officially licensed replicas of KMC racing wheels with aggressive short course racing tires.

A unique dual gearbox drivetrain coupled together with belt drive for smooth and linear power delivery is used. The belt is a full 5mm wide to handle all the power and has proven very reliable. Additionally, it has tension adjustments minimizing maintenance time. Associated also incorporated a decoupled slipper clutch design

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that lets the front and rear drive to slip independently. This allows for maximum traction at all times. For durability, the SC10 4x4 uses a unique two gearbox design with sealed fluid filled differentials so it is easy to tune handling to your liking. The drive shatfs are CVA’s with captured drive pins and 6mm drive axles. Everything rides on high-quality ball bearings. This increases the efficiency and decreases the maintence when compared to more inexpensive bushings.

The radio is a 2.4 GHz XP3-SS 3-channel radio system with a high torque metal gear steering servo. It has exponential and trim adjustment. This

R/C Gear-Up

allows you to dial in both less and more steering and throttle. The metal gear steering servo is a nice touch that adds durability and performance right out of the box. The ESC tray is easily removed for maintenance and cleaning.

The SC10 comes with a Reedy 550SL 4 pole brushless motor. The SC1200 speed control already has a cooling fan installed for hot days and hard running.

This setup provided excellent power and was exceptionally smooth.

To power the truck, Team Associated included a Reedy WolfPack 3400 mAh 7.4v 35 C LiPo pack; this battery is sold separately. It provides a great punch, good speed and nice runtime.

Plus, it fits securely and tightly in the battery compartment. The pack comes prewired with a Deans connector and the popular XH style balance connector so it can easily be charged by most LiPocompatible chargers without having to purchase an adapter.

It drives and handles great. The SC10 will be just as at home on the track as your driveway. It is easy enough to use and comes with such great instructions that a complete novice should not be intimidated by it. For the more experienced enthusiast or racer, there are plenty of adjustments and performance upgrades available to keep everyone happy with their purchase.

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Find the HobbyTown USA速 location nearest to you.

With over 150 franchises nationwide, you can find us just about anywhere.

s

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Store Locator

CT

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EDITOR’S PICK

introducing the

HO Sound Value Alco S4 Diesel

Features: • DCC sound-equipped • Operating dual directional headlights • Die-cast chassis • Die-cast fuel tanks and underframe • Die-cast gear tower • E-Z Mate® Mark II couplers

The Sound of Fun! Alco’s 1,000-horsepower S4 switcher was the fourth entry in the company’s highly successful “S” series of diesels. Their sturdy construction and ease of maintenance made them popular with a wide variety of railroads. The DCC sound-equipped S4 includes our Sound Value SoundTraxx® diesel sound package with prototypical prime mover, three airhorns, short horn and bell.

Alco S4 Diesel (DCC SOUND VALUE-EQUIPPED) • • • • • • 22

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Item No. 63201 WESTERN MARYLAND® (speed lettering) Item No. 63202 SOUTHERN PACIFIC #1474 Item No. 63203 NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM P&LE #8662 Item No. 63204 ATSF #1528 (zebra stripe) Item No. 63205 UNION PACIFIC® #1156 (Dependable Transportation) Item No. 63206 ERIE #529

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Interview

ated r r e d n u t s mo time card of all

Dossier 286

"Magic Man" Hobby Outlook investigates Luis Scott-Vargas: Editor of ChannelFireball.com and one of Magic's most familiar and experienced faces.

Outlook: According to the website ChannelFireball.com, you have the highest lifetime match win percentage amongst current prolevel players and 286 lifetime Pro Points. Your Pro-Tour debut date was in 2004. Clearly, you’re a very experienced player. When did you start playing Magic? Do you remember your first game? Most importantly, did you win?

LSV: I started playing Magic in 1994, and I, in fact, lost my first 24

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game. My friend and I just played two starter decks of Revised against each other, every card in the deck, and apparently his was a little bit better.

Outlook: At the Honolulu Dark Ascension Pro-Tour, you played five rounds before dropping with a 1 and 4 record. Obviously not what you expected. In an interview given on Channel Fireball about the ProTour, you said you had a great

Interview

deck - not ideal but “extremely well positioned for the Top 8”. In the video, you also said that you tested matchups the night before. How much strategy goes into gearing up for a Pro-Tour? What advice would you give to first time players looking to enter a tournament?

LSV: Testing for the Pro Tour is a pretty different animal than testing for other events, mainly because you have both Constructed and Limited to worry about, as well as the short window between the new set's release and the tournament itself (usually around 2 weeks).

For most events, you can look at decklists from previous events of the same type, or spend a bit longer trying things, but for Pro Tours that just isn't an option. For first time tournament-goers, I'd recommend you try and get good practice in with whatever Constructed deck you are considering. If the event is Limited, make sure to draft the set at least a few times. Practice really is the key, and nobody should go in cold.

Outlook: Launching off of that– can you outline a basic deck building philosophy?

LSV: I tend to lean toward controllish

decks, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that a deck isn't made of good cards, it's made of good combinations of cards. Some of the best decks I've played are filled with the worst cards possible (Tempered Steel at Pro Tour Nagoya 2011 comes to mind, click here), since the synergy between the cards is what really matters. Make sure your deck is focused and has a theme, and find cards that complement that, whether the theme is being aggressive, playing burn spells, or trying to control the game.

Outlook: What do you think is the biggest misperception about Magic for a novice?

LSV: One of the biggest misconceptions people seem to have about tournament play is that you need to be a jerk to get ahead.

This emphatically just isn't true, and the higher up you go in tournament levels, the less you find it, but it is prevalent at local events. I'm not sure why, and I would be happy if this sort of attitude just disappeared.

Outlook: With a ton of titles under your belt, the website and touring, it seems like you’ve got a lot on outlook

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Interview

Want to see more of Louis ScottVargas?

Check out this interview from Channel Fireball!

your plate. Do you still get time to play for fun? Do you play any other CCG, board games, video games, etc.?

LSV: I love to play other games, even if I don't always have a ton of time with which to do so. I enjoy Dominion, Dixit, Ascension, and a number of other board games, though I can't say that I play video games much anymore. I actually used to be a somewhat competitive Street Fighter player back in college, even going so far as to play in tournaments, but it's been quite a while since I've touched the game in any capacity.

Outlook: In the past few years, you traveled all over the world attending Pro-Tours, Nationals and Grand Prix events. From Berlin to Sydney to Lincoln, Ne – you’ve definitely covered some interesting ground.

Which tournament sticks out the most and, if given the opportunity, where would you like to compete again?

LSV: I always love going to the Australia/New Zealand event each year, since it is in such an awesome 26

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location, and one I would never have visited if it weren't for Magic.

I'm even going back this year, and competing at Grand Prix Melbourne for the second time, which I'm looking forward to!

Outlook: Recently, you attended a Grand Prix in Lincoln, NE – or, affectionately relabeled, “Hoth” because of the Star Wars “ice planet” conditions. The term took off when the twitter tag for the event was relabeled #GPHoth. The Magic Community clearly had things to say. The world wants to know – how did that tweet originate?

LSV: I'm to blame for that, as my first response to seeing the landscape upon arriving in Nebraska was to tweet that I wasn't sure if I was on Hoth or Nebraska. It kind of took off from there. I think it was a pretty awesome hashtag, and hope that Nebraska residents weren't too put out; I love poking fun at things, and it made the weekend more enjoyable for me (and hopefully others following the coverage).

Interview

Profile: Drink of choice at gaming event: Black iced coffee

Favorite rule, mechanic, or card design: Flashback

Favorite format to play:

Vintage, because you get to cast insane cards

Game that Holds a special memory:

"Game 4 against Nassif in the finals of Kyoto is easily the most memorable game I've ever played. It's insane, and I'd definitely recommend watching it here."

Favorite Magic set or block:

Champions of Kamigawa block – "The names were just too awesome and the draft format was great."

Hoth n o d rande during t s f I incoln , he L n i (or torm) se s w o a sn take the would items along thre e ive: Kindle d e v to sur be confus o (not t dling), in o odie k h l h l t i a w lfireb carf. e n n a Ch ylish s t s a and

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HTUniversity

niversity est. 1986

A Pinewood Tale

By Bill Launius Jr.

I have always been fascinated by Pinewood Derby® racing! From the time my neighbor came home with his first kit, I could not wait until I was old enough to join the Cub Scouts so I could build a car too. When I became a Cub Scout in the fall of 1975, my Dad and I went to the local scout shop to pick up a kit and get an early start on the car; we just couldn't wait for that race! That car was gold and black, and it was the coolest car ever because my dad and I built it. As cool as it was, it was also fast – faster than everyone’s that year. Little did I know in 1975 what would eventually happen.

As the years went by, we were involved with many cars. Several were mine, but others belonged to cousins, neighbors and friends that we helped over the 28

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years. When my son, Trey, became a Cub Scout it was even more exciting than ever. With the information age in full swing and the internet starting to contain Pinewood Derby® information, we could see there was a thirst for more racing information and supplies.

Today, Derby Worx Inc. is a full time Pinewood Derby® tool and speed supply company with 45 different tools and speed parts, still growing all made in the U.S.A.. Our main focus is on helping parent and child teams do their very best, working together to build cars that are competitive with even the most tool and equipment savvy family.

We look forward to writing derby tip articles in the future for Hobby Outlook.

To get you started, here are five tips for a faster Pinewood car.

HTUniversity

5 Tips for a Faster Pinewood Car Maximize your weight: Make sure your car weighs the full 5 oz.

Material like Tungsten can help maximize weight in a smaller area.

Raise a front wheel off the track: This will reduce friction and rolling resistance by 25% and your car can be aligned to run on 3 wheels.

Make sure your axle holes or slots are straight and square: The axle holes or slots (depending upon your rules) are the foundation of your car.

Wheels and Axles: As nice as the wheels may look, they usually are not round to center and a little truing up will help greatly with your speed. The axles will need a bit of help as well. Remove the burs from both the shaft and under the head, straighten them and polish to a high, slick gloss for maximum performance.

Alignment: Just like your regular car, your Pinewood DerbyÂŽ racer will benefit from an alignment.

You will need a flat level surface (counter top works well) to test your car on. When assembled, your car should roll straight. If not, adjust or shim your axles to achieve a proper alignment.

More advanced builders can use our Rail RiderÂŽ alignment process which will allow the car to be adjusted on all wheels for the fastest possible runs. A detailed video can be found here!

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Review

Heroica is a new series of adventure games that can be played separately or combined! Check out Lego Heroica, Fortaan here!

This issue:

Lego Heroica, Fortaan By: Dave Nolte

There are four game sets in the world of Heroica, of which Castle Fortaan is the largest. You start by constructing the rooms and pathways that will come together to make the Fortaan castle layout. This can take up to an hour for a single builder. Then to play, you combine the rooms with the pathways to build the castle, and set monsters and treasures throughout. Players select from the available characters (a Barbarian, Wizard, Druid and Knight) and place their pieces outside the front door. The Fortaan monsters 30

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are all goblins; Warriors, Guardians and the Goblin King. Turns are taken rolling a special game die, then moving through the layout collecting treasure, potions, keys to open locked doors, and battling goblins that you move next to.

Combat is resolved with a single die roll, defeating the monster and/or losing some “life points�. Life is tracked with your Hero Pack, which also holds player possessions like gold, potions and weapons. When you run out of your 4 life points, you are defeated, and must stop to recharge. Weapons can make your character more effective in movement or combat, and potions can return life points, allow

GAME breakdown Game Time: 20-30 minutes, after initial 60-minute set-up Perfect For: 8 and up, Lego fans and beginning gamers. you to reroll a die result, and have other beneficial effects. In the free-forall mode, the first player to the goal, or to defeat the main monster, wins the game.

This game takes fun to a whole new level because it is desgined with Legos!

The directions have 3 suggested castle layouts, but because you are assembling with Legos, the possibilities are truly endless. The other sets can be combined to make a single huge layout, or played as different episodes in a campaign, where you may keep items like gold or weapons between adventures. They contain additional characters like the Rogue and Ranger, as well as different monsters and terrain. The rules plainly suggest making your own modifications. I played with nephews aged 11 and 8, and they had a great time during our first game, and an even better time during subsequent plays when we applied some of our own rules – like trading defeated monsters for gold, or buying multiple weapons and

Review

Game Play Play can be every-man-for-himself or as single episodes in an ongoing “campaign." The game is quick and simple, and each session can be set up differently.

Strategy The only real choices to make are deciding which character to play with at the start, which way to move on your turn, and possibly which weapon to select or potion to use if you earn them during play.

Set-Up The first-time set-up involves as much as 60 minutes of Lego building, but this is a plus for Lego fans, and subsequent set-up will take only a few minutes.

Overall Lego games have been around for a couple of years now, and they have seemed like a natural direction to go with Lego products.

You get to build something with Legos, then play a structured game with the pieces. This “Heroica” line is proof that the concept of Legos and gaming is a match made in “hobby heaven."

choosing which one to wield before you roll the die.

Overall, we agreed that the Heroica line was a smashing success, especially for someone who already enjoys building with Legos, even if the players are new to the fantasy character game genre. Highly recommended! outlook

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