MyTrickRC's Scale City History

We just wrapped up Proline By the Fire 2023, in Apple Valley CA.  At events where we bring out the Scale City people always want to learn more about it, as it's a very popular attraction.  The City had humble beginnings, and really started with the MyTrickRC Shop, or "Epic Shop" as we affectionally call it.  The Epic Shop was built in early 2018 and started out as backdrop for shooting pics and videos of our new lighting systems.    Construction took several months and was build by just two people, Dan Thompson (MyTrickRC's founder) and Rawb Ashby who was an employee at the time.  On a dare, Rawb challenged Dan to bring it to Proline By the Fire that year, but it wasn't even close to being finished and it didn't even have a Roof yet. 

A few months after Proline By the Fire was Axialfest.  Axialfest was, and is, considered one of the ultimate West Coast RC Crawler events located in California due to the incredibly scenic mountain backdrop, ideal scale terrain, and  location near Lake Tahoe.  Considering the natural beauty of that location, and in an effort to expand our marketing, MyTrickRC decided to sponsor one of the crawler trails and planned to build some excellent photo-op prop buildings to be placed along the trail in strategic locations for people to take pictures.  The original building set consisted of the Epic Shop, Hardware & Surf Shop, Bank, Coffee Shop, and Bridge.  However, once arriving at the event we quickly discovered that the large size, and weight, of the buildings was impractical to place along the trail.  So instead we setup a mini Scale City at our campsite which was near the vendor area of the event.  This was the beginning of the scale city.

The 2019 Proline By the Fire was just one year since the introduction of the Epic Shop, and is when Scale City really happened for the first time.  With the help of a few local RC enthusiasts, the Bear Brothers family and one of thier family friends, MyTrickRC constructed a set of roads, sidewalks, and street lights.  The "Real" Scale City had arrived!  in addition to the roads, Dan built another building, Murphy's Pub which was very well received indeed!  The addition of the Pub really filled out the core city. 

Let me take this moment to say, in addition to MyTrickRC's core city, numerous other amazing people have constructed buildings of their own, and added them to the City.  Everything from Carnivals, to Back to the Future Clock Tower, Dairy Queen, Gas Stations, and many others.  The RC community is filled with some incredibly talented people and their work should also be noted and appreciated.

The Scale City was born!  The experience of the Scale City is difficult to explain, it's surreal, enigmatic, and magical all at the same time.  It really must be experienced to be fully appreciated.  Its the thing I dreamed of when I was a kid, an interactive Legoland in some sense.  How cool.

During Covid the Scale City sat dormant and didn't appear again until Proline By the Fire 2021.  Prior to that event, we decided to add more interior detail to the buildings, and really complete each building the way we originally intended.   We added things like curtains to windows, 4-way Traffic Signal, clear windows, hanging lighted chandelier in bank, a psychic with glowing crystal ball, and of course, a Sushi Shop!  The only building addition in 2021 was a small Fire Station and a Spooky Graveyard.   

Another little known aspect of the Scale City is that the lighting features found within the Scale City are powered by MyTrickRC LEDs and Controllers.  We wanted to showcase the power and flexibility of our Controllers.  MyTrickRC Controllers can be used for more things than RC Cars, Trucks, Planes, and Boats!

When 2022 Proline By the Fire came around, our feeling was that the Scale City had gotten bigger than we ever expected, and now logistics of transporting it to events became a challenge.  So in 2022 we shifted gears and tried something different, and instead of carrying the whole city, we just built a Castle!  Of course we couldn't make a small castle, castles are big.  So we tried our best to build a "small" castle.  We chose lighter construction materials which was great, but the massive size totally took away the benefit of light weight.  Also it turns out, the Castle didn't fair well, it got really banged up and needed significant repairs after the event.

Indeed the castle still has a magic and charm of its own, but not as much as the Scale City.  It is a cool prop, and several of the Show and Shine winners asked to park their trucks there Trucks with it.  The magical space of the interior, really channels the vibe of medieval times, you feel it when you peer inside. 

We got some amazing vehicle pics in there, but some of my best memories were when several different children crawled inside to get a better view, and feel the vibe with flickering candles in the corridors and around the throne area.  The Dragon statues, racks of medieval weaponry, and themed banners complete the picture.   

 We're not sure what the next improvements or additions to the Scale City will be, but the Epic Shop will always be at the forefront in our minds as the seed that grew into the Scale City. 

In closing, we want to thank the support of the Proline//Horizon Team for making Proline By the Fire and Axialfest possible!  Without those venues the Scale City wouldn't event exist.  We look forward to expanding to the Scale City, and seeing where it goes from here.