Builder of the Month: Jim Chou (October 2025)
Boom Racing:
Firstly, congratulations on being our BOTM. Please tell us about yourself, your background, your day job, and what motivates you daily.
Jim Chou:
My name is Jim Chou. I was an '80s kid, so back then I had a friend who would get Tower Hobbies catalogs, and I would just flip through that catalog, dreaming of which RC vehicles I would want if I could get one. I was still in middle school at the time that I was introduced to the hobby, and I remember getting the toy grade Nikko Magnum from the store Service Merchandise as my first RC. I enjoyed driving that thing around, but I was always still wanting a hobby-grade RC. I enjoy building things, so buying a hobby-grade kit appealed to me. Back then, if you weren't a racer, you were pretty much looking around at the fun kits that Tamiya and Kyosho had. Those monster trucks and buggies looked really cool, and they were fairly straightforward to put together with the excellent instructions that those two companies had.
My name is Jim Chou. I was an '80s kid, so back then I had a friend who would get Tower Hobbies catalogs, and I would just flip through that catalog, dreaming of which RC vehicles I would want if I could get one. I was still in middle school at the time that I was introduced to the hobby, and I remember getting the toy grade Nikko Magnum from the store Service Merchandise as my first RC. I enjoyed driving that thing around, but I was always still wanting a hobby-grade RC. I enjoy building things, so buying a hobby-grade kit appealed to me. Back then, if you weren't a racer, you were pretty much looking around at the fun kits that Tamiya and Kyosho had. Those monster trucks and buggies looked really cool, and they were fairly straightforward to put together with the excellent instructions that those two companies had.
I finally picked up my first hobby-grade RC, which was a Kyosho Raider that I ordered from Tower Hobbies, which I still have to this day! It fit within my budget, and it was a fun first building experience! The worst part about the hobby at the time was the batteries! Heavy, slow-charging NiCad batteries with a runtime of about 10-15 minutes, depending on how you drive. Then the 40-minute wait to recharge the battery before being able to run again was so painful! Eventually, I picked up a Kyosho Tracker monster truck (also still have!) with some money I earned while I was in high school, and that was pretty much the start of my hiatus from RC for over 20 years while sports (volleyball), college, and eventually a career in web/software engineering took over. Eventually, I got married and had a son. In 2016, when my son was around 4 years old, I decided to dig out the old Kyosho Raider out of my parents' shed and restore it so that he could learn how to drive it. To my amazement, there was a lot of new tech in the RC world. Radios that were on 2.4ghz and didn't require crystals anymore, brushless motors, and cheaper ESCs! I could do away with the manual speed controller and heat resistor that were still in my Kyosho Raider. By far the biggest change was the LiPo batteries! They were lighter, and the runtime was fantastic! I could drive for really long periods of time before needing to charge, and that was mind blowing to me. I looked around, and a lot of the old Tamiya kits were still available, so I started picking up all the kits that I had wanted as a kid, like the Tamiya Lunchbox, Monster Beetle, Sand Scorcher, and Clodbuster. Around that time, Kyosho started re-releasing their old buggies like the Tomahawk, Beetle, Ultima, and Optima under the Legends line, and I just started collecting those as well. One thing led to another, and I'll go more into detail later, but eventually I just ended up in a situation where I wanted to share the hobby and be helpful to those who are interested and just starting out in RC.
Boom Racing:
What was your first experience with scale RC, and what initially excited you about this aspect of the hobby?
Jim Chou:
I would say the first "scale" RC that I had was a Tamiya TT-01E Volkswagen Golf MKV GTI kit that I picked up because I was driving a Volkswagen MKV GTI at the time. I tried to make it look as close to my full-size GTI as possible. Tamiya makes really nice scale lexan bodies, and I love their on-road lineup because of those bodies. I had sort of an interesting way in getting towards the scale aspect of RC, as far as crawlers go. Believe it or not, my gateway until scale crawlers started with the Tamiya Clodbuster. Somehow, after completing my Clodbuster build, I started to recognize some of the antiquated tech designs and wanted to see if there were any upgrades for it. That led me down to the path of custom frames by Crawford Performance Engineering (CPE), which somehow led me to the RC Forum www.rccrawler.com since they had a Clodbuster section. From there, the wheels turned, and I eventually picked up my crawler, which was a GMADE Sawback 4LS kit. That was where my focus on the scale crawling segment of RC started to grow. I was enamored with the decorative scale aspect of adding accessories, as well as the fact that these RC vehicles were very capable at traversing off-road terrain! Eventually, I just ended up getting crawler after crawler. For a short while, I was really into trying to crawl the most difficult line for these crawlers, but I was never willing to compromise the looks of the RC crawler for performance by making it not look like a real vehicle with aggressively cut bodies or lack of. I started making videos of my crawling sessions, and I discovered that I enjoyed just capturing these scale vehicles moving across terrain as if they were their full-size counterparts. I still like to push my scale crawlers within reason, which is more "Scale-Lining" rather than "Hard-Lining".
Boom Racing:
Can you tell us about your YouTube channel, REVolutionX RC? How did you get started, and what were some challenges that you faced?
Jim Chou:
I started my YouTube channel because I noticed that a lot of RC being sold when I re-entered this hobby were being sold as RTR. There weren't as many kits available as there used to be when I was younger. I thought it was a shame, because building the kit was always half the fun of the hobby for me. In some ways, I would say building is more fun than actually driving them. I thought that if I made these videos, it might help encourage people to start building more kits. Anyway, when I got to my second crawler kit, which was the MST CFX-W portal chassis kit (which was released just before the TRX4 came out), I decided to start making videos of myself building these kits. I felt like it might be helpful for newcomers who might be intimidated by the thought of building a kit. These videos would allow them to see what I was doing and get a general idea of what a kit-building process is like. One kit after another, I started accumulating more videos, and got feedback on how helpful some of the videos were for their own builds. That was rewarding for me, knowing that these were helpful and encouraging users who were attempting to build kits.
One of the biggest challenges I ran into was just the process of making these videos. They take a lot of time, which is hard to manage when you have a young son! I don't have the most polished videos, but they're straight to the point and done from my point of view while building. This setup is also a challenge, because it's really hard sometimes to build properly with a camera in the way, and trying to record yourself assembling something that you may not be in the best position to do in order to make what you're doing visible to the camera.
Boom Racing:
Can you tell us about your very first Boom Racing kit build? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Jim Chou:
My first Boom Racing kit build was the BRX02 Land Rover Series III 88. I actually have a BRX01 with an LC70 body that I purchased before the Series III, but I still haven't gotten around to building it yet. For my Series III, I built it with the cab on. I pretty much built it as specified and added a Hobbywing Fusion to power it, because it saves space, and I need that fine throttle control for my scale videos. I painted the body with Krylon Fusion Matte Ink Blue, which is pretty much my signature go-to color for my scale hard body rigs. For me, the chassis portion was fairly straightforward, having had a lot of builds from different kits under my belt. About the only real time I had difficulty was when I was in a rush to finish the kit in order to take it along with me on a trip. During my painting and assembly of the body, I accidentally made the windshield frame on the Series III body deform because I tried to speed up the paint drying process. Luckily, Boom Racing had spare parts in Arizona ready to ship, so I was able to get replacements in time to finish painting and assembly for my trip (stored in a container to hide the paint smell! lol). Painting in general is always a challenge for me because of the space, prep, and time needed to do it properly, which doesn't always end up being the case for me. The main thing for me is always just making sure I give the paint enough time between layers and not rushing it. Giving the painted parts enough time to off-gas is also important if you don't want to draw the ire of your significant other!
Jim Chou:
My first Boom Racing kit build was the BRX02 Land Rover Series III 88. I actually have a BRX01 with an LC70 body that I purchased before the Series III, but I still haven't gotten around to building it yet. For my Series III, I built it with the cab on. I pretty much built it as specified and added a Hobbywing Fusion to power it, because it saves space, and I need that fine throttle control for my scale videos. I painted the body with Krylon Fusion Matte Ink Blue, which is pretty much my signature go-to color for my scale hard body rigs. For me, the chassis portion was fairly straightforward, having had a lot of builds from different kits under my belt. About the only real time I had difficulty was when I was in a rush to finish the kit in order to take it along with me on a trip. During my painting and assembly of the body, I accidentally made the windshield frame on the Series III body deform because I tried to speed up the paint drying process. Luckily, Boom Racing had spare parts in Arizona ready to ship, so I was able to get replacements in time to finish painting and assembly for my trip (stored in a container to hide the paint smell! lol). Painting in general is always a challenge for me because of the space, prep, and time needed to do it properly, which doesn't always end up being the case for me. The main thing for me is always just making sure I give the paint enough time between layers and not rushing it. Giving the painted parts enough time to off-gas is also important if you don't want to draw the ire of your significant other!
Boom Racing:
What was your most recent Boom Racing project, and what new techniques or ideas did you explore during the build?
Jim Chou:
My most recent completed Boom Racing build was the BRX01 AWB Zil Pickup. It's a fantastic kit with a fantastic body! The kit is built and I've run it a few times, but it is by no means complete! I'm generally into clean resto-mod looks, so I always start off my builds looking clean and simple. If I add scale items, I try to add the right amount or combination of things that won't impact the performance for "scale lining" too much. The next step usually comes with finding a more modern wheel & tire combo, which falls in line with my preferred resto-mod themes. On my 88 Series III, I ran it a few times with the classic skinny tires, but I'm now running black wheels with Class 0 BFG Krawler tires to get that aggressive, meaty look! So far, I really like the stock wheel & tire combo on the BRX01 AWB Zil, but you can rest assured that I'm going to find some nice looking black wheels for it. With the explosion of 3D printing, I'm also creating, designing, or repurposing prints to use on a lot of my rigs as well.
Boom Racing:
Reflecting on your journey so far, what’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt from building Boom Racing kits?
Jim Chou:
As with any kit, it's always a good idea to go through your parts and manual and get familiar with everything before starting your build, despite being really tempted to just rip into the bags and start building away. The kit was really laid out well and organized with parts separated appropriately. Sometimes, a piece of hardware for certain steps might land in a different bag than specified, but that is rare and maybe only happened once or twice. With any build, I always tackle each step by having all the related parts for it out and ready to complete the step, rather than hunting for pieces while in the middle of the step. Don't forget to check the bag of extra parts and hardware included in the Boom Racing kits as well! It's good to know what you have extras of, and that bag has saved me a few times.
Boom Racing:
Is there one build or project you’ve undertaken that you are especially proud of? Can you give us some details on why it means so much, and explain the process from your initial lightbulb moment to standing back and admiring the finished product?
Jim Chou:
The Boom Racing builds are definitely some that are at the top of the list, but I'm just going to say I'm proud of all the builds I've done, big or small. It's why I have a hard time letting go of any build that I've put thought and work into building and customizing. They all become personal to me. I enjoy a variety of platforms and builds all the same, from the common to the not so common. If I had to choose one that was a turning point in the direction of my builds, I would say it was my "Pirate Wagon" build. During that build, I had just gotten a 3D printer. I tried my hand at designing parts for it to make a real mean-looking apocalyptic wasteland-type rig. When I finished it and started to make videos with it, the character of the rig really showed through, and the feedback for it was great. That build started off my dabbling in creating 3D printed parts for my rigs as I see fit. I don't necessarily have the space or traditional workshop tools to make things the traditional way, but 3D printing has been a godsend to me for getting some of my ideas to come to fruition. Still so much for me to learn in that area too.
Boom Racing:
In your opinion, how does Boom Racing set itself apart from other brands, and what keeps you coming back to their products?
Jim Chou:
I could tell right away the difference of higher quality and craftsmanship for the BRX02 compared to other kits that I was familiar with. Having everything well laid out and sorted in the packaging also added to the premium experience. I just marveled at all the pieces that fit precisely as they should, as well as having a really good finish & polish to them. When I pick up something from Boom Racing, I know that the precision will be there, the quality will be there. You can tell when something is engineered to the minimum requirements for getting a product out the door. Boom Racing products aren't one of those cases. You can tell everything is engineered with careful thought, planning, and testing before becoming a final product.
Boom Racing:
You attended the ProLine By The Fire event this year—what was the highlight for you, and how did it influence your approach to the hobby?
Jim Chou:
This was my third time attending ProLine By the Fire, and it's an event I look forward to attending every year. The rocky terrain is, of course, always one of the main attractions of the event. Horseman's Center Ranch has some of the most fantastic terrain for RC crawlers. Whether you're a serious hardline crawler to a scale trail guy, there is something there for everyone to crawl. I have a good group of local guys I crawl with on weekends, and it's always fun to head out there and camp with them. It's also fantastic to meet others that you might only know online through social media or web forums from far away. Scale City is always a fantastic experience, especially when lit up at night!
One of the highlights this year was finally meeting Jason and some of the Boom Racing team in person! I think it's fantastic that they decided to attend this event. Their booth was filled with their different chassis variations and future releases. Some really exciting stuff is coming out in the future! I thought it was a great way for people to see the chassis kits in person and really take a close look and see how nice the quality is. I brought my BRX01 AWB Zil Pickup and I think I may have been the only one aside from the Boom Racing team with a Zil Pickup there! I'm sure we'll see more of them now that people have gotten to see what the kits are like up close. I definitely hope Boom Racing attends again next year!
Boom Racing:
What advice would you offer to newcomers who are just getting started with Boom Racing kits and the wider RC community?
Jim Chou:
Take your time and enjoy the build! Building can be as stressful as you want it to be, or as therapeutic as you want it to be! Just take your time, enjoy the quality of the kit, and build carefully and just enjoy the process. I find building to be a good way to de-stress after the work grind. Make sure you get familiar with everything in the kit, and tackle each step within a comfortable timeframe for you without rushing.
Boom Racing:
Lastly, who inspires you? Who in the hobby makes you go “Wow, that’s cool!” and pushes you to get even more creative and innovative in your builds?
Jim Chou:
Oh man, there are a lot of incredible builders in this hobby! I'm very, very tame and reserved compared to some of the builders out there that are just incredible with detail, or incredible with scratch build craftsmanship! Some of the Boom Racing builds I admire are from @rc_dc_scale_rc. Overland builds by @bonardsgarage are also fantastic. Then you have the incredible custom-crafted builds by @marks.rc, whom I crawl with locally. These guys are all so talented, and I really admire their work. I'm usually very conservative as a builder, but these guys give me ideas that nudge me a little here and there. I've got a few ideas in my head, but I just haven't figured out what platforms to use yet!
Thank you Jim for the interview! Check out his socials at Instagram & TikTok: @revolutionx_rc and YouTube:@RevolutionX
ByBeth Liang
Tags :Boom Racing, BRX01, BRX02, Crawler, Builder of the month
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