Those with young kids, remote controlled toy advice

[meledward23]

Why is everyone talking about remote control cars & trucks. He asked about remote control "toys"

this being tbn, I have to recommend the Remote Control TRACTOR (though I only saw it at Target, the boss wouldn't let me buy it

I don't blame your wife. Who wants a green tactor....








hehe, Just kidding...


(EDIT** I Made the presumption that your "boss" is the wife. This would not be politically correct given today's world. Thereby I ascribe to the fact that your "Boss" understandably does not want a green tractor. My failure to recognize today's diverse culture with my own limited view of the world should not have been interjected into this light hearted commment.)

 

[_RaT_]

(EDIT** I Made the presumption that your "boss" is the wife. This would not be politically correct given today's world. Thereby I ascribe to the fact that your "Boss" understandably does not want a green tractor. My failure to recognize today's diverse culture with my own limited view of the world should not have been interjected into this light hearted commment.)[/quote]

Yes, this was very naughty of you to think like that. Santa Claus will not bring you presents on Christmas.

(EDIT** I Made a presumption that you participate in Christmas, Santa Claus, Hoho ho and all that stuff thereby presuming you to me either a Christian or materialistic pig with self serving tendencies. I have already made 3 mistakes and the 4th for even mentioning Christmas. I should have said non denominational holiday event. Please excuse my insensitivity. I engaged the mouth without consulting with my brain. END EDIT**)

 

[RobertN]

I want to get my young (5 year old) son a decently built remote controlled electric car, truck, tractor for Christmas. I am a bit underwhelmed at some of the flimsy stuff I have found. Any suggestions to a reasonably built product would be greatly appreciated.

Reading these responses, and having a kid(12 years old now), I know where you are coming from.

The Radio Shack type cars seem to be fine. What they lack, is extra batteries and a fast charger. My son has a couple that are fine cars, but he has one battery per car( they do not interchange) and a 4-hour charger. That is a bummer for a 15 minute or less run time. I need to find him a couple extra batteries... If you can find an extra battery, and a fast charger, that would be decent for a young kid. One thing you will probably find, is a lot of them are disposable; hard or impossible to get parts for...

There are some nice name brand hobby level RTR's(Ready to Run), but then you are looking about $130-150 to get in to one. But, you can fix them. They would work better. You can get extra battery packs for them easily. There are some nice 1/18 scale ones out. But, $150 is an expensive car for a 5 year old.

Another thing to think about; they are much more fun in pairs. It is fun to drive one, but it is a lot of fun to race around with someone else.

Hobby level cars do not mix well with less expensive cars; they are faster, handle better. The one with the less expensive car will always be behind. I have an older Team Assoc RC10T that is stock, but will run circles around my sons cars. Not much fun for him. If you are going to play too, drive something comparable.

You should drop by RC Country over by 65th and Folsom Blvd. They have TONS of stuff. As a big kid yourself, it is worth at least dropping by there There are some other RC shops around too; there's two here in Shingle Springs/Cameron Park!

Here is an entry 1/18 car:

A small truck:

Something for Dad

Something really fast and 4x4 for Dad(requires radio too)

IMHO, FWIW, I think I would lean towards an inexpensive car, and get a spare battery and a quick charger.

He loved the movie Cars (as did I)

I did too. I especially like "The King". Superbirds are SOOO cool! I have wanted one for a long time. They were out of my price range then, and even more so now

 

[jwstewar]

I have a couple of quick chargers for the batteries. One is an hour and then I have 2 15 minutes chargers. I also have multiple battery packs. When I used to run a lot, I had 6 or 7 batteries. Most of those don't hold too much charge now, but do hold some. The last few times I've bought vehicles from Radio Shack, I acted like I didn't want to buy a battery. The salesman then offered one at "half" price.

Earlier this year we also found some 2000 mA 7.2v Tyco ones at Wal-Mart with a 1 hour charger for $15. We bought all 3 that they had. So if you watch around you can find some good deals - as long as they are the standard 7.2/9.6v battery packs.