My lad wants a radio controlled car for Christmas. Ideally I don’t want to spend much more than £50ish as he’s getting other pressies as well, but will go up a bit if needed.

Does any one know of anything decent in this price bracket? Off road type car with decent battery life.

Cheers.

Although I’ve just seen this https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/tamiya-rising-fighter-package-deal/

How easy is it to build these things? My lad is 8 and loves building lego models. I know this is different but is surely just a case of following the instructions. Obviously I’ll be there to help as well.

Ooooh you’ve done it now!
A Tamiya nostalgia thread. We haven’t had one of these for a while…..

*If you’re getting a cheap Tamiya RC Kit for an 8 year old, get a LunchBox. Cheap, an easy build / paint, mechanically simple, fast and robust.

Now for the nostalgia….

Might be a challenge at 8. See for yourself:

http://www.tamiya.com/english/rc/rcmanual/58416risingfighter.pdf

Budget for a couple of extra batteries also. He’ll be cheesed off after spending a week building it to have it run flat after 15 minutes.

Yeah I always wanted a Lunch Box when I was a kid. A lad down the street had one until it got run over! That was a sad day for the kids in the street.

Cougar – yeah I was assuming I would be building most of it, those instruction don’t look that great. You’d think they’d be in colour nowadays!!

D*mn you man! I’d just stopped scratching that itch!

Lipos are shirt buttons cheap these days, i’d definitely go with a couple of extra on the go and ready to rock.
a genuine SkyRC Imax B6 ac V2 or Turnigy equivalent charger too, but do your research on spotting the Chinese fakes

D*mn you man! I’d just stopped scratching that itch!

I’ll just leave this here.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tamiya

Damn, Damn, Damn!

You’ve made me look at these again!

http://www.goldstarstockists.net/live/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=bargain+bundle

At forty quid from smiths toys the nikko Pro VaporizR 2 the are brilliant for the money and my little lad hasn’t broken it in a year

Cool cheers firestarter, you can even run that one in water!!

This seems to have good reviews for a cheap straight out of the box RC https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/maisto-rc-rock-crawler-red/

Thanks Cougar, just what I needed!
We had a Grasshopper, Lunch Box and a Wicked Willy as kids. sorely tempted to relive my youth and look into this some more…
No, must resist!

Stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it.

I bought a used Super Fighter earlier this year and it’s great fun at the BMX track. I would like to actually build one up though.

ads678 – Member

Although I’ve just seen this https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/tamiya-rising-fighter-package-deal/

How easy is it to build these things? My lad is 8 and loves building lego models. I know this is different but is surely just a case of following the instructions. Obviously I’ll be there to help as well.

I was going to suggest a basic Tamiya model, even though it is doubling your budget. Just be aware with that deal the charger doesn’t seem to be great & probably isn’t a fast charger.

Regarding construction they are very straight forward, especially if you are helping.
Just read the instructions through a few times, lay it all out on a nice big table & take your time. I reckon the building bit is half the fun and your son will have a better understanding of what bits need replacing when it hits the same bit of kerb for the 50th time & something goes twang…

I treated myself just before Christmas last year & bought my first ever Tamiya car (I’d wanted one since around the age of 10, but never had the money to buy one & my parents were never gonna spend that kind of money on me).
I bought a Tamiya Neo Fighter. It’s great. There’s a few things I’d like to change & it’s a bit of a struggle finding somewhere interesting to drive it, but I love seeing it sat on a shelf in the garage. It looks like it should be there…..

I just got a Hornet as an unexpected surprise birthday present from my wife 8)

1) It’s a right laugh, great fun.
2) Finding somewhere to use it is kinda difficult / annoying. Your boy may want one that is indoors-compatible.
3) The battery life seems decent to me – much better than in the 1980s. I get bored at about the same time the battery dies. I am not 8 though
4) Building it is harder than you think. Lots of little bits, definitely a step up from E.g. most Lego Technic. I got impatient and just wanted to play with it – especially at the painting/sticker phase.
5) There are more modern remote control cars that handle waaaay better and will be faster round a track I have no doubt. The Hornet is just batshit crazy though which is good fun unless you’re super serious.

Aaargh, I think I need a Vaporizr 2. Confused though, there’s 2 versions of what seems to be the same car but with different controllers (and prices!)

£25! Not, as far as I can tell, a Nano but seems to have the controller off a nano

http://direct.asda.com/george/kids/action-vehicles/nikko-vaporizr-2-red-remote-control-car/000711954,default,pd.html?cmpid=ppc-_-george-_-ggle-pla-_-OD07TOYS_HOBBIES-_–_-dskwid-s92700014242725398_dc&gclid=COLDhvmlqNACFZMy0wodkBIEzg

£40
http://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/construction-cars/c-411/radio-control-cars/p-14469/nikko-radio-control-pro-vaporizr-2-white-red-car-40mhz/?gclid=CJrxtJCmqNACFcHNGwodAe4Jow

Anyone understand these?

Losi micro t, bought my lad one, fast for a indoor car, ready to run. But if you get the urge to tinker there’s loads of hop ups, anodised even!

Good God! Mardave are still going strong, we used to race Mardave Mini Coopers when the boys were little, absolutely basic technology, easy to build, shirt buttons to upgrade or maintain and huge bargain basement Fun!

http://www.mardave.co.uk/rc-cars

I built up a Neo Fighter a year ago, battery life is much better than it was “back in the day”, you can get about 25min out of a run these days.

Building it will be a challenge for an 8 year old, you’ll need to help a fair bit. That said, there’s a lot that he’ll be able to do – lots of screws and things which aren’t particularly complicated, you just need to make sure you’ve got the right one in the right place. Painting is perhaps the most hardest part, you need to do a number of thin coats to get it to look OK, and IME patience is not an 8yr old’s strong point 🙂

One other thing to consider – where are you going to drive it? They’re pretty fast, much too fast to use indoors. You need somewhere that’s got a decent area, and not too much mud or long grass.

My Manta Ray was great for a couple days (back in ’94) until the plastic bearings in the drivetrain went to shit. My dad wouldn’t buy me the metal bearing hop up parts so my poor old Manta Ray was always the slowest out of my mates cars.
Most of which had better motors, different gearings and metal bearings. IMO these made the biggest difference in not only speed but runtime and noise aswell. The gearboxes on Tamiya have always been noisy but when ‘ballraced’ they were much better.

Not sure what’s going on with those links Northwind, but I’ve played with a Vaporizor 2 and they’re ace. I suspect they’d get old fairly quickly though, control is very basic (ie on/off) which makes steering a pain.

I’m not too sure northwind but when I bought mine there were two versions at smyths and one was about 25 and smaller than the one I bought

Shut the front door! Amphibious RC cars? 😯