1 year old son wants a remote control car for his birthday. No idea what to buy – any recommendations? Happy to pay for a decent bit of kit.

I've got a little A-Tech 1/18th scale setup that i'm looking to sell.

Only needs batteries for the controller (comes with battery and charger for the truck). No battery cover on the controller, but all there other than that.

Not the fastest thing every, but will be plenty fast for a 1yr old, plus is small enough to run in the house.

Drop me an email if your interested and I can sort you with picuture and price.

Dave

Just noticed I crewed up on my original post – my son is 11 at the moment not 1. So thanks slackman99 but may not be fast enough for for him 😉

to be honest I expected more replies on this, what with all the geeks on here I expected more from you all.

I havn't looked at these for years but I'd imagine something like a nitro rustler would be a good bet. Much more fun than battery power, built to last and will pretty much drive over anything…. but dangerous if 'abused' as they are quite a lump and pretty fast.

Traxxas Rustler… Awesome performance, very robust and fairly cheap.

Get an electric one; way less hassle. My housemate and I have 3 of them, we tend to chuck them in the car when we go biking. IC ones are noisy, use a finite fuel (I always seemed to run out/it goes off), they don't have reverse and they stink!

(PS I have huge history with racing buggies)

Top of the Wall at Afan

mmm that looks good – I was looking at this on the same site – any good

Trucks are a bit more fun because they have larger volume tyres, so don't get stuck so easily and can bowl over most surfaces.

Flamejob, great pic! I've stayed there a few times. End cabin was given an interesting literature donation last time we were there…!

Definitely get one from a well known manufacturer, preferably that is stocked at your local model shop. That cheapo chinese never-heard-of make wont seem such good value the first time you break it and either have to wait weeks to get the parts or cant ge them at all.

Cant go wrong with HPI, Schumacher or Traxxas amongst others.

I have an HPI MT2 nitro truck, broke it a few times, parts are easy to find, cheap and plentiful, it's normally fixed for a fiver on ebay.

as above stick to the well known makes . nitro cars can be abit expensive and unpredictable. i have hpi savage hours of fun but i guess if your son is only 1 its probally abit much i would get a battery 1

it sound like this is more for you, you can admit it doesn't make you a bad person

My son is 11 – made a blunder in the original post. Anyway I think nitro might be a bit of a faff for him anyway.

Nah not my thing really, I prefer full size ones.

Something electric from Tamiya or Kyosho would do him fine. The Tamiya ones are generally a bit more 'toy' like, whereas Kyosho, Schumacher, Traxxas seem to be a bit more compeition-y from what I remember.

I always wanted a Tamiya Avante, but was never a rich enough kid. One of my mates had a 4wd Kyosho buggy that was really quick & another had a Tamiya Nissan King Cab which was probably better fun.
Make sure you budget for a few batteries as you'll be lucky to get 15 mins out of them & a 4hr charge seems an awful long time when you are 11!!

I still keep hankering after the 2wd HPI stadium truck, but I know it would sit in the shed unused after a few weeks.

Associated RC18T?

1/18th scale electric truck. The 1/18th is pretty cool – it's just about useable indoors if you have a big hall, small enough for the garden, tough enough to jump, awesome in the street and great for packing and taking with you.

Not bad out the box but awesome when upgraded to brushless (Xmas present idea already sorted!?), loads and loads of spares and upgrades to keep the thing fun.

Possibly worth a look?

Something tough.

Sporty or 4×4?

Do you have a local race track or club?

4X4 probably best, dunno if there is a club.

I think I still have my Tamiya Subaru Impreza knocking about in the garage that I never use. It's an electric one that you build up from a kit, 4wd pretty fast. Let me know if it's of any interest

I have a CRT.5 pro nitro buggy which is fantastic. Very fast, handles well and is reliable. It's got a 2.4 Ghz radio set-up and enough spares to build 2 cars if anyone is interested.
Raced it at Bury a couple of times – great fun! 🙂

CRT.5 is a good call, but probably better to stick with electric I like the look of the new associated truck. Brushless is the way foward as quick as Nitro without the hassle.

I used to be a sponsorerd Xray driver in 1/8th rallycross 😯

Get a kit, and then you can have a "Dad" moment helping to build up and paint.

And for a first vehicle, electric is just fine and well fast enough.

Buggy types are the ones to go for if you want to do jumps ect on them.

Get a cheaper one, from say Tamiya, and if he takes to it, can then spend pocket money upgrading it (from 380 to 540 motors) or saving for a new one, and hey presto, an interest/hobby has been created.

I want one now, I knew I shouldn't have open this thread….

same here, used to have a HPI Nitro MT2 – was bloody fast….when it ran. If I got another one I would go for Electric, batteries have come on so much now that are a more realistic option for long runs.

I have a mate who runs in the nationals and swears by them.

so how long could you get out of a fully charged battery combo then? and how fast are the petrol ones/battery ones?

check this out at 44 seconds.dont abuse them lol.. (the folk controlling the cars that is):OD

electric for his first car

nitro is good fun but can be very difficult to get running and need tunning on a daily basis.

Classic moment one minute in where BMX girl gets PWNed.

ive got an old Emaxx (is old now in terms of modern stuff) but its a Lot of fun! have completely Blinged it up too and gone mental with the motor, (had too as all the extra weight slowed it down a smidge haha)
but would defo recommend an elecy one to start with as you can get used to it int he garden local park with out annoying the neighbours etc.
with the good batts out now you should see 1/2 hour run times easy and modern chargers means they dont take all that long to recharge,

a lot fo fun to be had! as the toher guys have mentioned, best to stick with the more known models like tamiya, traxxas, hpi etc, (the ones that pop up in most the online shops) as spares are a lot easier to come buy,

and i agree that a build it your self kit one would be a great present as you can build it with him etc.

making me want to fire up the battery chargers now hahah!

funny that seems a lot of mtb'ers also have rc trucks etc too!

Another vote for Traxxas Stampede or Rustler. If you are feeling flush go for the VXL model because they have brushless motors and lipo batteries – (twice as fast twice as long).

Or if you just want something stupidly fast and cheap take a look at something like this http://www.nitrotek.co.uk/A2010T.htm.

Thanks for all the advice on this folks. I bought my boy this – hope it's a good 'un. Also bought a spare battery.

RC cars are fun :o)

I'd say a Tamiya or Kyosho buggy or truck would be best. There are some good deals around on the Dual Hunter if you look

Cool piccies cheesyfeet! That looks like good fun.

I used to have one of these:

According to my google search, these seem to be now regarded as 'vintage' 😯
Still in my parent's loft I think, wonder if it still goes…

My old Kyosho Lazer Alpha was the bizzle 😀 Still is, but I keep breaking parts and they're 1-month special order from somewhere in europe, at a premium. So far it's cost me nearly £50 in parts just to get it running again and it's still 2 wishbones and 4 tyres down after a stint in the ice!