My pal dan had one of theses he got from a radio shack for 30$ back 1/2 a year ago. there fun. but the battery life is …meh… and honestly… they break VERY easy…
im sure i ts fun if your into that kinda thing… but my god… be careful
at this price i’m good for 3, they will make good adult men stocking stuffers even if they last a couple of minutes. me and my boys will enjoy the flight and the crash factor! they are always gone by the time i notice them!
Looks cool at first
Looks cheap at first
nogo here
agrees
Sweet baby jesus,… YES they break if you wreck them! Same with Cars and other nifty mechanical things.
Basically, if you want a *bunch of fun,. buy one.
I started on one of these (paid $48) and then ended up with an AXE CP 450. Now I can fly inverted and do crazy 3D tricks. It is seriously fun and really meant for ADULTS.
I totally just paid for one. $13 is a great price.
p.s.
PRACTICE LANDING BEFORE YOU SAY THEY ARE CRAP!
Do not, i repeat, do not, no matter how tempted you are, do not, no matter how much you think this is a deal, no not, even if you think “how bad can this be?” do not under any circumstances waste your money on this thing regardless how groovy you think it is. I bought the two pack and i knew 30 seconds after I tried flying it, it was a really stupid mistake.
IF you are really serious about remote control helecopters, I have seen ones that you really, truely, actually, no kidding, that work for as low as $39.95 flying around in the mall.
Look for one in that price range, it will last more than two minutes.
Yeah I got the two pack before (same exact ones as these) and lets put it this way - the second one is still in the package sitting under my desk.
You can’t fly them unless batter is absolutely 100% maxed out, and then you MIGHT get 10-15 seconds of air time, in which you can only fly up, or down. I’m not a noob, I know how to fly RC choppers, and these are just pieces of crap!
There are some quality micro RC choppers out there…but if you want a good one take the advice of the poster above and find one in the $40 range if you want something that will fly.
Woot!
in for 3! these actually dont suck, they make a loud noise when they are in the air, to minimize that noise, remove the canopy in the front and it will be hecka quiet!
We fly these at the office all the time. If you think you’re about to hit something, drop the throttle and you’ll survive crashes a lot better.
It’s just up/down control with a little bit of spinning left/right (yaw). Keep in mind that when you’re flying and you turn, the gyro effect will make the 'copter go forward or backward a little bit.
You can use a T-pin (you know, like you have in the office for pinning things to your cube) or other small weight in the front if you want more forward motion.
If you take off the canopy (plastic shell) it’s much more quiet, but you lose a lot of your “forward” weight and the aircraft will fly backwards. To resolve this, we took the battery from another dead 'copter (LiPo is all 3.7v per cell) and soldered it in parallel, giving us forward weight and a little extra flight time. Do not attempt this unless you’re familiar with soldering and have proper respect for LiPo batteries.
After several flights, you might have trouble getting your 'copter to lift off. After checking for hair and whatnot caught around the rotor axis and finding none, don’t despair. As much as LiPo isn’t supposed to have memory, we found that we could cycle the battery and regain lift-off ability. Pinning the landing gear down, we held the throttle on high and left it on until the rotor had notably slowed. You don’t want to drain the battery completely. After a full recharge of the battery (20 minutes or so) all was good in the world.
These are great little toys, and with a little practice you can hold dogfights (dog not included) and pull off a skid landing with ease.
Just noticed the “10-15 seconds of air time” comments. You might want to try cycling the battery if you’re having such short flight times. We typically get 7 to 10 minutes of full flight with a few tail minutes of “oh come on just a little higher…”
I don’t think there are many real reviews of this guy on the review sites, but I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think this is totally worth the price. Even if it only works for a week. Good deal.
This is exactly one dollar cheaper than the Air Hogs helicopters over at Target.com… after accounting for shipping. In the past I would have been all over this, but since prices of the name brand have dropped… I was hoping this would be cheaper, let’s just leave it at that.
bought one a few months back. Mine would not go up more than about a foot or two and then dropped to the ground needed a battery charge. battery is probably too tiny for this thing.
Keep in mind, these are not RF. They’re IR, which means if it flies around a corner and you don’t see it, it won’t see your controller either and will typically bamf into something and then fall to the floor and wait for you to come over.
These are cool and make great gifts, the price plus shipping for one is decent, they sell for about $30 in the malls and other stores like hobby shops. They are fairly durable but have a limited life. Get two or three to make it a good deal. Eventually they become forgotten, even though they are the coolest things for like an hours’ worth of flight time. In for zero, but this will probably sell out.
You have much more control over a paper airplane. Novelty wears off after 3rd uncontrollable flight. If you haven’t tried these this seems to be a good price. Good cheap gifts for friends/relatives kids mine took 6 AA batteries also.
Happy crashing!
I had one of these for about a month, actually. They are fun to zip around the house or office, and if you handle them correctly, they will survive crashes easily (someone earlier said drop the throttle, and I agree - if the rotors aren’t turning when I hit stuff, I can usually go again right away).
However, the little tail rotor does a carppy job at trying to compensate for the rotational motion of the blades. Mine could never compensate, even with playing with all the trim settings, etc. I have seen others act like this, so I don’t think it’s a fluke.
All in all, these are fun, but don’t expect anything more than a poorly made toy that flies in circles.
I fly R/C (Hobby quality, not toy quality stuff) helicopters and airplanes. That stuff starts around $100 for an entry heli, but this type can be lots of fun and are less of a hit to the wallet. However, not all of these are the same.
I’ve pruchased a number of these heli’s and my suggestion is to stay away from any that are not made by the original inventors, Silverlit. They are sold under their own name and Airhogs brand. Others are copies and don’t have the quality the originals have.
The units manufactured by/for Silverlit/Airhogs have a better rotor, better battery, better transmitter, and better build quality - EPP bodies with carbon fiber booms. My first one still flies, although the motor is shot and it doesn’t get very high anymore. My second flies, but is very beat down due to being used for air combat at the office.
I since purchased two copies, and they suck. Flew out of the box, but either never flew well, or burned out after only a few dozen flights.
Finally, Airhogs were available this Black Firday for $15. Infact, I picked up two, 2 packs that included a heli and an airplane for $20 at Wallmart this morning - Airhogs brand. Save your money and stay away from the lesser knockoffs and look for the originals. Sorry Woot! Get us the good stuff and stop with the crapy knockoffs.
oh dang it.
I just went in for 2. I have 2 employees that these will go to.
then I came here and read the comments.
heh.
Quite true. While not a perfect fix, I did actually have some luck with the spinning ones by either 1) pulling slightly on the tail rotor motor - not sure if it was just rubbing something inside or what, or 2) gently bending the tail rotor blades to increase the pitch - this took a few tries but did seem to help. A more courageous person might try warming them up a little so they keep their new shape better, but hopefully not many people run into this issue.
I bought the last RC helicopter from WOOT. It flew for about 3 days then broke. Totally worth it. I’m in for another one!!!
We bought these last year for Christmas. Kids had a great time for about 30 minutes. After the second or third crash they became useless. No flight control.