Hot Wheels Dune Devil Pro Radio Control Vehicle, Green

We’ve tried so many non-hobby grade RC vehicles in my son’s 10 years of life. From micro to giant sized, 5 or 6 different brands, from $[...] to $[...] (for a giant Hummer). They’ve all pretty much worked. Some broke after a few uses, some didn’t perform as promised (running in dirt, for example) and some just lacked that little something that made it “cool.”

This car is awesome. It’s sturdy, drives in dirt and over gravel, short-ish grass, jumps curbs with ease, is fast, feels strong, stops on a dime, great remote function, great range. We’ve run it on regular batteries, rechargeable batteries, and a NiCd battery. For sure, the NiCd is the way to go, though we were impressed even with regular batteries on Christmas day. My son has driven this thing off of ramps at the skate park 6-feet high to the concrete with nothing but superficial scratches. It’s filthy from running through gravel and dirt trails and my son just loves it.

Two days after Christmas, my son spent his own allowance to buy the white model of the same car. Trust me, that’s unusual. He never spends his money.

I highly recommend this RC vehicle. If you’re not wanting to spend $[...] to get a hobby-grade RC vehicle (which he was considering before his started using this car) then you would be making a good choice with this car. Heck, buy one of each and race ‘em like we do. Super fun.

*** Edited 1/22/08 to add:****
This past weekend my son drove this Dune Devil into a drain. It was the end of the world. Anyway, after removing the manhole cover from the drain and recovering the car from 10-feet down, the car covered in yuck (not a sewage drain thankfully), this car still runs. It was dripping wet and got flipped over a few times while trying to hook on to it. It had the NiCd battery in it at the time. Still very happy with it. My son is still enjoying it, as well.

I have owned many Pro R/C cars (ie. Duratrax, Traxxis, Tamaya, etc). Now that my son is interested (3 yrs old), I wanted a “toy” R/C car for him knowing that it would mostly be hitting curves. That said, I wanted something that could drive on grass and still be fun to use for me when I’m with him.

This is the R/C car I ended up with, and boy does it fit the ticket!
Here’s my pro’s and con’s:

PROS:
(1) Fully independent front suspension with spring shocks. No, they are not oil dampened but they WORK compared to most toy R/C’s that have NO suspension! The rear suspension has the same shocks but is simplified, you have a solid rear axle; it works well enough.
(2) Working rear differential! Just like the pro cars, if one wheel has no traction, the other gets all the torque.
(3) Pneumatic tires. Just like the pro cars, the tires are soft and flexible (not hard like most toy cars).
(4) If you remove the AA battery adapter, you can purchase any 8-cell AA NiCad or NiMh pack. Performance doubles. I purchased a 1600mAh NiMh pack from Radioshack and have yet to run it down after 45 minutes!
(5) Indestructable. I can’t tell you how many curbs and jumps we’ve done. Only scratches on the outer shell.
(6) FOUR forward speeds and one reverse. Most toy cars that 1/1.

CONS:
(1) Steering is not proportional. That is, you only have FULL left and FULL right. All toy cars are this way though.
(2) RANGE! Range is horrible. The transmitter is powered by only two AA batteries. I originally got under 20 ft without a modification I describe below.

TRANSMITTER MODIFICATION FOR ADDITIONAL RANGE

This simple mod involves replacing the 2xAA batteries with a standard 9Volt battery.
This will void your warranty and you do it at your own risk.
I am able to get over 80ft with this car now by juicing the transmitter up to 9 volts. Here’s how:
(1) Remove all the screws from the back of the transmitter.
(2) Pull the rear cover apart.
(3) Pull out the existing AA batter holder and CUT both the red and black wire to remove it.
(4) Solder or wrap a 9V battery connector (the “hat”) to the cut wires. You can go to radioshack or cut them off some old electronic item you have.
(5) Put the hole thing back together (don’t put the old AA battery holder back in).
(6) Insert new 9V battery. The battery cover will stay in as long as a 9V battery is installed; you’ll see what I mean.
(7) You now have double the range!!!!!
ENJOY!