Top 5 remote control toys

Wednesday 25 August

This week’s show sees Jason taking to the water in a quest to find the best water-borne RC model around. But that’s just one way to get your remote-control jollies, and whether it’s on land, in the sea or up in the air, remote control toys provide endless hours of thrills and entertainment that keeps you coming back for more. In counting down our personal favourites, we’ve tried to make sure there’s something here for everyone. But they all have one thing in common: good, old-fashioned gadget fun.

HPI Vorza Flux
Where else could we put the car that saw us smash the world record for the longest aerial jump using a remote control toy? It’s available in various configurations, but stick the 22V battery option inside and the Vorza Flux is capable of hitting a staggering 73mph. It’s built to handle those speeds too, featuring 16mm aluminium shocks all round and high-quality tyres that provide plenty of grip. For high performance thrills – or world record attempts – this is the remote control toy for you.

Parrot AR Drone
It’s no exaggeration to say the AR Drone is one of the coolest new gadgets we’ve seen this year. It’s controlled by an iPhone for a start, with dual on-board cameras means you can see – and record – what it sees. On top of the four rotating blades the AR Drone also has on-board gyroscopes and accelerometers to ensure maximum flying stability. There’s simply nothing like it around. The only bad news is that it only goes on sale later in the year.

Magic Vee
Nippy and responsive, it really is a case of point and squirt with the pint-sized Magic Vee. It weighs in at just 125g, but there’s nothing lightweight about its performance. It zips along the water’s surface at anything up to 20km/h, making for a hugely entertaining piece of remote controlled kit. The fact that it comes in under £40 seals the deal.

Heli Mission
A remote control SWAT truck is cool enough in its own right, but this is no ordinary SWAT truck. Tucked away inside is a three-channel remote helicopter, which rises up on a launch platform ready to take to the skies. A sophisticated gyroscopic auto-stability feature makes for smooth and stable flying, even smoother flight. Giving you two different flavours of fun for the price of one, the Heli Mission gets the thumbs up in our books.

PicooZ Sky Challenger Set
The insanely teeny PicooZ helicopter is already massively enjoyable to fling about the skies, but the Sky Challenger Set doubles the fun with the most compact case of aerial warfare ever to take to the skies. Yes, that’s right: two cut-size choppers, each equipped with a laser that sends the opponent falling to the ground in the event of a direct hit. It’s the kind of addictive fun you won’t get tired of.