Crabfu’s R/C vehicle gift guide

When we asked some of our maker family what they had on their holiday wish lists, I-Wei Huang, aka Crabfu, responded with so many R/C vehicles (this…er-hurm.. grown man likes toys as much as I do!), we decided to make it into a mini, unofficial gift guide. Thanks, I-Wei! And to all you fellow Peter Pans out there, enjoy!

Beginner R/C

E-flite Blade mCX ($120, E-flite)
Indoor-only micro-coaxial (mCX) helicopter. Very easy to fly, with four channels for full control. Comes in BNF (Bind and Fly) or RTF (Ready to Fly).

ParkZone Vapor ($100, ParkZone)
Indoor 3-channel plane. Easy to fly and maneuverable in small areas. (I’ve hacked mine to become a biplane Comes in BNF or RTF.

Micro Rock Crawler ($120, Losi)
1/24-scale rock crawler. I just got one of these and it’s great fun for indoor crawling. Comes in BND (Bind and Drive) or RTR (Ready to Run) models.

Mini Rock Crawler ($240, Losi)
A bit larger than the micro, great for couch crawling. Comes in RTR.

Rovio ($224, WowWee)
Awesome little robot camera that you can drive over the internet. Here’s my review on Trossen Robotics.

Intermediate/Advanced R/C

Ultra-Micro Sukhoi ($100, ParkZone)
Currently my favorite R/C airplane, it is tiny and quick. Made of foam and nearly indestructible. Full function, 4-channels, and comes in BNF.

Blade MSR ($150, E-flite)
Cool fixed-pitch heli. Very easy to fly for a single rotor helicopter, but much harder to fly than a coaxial. It is tame compared to a control-pitch heli, but rather twitchy and unstable if you were to compare it to an mCX. Great for indoors, but can’t handle much of a breeze outside.