are there ANY kids' radio-controlled toys that WORK?????

[patandchickens]

I am not big on toys that require batteries, but both my sons really looooove cars and machines, so I thought I'd buy DS#2 a r/c car for his third birthday. I bought one at Walmart. When we opened it yesterday on his birthday, it did not work at all, out of the box.

So I returned it and bought a different one this morning. It worked for three minutes, then died irretrievably. (Was not dropped or anything). Took THAT back, drove almost an hour to Toys R Us to buy a *third* one. Out of the box, it would not turn left and as I was disassembling it to put back in box to return it, the antenna sheared in half.

I am SO FURIOUS, not just at the wasted money and time and gas, but at how my son gets his hopes up and gets all excited about the new toy only to discover it won't go. AAARRRGH.

Are there ANY brands of r/c vehicles that you can recommend as being reliable and reasonably durable??? Any recommendations appreciated.

Or am I just s.o.l. and need to forget it and buy him something else?

Extremely frustrated,

Pat

 

[PineappleMama]

All the ones we've tried over the years... either they're durable, thus heavy, so they EAT batteries and the kids lose interest because they can't play with it more than five minutes at a time.

OR they're dainty, very light, but they break easy... site the dragonfly... SOOOO cool... until it hit the ground, tree, mailbox, etc.

Pretty well gave up on RCs until they manage to combine the two traits.

Suggestion wise... Boy/s or Girl/s and Ages? If they're close to mine or my niece/nephews then I'll try and think up something.

 

[patandchickens]

Boy, just turned 3. The ideal thing would be something r/c but fairly *slow* and thus less prone to high-velocity crashes. (The third one I bought was a nice slow r/c bulldozer -- but of course it didn't actulaly work right, and was also way too fragile)

It is starting to sound more and more though (from what you've said, and from googling) that maybe r/c kids' toys just basically suck

So I dunno.

Arrgh,

Pat

 

[silkiechicken]

http://www.traxxas.com/

My brother has two from that company. One is battery powered and the other is 110 octane gasoline powered. The gas powered one reaches 70mph!!! So fast that if you aren't careful or driving behind it in a real car, you can drive it out of radio control range and have this 5lb toy hurling into something off the highway. Not that we've put a RC car on the highway at 3am or anything.

They may make something on the more children's toy side, but either way, these toys are $$, and probably more for you than your 3 yo son. Although I think they may have a few under $100 that might fit the bill. If you want something that works and works well, this would be it.

 

[seismic wonder2]

My recommendation is that at 3yo he would be better suited with TONKA trucks. they are NOT R/C but durable.

I think R/C toys are geared for older kids.

 

[saddina]

Target sells a mario kart go-kart one (we have mario and yoshi), they've held up well, sturdy plastic and easy to drive. Our boys tie a catnip toy onto them and exercize the cats. These are the 6 inch or so ones, not the tiny matbox car sized ones.

http://www.blueunplugged.com/news.aspx?article=30

 

[Goose and Fig]

Tonka! My little guy is 3 1/2, and he has 2- one is a race car, one is a dump truck that talks. They are really heavy-duty with rubber wheels. The car will flip over and keep going (there is another car on the bottom). I can tell you this- we haven't changed the batteries since Christmas, and it's been left out in the rain. Still going strong!

 

[patandchickens]

Well, he has a couple r/c Geotrax trains that he just *loves*, of course controlling a train on a track is simpler than a free-moving vehicle but he did seem to do ok with the one that briefly worked

Thanks very much for the recommendations, folks! For future use, I will check out what's available in the states when we are down there next week, esp. the things y'all mentioned; but as far as the actual birthday present, I gave up on r/c and bought him a great big MANUALLY operated loader this morning, and it is still in one piece and being played with right now

Thanks,

Pat