Let me first say that we have all played with many RC
vehicles, including cars, trucks, helicopters, planes, boats, and tanks. Although we don’t sell any Air Hog products
on our website (shameless plug: effyountoys), we have even used Air Hog RC toys. However, we have NOT had a chance to test the
new Hover Assault. We are looking
forward to getting our hands on one to confirm or dispel our suspicions. This review comes from synthesizing other reviews
and my experience with other Air Hog Helis.
Out of the gate, we all agreed that this unit looks fantastic. Air Hogs always look good, but they have
really gone the extra mile with this one.
It’s much more than a truck with rotors.
And it’s much more than a Heli with wheels. There is so much harmony in the balancing of
the features that it immediately begins to define its own existence as a new
category of RC toy. We love the fact
that Air Hogs continually pushes the boundaries of the RC experience (think
Heli Cage).
After reading more about the Hover Assault, it looks like
the tires don’t rotate. When it is on
the ground, it is still powered by the coaxial rotors. This may be a deterrent to some. But for me, I like the fact that it behaves
more like a helicopter than a truck.
Axels are passé. Rotors are where
it’s at!
Other key features we like:
1.
Coaxial rotors.
This helps stabilize the RC when in flight. This is especially important as I don’t think
this unit has a built in accelerometer or onboard gyroscope chip, at least I
couldn’t find mention of one on the product description on their website or the
pictures of the packaging. Air Hogs claim to feature something called “Steady
Fly Technology.” I’m not sure what that is, beyond marketing fluff. Perhaps it simply refers to the coaxial
rotors.
Warning: As with the other Air Hog Helis that I’ve flown, the trim must be adjusted at the beginning of every flight. In other words, you can’t just pick up the RC controller and take the unit into flight. You must hover and dial in the trim until it is stable. While this isn’t difficult, it automatically removes it from the basic/beginner category of RC toy into something approaching intermediate, IMHO. Watch the end of the video posted by DadDoes. There you can clearly see how difficult it is to master flying the unit. He also mentions the issue with setting the trim.
2.
Fifty dollar ($50) price point. Here at
effyountoys we are always promoting RC toys as fun for the whole family. When something costs hundreds of dollars, it
doesn’t exactly fit in the fun for the whole family category. For example, the very cool Parrot Ar.drone
2.0. is certainly awesome, but at over 300 bucks - - not many of my friends
will be picking one up this holiday season.
3. Graphics and styling. As mentioned before, this RC toy is designed
with an eye towards pleasing all sensibilities.
With over-sized tires, 2 tiers of rotors and 4 aggressively positioned
missile launchers - - this RC hybrid really excites.
Couple of things we didn’t like.
1.
Advertisement makes flying look too easy. In the advert that we saw, the Hover Assault
is flown through a tube. Even my 5 year
old spotted the implausibility of flying the unit through a tube. First of all it is not easy to control. He flies S107s that have decent gyro chips,
and he knows even they are hard to control with the necessary precision. Moreover, all my boys recognized that once
the Hover Assault was in the tube, it would be cut off from the IR
controller. Hmmm…?
2.
Age recommendation is too low. The age recommendation is 10+. Here at effyountoys we are always playing
with RC toys. And one of my boys is 10
years old. He has attempted to fly RC
helis without a gyro chip, even coaxial helicopters. And I can tell you from experience that it is
very frustrating for him. I
automatically put any RC helicopter that requires trim adjustment in the 13+
category. All the helicopters sold on
effyountoys have built in gyro chips.
This just makes the RC flying experience all the more enjoyable, especially
for beginners.
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