R/C model car for an 8 year old
Discussion
I'm looking to get a Christmas stocking filler R/C buggy for my 8 year old, something that'll handle driving over our big grassy garden with ease, but nothing too fancy yet or requiring a strip down and rebuild constantly. [I've got my Tamiya Hotshot 2 for her when she's a bit older, but want something to pique her interest and that's more of a toy. Up to say £50. Any recommendations?
Got my lad (also 8) an FTX Comet for his birthday: https://www.timetunnelmodels.com/live/catalog/come...
Slightly over you £50 but it's really great value. They do it in several formats - buggy, truggy, desert truck, monster truck, etc.
I happen to have some 2S Li-Pos about from another 1/16 truck I had, they fitted perfectly in this and it really flies with them. It run okay on short grass and is great on gravel, dirt etc.
Slightly over you £50 but it's really great value. They do it in several formats - buggy, truggy, desert truck, monster truck, etc.
I happen to have some 2S Li-Pos about from another 1/16 truck I had, they fitted perfectly in this and it really flies with them. It run okay on short grass and is great on gravel, dirt etc.
C0ffin D0dger said:
Got my lad (also 8) an FTX Comet for his birthday: https://www.timetunnelmodels.com/live/catalog/come...
Slightly over you £50 but it's really great value. They do it in several formats - buggy, truggy, desert truck, monster truck, etc.
I happen to have some 2S Li-Pos about from another 1/16 truck I had, they fitted perfectly in this and it really flies with them. It run okay on short grass and is great on gravel, dirt etc.
Great will take a look at the Comet thanks, it's a big garden, lots of grass and some rough areas.Slightly over you £50 but it's really great value. They do it in several formats - buggy, truggy, desert truck, monster truck, etc.
I happen to have some 2S Li-Pos about from another 1/16 truck I had, they fitted perfectly in this and it really flies with them. It run okay on short grass and is great on gravel, dirt etc.
Driver101 said:
Try and pick something you can get spares for. He will crash it and it will break.
Did think of getting a second hand Hornet/Grasshopper or something similar, but want to keep it simple, until she's older and I can pass on mine (and if she gets into them more). At the moment it's all about Lego, our house is full of it!My lad turns nine next month, he's had something similar since last xmas but to be fair he's starting to get bored with it now. I'm just wondering if to move up a size within the FTX stable and see how he goes for another year or now look at getting something more serious? or possible go down the Tamiya route and upgrade the likes of the motor as we go on and the see if he wants to take it further?
rolo0151 said:
DarthtaterM16 said:
Another vote for the FTX comet here. Just got one for my daughter two weeks ago.
Can you limit the speed on these easily enough? Fancy one for myself, sorry I mean my 6 year old!Just jumping on this rather than starting a new thread. My lad has expressed an interest in an RC car for his birthday, would rather get him a kit than an RTR to get some more mileage out of it. Kits seem few and far between these days with a lot of stuff coming pre built.
the Tamiya Racing Fighter looks pretty good, much better than the old Fighter Buggy! any experience of this?
have seen deals with radio gear and batteries but none of them mention speed controller- is this included in the kit? I know the old Tamiya cars used to have a 3 stage mechanical speed control but I doubt that would pass RF standards these days.
the Tamiya Racing Fighter looks pretty good, much better than the old Fighter Buggy! any experience of this?
have seen deals with radio gear and batteries but none of them mention speed controller- is this included in the kit? I know the old Tamiya cars used to have a 3 stage mechanical speed control but I doubt that would pass RF standards these days.
lufbramatt said:
Just jumping on this rather than starting a new thread. My lad has expressed an interest in an RC car for his birthday, would rather get him a kit than an RTR to get some more mileage out of it. Kits seem few and far between these days with a lot of stuff coming pre built.
the Tamiya Racing Fighter looks pretty good, much better than the old Fighter Buggy! any experience of this?
have seen deals with radio gear and batteries but none of them mention speed controller- is this included in the kit? I know the old Tamiya cars used to have a 3 stage mechanical speed control but I doubt that would pass RF standards these days.
I bought my 8 year old son a Tamiya Racing Fighter for his last birthday, as he’d expressed an interest and I wanted him to get some practice building a kit that needs basic tools. You can buy something much faster ready built, but the joy of Tamiya is learning to build and fix the car, and parts are easily available when you inevitably break something. He really enjoyed the build, although I probably did 50% of it, including anything remotely dangerous! I cut out the lexan body before we sprayed it, for example, but I did let him loose with a craft knife to cut some of the parts off the sprues.the Tamiya Racing Fighter looks pretty good, much better than the old Fighter Buggy! any experience of this?
have seen deals with radio gear and batteries but none of them mention speed controller- is this included in the kit? I know the old Tamiya cars used to have a 3 stage mechanical speed control but I doubt that would pass RF standards these days.
The DT03 Racing Fighter is pretty good out of the box, as it comes with oil shocks, a slightly hotter motor than a standard 540, and an electronic speed control. I bought a set of bearings to go in from the start, but otherwise it just needed radio gear, a servo and batteries (NiMH packs - looking after LiPos would be a step too far). One tip: buy a set of JIS crosshead screwdrivers. Tamiya kits use Japanese standard screws which are neither Pozidrive or Philips standard. I also made sure the transmitter had a throttle limit adjustment, so it could be set to 50, 75 or 100% travel as skill and space dictated.
After a lot of bashing around the park and garden, we’ve just fitted a stronger servo saver, different springs, a rear anti roll bar, and tyres suitable for indoor carpet, as the next step is to take it racing at our local club. It won’t be a patch on modern 2wd racing buggies, but it will be more than enough to learn with. If he gets good enough that the Tamiya is a limiting factor then I’ll upgrade him to a second hand Associated or Schumacher, but that’s a slippery slope as I discovered over 30 years ago
Edited by pete on Tuesday 4th February 21:14
I got my Godson (5) a Tamiya Midnight Pumpkin kit and cheap radio set etc, which "he" put together with his dad. Choice was because it's the exact truck his dad had when we were growing up together, and they're really cheap in Japan, so seemed like a fun thing to bring back for him.
He soon got the hang of driving it, transmitter has a 3-stage power switch to limit how much poke it has and that was very helpful.
He soon got the hang of driving it, transmitter has a 3-stage power switch to limit how much poke it has and that was very helpful.
Good tip about the JIS screwdrivers- I did know about those kind of screws but never occurred to me that Tamiya used them. Makes sense.
I used to race 1/10th touring cars back around 1999-2003 era and still have all the gear, but all my 7.2v batteries are NiCad saddle packs (2x3 cell) which probably don't hold charge any more (I stopped just as NIMH started coming in) and the radio is 27mhz so would be good to get a modern radio set and get those cars running. My Schumacher SST and heavily modified Tamiya TA03R are sat on top of my sons wardrobe and he's always eyeing them up
It would be for garden use- his nan has a huge lawn- so absolute speed isn't an issue. If we get bored then I have some quite hot Trinity 540 modified motors from back in the day
I also have some high torque servos that could be used for better steering response.
I used to race 1/10th touring cars back around 1999-2003 era and still have all the gear, but all my 7.2v batteries are NiCad saddle packs (2x3 cell) which probably don't hold charge any more (I stopped just as NIMH started coming in) and the radio is 27mhz so would be good to get a modern radio set and get those cars running. My Schumacher SST and heavily modified Tamiya TA03R are sat on top of my sons wardrobe and he's always eyeing them up
It would be for garden use- his nan has a huge lawn- so absolute speed isn't an issue. If we get bored then I have some quite hot Trinity 540 modified motors from back in the day
I also have some high torque servos that could be used for better steering response. just thinking about this a bit more and pricing thing up. Looking at best part of £200.... Given that we are not going to be taking this racing am I still ok to use 27mhz radio gear?
Assuming my old kit still works I have radio, electronic speed controller (which is probably better than the stock Tamiya one) and servos we can use in a new chassis. Will save me a few quid. Can always upgrade later.
then the shopping list becomes:
- Tamiya Racing fighter (no ESC version)
- ballrace set
- 3000mah batteries x2
- charger
- paint for shell
Assuming my old kit still works I have radio, electronic speed controller (which is probably better than the stock Tamiya one) and servos we can use in a new chassis. Will save me a few quid. Can always upgrade later.
then the shopping list becomes:
- Tamiya Racing fighter (no ESC version)
- ballrace set
- 3000mah batteries x2
- charger
- paint for shell
Nice one Craig
Wasn't sure if they had changed the laws etc. about radio frequancies. But makes sense about the freq. band being clearer these days.
We've got a pretty good pump track nearby which is very quiet early in the mornings, looking forward to getting up there with the kids for RC car and bike sessions on a Saturday morning!
Wasn't sure if they had changed the laws etc. about radio frequancies. But makes sense about the freq. band being clearer these days.
We've got a pretty good pump track nearby which is very quiet early in the mornings, looking forward to getting up there with the kids for RC car and bike sessions on a Saturday morning!
Gassing Station | Scale Models | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff