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Which RC cars are worth a go from AliExpress? Our garden is lawn, slate chippings and a gravel drive, so something that is suitable for those kinds of surfaces. WL toys seems well regarded, any other good Chinese brands?
I personally avoid Ali Express and go with a local or UK place - we have a couple of these shops and my lads have bought a few things over the years from them.
https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/
The catchily titled HBX 16889a pro is good fun. Can also be had locally under the "FTX Tracer" name, and often for around the same price
We got a couple of these last Christmas and they're really good, plenty fast enough for small children and surprisingly strong
https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/ftx-tracer-1-16-rtr-monster-truck-blue-1332658
The catchily titled HBX 16889a pro is good fun. Can also be had locally under the “FTX Tracer” name, and often for around the same price
I bought one with a brushed motor for my 3 year old and one with a.brushless motor for me.
Despite him learning to back flip it onto concrete they continue on.
I've had to fix a few things. Mostly from the back flipping to concrete mania this summer.
We are up to 3 batteries a session as they last about 15 min depending on how fast they are going.
I'm still not up to full speed on the brushless car in the garden as it's too fast. The brushless one came with metal driveshafts and oil shocks.
+1 for FTX Tracer and similar. Big enough to cope with grass, small/light enough to shrug off most crashes. Brushed is plenty fast enough for kids, and there's a dial on the controller to limit the speed if you need to while they're learning.
ATModels on ebay sell them and are usually in the ebay coupon code offers (currently 10% off) if you'd rather deal with a UK company.
Yeah, not my sort of thing at all but the tracer etc are very good for what they are. Brushless and lipo makes them stupendously fast, brushed is still rapid enough for anythign except for zooming around in big car parks which tbf is pretty dull.
The MJX Hypergo 14209 is supposed to be good for the money too. WL do some really decent stuff but also, some crap.
Main question is what do you want to do? I like rock crawlers, they can be fast enough to do skids and jumps but the real fun is going slow. Some kids really like that, others want to basically crash and explode.
There's quite a lot of badge engineering in rc cars, sometimes you can find literally the same product under 2 names- RGT and FTX and sometimes others. But equally you can find things that look the same and aren't.
Last year i bought 2 of the MJX hypergo off aliexpress and got slightly scammed (they sent me the minasture models not the ones in the pic - i got all my money back
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/christmas-tamiya/page/64/
In the end i bought off a uk company. I bought both the MJX MEW and the HBX 16889 pro . I have to say the MJX MEW is very well built. it has a lot more metal whereas the HBX doesnt. Adjustable wishbones that are metal. Feels like it is muchg better quality than the hbx
bought from seriousrc https://www.seriousrc.co.uk/products/mjx-mew4-m163-45kph-brushless-1-16-scale-truck-2s-lipo-version
I'd say avoid the WLtoys 14109.
The internet raves about them, so bought one for my son a couple of years ago. It's been a long haul disappointment fest. It's super fragile, so it's a good thing a lot of spares are available.
Front suspension snapped, rear snapped, battery snuffed if, motor caught fire etc.
It's now languishing on a shelf in a broken state.
Main question is what do you want to do? I like rock crawlers, they can be fast enough to do skids and jumps but the real fun is going slow. Some kids really like that, others want to basically crash and explode.
I guess just a general thrash about the garden, my son will definitely be in the crash it group.
I'll take a look at those suggestions, the price difference is very little so may as well buy from a UK supplier.
Thanks all.