Product Review: Air Hogs Remote Control Havoc Heli
The toy itself is a micro helicopter and has all the usual parts to a helicopter such as the rotor blades on the tail and the main blades on top of the toy. The body of the helicopter is made of a durable white foam and the design of this toy is in miniature which is great for indoor use. The helicopter itself has a built in poly battery and an off and on switch that is located on the right side. There is also a socket beside the on and off switch where the charging plug is inserted. The helicopter comes with a charging transmitter which requires six AA batteries. On the right side of the transmitter there is a switch called the trimmer which you use when the helicopter starts spiraling round and round in mid air. The transmitter that is included has an off and on switch and in the upper left hand side, is the throttle stick. On the right side is the direction stick. The six AA batteries that are required, which are not included, you insert the batteries on the back side of the transmitter. The charging plug is located on the front of the transmitter and is tucked inside a little compartment with a sliding cover.
Before you can fly the helicopter, you must charge up the battery first. This only takes approximately twenty minutes to charge the toy. Once I charged the helicopter, I sat the toy on the floor and had the transmitter in my hand and pushed the throttle button up slowly until the helicopter started lifting off and I increased the pull on the throttle to lift the helicopter into the air.
The first time trying this toy, I had some trouble controlling the helicopter. It would be flying around in the air then start spinning and spinning counter clockwise so to stop the helicopter from spinning counter clockwise I pushed the trim button to the right and the spinning stopped but then the helicopter would start spinning clockwise so I switched the trim to the left. This stopped the spinning and spiraling and the helicopter was flying around quite nice. Once I got the hang of how to stop the helicopter out of a spin, I enjoyed this toy quite well.
The one thing that a lot of people may not like about this, is that when you do charge the battery, it takes about twenty minutes and then you only have about six to eight minutes of flying time and then the helicopter starts losing life.
Charging the battery is very simple. All you do is turn the helicopter off and insert the tiny charging plug into the socket on the helicopter. Then you turn the transmitter to the on position and a green led light turns on indicating that the helicopter is charging and once the it is charged the green light goes off and the helicopter is ready to take flight once again after about six to eight minutes of charge time.
The instructions that come with this toy do not recommend children under the age of three to use which is great because of all the tiny parts to this helicopter. This toy is intended for indoor use only because of the lightweight material that is used and flying the helicopter outdoors would cause more damage to the blades and the body. But the instructions say that if you do choose to fly the helicopter outdoors, just make sure that you do so when the wind is not blowing at all. Not even a small gust of wind. I am impressed with the Havoc Heli because of the lightweight design and the size of the toy, but the only drawback that probably would deter most consumers from purchasing this, is the fact that the flying time is only around seven minutes per re-charge. It is fun to see this teeny helicopter hovering in the air.
I give this toy five stars.
