Customer Reviews

Tyco R/C: X.F.O. (Xtreme Flying Object)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The XFO is a fantastic new flying toy. Very easy and fun to fly. The online desription on Amazon is wrong. NO batteries are required except one 9 volt for the transmitter. It does NOT need to be pumped up. It comes complete with portable recharging pack.

I had been eyeing this toy in a local store for most of the summer but I found the $59.99 price a little high. Well lo and behold I was at the store on Monday and noticed they had put the XFO on clearence PLUS they were offering an additional 30% off clearence toys so the final price ended up being just under $25 ($5 less then Amazon has it listed) so I broke down and bought one. When my 13 year old son saw what the final price was he decided to part with a portion of his Birthday money and purchase one as well but the only drawback was the only frequency the store had was 27Mhz. I'm not sure if Tyco offers this in other frequencys but the three they had left were all the same.

When we got home his was the first one we assembled and I put the XFO togeather exactly as the instructions said to. In no time we were out flying the XFO and like the instructions say it is easy to fly but difficult to master but within a few flights I had it hovering perfectly level only a few feet off the ground for the entire flight.
Well it didn't take long for me to tire of waiting for my son's XFO to charge and for it to be "my turn" to fly so I assembled mine BUT I strayed from the instructions on one point that makes mine a little more durable then his.

On my XFO I opted to leave the assembly rings off the body and instead used the small bands that hold the plastic bags closed in the package. My dad was into RC planes and I'd learned that wings held on by rubber bands come off without dammage in a crash plus the bands weighed less then the rings so I thought it might fly a little longer.

We had several flights, several uneventful crashes that night and a LOT of fun.

Tuesday was a little windy and I advised my son not to fly but you know how 13 year olds are, he went out anyway. After several flights he crashed a little hard and one of the wings snapped loose but it was nothing that a little Elmer's glue wouldn't fix.
Later that evening we both got in about 20 more flights before our field chargers needed recharging which I was pretty impressed with since they'd never been charged. Props to Tyco for precharging the field chargers so you can start having fun right away instead of having to wait the 16 hours.

On to tonight's flights. Well tonight I found out just exactly how well using the rubber bands instead of the ring work. I'd gotten a little brave and ran the XFO up to it's full altitude (pre modification, more on that later) then I tried bringing it down to a close hover but I'd misjudged it's decent speed and intead of hovering it went into a spiral and augered into the ground. The XFO hit the ground hard enough that the internal structure spun in the body which I'm sure would have snapped off all the wings! Less then 30 seconds later everything was straightened out and I was flying again untill...

Untill I got a little too close to a tree @ 30' up, panicked and hit the emergency stop. The XFO still clipped a branch and fell the full 30' onto it's side snapping a wing but don't dispair! A few dabs of Elmer's and a piece of Scotch tape (I'm impatient, sue me) and I was back out flying again!

Now the only thing that was lacking about the XFO were the instructions. After coming here I learned one important thing that I didn't from the instructions, kill the battery FULLY and don't think they're dead just because the XFO shuts off! I won't go into the details because another reviewer already has so KEEP READING THESE REVIEWS!

The other thing I learned byt reading the reviews was the antenna trick. If you like to tinker with things unwind that antenna, feed it through one of the body openings (another thing that's very difficult to do if you've used the body rings) and tape it to two of the wings. I more than doubled the range of my XFO by doing this modification.

To sum things up, for the $29.99 that Amazon has the XFO priced it's one heck of a deal for the amount of fun you can get in return!!

BUY ONE!

I bought this product yesterday brand new in TKMaxx and built it last night.

The thing is, I know a little bit about conditioning batteries and electric motors as I fly an Ikarus Piccolo - an electric model helicopter (and I'll compare this toy to that at the end)

The first thing I did was squirt WD40 over the gears and into the electric motor and then ran it for a few seconds. It doesn't say to do this in the instructions, but I did it anyway.

Next: I conditioned the batteries. IT SAYS TO DO THIS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS. If this isn't done, then the toy will not fly.

I charged it up, and drained the batteries as follows:
Note well: as has been said in another post: the toy will auto-cutoff (criticism to Tyco - it didn't explain this in the "conditioning batteries" part of the manual, or at least not in the version I've got). I did the following:
- Charge toy as per manual
- Turn toy on
- Turn transmitter on
- Operate toy as it says in "Conditioning battery" section (ie power it up but don't lift off !!)
- Wait until the engine stops. Note Well: This most probably isn't the battery being drained, but the auto-cutoff feature. This isn't explained in the version of the instructions that I've received (Tyco - take notice!!) Therefore:
- Turn transmitter off
- Turn toy off
- Count to 3
- Turn toy on
- Turn transmitter on
- Operate toy again until cut off again
- repeat as often as necessary until you know the batteries are worn down (the rotor blade will struggle to turn, even though you can hear the magnetic hum of the motor)

I did this a couple of times last night. I took my toy out for the first time today and it flew !!

OK - now onto "It's not durable":

Today was a **windy** day - so I launched it by hand after throwing some grass into the air so I knew where the toy was going to go ("downwind"). (Kids and adults: I'm 36, I'm allowed to be stupid enough to ignore the instructions and launch it by hand if I want to, and I've experience of being hit by model helicopter blades so I know to be very careful. The instructions say to stay well away from the blades for a very good reason - because they can cause injury)

NOTE WELL: Read and understand the shut-off feature of the remote control: Being a model helicopter flyer, I know very well that if you have the time to realise the helicopter's main blades are going to strike the ground, then shut off the engine otherwise the helicopter (and XFO!!!) will beat itself to death.
To shut off the XFO, pull the joystick towards you.

Just so you know about this stop feature: When you turn the transmitter on (do it with the toy still off): note the brightness of the LED above the joystick glows brighter when you push the joystick up. This indicates it's transmitting a signal.

Now pull the joystick back beyond the bottom position - and you'll see the red LED glow brighter again - it's transmitting the "Engine stop" signal - this is the "Stop" position.

So, I would launch it, gust of wind catches it, Uh Oh! About to strike the ground, and pull back on the stick, thus shutting off the motor. The blades will strike the ground and fold back as designed. No problem!!

When I did launch it and it started to drift downwind - just before it was about to land I pushed up on the stick to arrest the rate of decent, then as it was about to touch down (I knew it was going to trip over as it had too much sideways speed) I again shut it down. Toppled over, blades folded back, nothing broken.

As it says on the box: easy to learn, challenging to master.

Back to the Piccolo comparison: I was impressed with the XFO's engine! eg even down to the cooling fan on the engine's drive shaft. I looked at the toy and thought, "They could quite easily add servos, swashplate and tail rotor to this thing..." - the Piccolo retails about £350 - i bought my XFO for £20 (and it retails for £59.99 so still very good value). The blades' leading edges and tips are rubber which means they'll survive an impact well - the Piccolo's aren't (in fact, I know of no model helicopter that has this feature). And the rotor head pops on to the main shaft in the same way as a Piccolo's head pops onto the main shaft.

How much fun: reduced from 5 stars to 4 because it's a pity it doesn't have some directional control.

Educational: 5 stars, because a) it introduces someone to helicopter-style flying, and b) the joystick is like the vertical axis control of a model helicopter's radio control

Durable: 5 stars: just learn the engine shut-off feature and use it ! I flew it in wind today, and had (7 or 8?) several blade strikes with the ground - and it's not broken at all.

Well - hope my ramblings help someone.

The initial performance was not satisfactory. The XFO would climb to about 10 -15' of altitude and the motor would begin to pulse on and off. moving the transmitter stick seemed to have little to no effect. This made for difficult contol. Problem was solved by unwinding the antenna wire inside the XFO and bringing it out through the side and scotch tapeing it in place along the length of one of the fins. Still, there times when the motor cant be shut off from the transmitterduring a landing which flops over. It's now a fun toy to fly and with a little expierence you can even acheive some form of directional control by spotting the pendular angle it is on during decent and adding power in the direction of the angle when it best points to the direction you want to go.

If you understand the weight-to-durability & flyability ratio of this toy, it is a marvel. Original price was high ($69) for what it is and what it can do, but it was soon marked down everywhere for $20 to $29. Why? ...I can only assume that it's being discontinued because it's really not for 8+ yrs and up, but more like 12 yrs of age and up. :-) The lift power on this is awesome. So is the flying time. The lead-acid sealed battery pack is also proper for this sort of a machine. The propeller has rubberized tips, but it could maybe scratch out an eyeball or two. It wouldn't take much to add some steerability to this thing; if it had even one extra servo control for steerability, I would gladly pay the full price for it and get a couple or more - to swap out body parts in case of bad landings!

I had the pleasure to preview and fly this toy while it was in its experimental stage. It is really a blast, flys like no other toy an is very durable. The other rater stated that it does not require 10 D batteries and I'am sure he is right, it has it own recharger (that what the red box is the picture is). This will be one of the holiday seasons big sellers.

I have read all the reviews on the product and had the same issues with mine not leaving the ground. BUT, after draining the battery down sereveral times and "conditioning" the NiMH batteries, it flies like a rocket. One tip on conditiong the batteries, the unit will shut off when it gets hot, wait a minute and turn the unit off the on, and continue to drain the batteries until it shuts down again. Also give the batteries a chance to cool before recharging. After a few times of this it will work fine. This toy is sensitve to the power to weight ratio and at first the NiMH batteries cannot supply enough "juice". I hope everyone tries this before the think it is a failure, because it is really fun to fly.

I had read some lukewarm reviews about the XFO and had some doubts that my son would like it. Initially, we were disappointed as it wouldn't take off because the wind was dragging it across the pavement and tipping it over. I decided that holding it at its' base while my son nailed the control to max speed might work. Indeed! The XFO lifts gently out of my hand and flies to at least 50 feet or more. At times it was flying so high that I think it was getting beyond the range of the controller. We had to run along with it. We had some wind so it would easily go the length of a football field. My son's first landing was perfect, but most of the time it landed at a slight angle which resulted in a crash. Fortunately, it is durable enough to stay together. I doubt Tyco recommends holding like I described, but it isn't dangerous and it works. Have fun!

this toy is da bomb. I just went to the park and it flew like a professional helicopter. I got mine from a dollar general for only $10 bucks. This thing flies upto 70 feet and lands perfectly. I am 15 years old and still cant get bored of it. Whenever I show this to people they are always astonished at what they see! I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes to have fun for them or there children. (and by the way this thing is durable like a rock).

My 8 and 10 year old sons (and their father) have had a great time with this toy. It is easier to fly than a rc plane, but builds the skills they need for more advanced toys. Walked out in the garage to find them both hovering it all over the place. Multiple crashes and taped up wing later it is still going strong. Only drawback is length of flight on the charger system only gives you two or three flights before re-charge (takes 1-2 minutes to recharge) Otherwise lots of fun!

My son received this toy for Christmas and was thrilled. He wanted a r/c plane, but being only 8 years old I needed something that was easy to do and not too difficult to maintain. After reviewing a number of options in this price range, I settled on the XFO and have been very pleased.

However, I did take the time to read other Amazon reviews (thanks especially to the idea to not use the fixed rings and use the rubber bands that hold the leg brackets) and instructed my son accordingly. I told him that we had to work on soft landings on hard surfaces and not go too high until we were in a soft grassy area. We even tried the controls with me holding the base and him working the remote so he could get used to taking off and landing. By doing this, we were prepared, even for crashes. The end result? He could not be more thrilled and we have enjoyed hours and hours of fun. In fact, we get up early in the morning before school, just to take a few flights. We have landed in grass, on our driveway, on asphalt roads and even on a neighbors car. Each time it has come away unscathed. Our best results are not taking it up higher than 20' on hard surfaces and only up to about 70' (believe me it is plenty) when we are in grass fields.