Customer Reviews

Hot Wheels Dune Devil Pro Radio Control Vehicle, Green

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We've tried so many non-hobby grade RC vehicles in my son's 10 years of life. From micro to giant sized, 5 or 6 different brands, from $[...] to $[...] (for a giant Hummer). They've all pretty much worked. Some broke after a few uses, some didn't perform as promised (running in dirt, for example) and some just lacked that little something that made it "cool."

This car is awesome. It's sturdy, drives in dirt and over gravel, short-ish grass, jumps curbs with ease, is fast, feels strong, stops on a dime, great remote function, great range. We've run it on regular batteries, rechargeable batteries, and a NiCd battery. For sure, the NiCd is the way to go, though we were impressed even with regular batteries on Christmas day. My son has driven this thing off of ramps at the skate park 6-feet high to the concrete with nothing but superficial scratches. It's filthy from running through gravel and dirt trails and my son just loves it.

Two days after Christmas, my son spent his own allowance to buy the white model of the same car. Trust me, that's unusual. He never spends his money.

I highly recommend this RC vehicle. If you're not wanting to spend $[...] to get a hobby-grade RC vehicle (which he was considering before his started using this car) then you would be making a good choice with this car. Heck, buy one of each and race 'em like we do. Super fun.

*** Edited 1/22/08 to add:****
This past weekend my son drove this Dune Devil into a drain. It was the end of the world. Anyway, after removing the manhole cover from the drain and recovering the car from 10-feet down, the car covered in yuck (not a sewage drain thankfully), this car still runs. It was dripping wet and got flipped over a few times while trying to hook on to it. It had the NiCd battery in it at the time. Still very happy with it. My son is still enjoying it, as well.

I have owned many Pro R/C cars (ie. Duratrax, Traxxis, Tamaya, etc). Now that my son is interested (3 yrs old), I wanted a "toy" R/C car for him knowing that it would mostly be hitting curves. That said, I wanted something that could drive on grass and still be fun to use for me when I'm with him.

This is the R/C car I ended up with, and boy does it fit the ticket!
Here's my pro's and con's:

PROS:
(1) Fully independent front suspension with spring shocks. No, they are not oil dampened but they WORK compared to most toy R/C's that have NO suspension! The rear suspension has the same shocks but is simplified, you have a solid rear axle; it works well enough.
(2) Working rear differential! Just like the pro cars, if one wheel has no traction, the other gets all the torque.
(3) Pneumatic tires. Just like the pro cars, the tires are soft and flexible (not hard like most toy cars).
(4) If you remove the AA battery adapter, you can purchase any 8-cell AA NiCad or NiMh pack. Performance doubles. I purchased a 1600mAh NiMh pack from Radioshack and have yet to run it down after 45 minutes!
(5) Indestructable. I can't tell you how many curbs and jumps we've done. Only scratches on the outer shell.
(6) FOUR forward speeds and one reverse. Most toy cars that 1/1.

CONS:
(1) Steering is not proportional. That is, you only have FULL left and FULL right. All toy cars are this way though.
(2) RANGE! Range is horrible. The transmitter is powered by only two AA batteries. I originally got under 20 ft without a modification I describe below.

TRANSMITTER MODIFICATION FOR ADDITIONAL RANGE

This simple mod involves replacing the 2xAA batteries with a standard 9Volt battery.
This will void your warranty and you do it at your own risk.
I am able to get over 80ft with this car now by juicing the transmitter up to 9 volts. Here's how:
(1) Remove all the screws from the back of the transmitter.
(2) Pull the rear cover apart.
(3) Pull out the existing AA batter holder and CUT both the red and black wire to remove it.
(4) Solder or wrap a 9V battery connector (the "hat") to the cut wires. You can go to radioshack or cut them off some old electronic item you have.
(5) Put the hole thing back together (don't put the old AA battery holder back in).
(6) Insert new 9V battery. The battery cover will stay in as long as a 9V battery is installed; you'll see what I mean.
(7) You now have double the range!!!!!
ENJOY!

Bought this car for my son, batteries don't last long at all, a bit dissapointing but to be expected I suppose. The car is fine but doesn't go over bumps very well, gets stuck on grass so it's not quite as good as I expected, he has to go and get it out of the grass a lot!

*UPDATED*I just received this a month ago. I have only tried it with the 9.6v battery, but I would say it has excellent power. No problems in the grass, but it does slow down some. I am buying the white one for my 6 yr old son, so we can BOTH enjoy the fun.Overall very happy with the price i paid at $27.00.Hot Wheels Dune Devil Pro Radio Control Vehicle, Green

This was broken within a week and was not replaceable because it has been discontinued. Too bad because it was wicked fast and fun... when it worked.

I ordered one of these "almost hobby grade" rc truggy' for my son for Christmas in 2009. After reading all of the reviews(which were mostly possitive) and watching several you tube videos on it, I decided to order one.Well "thumbs up" on the overall packaging of the car,"thumbs up" on the speed of this toy, very impressive indeed! BUT, the overall range of this item was only about 20 ft. and here goes, the durability of the one I bought... "2 thumbs down". After 2nd use on a gravel drive way the cars stopped and the motor started whining and would not move in any direction.I could not send the car back because I purchased it several months before Christmas through Amazon and the 30 day return policy had expired. I had fixed the car ( so I thought)took everything apart and found the problem.I then put the car back together again and it was back and running again for about 20 min. and then the same thing happened again.To make a long story short be cautious with this car, and I hope you don't buy a "bad one"

Very fast and powerful. Tires squeal on the floor and was way to fast for the house so we put tape on the wheels till the snow melts outside. Got the 9.6 rechargables. My boys love em.

This is a very fun, fast, and durable RC car for little money (if you get it at the right time). We got both the green and white cars a few years ago. I've looked high and low for some quality (non-hobby grade) RC cars and these are perfect.

For those who are having problems with the motor revving up but the car not moving, I've had that problem recently as well. You can actually fix this pretty easily (actually, its pretty straight forward to tear down the car if need be). What I found to be the problem on mine was that the gear that connects to the motor shaft was not making good contact with the shaft, so the shaft was just spinning in the gear hole. So, you can remove enough of the back end to get to that part of the car ... you don't need to dismantle the "motor" section of it but the part where the motor gear contacts the other gears will need to be exposed. Once that's done, remove the motor gear and clean it up then tap it back into place. (There may be a way to put some JB weld on it or something to insure it doesn't happen again ... may try that if the problem reoccurs).

Anyway, hope that helps someone out.

Christmas morning we took this out of the box, and put a freshly charged (thought ahead) 9.6v rechargeable battery pack and began to drive it around the house. After about 10 seconds, the gearing in the back gave out and it will not drive under any load. The one time I floored it, it was pretty fast. Immediately after that it was a big paperweight. I am severely disappointed with this for quality issues that led to a ruined christmas morning. Buyer beware, this is a lemon. Gearing is too weak just like all the reviews state.

Listen, I bought the white one for my son last year. It worked great for 3 months, upgraded to NiCd battery and the fun was on. Then that gear problem others mentioned. I was out of warranty and it didn't happen all the time but enough that my son is too frustrated to keep taking it out to have it now happen all the time. So I am buying the Green one this year. I have taken the entire gear assembly apart on the white one. Let me tell you, if this gear issue was corrected this little thing is well worth the $30. For the first 3 months my son and I drove this thing pretty hard and it never broke a part, nothing plastic cracked at all just good old scrathes. So in a few days I will have the green truck ready for this christmas. And the white one is going to get a gear box overhaul from me and get right back out there with improvements. You really can't beat this RC truck. I would compare it to some hobby grades I have owned over the years that retailed for $150 and up. But you should definetly purchase the NiCd battery and charger. I actually bought the charger and 2 batteries so we could run 1 and charge the other. ENJOY IT.