Fast, Rugged, Low-cost Radio Controlled Toy Car/Truck

Our kids love toy cars. They have ones that you can push around, ones that you can pull back and let fly, and even have a small Lightning McQueen Infrared RC car. The Lightning McQueen car is fun but really slow, can only turn while going in reverse, and gets stuck often. Chasing it around the house is a quick game as the kids can easily just catch up to it and pick it up. We wanted to get something faster, a little more rugged, and that could manage to torque its way across carpet, rugs, and various small toys scattered around. We also wanted to spend <$30.

After shopping around a few local stores and browsing online, we bought the Lutema Blaze Remote Control Truck. There are not a lot of reviews for these products, but the packaging looked professional and the features were impressive for this price range.

It’s worth noting that this is not a young kids toy and has small parts not suitable for ages 0-3. The recommended age listed on Amazon says 4+, but the side of the box says 14+. Definitely use your best judgement and supervise any use by younger children.

We wanted something that was rugged enough to drive around carpet, rugs, and hardwood while bouncing over toys and into furniture. We found the Lutema series remote control vehicles at one local retail store and they looked pretty solid. They retail for ~$30 but have also been available on Amazon ranging in price from $12.99 to $15.99. In this price range the Lutema remote control vehicles are quite a good deal, good value, cheap price. If you are looking for something more professional or something larger then you will likely have to spend out of the $15-30 price range.

Key Features:

• Full directional control (independent Forward/Reverse and Left/Right)
• Rugged build with flexible shock absorbing wheels and body giving enhanced stability
• Sharp design and solid build quality & feel
• Pretty fast speed
• Unique traction wheels
• Adjustable wheel alignment
• Rechargeable battery pack (with charger) for the vehicle and a standard non-rechargeable 9V (included) for the remote.

The Blaze RC Truck speeds over hardwood and carpet without problems. It’s faster than I expected and can even spin out doing donuts on slicker floors. It’s able to drive right over smaller objects (e.g. small toy cars, train tracks). It has unique wheels that seem to give it extra traction. Most RC vehicles in this price range tend to have large rubber wheels that look shiny and dark. These wheels look a bit worn and dry, but the wheel compound seems to give extra friction.

The shocks on the wheels probably look more impressive than they truly perform. However, they do seem to give the truck a bit of a bounce and help recovering when driving over rough terrain and obstacles.

To keep things driving straight, the Blaze RC Truck includes an adjustable wheel alignment.

When the car is turned on there is a glowing blue light coming form the cab.

The remote control is adequate but has a cheaper build quality and feel compared to the Blaze truck. In this price range, it’s hard to complain. It does function fine. The control does not have an On/Off switch but the light appears to only activate when one of the levers is pushed.

Conclusion

I definitely recommend this remote control truck especially at this low price.

Feature	Rating
Performance on Hard Surface
Performance on Carpet
Performance on Grass
Build Quality*
Value

Cost

<$30

• Note initial built quality and feel was great. However our real axle broke after minimal use.

Additional information:

• It’s footprint is about the size of a piece of paper folded in half: ~5.5” x ~8”
• Lutema Blaze Truck 4CH Rechargeable Remote Control Truck – Yellow
• Lutema Tracer Overlord 4CH Rechargeable Remote Control Truck – Yellow
• Lutema Cosmic Rocket 4CH Rechargeable Remote Control Truck – Red
• Lutema Tracer Overlord 4CH Rechargeable Remote Control Truck – Red
• 27Mhz on the Blaze Truck/Vehicle.

Alternative Styles: