Air Hogs Havoc Heli - Colors May Vary
by Spin Master
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Our Price: $29.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $17.96 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Air Hogs Havoc Heli - Colors May Vary
Customer Review: My Two Cents
Summary: 4 Stars
I received a Havoc Heli (Red) for Christmas 2008. I could not wait to get it out of the box. It took me approx. 12 full flights to really get control. Once you learn the basics of flight you should be able to fully enjoy your Heli. Be prepared though for multiple crash landings. The Heli is fairly durable.
The day after Christmas I went out to buy a second Heli, except that all three local stores (WalMart, Kmart, and Target) were out of the regular Heli's so I purchased a Micro Havoc Heli - I don't suggest the Micro Heli to anyone. They are a nightmare to fly, and I returned it a couple days later. Got lucky, and found the Havoc Apache at Target that same day. Bought it and am enjoying it as well. Since, found a Havoc Stinger in the next town over. Now I have three Heli's in my fleet.
Okay, my first Havoc Heli (Red) all of a sudden dropped out of mid-air during flight. There is an issue with the Infrared signal communication between Heli and remote. I have been unable to find any Q&A's on this particular problem. ***ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS PROBLEM? AND DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE A SOLUTION?***
I have since contacted Spinmaster about my problem and was informed that this happens in about 1 out of 1,000 Heli's. They are not exactly sure why. The Customer Service department at Spinmaster is very friendly and seem to be very customer oriented. After about five minutes on the phone with them, they told me that all I had to do was cut the charge cord from the remote and take a picture of that with the box and send them a picture. I did this, and they are sending me out a replacement Heli. The only problem so far is that they can't guarantee me a replacement that works on the "B" frequency like the Heli (Red) that I presently have. Let's hope I get the replacement, in like three weeks.
Pro's:
Heli is just plain fun to play with.
Heli is light weight, portable, and convinient.
Heli is fairly durable. A minor break is easily fixed with Gorilla Glue.
Con's:
Flying the Heli can be frustrating at time, as it takes time to master.
Flying the Heli in any wind (i.e. when the heater turns on) makes controlling the Heli difficult.
Flying the Heli can be difficult, especially when you have animals at home - a little piece of hair can wrap around the rear propeller and force the Heli out of control.
Flying the Heli fowards is not going to happen on its own. I have learned that right turns with the Heli will force the Heli forward and left hand turns will freeze the Heli and also back it up a bit.
Overall:
The price on these are all over the place, depending on what store or website you look at. I picked up all of mine for $25 a piece. I would not pay anymore for a Heli. They are fun, but they would not be worth it at a more expensive price. Personally, $15 to $20 is a reasonable price for what you get with this product. If they were selling for $15, I would have a dozen of these, easily. Plus, you can afford a mishap with your Heli from time to time. All you have to do is buy a new one.
One last thing, "Trimming" the Heli. Is not as easy as the company would like you to believe. Only one of my Heli's actually trims to a straight flight (figures it is the Heli Red that does not work anymore). The other two, no matter what will push either left or right depending on the trim positioning. You cannot expect a perfect flight, but you can still enjoy.
Keep the box, packaging, and receipt in case you need to return!
They are fun, but they take alot of practice.
I hope you enjoy your Heli as much as I enjoy mine.
Customer Review: Move the charging cord to the back
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm really enjoying this little helicopter. It is the first I've owned. It took a little while to learn how to fly it, but now that I've got it down I'm having a lot of fun with it.
The helicopter weighs 10.3 grams. A quarter, dime and penny weighs about the same.
Charge time: 18 minutes
Flight time: 8 minutes.
I'm tempted to get two more, so I'll always have one charged up. It's actually good that it has down time. You won't ever get caught up in playing it and not notice how late it is until the sun starts to come up.
Two items in the description are totally wrong: "four-way control for flying in any direction with accuracy -- up, down, under, over, left, right, forward and backward" No - the 4 ways are up, down, right and left. You can't control forward and back during flight. "hook attachment on the bottom" There isn't a hook or any place to put one.
It is strong enough to drop the 9 feet from my ceiling to the floor without any problems. I've slammed it into the wall many times and it was fine. I haven't flown it in the kitchen, because I KNOW it would immediately decide to see what is behind the fridge. I loves to check out what is behind all the big heavy furniture. Might as well buy a swiffer at the same time. This copter finds all the hidden spots you've neglected to dust.
From what I've read, you shouldn't run the battery all the way down. That will ruin it. Charge it up before you put it away. This kind of battery doesn't like to get too hot, or too cold either. Try to keep it at room temperature even when storing it.
The lid on the cord compartment holds the cord straight up, right behind the joysticks. That's the worst place they could have put it. I only put it back in the storage compartment when I'm done playing with it. I cut a notch on the back of the lid with a file. That way I can close the lid with the cord coming out of the back of the controller, and it doesn't get in the way during flights. Also, the copter stands on it's feet during charging instead of laying on it's side. (I uploaded a photo illustrating the problem and solution).
I put a paperclip on the rotor boom to prevent forward motion while I was learning to fly it. I use a bit of clay on the nose instead of the foil stickers in the package. The clay is easy to adjust.
I found it is much easier to just launch from my hand. I hold the bottom fins between two fingers, give it enough power to support itself then let go. When launching it from the ground it immediately turns and flies off in an unpredictable direction. If I get it up to speed while holding it, I can release it and it will stay about where I let it go.
It can usually right itself when it's laying on the floor. I'm sure this is bad for the rotors, but it's kind of a fun challenge to get it stood back up and take off from where it fell without touching it.
Even the slightest breeze will affect it.
It uses 6 AA batteries in the controller. The helicopter recharges from the controller so there aren't any separate batteries required for the helicopter. Get a set of rechargeable batteries, especially if you are giving this to a kid.
You need to use a screwdriver to open the battery compartment - pretty inconvenient. I think that's a poor design choice.[..].
This is really a great deal and a heck of a lot of entertainment for the price.
Customer Review: Unbelievably addicting.
Summary: 5 Stars
These helicopters are fantastic. The quality of construction is superb (meaning they can crash a lot and keep going) and they are incredibly fun to fly. I can't believe some of the less-than-perfect reviews I've seen here, especially the complaints that they are hard to fly. I suspect some of these folks were hoping to be Airwolf/Blue Thunder as soon as they opened the box. It doesn't work like that. Here are some tips:
There is an altitude control and a left/right control only. There is no means for making the helicopter go forward right out of the box. In order to make them go forward you have to add a small bit of weight to the end of the nose so the helicopter dips down a little bit in the front. There are a few stick-on pads included in the box just for this purpose but I've found they're not quite enough weight. I add all three pads centered on the bottom about a half-inch under the nose and then a little extra weight (half a small paperclip or a little wire) taped right to the tip of the nose. Too much weight and it'll go forward too fast. Experiment to see what you like best. I'd recommend getting comfortable with hovering and trim before you add anything though (and be sure to read the instructions for some great tips).
The helicopter when fully charged is almost too powerful. Once it runs for a minute or so the battery power drops off a tiny bit and flight becomes a *lot* more stable. Be patient.
It takes a *really* fine touch on the controls, working both at the same time, to get solid, consistent flight and you'll only get that with a lot of practice. I'd say most people can get good in about 6 full charge/fly cycles if they have some RC plane flying experience, maybe 8 if you have no prior experience. This helicopter is durable enough for you to learn on just remember to *NOT* try to fly out of impending crashes. Instead just kill the power and let it drop, you'll do a lot less damage to the chopper that way. Also, there is a tendency to want to move your body one way or the other when you think the chopper should go in a different direction (especially if it starts to get near a wall, I've seen my wife jerk the controller to the left or the right in a panic). If you find yourself doing this (because you're *really* getting into it ;-), remember that they fly on IR not radio so you need (for the most part) to keep the controller pointed at the helicopter. If you jerk it away it won't do anything other than reduce the signal to the chopper which will give you less control. In practice though we haven't really noticed any IR signal loss so maybe it isn't that big of a deal.
We have six of these between me, my kids, my Dad and my brother. We can all fly any of them with the skill shown in the Air Hogs commercial in my living room, which is about 15'x15'x12', so I believe anyone can get really good with these if you just practice (and it's tons of fun so it won't be a problem). If you have kids less than 10 years old you will probably want to show them how to be really gentle with the controls. Of course if they play video games they're probably already really good at that kind of thing. ;)
You can't go wrong with one of these for cheap entertainment but be careful, they're addicting. It's *really* easy to get hooked and want to go out and buy all three (which is what I did, sigh, my wife had to have her own too ;-)
Customer Review: Fun product with misleading commercials...
Summary: 3 Stars
After seeing the commercials on TV I saw this toy (a grown up toy, in my case) down at Wallyworld and picked one up after I saw the fantastic price. For the paltry price of $25 I could fly my Havoc mini-chopper around furniture, take off and land on tables, buzz family members with high speed flybys, and drive the family pets nuts. My conclusions about the Havoc are somewhat different than what's portrayed on TV though. I've never delved into RC aircraft before, something I've always wanted to do but always viewed as an "expensive hobby" that I could always take up later on in life when I had more time and money to spend on it. But the Havoc was extremely reasonably priced so I figured "what the heck" and bought one.
The Havoc itself is extremely lightweight and surprisingly durable. So durable that even after catastrophic collisions with solid objects (walls, furniture, family members, etc) the little thing shrugs it off and keeps on flying without so much as a mark on the rotors. And so long as there isn't a breeze in the immediate area it's also rather agile.
The controls are very rudimentary for such a machine, and if you've ever used an RC car controller you'll be dealing with much the same thing here. The left toggle is your collective, which moves the Havoc up and down. The right toggle controls yaw, essentially your steering. Technically there should be a control toggle for pitch (forward/backward movement) and others have commented that it's absence detracted from the product. I agree to a certain extent, but will also say that it's tough enough trying to control the Havoc with the two provided, so I understand why it's not there. Along with this is an adjustment for trim, as well as a 3 channel selector switch so that up to 3 different Havocs can be flying in the same airspace without the choppers getting confused signals.
The Havoc has several problems which prevent it from achieving the critcally good rating I *want* to give it. For starters, despite there being a controller, the Havoc is virtually *uncontrollable*. The controls, as they are, are hyper-sensitive, especially the yaw/direction control. The unit will take off and can be finagled to hover in place for several moments before it invariably begins it's random exploration of whatever room you're in. Use of the direction control results in bizarre spinning of the helicopter, and as far as I can discern, don't have any use at all. The Havoc does move slightly forward as it goes, but again, without any realistic control of left/right, this means you're ultimately going to run into something as the Havoc spills to the floor. Others have complained about the short duration of the battery (I think the fine print on the back of the box says 6 minutes, although I think 4 minutes is a more realistic figure) although I can see no other way of reasonably increasing battery power duration without substantially increasing the weight of the helicopter itself, which would nullify everything it advertises.
The bottom line here is that you end up with a helicopter that does not behave as portrayed on TV. You have one that goes up and down and can hover pretty well, but that will ultimately behave in response more to the air currents in the room more than the input from your controller. Still, it's a lot of fun and is an extremely rugged little helicopter and will amuse you for hours at a time!
Customer Review: Notes from OldTechnohobbiest
Summary: 5 Stars
Yea, I decided to get one of these.
Overall, I don't think you'll get the air hog's equal (for the same price), anywhere...thus, the five star rating. For my own outlook, I think it would have been better designed had its trim been better. I know, I know, it has a button for that--but why have to set it each time?
So anyway, I've had it for two days and a night, out of the seven or eight times I've charged it, only two times did I manage to 'land' it. Roughly, this calculates to about 150 crashes........not a mark on it.
And finally, this is for indoors only, apparently any sunlight at all (as another poster reported) throws the controls out of whack. Mine, as soon as I go out the door, it shuts off. Too much sunshine. I also feel the main trick to learning this machine is to learn how to hover properly, and steady--if you can do that, learning to manuever is simple.
So here it is:
PROS:
1. I don't think you can beat the price.
2. Extremely durable. (survived over 150 indoor crashes).
3. Apparently, competently designed and built.
4. Neat toy for us 55 yr. olds (it's cheaper than a Harley).
5. Though the learn curve for a young first timer might seem a little tough in this case...I feel a teenager with get it going right the first day--provided they trim it properly. (It's the main thing in my outlook).
CONS:
1. Yes, it would have been nicer if it had a forward and backward switch...but just remember, a real helicopter requires both hands and feet to operate--these controls have to be set up for two hands. Nonetheless, it could have been done. How? Simple, add two foot controllers to operate the tail rotar like they do in real helicopters--that way you could have actually learned to fly one!
2. Better trim set--done at the factory. It would have been better if all the little helicopter's trim was factory set permanently, so all you have to do is give it a quick, one time, adjustment.
3. It would have been nice if it had a laser cannon mounted so I could chase flying bugs. (you can be serious when you write your review).
Bottom line: I recommend this toy for all of us (that's why I gave it five stars). Make sure you give it a close check right out of the box, pay attention to how straight the tail boom is and the little 'wing' on the back tip. For those of you with less than perfect vision, get out the 'microscopes' so you can plug it into the charger correctly. The recharge 'wire' is in the center of the hand control, underneath a round 'barrel' shaped, piece of plastic. The place you plug it into the helicopter is on the right side, just below the window. There is also a blue on/off switch there. Finally, when you begin to charge it, if the green light isn't on--it's not being charged.
BYE!
Update, May 30. That piece of tape -- that looks like a decal on the tail boom --, if it is not straight up and down it has the abilitly to cause the copter to spin fast. Futhermore, mine had a automatic trim problem about spinning left from the moment power is own, I find if I adjust that same decal/tape, I can totally remove the spin problem.
BYE!