When I saw the Hot Wheels RC Bladez Drone Racerz which is a 3 in 1 drone and vehicle set demonstrated by Bladez Toyz at #BlogOnXmas in September I knew that my search for the perfect drone for Finn is over. I have tried out a few ‘kids friendly’ ones in the past and there all disappointed me mostly due to poor flying ability! But watching the Drone Racerz in action I realised a drone doesn’t have to be big and fancy it has to work and this one most certainly does (and it looks pretty stylish whilst doing so too!) Finn has been a huge Hot Wheels fan ever since his little hands where big enough to drive some cards around and even now 7 years on he still got a box full of them and loves playing motorway or racing all over the playroom floor!
We are lucky enough that the lovely Team over at Bladez Toyz send us a set to try out and I might have had a little spin or two whilst setting it up for when Finn came back from school!
What comes with the Hot Wheels RC Bladez Drone Racerz Set?
Get ready for a revolution in vehicle play with Bladez Drone Racerz! Fly the drone indoors or out, flip 360º and try the drone gate challenge! Now connect the drone to the exclusive Hot Wheels car chassis included to drive, drift and race your friends – or use the ramps and gates included to set up the ultimate stunt challenge! Drone Racerz even work with Hot Wheels™ track (not included) so you can set up a head to head drag race or use track to build bigger and wilder no limits Drone Racerz stunts!
The Set comes with a 2.4GHz Radio Controlled Drone with LED Lights including 1 Chassis, 1 Spare Body Shell, 4x Spare Rotor Blades, a Handset, a Stunt Set consisting of 1 Hoop, 2 Ramps, 1 Checkpoint and 1 Phone Holder. Next to the Instruction Manual you also have a USB charger and 1 Screwdriver in the box:
The phone holder is pretty nifty (although please note it wont fit your mobile of you have a case on) to record your stunts and the screwdriver is a great little extra to have!
Before you can get started insert 4 AA batteries (they are not included in the set) into the handset and charge the drone either via your laptop or the integrated charger on the handset for 60 minutes the red LED light on the USB charger will go out once its fully charged, its advised to not overcharge it (make sure the drone is switched off before plugging it in to be charged):
You can use the racing car chassis to drift and drive and any Hot Wheels track is compatible with the set so you can interchange the parts and customise your track collection which makes for great little add-on track presents when the next birthday comes!
What we thought about our new Hot Wheels RC Bladez Drone Racerz Set:
Normally good quality drones are marketed at 14 years and above (and usually all cost an arm and a leg!!) but Bladez seen a large gap in the market there for 6-12 yr olds so they have taken on the challenge to design a new vehicle toy that will be a natural progression for Hot Wheels die-cast fans. So kids are now able to fly the quadcopter and then connect it to the racing chassis to drive, drive and race and do some cool stunts. The flight time is 5-6 minutes long and the drive time 4-5 minutes long and the flight range is up to 25 metres. As you can see on the images Finn loved test driving the Drone Racerz on the Vehicle:
The Hot Wheels RC Drone Racerz drone has also pretty cool lighting. green lights in the front and red lights at the back on each side! There light up when you switch the drone on and it flashes to signal that you are low on battery. Something important to remember in case you are taking the blades off (I had to due to a hair of mine being stuck on it when it tippled over) make sure you put the blades on the right side. there are marked with 1 and 2 and if you put your hand above the rotating blades you shouldn’t feel a breeze. You can see how they are have to be positioned on the notice image below:
Now onto the radio controlled handset! Finn did ask me why there are so many buttons but once we went through the instructions the use of the handset was quite easy. There are 6 ‘trim’ buttons, the speed and flip buttons, Control Stick A & B, the On/Off Button, a Home & Headless Function:
To synchronise the drone with the handset first turn on the drone who’s lights will flash up. Make sure the Control Stick A is pushed down before turning it ON. The handset will make a beeping sound and once the drone and handset are synced the drones light will stop flashing and stay on. You then push Stick A very gently forward to get the drone flying and to land you push it downwards. Make sure that the back propellers are facing the furthest down from you before you take off. You can turn the LED lights on or off on the drone with pushing Stick A down whilst it’s in the middle position. If for whatever reason the drone always flips to one side you can do s stability reset which is shown on the instructions as well as how to use all the trim control buttons.
Finn was pretty exited to first off use the Drone Racerz in the Vehicle & Drone mode and later on he tried some flying too. I put a little video together of his first few attempts which certainly weren’t smooth but its all about patience and practice and we all caught the Hot Wheels bug now and try to get some skills going! The flying part was a little more difficult to start with but we all know practice makes perfect (that’s why there is lack of flying footage in the video but we will get there!):
The Drone is marketed for Age 8+ and I would defiantly say its the perfect first drone from 7 onwards with supervision. Finn needed a little bit of help to get to grips with the handset and all the buttons so it’s defiantly worth it to read the instructions thoroughly and test it out yourself before you let the kids have a go! I feel like this is a great toy to practice some drone skills and its easy enough to use in the drive and drift mode with the drone attached to the vehicle. The car itself makes a pretty good racing car too to use with some of the many Hot Wheel tracks out there! I can see this toy being a firm favourite for Finn and his friends for quite some years to come because it’s so multifunctional!
What I love most about the Hot Wheels RC Bladez Drone Racerz next to its ability to do some cool stunts and actually proper fly is the price it is a very reasonable one and you can purchase it for just 34.99£ seeing its a 3 for 1 drone and vehicle set with all the extras I think thats a fantastic price! It’s available to buy from Argos and other retailers.