RC Drift Racing Car with Gesture Control, Lights & Mist

What it's for

Four-wheel drive and omnidirectional wheels let this racing car move in every direction across the floor: forwards, backwards, sideways and straight through a 360° spin.

That gives children more to work on than top speed. Sliding into a gap, drifting around a corner and turning on the spot all become moves to practise and combine.

At approximately 34cm long, the low racing-car body carries built-in lighting and a water-powered mist effect that trails from the rear as the car moves. A stated top speed of up to 15km/h and a control range of around 30 metres leave room to open it up on a longer run.

How it works

Each wheel is fitted with angled rollers set around its rim. As the four driven wheels turn in different combinations, the rollers translate that into movement in any direction, which is what allows the car to travel sideways rather than only along the line it faces.

Hold a direction on the controller and the car slides across the floor. The same controls rotate it on the spot, through a quarter turn, a half turn or a full 360°. Combining the two produces drifting-style moves: sliding wide around an obstacle, spinning into a gap, or finishing a run facing the way it started.

There are two ways to drive it. The handheld remote gives conventional stick control, and the wearable gesture controller reads hand movements instead, so tilting and turning the hand steers the car. Switching between the two changes how the same moves feel.

The mist effect runs on water. Fill the reservoir using one of the two supplied bottles and the car releases a fine mist from the rear, which the built-in lighting picks up as an exhaust-style trail. No smoke or fuel is involved.

Designed for repeat play

Nothing here depends on owning a track. A slalom around table legs, a start and finish line marked with shoes, a parking space between two books, an obstacle course to clear without touching anything: the sideways movement gives children room to invent the game rather than repeat one fixed way to play.

A full charge gives approximately 25 minutes of continuous driving, and the rechargeable battery tops up in around two to three hours over the supplied USB cable. Running flat means plugging the car in rather than replacing its batteries, though the handheld remote does take two AA batteries of its own.

Storage & space

The car measures approximately 34 × 15.5 × 9.5cm, so it sits on a shelf or in a toy box without taking up a great deal of room. The original box measures approximately 42 × 17 × 14.5cm if you would rather keep the car, both controllers, the bottles and the cable together in one place.

Play needs floor space more than storage space. A hallway, a kitchen floor or a cleared area of a living room is enough for slaloms and spins.

Good to know

Several of the specifications below are worth understanding before you compare this car with anything else. The Playbook includes guides like RC toy buying guide: what 1:10, 2.4GHz and 4WD mean, which explains what the numbers on the box change about the way a toy drives.

If you are weighing up whether a toy will still be in use months from now, why good toys keep children moving looks at what separates the toys that keep getting picked up from the ones that do not.

Specifications

• Car dimensions: approx. 34 × 15.5 × 9.5cm
• Material: plastic
• Drive: four-wheel drive
• Wheels: omnidirectional roller wheels
• Standard movement: forward, reverse, left and right
• Stunt movement: sideways travel and 360° rotation
• Top speed: stated up to 15km/h
• Control: handheld remote and wearable gesture controller
• Frequency: 2.4GHz
• Control range: approx. 30m
• Lighting: built in
• Mist effect: water powered, rear facing
• Car battery: 3.7V rechargeable lithium battery, included
• Charging: USB cable included
• Charge time: approx. 2–3 hours
• Play time: approx. 25 minutes continuous
• Handheld controller batteries: 2 × AA, not included
• Gesture controller battery: coin cell, included
• Assembly: none required
• Recommended age: 6 years and over
• Colour: black/teal or black/yellow
• Boxed dimensions: approx. 42 × 17 × 14.5cm
• In the box: car, handheld remote, wearable gesture controller, rechargeable battery, USB charging cable, 2 × water filling bottles