Spinmaster Air Hogs Havoc Helis

The Dictionary defines Havoc as destruction. That might be a fitting definition. These helicopters are very difficult to control, and will either fly into anything they get near, or spin out of control, damaging themselves.

Here's the skinny...there is a process called trimming, which allows the user to adjust the sensitivity of the helicopter to keep it from spinning in circles. This is a delicate process that requires a bit of patience. Additionally, it seems that these helicopters get "out of trim" rather easily. The difficulty in operating these helicopters make it very frustrating, and probably beyond the capabilities of most children. Unless I received a damaged set, I would suggest that it requires an adult to trim these units, and very close supervision to keep them flying right.

The package comes with two helicopters and two controllers, as well as a few extra rotors, and a foil like substance for the nose, to assist in keeping the helicopters level. The controls are very simple, there is a switch on the left that moves away/toward the user that controls lift, there is a switch that moves left/right that controls direction, and there is a button to trim the helicopter. There is also a port used to charge the helicopters. One charge will last between five and ten minutes. These helicopters are for use indoors. This further exacerbates the trimming process. When you "take off" you have to have the switch pushed all the way forward, the heli starts lifting slowly, then darts upward quickly. It takes some getting used to, in order to avoid hitting the ceiling. As you release the switch, you can move to a hover mode. However, when the heli is not in trim, it will begin spinning around violently and unpredictably, striking anything it it's path. This causes additional problems, because the unit has a very flimsy tail stabilizer, which gets out of whack very easily. Once the tail is bent, it is very difficult to get it to work correctly.

Here is my overall experience. I spent eighty dollars at Amazon.com, which was a deal. They are running around $130.00 at most on-line sites. There were two helis in the box, one red, one blue. I trimmed the red heli out without much difficulty. The blue one never worked correctly. Because I was never able to trim the blue heli out, I never actually had the opportunity to "battle" with the lasers. In theory, once the helis are properly trimmed, you chase each other around, trying to fire a laser (which is located in the nose/cockpit area of the heli) at the other heli. If you hit the other heli, it will be temporarily disabled, and will crash. Yet another reason for the delicate parts to bend. The unit itself is primarily foam, and holds up well when you crash. However, the blades spin very fast, and might hurt if they hit you right, which isn't unlikely given the unpredictability of these helis.

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