Our continuing look at some of the flying options offered by German model outfit Revell has reached the big guns; namely the largest RC Helicopter we've ever tested. But is the six-rotored Hexatron all blades and no trousers? We cleared some room, warned the neighbours to move their pets indoors, and took to the skies.
Obviously the first thing that strikes you about the Hexatron is the damn thing's size. Seriously, the pictures don't do it justice. When it arrived we thought there was two of them in the massive box - turned out to be just one, and what a whopper it is. Once out of the box it measures 800mm by 800mm across, with most of that being taken up by the large and all encompassing foam guards. Strip all that away and the Revell Hexatron is pretty insubstantial and light, with a core not that much bigger than the Revell Sky Spider.
Regardless of the size this is still a chopper being aimed at the beginner market, with a simple four-speed control option, stabilising gyros... and not much more going on. There is no camera, no GPS, and no app-controled WiFi. This is just a solid and easy to use RC helicopter. Shocker. This also fills a gap that currently yawns open in the market, and stands as a perfect go between from the indoor-only IR controlled mini-copters (such as this) and the larger, more expensive, and infinitely more complex drones from the likes of Parrot and DJI. If you're looking for an outdoor chopper that can stand it's own in a bit of wind, that will let you practice your skills without risking a quad that cost you over a grand, this could be it.
In practice we found it fairly easy to control and it felt very much like the aforementioned Sky Spider. We were startled by how quiet it is, as we assumed more rotors would mean more noise - quite the opposite it seems. Although Revell will insist that their 2.4GHz helicopters have a range of 50 metres, we've always found that they work perfectly well and remain perfectly controllable right up to 100 metres, which considering there isn't a camera on there urging you go higher to get a better view, is an extremely agreeable range.
The Revell Multicopter Hexatron also comes with the pre-programmed ability to do a 360 degree flip in mid air. Why people actually like doing this with their helicopters confuses us, as we're always so terrified to attempt one. Still, watching something this big complete a flip is pretty impressive, even if it is just a case of the helicopter graciously falling out of the sky for a bit. Certainly scared the crap out of our neighbours.
So although the behemoth might be lacking a camera and other hi-tech wizardry associated with a multicopter of this size, the Revell Hexatron is great step-up from the mini drones of your living room into the wide skies of the big boys.
£99
Visit www.revell.de/en