You won't be board.
We've reviewed quite a few Hexbug toys and products over the
years, from robotic pet fish to battling vibrating robots. They've now made the
move into making what is definitely the smallest radio-controlled thing we've
ever played with, a 'circuit board'. Essentially a miniature RC skateboard,
these toys were designed by skateboarding legend himself, Tony Hawk. We got to
grips with the Halfpipe set, and a jolly good time we had to boot.
In the box you get the pretty huge plastic halfpipe ramp
set, one of the aforementioned circuit boards (with removable drive section)
and a teeny tiny remote control. The controller is very similar to the one
included with the Hexbug Strandbeast we reviewed a few months back, but were
still pretty surprised at just how small it is.There isn't much else to report except that once the circuit board and controller are powered up you have full control at driving the wee thing around. It moved pretty quick around our desk during initial testing, but not crazily fast that it dashed off out of control. Thankfully when placed onto the halfpipe set (other additional playsets are available, allowing kids to build their own skate park) the small wheels grip very well and you actually do get a bit of air when zooming up the ramp.
Although we can see how the halfpipe set is the perfect place for kids to start collecting, after a few minutes of hopping up and down the curve of the track, we got a little bored and started to drive the circuit board 'off piste'. This is, to be honest, where the real fun happened, as a smooth flat surface allowed us to play around with the board's trick capabilities. Although the small controller gives you just simple forward and backward control of each of the rear wheels, there was a lot of fun to be had spinning around and crashing into obstacles to make it flip over.
A big barrel-load of fun, we really enjoyed the Tony Hawk
Circuit Board Halfpipe by Hexbug, if mainly because we love driving little gadgets
around aimlessly.
£29.99
Visit www.hexbug.com