These
spiders fight back!
If
we told you there existed spiders armed with laser cannons, you might
just poop your pants. Fortunately the spiders in question are
robots... robots that you can control to battle other similarly armed
spiders. To have some crazy good fun, and also to creep out every
arachnophobe we know, we test the Hexbug Battle Spider Dual Pack.
This isn't our first go on a Hexbug RC spider, as we reviewed one of the more pedestrian versions in a Christmas Stocking Fillers feature last year. Since then Hexbug have upped their game, arming the crawling robots with a light gun and giving it a futuristic, battle-worn paint job.
Essentially,
the Hexbug Battle Spider Dual Pack contains two identical Battle
Spiders, although with very different colour schemes. You get one of
Hexbug's small, yet surprisingly easy to use, remotes for each
spider, and two spare sets of batteries as well. The object of the
game is to 'shoot' your opponent's spider with your light gun,
rendering it immobile for a second or two with each hit. Successfully
hit them ten times and they shut down. You win!
The
spiders themselves have about a five metre range from the
controllers, while their small light guns have an effective range of
no more than a metre. This means lots of close up battling as you try
to out manoeuvrer you enemy's spider and go in for the killing shot.
The guns themselves are just a red LED which can be picked up by the
360 degree mirror cone above the sensor on the spider's head, meaning
there are no actual dangerous lasers to worry about.
What's
pretty cool (apart from the fact that you're driving robot spiders
around your living room while shooting light) is the ability to
switch channels. Press the only button on the spiders and you'll hear
a robotic voice say either “channel one”, or “channel two”.
Normally you ensure than the selected channel is the same as the one
selected on your remote (there's a small slider switch on them), but,
should you want to, you can put both spiders on the same channel and
control them with one remote. It's like synchronised robot dancing
and it is awesome.
Whether
you're battling with a friend, or just driving a spider around for
laughs, the Hexbug Battle Spider Dual Pack is a heck of a lot of fun.
£33.55
Available from www.amazon.co.uk/