Nikko VaporizR

Everyone wants to be a big kid sometimes. My Dad certainly did when he saw a Nikko VaporizR in the pool last weekend. For those not familiar with this radio control car, it's a sort of bloated Audi TT with 4 wheel drive.

And it's amphibious.

So, you drive it around on land and then have it leap into a nearby pool and carry on. The speed is stupid, the steering like a tank and all in all it's great fun. Best of all, the radio control is set to 27.145mhz so it can be used with other RC stuff. We could take it down to the boat club, nab the peg for the yellow frequency, and play with impunity. Power is from a separate rechargeable battery which is supplied. 5 hours charging give about 45 minutes play.

Launching took place off the end of a bit of plywood on our landing stage. Thanks to the dry winter this means a drop of nearly three feet but the car was more than man enough for this much to our fellow club members surprise.

Then we had a little troll around the water. It's messy but great fun. I find the trick with tank steering (you have two forward and reverse sticks, one for each side) is to keep one stick forward and handle the steering on the other. I don't think I'll win the docking competition this way, but it's a start.

Battery duration was probably about 2/3 what we'll get after a few charges. I don't think this is a problem, this might not a be serious model but when your boat club has lots of off-road and plenty of on-water potential, it's going to be fun.

Our toy came from Argos. Details here.