BSD-Racing Prime Assault R/C car review

BSD-Racing prime Assault.

There was I, thinking that mountain biking was an expensive hobby. Yet at Christmas my eight year old decided that he wanted a radio controlled [R/C] car. Not just any car; he wanted a BSD-racing Prime Assault.

No way kiddo. They're over £100. You're eight. Have some Lego.

Can't say beyond a passing interest in their design and function that these R/C things hold much interest for me. Even as a child they never really appealed, so this wasn't a case of sad dad trying to relive missed childhood opportunities. If that was the case I'd have bought him an air-rifle or Bowie knife.

Yet there I was, late November, in Mick Charles models buying him one. Advertised on-line generally at a penny shy of £100 it ended up costing me £145. How so? Well you can have a two wheel drive one, but they're pants, so have the 4wd version. Oh and the supplied battery charger is also pants, here, have this one for £30. Do you need a better battery? No!



Here's the car a few months' down the line. I'm quite familiar with the CenturyUK.Com spare parts order process now. You see if you don't keep checking the screw tightness, they fall out. When they do you have no chance of finding them as they are tiny. Also here the shock absorber is broken, and the shock mount is badly damaged. That's £17 to you and me. Ouch. The body covering is fine - I'm charging the battery is all.

You crash a lot. It happens, so best get familiar with what the various components are and how to order them. Bulk buy as well, as postage is £4 a hit. I could pop over to Mick Charles, but that'd be two hours out of my life. The crashes oddly don't seem to affect the body, but do trash the big plastic bits. Kind of makes it look cool, as does a light coating of trail dust.


What's the car like then?
  • Charging the battery on a fast charger takes over an hour.
  • The fast charger is great - really zips amps into my bike lights.
  • The car runs for about twenty to thirty minutes on a charge.
  • The car is fast, but not hugely so. You soon get used to it.
  • Be careful setting up the remote.
  • It skids, it jumps, it does great 'J' turns.
  • Don't use it in mud - the drive shafts rust. Ooops.
  • They require fairly big, people free places to run.
  • It's not a Monster truck with big travel suspension. More's the pity.
  • Even stumping up £145 it's cracking value for what it is.
  • As an adult you look sad carrying it around.

It's for a fourteen year old!

The box comes with dire warnings not to give to children under fourteen. My boy is eight. I gave it to him. Why not? He soon gets bored with it, whilst our ten year old daughter mastered it in five minutes. R/C cars are fun for about ten minutes then you deliberately start to jump | skid | crash. Back to CenturyUK.Com for more bits then.


Overall?

It's an R/C car. You have to be of a certain mindset to find them fun for long periods. Say anything in excess of five or ten minutes. Bit like kite flying then. For me, they're a bit boring as I have a short attention span. Even for an eight year old boy they hold limited appeal. The car itself is great; strong, fast and responsive. It was a good Christmas present as it gets us out of the house now and then. As a hobby? Well it's OK actually as it does get you out doing stuff.

However even I question the merits of playing in the car park of light industrial units on Sunday afternoons. We did look into joining a club, but they have age limits and we can't be arsed waiting four years to join one.

My suggestion is not to buy just the one. Buy two and some spare batteries. At least then you can have races..... Also find a place that is dusty so has limited grip, and perhaps somewhere with a load of junk in skips. We're spending more time now constructing jumps and tracks than playing with the car. I guess that's all part of the bonding process between father, son and daughter, so not a bad thing.


Mixed feelings.

We currently use the car once a week, Sunday afternoons. That's enough for me really. Like watching my boy play with the thing, and building the ramps is OK. Yet even he doesn't put up much of a fight when the battery runs out, or grumble that we should bring a spare with us. I'm not entirely convinced it's for him as he's a social, not solitary animal. R/C cars seem to us to fall in the slightly solitary camp. Nothing wrong with that - I tend to ride solo. He likes to be in a gang though.

The breakages give me an excuse to mend something and look all manly dad. However there's a strong possibility my ten year old could easily repair the thing. It's quite simple in construct.


Cost. Good or bad?

As for the cost, £145 is remarkable value for what you get. It's a class piece of kit. Sure the shocks could be better, and the battery a bit longer lasting, which are just minor gripes. The shocks don't seem to last long anyway, so will be replaced soon enough. The key point being that my son is happy to own one and it has moved him on in life. Certainly it gets more use than Lego.

As for my wife, well possibly quite rightly she thinks it a stupid toy.

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