Review: Hot Wheels - Tesla Cybertruck 1/64 RC

I have been out of the hot wheels game for a while but I saw these at Toys R Us here in Canada and knew I had to give them a try. Remote control cars have been a hobby of mine for a while but recently I sold all of my toy grade RC’s because I wasn’t driving them and they were just sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

These bad boys are the first toy grade RC I have purchased a few years. My initial throught of these cars was that they were a bit squirrly. If you give them too little forward throttle and too much steering left or right you will find yourself doing donuts. I have to admit I am more accustom to full proportional steering that turns the front wheels, not the tank steering that is found in the Roger Doger, Nissan GTR and Tesla Cybertruck. In the hobby grade RC world most transmitters have something called dual rates which allows you turn the full range of the steering channel down so that it is less sensitive. That would definitely have been useful to have in these RC cars, but we will see if more practice with them makes steering any easier.

{Insert Image of car doing a donut}

I did find that if you can give the cars a constant forward throttle and feather (lightly tap) the steering controls, you can get some smooth turns and even drift these little RC cars.

{Insert image of car drifting}

Play Anywhere

Where these cars really shine is racing on the hotwheels track. I have a dual lane track that includes two cris cross pieces, one jump and one loop. The cars performed extremely well on this track set. Having the ability to race against another opponent on the exact track layout is very fun and reminscent of the slot car track from my childhood. The beneift of these cars over the slot cars is that you are not limited to where the track can be setup. You could set it up outside or all throughout your house and not worry about finding a power outlet.

The 2.4GHz controller adds to the anywhere play and is a nice change from Mattel’s previous RC iterations the Nitro Speeders that used Infrared controllers. Infrared signals are affected by the sun so using them outside is just not possible.

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Controller/Transmitter

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The 2.4GHz also allows up to {X} number of cars to be run at the same time. The controller has a few features on it. It has a forward/backward control stick, left/right control stick, left/right trim buttons that allow you to adjust for any left or right drifting located below the right control stick and a turbo button on the top right of the controller. The TURBO button is useful when needing an extra boost of power to make it through a loop, jump or stair climb. For more competitive play I would recommend making the track in a way that requires the players to use the full range of the throttle so that you are not just holding down the TURBO button the whole time.

Potential Issue

I did find that I had to use the turbo button to go through loops and make any jumps. In one of the cars that I bought (Nissan GTR) I found that its throttle speed started to decrease after a few charges. Not sure if that was caused by me taking off the body or if there is some kind of lint in the gears causing it to go slightly slower than the other models (Roger Doger and Tesla Cybertruck).

Car

Specifications

• Wheelbase (center of front tires to center of rear tires): 47mm
• Width (outer left edge to outer right edge): 30mm
• Body Length:
  • Tesla Cybertruck:
  • 2017 Nissan GTR:
  • Roger Dodger:
• Chasis length:
  • Tesla Cybertruck:
  • 2017 Nissan GTR:
  • Roger Dodger:
• Scale: 1/64

Pros

• Proportional throttle
• Proportional steering
• Matching scale to standard Hotwheels
• Can be driving without a Hotwheels track
• Can be driving on a Hotwheels track

Cons

• Proportional steering is sensitive and needs to be feathered or else the car will do donuts
• No USB charge cable for the car. The cars can only be charged off AA batteries from the controller (transmitter)
• One of the cars I received had the top end throttle decrease after a few charge cycles

So … What I Do

To get the most out of these amazing little RC cars I put them to the test. Want to see how these speed demons make out on a dual lane track, a stair climb and an outrageous obstacle course, checkout the video below.

• race on dual lane race track
• attempt the stair climb
• Create obstacle course
• Add light to bottom for max traxxx track pieces

Where to buy

_{If you like my content and I have helped in your purchasing decision think about using my affiliate link below to purchase one or more of these amazing RC cars.}

Toys R Us link

Roger Doger