Takara Tomy’s GX Buggy RC Review

The GX Buggy is a tiny RC race car made by Japanese toy manufacturer Takara Tomy. I was sent one to review, it’s a hard job but someone has to do it :-).

Facts and figures

The car is just 10 cm long, and it can easily fit on the palm of your hand. It weighs just around 42 g, so this small, lightweight RC car can pick up speed up to 22-kilometers per hour (770-Kilometers per hour scale speed). Unlike the usual RC cars who use infrared tech, the GX Buggy uses a single 2.4 GHz controller. This means that 10 GX Buggy RC cars can be controlled at the same time. The car comes with a charging unit that takes 4 AA-sized batteries. The batteries takes about 20 minutes to charge, which can give you around 10 minutes of playing time.

The GX buggy is the ultimate RC vehicle for jump lovers. It has a maximum jump height of 85 cm and it can do back flip jumps, soldier flips, back flip high jumps, and a bucket tornado, where the car spins around the bucket to get outside.

This micro RC car also comes with a “Roll Wing,” which is a transparent strip of plastic that can be installed on top of the car. The Roll Wing ensures that the GX Buggy will continue to run even if it falls to the side. It also has foam rubber tires that make it perfect for indoor use.

In the box

1 x GX Buggy (various designs available)

1 x charging unit

1 x controller

1 x instruction manual

decals, roll wing and a fair amount of packaging

Review

The first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the car, it is positively tiny but extremely well made. It has four independent wheels, the rear ones have spring loaded suspension and provide drive whilst the front ones utilise a complex steering system that makes manoeuvring quick and fun. The instructions show you how to assemble the car, half of them are not required because the car is already assembled. You literally have to install the roll wing and stick on some decals (if you like that sort of thing) and you are good to go, after charging for twenty minutes of course.

One minor gripe is that batteries are not included, you will need 4x AA and 2 X AAA to get going. This isn’t the end of the world but the packing doesn’t make it at all clear. Once I got past this the GX Buggy was bundles of fun, jumps are awesome and the speed amazing for both indoor and outdoor use. The foam tires are very grippy indoors, both on carpet and smooth floors – I wouldn’t use it for prolonged periods on tarmac though as the foam would soon get torn up.

If you have animals or even a girlfriend with longish hair, i’d suggest you keep an eye on the wheel bearings as hair quickly clogged the front and rear wheels of my review model rendering it useless. After a quick clean up with a pair of tweezers it was ready to go again, another minor inconvenience really but one you should be aware of.

Conclusion

At £30-£40 this isn’t the cheapest of RC cars, but it certainly isn’ the most expensive in the micro category either and has to be one of the most fun around at the moment. The sheer speed, combined with huge jumps and flips make it very entertaining. I hope they make spare tires and parts a priority in the near future though, over time I can see these needing a replacement.

You can watch the GX Buggy in action below and buy one from Red5.

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Gallery

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