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As well as being a lot of fun, these products can aid your child's concentration and coordination in their formative years
The magic of a remote control toy never wears off, even when you grow up.
There’s just something really cool about controlling something from across the room.
The RC industry has come a long way from the clunky old RC cars of our youth.
And maybe kids are harder to impress now that they learn to build robots at school.
Toy expert Mookie Toys says: “We understand that RC toys are a much-requested toy on letters to Santa. When choosing an RC toy, our top tip is to check that the toy is suitable for indoors and outdoors, this extends the opportunities for play”
We have tried and tested the best RC toys (we even let our little testers have a go too) to give you the top toys that won’t fail to fascinate the techiest of kids.
We tested them based on their ease to set up and use, the look of the toy, the durability, value for money and of course, those crucial whoops of excitement.
You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
This car looks classic and cool, so we don’t mind it whizzing about the house (and tidying it away every evening). It is a hit with toddlers because it is designed for two year olds to use, with a simple and intuitive remote control. Our 18 month old tester loved it and got the hang of it with ease.
We love it because it builds dexterity and control in a fun and engaging way. We wish we could buy it in another colour so we could have a racing pair. Good quality and value.
It’s pretty cool to have an RC Batmobile in your toy box, but this one goes even further with an ejector seat and a Batman figure that you can launch right out of the cockpit. The car itself is nifty and fun to use and the launch feature adds an extra level of fun.
We like that you can launch any 10cm figure from the Batmobile, so all the toys can have a turn at being flung across the room. We also love the USB charging cable – no more annoying batteries.
It’s a must have for any Batman fans. Ours were fighting crime with this all day – the ejector seat was a huge hit. We think it is worth every penny to see the huge smiles it evoked.
Children will adore being able to train their very own dragon. Choose from red, black or green and bring your new household pet to life with the simple addition of batteries.
The remote control makes the dragon slither along any surface, flap its wings, wave its tail and even breathe LED flames.
We like that it leaps out of the box with batteries included. It’s for older children as very little ones might find it scary. It was a big hit with our testers; they obsessed over it for two hours and refused to come in for lunch!
Be warned, it is speedy – our lampshades took a beating on its trial run, so we suggest that it is an outdoor toy when the weather is good. It is terrific value (unless you factor in the cost of the lampshades).
It is equally impressive and scary to us that children as young as five can learn to code now. When we were five we could just about tie our own shoelaces. Putting our outrage that small children are clearly smarter than us to one side, this toy is super cool. And so cute!
It is easy to set up once you add strong batteries. It can be programmed to complete a sequence of up to 150 steps in six directions, put on a light show and dance, among lots of other fun stuff. It’s eyes light up in the dark and there are hidden features that super programmers can unlock which are really fun.
We love that the gaming style remote has big, colour-coded buttons for little hands to use. The endless possibilities of how you can play with it help it to span a wide age range, and it feels durable enough to last from sibling to sibling. If you have the sort of children who share nicely, it is also fun to play with a group.
Kids these days are hard to please, so for a remote control toy to be a hit it needs to do a bit more than just be controlled remotely. The amphibious nature of the monster jam truck made it the winner, as well as its versatility and durability.
If you’re looking to keep the children entertained further, check out the best kids’ playhouses or the best eco-friendly toys.
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