Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RC Patrol Buggies review
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Action figures and remote/radio control cars are two staples of childhood for young boys. And you would think that with
all of the vehicles that are produced for action figure lines that there would be more RC vehicles. And there have been
attempts in the past. But they were usually underpowered and largely underwhelming. But when Playmates announced
that they were producing RC versions of the Patrol Buggies, I was both hopeful and apprehensive. They are small vehicles
that only purpose is to zip around quickly. If they can make them work well as RC cars, RC patrol buggies could be great.
If they didn't get the RC functions working well, they would end up being overpriced, less functional versions of vehicles
we already got toys of almost two years earlier.
Packaging - 8/10The RC Patrol Buggies are packaged in window boxes similar to the deluxe figure and vehicle packs. And the design is fairly similar to them as well. I do like the packaging for the RC Buggies more though as they fit the vehicles better. of course that should be no surprise since they were litterally designed specifically for these vehicles.
Sculpting - 3/10The RC versions of the patrol buggies are very different from the previous verions available as either two packs or individual basic vehicles. They are not a representation of the Patrol Buggies as seen in the cartoon. Instead the RC Patrol Buggies are a more of a generic go-kart. They do incorporate the same style of rollbar made from pipes as the patrol buggies in the show did. But in the end, the RC Patrol Buggies just feel bland and generic which is something a Ninja Turtle vehicle should never be.
Paint - 4/10The RC Patrol Buggies don't have any paint applications. But they do use enough parts of different colors that additional paint applications aren't really need. There are also a small number of decals added as well. But while the different colored parts and decals add some visual interest, they don't have any real personality. If you weren't shown the remotes, you could very easily believe that the RC Patrol Buggies came from any number of toy lines.
Play Value - 4/10Going into this review, I was expecting the RC Patrol Buggies to be rather lackluster RC cars. Given that they are powered by just three AAA batteries, I assumed that they would be under powered and fairly slow. And they are. But as I played around with them, I realized that wasn't an entirely bad thing. Most RC cars take a lot of space to enjoy properly. But with their smaller motors, the RC Patrol Buggies are just slow enough to be manageable even indoors. They could still use better controllers though. What really holds the RC Patrol Buggies back is that they lack any other real play features. I know that recreating all of the features of the patrol buggies from the show would be impossible. But it would be nice if they at least tried to incorporate some of them. As it is, without battteries, the RC Patrol Buggies become incredibly dull.
Value - 5/10The RC Patrol Buggies sell for $25 each. That's surprisingly inexpensive for a RC vehicle. But they are not particularly good by RC vehicle standards. And as action figure vehicles, they simply can't compare in value with the regular Patrol Buggies that have more features, are more accurate and are less than half the price.
Happy Hunting:The RC Patrol Buggies have been available for quite some time, since around the middle of 2014. But for the time being, they seem to be retaining their place on shelves in most stores. I have seen them in Target, Walmart and Toys R Us as recently as this week. And of course, they are also available from their respective web sites as well.
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