The Japanese are known for building small things, and radio controlled helicopters are no exception. Even though standard RC helicopters are small scale, they’re not small enough for the Japanese makers of the new Mini Bee RC helicopter. The Mini Bee is so small that it actually stores away inside its own radio control remote!

With an RC helicopter as small as the Mini Bee, you could easily play with it in a very small space, such as the bedroom, kitchen or even the bathroom.

Radio controlled helicopters have always been popular at Christmas, and every year they get smaller. The Mini Bee is one of the smallest yet, at only 4 inches in length it’s smaller than the Honey Bee RC helicopters, which are made by the same Japanese company.

The Mini Bee is currently available in Japan, costing 3,129 ye (which works out at around £23) and comes in either red or blue (ideal for warring Man UTD and Man City fans).

Hopefully this tiny Japanese radio controlled helicopter will make its way over the UK sometime next year.

This Christmas radio controlled toys will be among the most purchased toys on the high street, but what are the best RC toys to play with? What radio controlled toys are the best and the most fun?

The most popular radio controlled toys will be RC helicopters and RC cars, as they’re much easier to control than planes and more versatile than RC boats. So, do you want an RC helicopter or car?

Entertainment
An RC car is a lot of fun, you can drive them round in circles, over obstacles and across the table if they’re small enough. If you have a friend you can even race them… but can you soar into the sky, dive towards the ground and perform aerial acrobatics with an RC car? No, but you can with a radio controlled helicopter.

Location
RC cars, if they’re off road vehicles with big tyres, can be driven on the grass, on bumpy hilly ground and on the road. They can also be driven in the house if you’re allowed. However, they can’t fly where the terrain is too rough. No terrain stops an RC helicopter. It doesn’t matter if it snows, if the ground is on fire or if you’re on water, a radio controlled helicopter can fly anywhere, anytime.

RC helicopters are far more entertaining, and the smaller ones are just as cheap as RC cars.

This Christmas, most children will be after toys such as games consoles and action figures. For example, the Nintendo Wii, the Wii Fit and Star Wars toys are expected to be among the best sellers, with the Wii being in short supply just as it was last year. However, one problem with toys such as these are that children play with them in the house, usually in their bedrooms, and don’t go outside for much needed exercise and fresh air.

This doesn’t help the problems the UK has with child obesity, a major talking point among schools, parents and indeed politicians.

It’s much better for children’s health if they go outside to play, mingling with their friends to increase their social skills and enjoying the fresh air to improve their health. With radio controlled models such as RC cars, RC helicopters and RC planes children are able to go outdoors at Christmas, and into the New Year, to play with great radio controlled toys with their friends.

The best part about RC helicopters is that, not only can they be used outdoors, but you can play with many of them indoors as well, which comes in handy with the unpredictable British weather.

Recently we’ve written about how radio controlled helicopters are used to do such diverse things as go fishing and test for volcanoes that are about to erupt, but perhaps the most unusual use for an RC helicopter has to be in testing a whale’s breath.

It does make perfect sense though, for if you wanted to get a breath sample from a whale, how else would you go about it? Scientists use the radio controlled helicopters, armed with Petri dishes, to fly through the air that the whale exudes through its blow hole when it surfaces. This captures any air, gas and mucus.

Zoological Society of London (ZSL) researchers claim that by using RC helicopters they’re able to study the organisms that spread diseases through the whales.

Dr Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, from the ZSL, stated in an interview with the BBC:

We don’t know much about them because they are so big and they are in the water all the time, and that makes it really difficult to obtain biological samples that are relevant to determining health in these populations; unless they’ve already stranded or unless they are in captivity, which are hardly representative of a normal population.

The problem of collecting samples of breath from the whales was very difficult, but with the radio controlled helicopter the scientists are able to do it without disturbing the whales.

On Christmas day, some of the mist popular gifts opened by children will be radio controlled toys of some sort or another. Whether they’re cars, boats, planes or helicopters, they’ll be loads of kids scrounging around the house for batteries because parents have bought some RC models and have forgotten to buy batteries.

Of course the real problem comes in the fact that the kids will be wanting to play with their radio controlled toys, but often on Christmas day the weather outside is frightful (see what we did there?). Sure, it may not be snow covered, but it’ll be cold, dark and almost certainly wet. Meaning that driving your RC car around the garden could be an outdoor adventure in itself.

This means that most kids will want to play with their RC models in doors, which leads to a whole other load of problems. Most RC cars aren’t suitable for indoor use because their scale speed means they’ll be across the room in seconds, making their presence felt on your skirting board. RC planes of course need a runway and some serious sky to get airborne and RC boats and submarines require a boating lake at the very least.

This leaves radio controlled helicopters. Because of the gentle way that they take off, hover and land, they’re ideal for indoor use. So if you want to be able to play with an RC model indoors on Christmas morning, forget the cars, planes and boats, an RC helicopter is the only option.

It’s nearly Christmas and the battle to buy presents is upon us. Top of most people’s Christmas present list this year is a Nintendo Wii, which means many will be disappointed as they’re going to be in short supply again. Also on many people’s Christmas list is a radio controlled helicopter. There’s a lot more choice available with RC helicopters, and you won’t have any trouble finding them, but what’s best, a radio controlled helicopter or a Nintendo Wii?

Let’s look at the two side by side:

A Nintendo Wii can only be used indoors, meaning when it’s sunny outside you can’t exactly shift your TV onto the lawn and play it. An RC helicopter can be played both indoors and outside, so whatever the weather, you’re able to play with it anywhere.

A Nintendo Wii requires some level of fitness to play with, as it’s very physical. A radio controlled helicopter doesn’t require any fitness to play with it as it does all the work. You can sit down, stand up, whatever, and let it fly around.

Price! A Nintendo Wii will cost you the best part of £200 for it and some games. A radio controlled helicopter costs 10 times less for the cheaper models.

It’s pretty conclusive really, a radio controlled helicopter is better than a Wii.