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XPV 2.0 Shadow Hawk Red 27 MHz from Jakks
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Minimum Age: 8 years
Rating:  
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Our Editorial Review
Product Description Updated, restyled, evolution of the original XPV with 80% more playtime! Drives like a car, flies like a plane. Flies up to 30 MPH and over 20 stories with a flight range of over 300 feet. Ready to Run - Includes XPV Battery System that also charges USB devices
Customer Reviews
Fast and fun toy. My boys love it. Posted 16 January 2008
We have one Red and one Blue of these. They fly very fast and higher than I expected. I was surprised how long the charge lasts. We were able to take turns flying this and all four of us got several turns. We had some pretty spectacular crashes at first with full throttle going and there was some obvious wear, but no broken parts. My 8 year old was able to fly this when we showed him to use little taps to the right to keep it level right after take off. These are fun and are higher quality than other flying toys we have had. Overall, we like this a lot.
Durability and precision are a concern Posted 31 December 2007
Santa Claus brought this for our 8-year old son, but we have sincere concerns with the craftsmanship of his elves. The instruction booklet delineates two methods of launching; from the ground and by throwing it, both while depressing the throttle. Either way, the plane would not take off without a severe listing to the left, causing it to crash numerous times...it became evident that the skills of the elf with the correspondence-course degree in aeronautics had apparently not mounted the engines with a respectable amount of precision nor symmetry, causing a slight amount of imbalance. Further more, after several soft crashes (due in large part to this apparent imbalance) in grassy areas from the altitude of not much more than 8-10 feet, the plane had suffered nose damage and the loss of the rear landing/taxiing wheel which makes it even tougher to play with.
I would suggest leaving Santa an extra cookie or perhaps a shot of peppermint schnapps; maybe with the slight increase of investment you'll receive a different, more precise and durable toy.
Great fun and capabilities, but charging is long and inconvenient Posted 20 December 2007
Pros: flying capabilities; durability compared to other fliers; price when I bought it.
Cons: long charging time; can't charge from controller's batteries unlike other fliers.
My "Starscream," a different brand and model of radio-controlled styrofoam aircraft, recently and tragically got caught in a very high, impossibly inaccessible tree branch. Searching on Amazon for an equivalent replacement, I saw the XPV 2.0 Shadow Hawk for $21. For the stated capabilities, I figured it was a steal and bought one for myself and a second for a friend. After playing with it, I'd consider it a great buy at $30. (I would say $40 or $45, but if you read the rest of my review, you might want to buy a car lighter socket adapter to help charge it, making for a higher total price.)
This is not just any old styrofoam R/C toy: this is a durable, highly capable flier that will delight grown-ups too.
My first impression: wow, the XPV Shadow Hawk is HUGE. Almost 13" long, and 13" wingtip to wingtip. The styrofoam is very strong compared to other fliers, and the whole setup does feel heavy. One might initially wonder if it's too heavy to get airborne, especially with the plastic wheels. It came fully charged and wowed me with an initial test over my front yard -- and two neighbors' yards! This is definitely NOT a backyard toy, unless you have acres and acres.
It's also quite noisy compared to other fliers, because of the powerful motors. PLEASE BELIEVE THE PROPELLERS' WARNING LABELS! The propellers are plastic, but when the labels say to keep your fingers away, they mean it. To test their power, I held my Shadow Hawk while giving it full throttle, then put a wooden toothpick into one of the propellers. The propeller chopped up the toothpick and came out unscathed, so it could do the same to a child's small finger. The box says 8+ years old, which sounds right, but I personally would want to supervise any pre-teens who might not yet understand the danger.
The flying capability is superb at this price range. Some people have reported difficulty keeping their XPV Shadow Hawks and Minis airborne. If your XPV pulls to one side and therefore downward, the solution is to "trim" it. Unlike other R/C fliers, these XPVs don't come with a "trim" knob on the control (which balances the flying by giving more power to one engine than the other). However, you can "trim" XPVs in the literal sense. The term actually originated from cutting off tiny pieces of the material, slivers at a time, but don't do that with XPVs. For one, it won't be aesthetically pleasing afterward, and second, you might affect the aerodynamics.
Instead, "trim" your XPV by peeling off non-essential plastic tape from the side it pulls to -- being careful not to remove tape that covers the wires! Don't remove it all at once: remove some, test the flier, and remove more if necessary. If that's still not sufficient to balance things, add clear packaging tape to the back corner of the other side. Repeat until it flies reasonably straight.
Durability is amazing. After only one afternoon of serious playing, I crashed mine several times into the ground, and none of the wings were so much as creased, let alone bent. The thin hard plastic over the cockpit cracked, but that can be fixed with white glue.
The Shadow Hawk charges via the included AC adapter and a cylindrical "transformer" (which like the controller is encased in futuristic-themed plastic). The AC adapter, of course, plugs into an AC outlet; its cable plugs into the transformer; and the transformer has a cable that plugs into the Shadow Hawk to charge it. The Shadow Hawk's charging port is built surprisingly solidly into the foam, and it even has a sliding plastic cover for the port. Other styrofoam fliers merely have a flimsy and unprotected port. The Shadow Hawk's is very sturdy, not that you shouldn't still take care plugging in the charging cable, but other fliers seem ready to break.
This charging system can be nice because you don't have to drain your controller's batteries to charge, but it's inconvenient if you must fly at a park or other location without handy AC outlets. However, you can use an adapter that turns your car lighter socket into an AC outlet. Better yet, buy an adapter that turns your car lighter socket into a coaxial tip for DC voltage, then plug the tip into the Shadow Hawk's transformer (that way you won't need the AC adapter). Buy an adapter with a set of coax tips, to ensure you'll have one that fits. If applicable, make sure you have the polarity correct. It looks like you won't need to buy an adapter with varying voltage. The Shadow Hawk's transformer is rated 6V input, but it worked at 12V (the adapter I bought has selectable voltages ranging from 3V to 12V).
But even if you can charge it anywhere, there's the insurmountable disadvantage of long charging times. The back of the box says it takes 80 MINUTES to charge, for only 9-11 minutes of flight. This isn't very fun at any age. Frankly, other fliers have much better ratios of flying time to charging time. I preferred my old "Starscream," which like other competitors' products does charge from the controllers, flies just as long and charges much faster.
The Shadow Hawk as a whole is great fun, but because of the charging issues, I almost returned mine in favor of an XPV Mini. Instead, I bought an XPV Mini as well, to play with while its big brother charges. The Minis do have a shorter range and lesser capabilities: they're smaller (not necessarily a lesser quality though), they don't fly as fast, and they must be hand-launched. The Shadow Hawks have a clear advantage in that their wheels enable them to take off and land like real aircraft, even on slightly rough pavement. If yours happens to crash right-side-up, just give it full throttle and make it take off again.
The Minis, though, charge from their controllers, and in under half the time. I don't think they're any easier to fly than the full-sized Shadow Hawks (the design is basically the same, just on a smaller scale), and they don't take off from the ground. Still, I think the Minis are better as a first choice, just because of the faster charging times.
I give the Shadow Hawk three stars overall. Five for durability, four for fun, and five for educational value, since younger users will learn about "trimming" and other aspects of aerodynamics. But only three stars overall, because of the charging issues.
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