PicooZ RC Helicopter

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Julie

December 11, 2006

Every year, there are a handful of toys that end up on the holiday gift wish lists of kids all over the country. I can remember 5 years ago when it was the Bit Char-G / Microsizer tiny remote controlled cars. Even my Dad stood in line at Radio Shack to get one (for himself!). This year one of the popular toys is again a remote controlled device. But this time it is not a car... it's a tiny helicopter called the PicooZ.

When the people at Hobbytron asked if I would like to review the PicooZ, I was happy to comply as I knew this review would be way more fun than work!

Package Contents

PicooZ helicopter
Handheld transmitter
Spare Tail Propeller
Aluminum labels
Instruction Manual

From the images of the PicooZ on Hobbytron's site, I wasn't really sure what to expect of this toy. I will have to say that I was somewhat disappointed when I first removed the PicooZ from the package. I say this because the helicopter is made mostly of styrofoam.

Weighing in at an almost feather weight of 0.4 ounces, the PicooZ is small and fragile feeling. The body is styrofoam while the tail part is a thin tape covered plastic strip. The 3 rotor blades are made of a thin flexible plastic.

In contrast, the handheld transmitter is a robust plastic module with 2 thumb controlled joysticks that control power and direction. The transmitter is powered by 6 AA batteries (not included). In addition to controlling the PicooZ, it also charges the Li-poly battery in the helicopter.

On the Left side of the PicooZ there is a very small power switch and next to it, a socket for the charger plug.

The charger cable is located under a small cover on the top of the transmitter. Charging for 20-30 minutes will yield approximately 5-6 minutes of flying time. When I first read that, I thought that only having 5 minutes of 'play' for a 30 minute wait was pretty lame. I'm happy to say that in reality it feels like you have more time than just 5 minutes.

Getting your helicopter off the ground is an easy task. You just flip the power switch on both the transmitter and helicopter and then press the throttle stick upward. The rotors will start turning and the PicooZ will lift off the ground. Like I said, getting the PicooZ off the ground is easy. Now, controlling it is another matter entirely ;o) It takes a lot of practice let me tell you! I crash way more often than I'd like to admit. It's really hard to keep from just letting go of the throttle when the PicooZ starts going too high. As soon as you left off the throttle, the copter drops like a rock. Once you can learn to ease off the throttle and make small movements, things work a whole lot better.

See it in action...

Click on image to play the QuickTime video (2min 07sec, 4.2mb). The video is encoded in the H.264 codec. You will need the latest version of Quicktime to view it. VLC is another free viewer.

The PicooZ is a lot of fun to play with. Just don't think you'll be able to fly perfect as soon as you take it out of the box. The good thing is that despite how fragile this little guy appears to be, it has survived crashing onto my garage roof, crashing several feet to my office floor, crashing into walls, etc. Although kids will would love this toy, I recommend giving the PicooZ to older more patient kids as I'm still not entirely confident how many hard crashes this tiny copter can withstand. Happy flying!