Amazon.com Review
The monster truck concept has accelerated to new levels with the Fly Wheels Power Claw. The vehicle-to-front-wheel size ratio on this monster truck is so fantastically imbalanced, it’s entertainment enough just to look at it. Luckily, the Power Claw is not just a pretty face. Rev up the remote control and set this thing in motion! Whether the claws are in or out, the massive wheels will take the vehicle wherever it wants to go, provided the carpet pile or driveway gravel are not too high. Push the two controls up or down, together or separately, to make the truck go forward, backward, left, or right. Pop out the claws (which are imbedded in the tires) when you need extra traction on rougher terrain. When the vehicle encounters an obstacle it can’t power over, it simply flips over and continues on using the tiny rear wheels on the other side. (Note: the controls are now reversed, too, which can be confusing, especially when the truck flips often.) Educational value? Nada. Fun quotient? Plenty. Requires four "AA" and one "9 volt" battery (not included).--Emilie Coulter
Not a lot of "Power"--More like "Powerless Claw" - Reviewed on 2006-11-03
30 customers found this review helpful.
We bought this for our son's fourth birthday. The toy is listed for 8+ year-olds, but our son has a knack for remote control vehicles, and had seen Fly Wheels on television, and really wanted one (he had no trouble operating the toy). The toy takes four AA batteries and one 9-volt battery.
Regarding the controls, although they look simple--simply back and forth--each wheel is independently controlled and since the truck is designed to flip over when it runs into something it can't power over, the flipping causes the "reverse" to become "forward" and vice versa. Not a deal breaker, but still a bit confusing, and will probably take most kids a bit of time to get used to especially since the toy is designed to run in circles if you only engage one wheel at a time, and since the toy flips over very easily, even if you just stop it quickly (not just if you run it into something). For a novice, it is hard to get the toy to run smoothly back and forth. Maybe that is a design advantage for some, but we found it to be a bit frustrating.
The deal breaker for us was that the toy does not work as you might expect, nor like the line of remote controlled Fly Wheels that is advertised on television. On the television commercial, the Fly Wheels are shown easily going over rocks and sticks and "rough" backyard terrain. Not so in reality. We took the Power Claw outside on our flat lawn that was covered in leaves, and the toy immediately got stuck on the leaves (stuck as in the wheels seized-up and refused to move, and/or stuck as in just spinning its wheels going nowhere--either way you had to go over and pick it up and move it to another area). It got stuck on pine needles. It got stuck on long grass. It got stuck on short grass. It got stuck on dirt. It did run well on our flat, cement patio.
Regardless if the "claws" were in or out, we could not get this toy to run well on any "terrain" except carpet, cement, and ceramic tile (Note, if the "claws" were out, they would pull and get stuck on the carpet pile).
Additionally, we laid out pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags to see if we could run the toy over indoor "kid stuff" terrain, and, again, no luck--it either pushed the stuff aside or flipped over and went in reverse, or simply got stuck, spinning its wheels--we never actually got the toy to "power" over anything, rather it would flip and run in reverse.
After our son tried and tried to find somewhere (besides the patio) to play with this toy outside to no avail, he walked up to me and said, "We need to take this toy back to the store--it's junk."
This retailed at Target for $29.99, but was on clearance for $19.99. Now we know why.
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