Legit Reviews

Griffin HELO TC iOS-Controlled RC Helicopter Review

Have you ever wanted to fly a remote-controlled helicopter with your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad? With the Griffin HELO TC iOS-controlled RC helicopter you can transform your multi-touch display into flight controls for an infrared helicopter for under $50. With the holidays coming up, we couldn't help but take the HELO TC for a test drive to see how it performs!

The Griffin HELO TC was fun to use and well worth the $49.99 that the RC helicopter commands. It was a bit frustrating to get flying it down, but after several tries and a couple hours of recharging you start to get the hang of it. By the time you learn how to fly it you have a decent number of hours invested into the HELO TC and when you think about hours of fun versus the price tag it can be easily justified. Just remember the AR.Drone is $299, so think of how much money you saved by trying out the HELO TC!

Article Title:Griffin HELO TC iOS-Controlled RC Helicopter Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1725/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $49.99 directly from Griffin

I love the marketing videos. I need one of those helmets for work

What's the point of using a phone to control this if it doesn't have a camera or anything on board? You can get the exact same helicopter with a separate controller (with analog joysticks) for less than 20 USD. Paying over twice as much to get to control it with a phone seems quite pointless.

bubba wrote:I love the marketing videos. I need one of those helmets for work

Yeah those were great! Funny how the Boss guy always takes his coffee with him to make a bust

Frostbyte wrote:What's the point of using a phone to control this if it doesn't have a camera or anything on board? You can get the exact same helicopter with a separate controller (with analog joysticks) for less than 20 USD. Paying over twice as much to get to control it with a phone seems quite pointless.

The $20 ones cant really have the blades replaced, my son has killed many of them; either crashing or blowing out the battery. To get into that grade where you can replace the blades your looking into the same price range as this. Then the iPhone factor for those who like the gadgets for iPhones.

If my son had an iTouch I might look at getting him one, but not gonna buy an iTouch just so he can have a helli I go spending that kind of coin I'll get him something like the hobby grade E-Flight Blade CP Pro like I have.

Start throwing video feed into it, you will really ramp up the price.

bubba wrote:

Frostbyte wrote:What's the point of using a phone to control this if it doesn't have a camera or anything on board? You can get the exact same helicopter with a separate controller (with analog joysticks) for less than 20 USD. Paying over twice as much to get to control it with a phone seems quite pointless.

The $20 ones cant really have the blades replaced, my son has killed many of them; either crashing or blowing out the battery. To get into that grade where you can replace the blades your looking into the same price range as this.

I have two of those cheaper ones, and both came with spare blades and one also with a spare tail rotor (which also was the first part that broke for me: about to hit something -> try to evade -> end up hitting it with the tail instead ). You can also buy a variety of spare parts separately for many of them and they are easy to replace, though there also are some really bad quality ones for which you cant get spares.

The helo itself in this model is the exact same one you can get for ~20USD/EUR from various places, for example amazon sells it as "Syma S107". For ~20 USD/EUR these things are fun toys for anyone, but knowing how easy it is to break something you dont have a spare part for I think 50USD is too much.

but its an iPhone accessory, there is a premium for iAnything LOL

I was thinking of most the little heli's I see that are in the $50-70 range and replaceable parts but they are AM freq not IR.

never seen the Syma S107 before... the egg has them for $25 free shipping in their market place. May have to get one and see how it holds up to the boy LOL

Find a toy kiosk at the mall and pretend you’re demoing the product
Pull up to the valet asking where to park the HELO TC
Hovering over your stall in the restroom
Scaring your neighbor’s incessantly barking dog
HELO TC meeting the height requirement to get on a ride at the fair

Those missions I would do .

I recently bought one of those cheaper little helicopters similar to this, and the blades don't hold up quite well -I've already had to replace two main blades and one tail blade in the past two months. It also uses SIX AA batteries in the remote...

From the review and the marketing videos, I'm leaning on grabbing one of these .

We knew that to get this remote controller helicopter under $50 that Griffin would have to pinch pennies and sure enough on the lower right hand corner of the box it says in fine print that it batteries are not included. This means you have to come up with the four AAA batteries that are needed to get it running. rc helicopter reviews