Review: Road Rippers

I have boys. Boys like vehicles. Especially loud vehicles.  And guys, in general, really get into gadgets, like R/C controlled cars.

If you could market an R/C car that explodes? Guys would be all over that.

Road Rippers are the next best thing. Styled after 1960s and '70s Muscle Cars, Road Rippers R/C Motor Muscle models like the 1967 Corvette Stingray, 1959 Dodge Dayton, 1971 Dodge Super Bee and 1970 GTO Judge not only come with controllers that incorporate the same design look as the cars themselves, each one comes with flashing lights and plays a song from the car's era (so, bright lights AND noise! Yes, guys will love these).

I received a bright red Road Ripper R/C Motor Muscle to review for this post. I loved the color, and so did my cat, who was startled when the car played, "Louie, Louie"!

I'll be honest, that particular song is not my favorite, and it first it kinda sounded funky (but not in the good way), because the demo mode was wearing down, which made the song play a bit slower than it should have. But that changed once I put in the batteries (these cares take a total of 7 batteries, 3 in the remote and 4 in the car itself). One of the cons of R/C cars is that some of them take special batteries and those can be expensive. This one just uses AAA batteries, yay!

The R/C controller looks cool and fits well in the hand. It has the same contours as the car itself, and the basic controls are easy to use.

The Road Rippers R/C Motor Muscles are also durable and hold up to rough play well (which is good news because you just know kids are going to run these into things and chase the cat with them!).

Road Rippers, by the way, even have their own show, with "Rippisodes" available on the net. You can watch them at www.mymotorisland.com, the Toy State YouTube Channel, and Facebook.

And hey! They've got a Twitter feed, too!

Viv's take: I'd opt for another car with a different song, and 7 batteries is a cost-sink, but the Road Rippers R/C Motor Muscle takes AAA's, which are easy to find and certainly cheaper than the special batteries other R/C cars  need to run. The Road Ripper holds up to lots of use and abuse, and your kids will love the bright colors, realistic styling and impressive speed of the R/C cars. Older guys will like the way the cars are modeled after actual classics (and yet still playable, rather than sitting on a stuffy old shelf collecting dust!). Recommended.


I received the Road Ripper R/C Motor Muscle as part of a blog tour run by Team Mom for the purposes of this review. No kitties were harmed for the purposes of this review.