Radio Controlled Mini Submarine by Red Horse

I’ve always loved radio controlled cars and other gadgets so this soon spread to other vehicles, I’ve got a boat hidden upstairs as well.  I even bought an RC Aeroplane that ultimately was a flop as well as a helicopter which was still in beta testing in my opinion but that was a long time ago.  Anyway boats are one thing but submarines are another kettle of fish, get the water reference there? I’ll move on. Submarines are complicated machines in real life so I wondered how well they would reference this to a toy version and because of this there is not a wide variety of options in the market.  I looked into them and not wanting to spend over £100 on a 50cm proper radio controlled submarine, I plucked for a £25 + P&P 12cm mini submarine off eBay.

I got it in camouflage green and after charging it up fully within 10 minutes off the dedicated pack I was ready to go.  You obviously get a standard remote control but with the addition of two switches at the top, similar to L1 and R1 on a Playstation controller.  These two switches are key to the whole process and run the diving and surfacing controls. Now unlike a real submarine where ballast tanks are used to surface the sub the mini sub uses a simpler mechanism.  A motor in the middle of the sub controls the flow of water up and down, so if the sub wants to dive then the fan operates forcing water upwards and thus diving the sub.  It works in the opposite manner to surface the boat and the forward/reverse motion is controlled by twin screws at the back.  It’s not a bad system and works the majority of the time with it depending on the forward motion as well.  A dual rudder controls direction so I was happy with the quality of the sub however I had very little faith in its effectiveness as an actual sub.

After putting it in the water for the first time my fears soon evaporated and the pleasure began.  Ok it wasn’t the worlds best gadget but I was surprised at how well it controlled diving and surfacing.  You can even just go up and down without moving forward and backward albeit not as far which I was surprised at but when travelling forward it will go down deeper as it has further momentum. The battery lasts for about 10 mins of normal usage before another charge is required but because the rechargeable battery inside the sub doesn’t take too long to top up it’s not a bother.

Well thats it, how cool is it? Pretty awesome in my opinion on first look. It won’t be still in your most used items within the year, unless you have your own swiming pool, but definitely brings a laugh or two.  Remote controlled gadgets are getting better and more varied by the year so it’ll be interesting what appears soon.