At first I thought, with its basic looking IR (InfraRed) transmitter, that flying one of these was a simple matter of making it buzz around until it crashed, and eventually you'd crash it so many times that something would snap off and that'd be it. How wrong I was. With practice and a deft touch, surprising levels of control can be attained. There are videos on You Tube of a R/C helicopter 'guru' who can fly one of these around a smallish room and land the thing time and time again back in his hand, or even on top of the transmitter! I don't profess to have achieved that sort of level of piloting skill, but I can now make it go where I want, and land it (vaguely) where I want about half the time...

Fears of the PicooZ micro copter falling apart because of the punishment I gave it were also unfounded. This thing has had more crashes than Wile E. Coyote, has even been lightly chewed by my brother's dog, and yet keeps coming back for more! Plus, it comes with a spare tail rotor, and replacement main rotors are also available from Firebox for under £4 - these are the only bits that you're likely to break. The 6 AA batteries it uses seem to last for ages; the chopper plugs in and recharges its own tiny Li-Poly rechargeable cell from the transmitter's batteries (see pic).

This really is a great, tiny, big boys' toy - as well as being good for kids too. Unlike certain other Big Boys' Toys reviewed in this section, it's also a difficult toy to dislike, as the sheer wonder of how the thing works and flies so well seems to embue everyone who sees one flying - even "busy" females and miserable old gits! Unless you're talking about Angelina Jolie, a new car or a plasma TV, Big Boys' Toys just don't get much better than this.