Super durable, upgradable and it's even got a slow mode!
The media could not be loaded. HOW I PICKED THE HAIBOXING HAILSTORM As a dad introducing the hobby to my kids and reintroducing it to myself after a 20 year break, I wanted something durable. My first look was at the HS 18301. It was durable and priced well. I had seen all the bashing videos on YouTube and was pretty much hooked. I had my eye on that for quite some time but before I pulled the trigger, I discovered the Haiboxing Hailstorm (#18858) which was durable, a bit more expensive, but was upgradable (meaning suspension and electronic components are accessible) has much more parts support and had a slow function feature on the transmitter for my kids just starting out. Best of all words, so it didn't take long before I ordered it. I'm looking at the Haiboxing Rampage as I'm writing this review and it's temporarily discounted now from $69 to $59. Best price overseas is $53 and takes forever to get here, so $59 for the Haiboxing Rampage is the one to get! I paid more b/c I just like the truggy styling of the Hailstorm. WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT? Yes, it really is durable. My kids have crashed it into curbs and it's done a ton of jumps off my homemade cardboard box ramp and landed upside down several times. It keeps going. The slow function on the remote is fairly drastic from the normal setting which makes for a great experience when the kids moved up to the normal function (or for when I play with it). The headlights aren't just a gimmick. They're pretty bright and it does help to orient the RC at a distance. Haiboxing threw in an 800mah battery instead of the advertised 650mah which was a nice surprise. It lasts at least 20 minutes. We played for probably 45 minutes on and off, taking pictures/videos, and messing around. If you were on the throttle non stop, it's probably about 20-25 minutes. Longer if you're not on it full throttle. If for some reason, you're still not tired after playing, extra batteries are $11-14. I paid about $11 for a Lipo upgrade. Comes with a Li-On battery. Haiboxing includes extra body pins which is nice. I haven't lost any yet, but it's nice that they think I will eventually. It's a small thing, but I actually really like the height of the body posts. Back when I built RC's, the body posts were way too high. They looked funny and needed to be trimmed down. Not the case with this. The Haiboxing 1/18 scale truggy is perfect. WISH IT HAD: The receiver and ESC (electronic speed controller) is a 2-in-1 component which means you can't change out the receiver to use an aftermarket transmitter without also changing out the ESC. At that point, you may have invested too much into the Haiboxing RC for it to still be worth the value. So I do wish it wasn't a 2-in-1 but rather two separate components so I can just easily swap out the receiver. Really nitpicking and this is just a wishlist thing, but I do wish I had standard hex bolts to secure the wheels. They'd be easier to find aftermarket ones with an accented color. Also less chance of stripping out philips screw head. CONCLUSION The kids actually got the hang of it quite quickly. If I had known, I may have gotten the Haiboxing 16889 which is a slightly larger brushless monster truck for a bit more. Regardless, the Haiboxing ones I've mentioned no matter which one you pick, will be fun and well worth it. Everyone has their eye on larger scale RC's, but the benefit of a small one is not only that it can easily be transported, but that the efficiency on the battery is so much better. Longer run time is always good when you've got kids. This is an impressive starter RC that's designed as an RTR (Ready to Run) kit. Install the spoiler, headlights, decals and you're good to go. Although it's not designed to swap out electronics for upgraded ones, it's very doable if you really wanted to. I like having the option. This may be one of the best value products I've purchased recently. Haiboxing actually reached out to me via Intagram telling me they like my pics. I also had some good correspondence with them via email about availability of additional larger sized batteries. So the company does have a connection with the consumer and that's definitely comforting. I just text a bunch of people about the Haiboxing Rampage that's on sale now for $58 here on Amazon Prime. That's just such an insane deal. Makes me want to buy another for a friend. Read more

































