RC excavator

A tracked excavator with a metal bucket that digs and actually carries what it picks up. The boom, the arm and the bucket each move on their own, and the cab turns right round on the tracks, so a child works the machine the way a real one is worked — one joint at a time, in the right order.

What it builds

• Sequencing: reach out, drop the bucket, curl it, lift, swing, tip. Six moves in the right order or the soil goes nowhere.
• Patience with a slow machine, which is a different skill from driving a fast one
• Judging depth and distance from across the room
• Digging as a project — a trench, a hole, a pile to be moved somewhere else

Why we stock it

Most construction toys are a shape with wheels. This one has a working arm on three motors, and the difference shows within a minute: a child who wants to move a pile of soil has to think about how, not just press forward. The metal bucket is the part that matters most — plastic buckets flex and spill, and that is where these toys usually lose their audience. It is also slow and heavy enough to be satisfying rather than frantic.

The details

Age

6 and up

Channels

11, on a 2.4GHz remote

Arm

Boom, arm and bucket move independently

Cab

Rotates 680° on the tracks

Bucket

Metal

Tracks

Rubber, indoors or out

Power

Rechargeable 1500mAh cell, USB lead included

Assembly

None

In the box

The excavator, the two-stick remote, a rechargeable battery, a USB charging lead and the manual. Charge the battery before the first go, and check whether the remote needs AA cells of its own — they are not in the box.

Care

It is built for soil, and soil is also what wears it out. Brush the tracks and the arm joints down after digging rather than letting grit dry in them, and keep it out of standing water — there is a charging port in the body. Wipe it with a dry cloth. Charge it when it slows down instead of leaving it flat for months, and expect a long charge for a short dig, which is normal for this kind of machine.