Kyosho Axxe Buggy Review

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Let's have a look at one of Kyosho’s entry off-road offerings. This thrilling ‘budget’ Axxe 2WD buggy has a cool swappable body design and suspension that allows you to bounce for miles when exploring rough terrain.

The Axxe Buggy at a glance

• It is a 2WD ready-to-run buggy
• Modern stylistic body that is available in three different colours, Blue, Pink and Grey
• Powerful motor
• A good 2.4GHz transmitter is included
• Includes a 1800 mAh NiMH battery with its trickle charger
• It is 41cm Long by 23cm wide, 14cm tall and approximately 1.75kg with the battery installed

Unboxing the buggy

When you receive the buggy it comes in a large white box with graphics of the buggy around it and the car is safely packaged inside all ready-to-run. The only thing you need to get this car zooming around is four AA batteries for the transmitter.

Included in the box is the fully assembled car chassis with the shell installed for you too. Then you get the battery pack with its very basic trickle charger (comes with plugs for every country which is a nice touch). There is also a cross wrench for those speedy pit stops changing the wheels. The instructions which are surprisingly detailed, almost like you were building a kit which is a nice change should anything go wrong or need replacing. Finally is a small Oil Shock conversion kit.

The Battery and charging

The buggy comes with a basic 1800 mAh NiMH 7.2v battery which takes a long 6 hours to charge from the box and doesn’t last all that long. To charge the battery you simply connect it to the trickle charger that is included and plug it in via the deans style connector. The downside to this charger is that there is no indication light that tells you when it is fully charged or not. But this is fine for those of us who just want a bit of fun.

Car Features

The buggy has quite impressive 4-wheel independent friction suspension which gives it great ground clearance for when exploring that uneven terrain but also an amazing bounce after doing some serious jumps. The kit also comes with an oil conversion kit should you want to convert them to oil filled shocks which is a neat touch.

The stock motor that comes with the car produces some decent speed allowing you to slide around on the dirt which is great fun. Although It lacks a heat sink which could mean this gets very hot if you are running it over a sustained period of time. But this can be easily swapped out with just two screws in the way. The cables aren’t the tidiest either as they aren’t hidden by the shell.

The one touch battery hatch underneath the car is really simple and quick. This means fast battery changes are enabled without the need to remove the body shell in order to access the battery.

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The body of the car features a swappable shell that allows you to purchase additional colours and switch it up dependant on your mood with just a few clips to remove. Although they take quite a lot of prizing to detach you feel like it might break but this isn’t the case. Plus, this protects the buggy even more should you flip it on those jumps.

The receiver sits on top of a splash-proof box with the on-off switch mounted to the side so you can reach under and power up the buggy without having to remove the body. The included 45A Vortex WP Brushed ESC can take both NiMH and LiPo batteries but you will need to change the jumper connector over to the ‘LiPo’ setting before you connect the battery.

The Transmitter

The included kT-231P is a very nice transmitter for a ‘budget’ RC car with it only requiring 4xAA batteries. The spine of the controller is rubberised to provide you with more grip and comfort, the steering wheel has foam around it which is soft and grippy should you get clammy hands. The transmitter provided plenty of range whilst we were using it with no interference or drop outs occurring. This gives you more confidence when throwing it round tight corners. The dials on top of the controller are clearly labelled and accurate.

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The steering wheel features the same offset as the Kyosho Outlaw Rampage truck which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. This is a good ergonomic touch and doesn’t make your wrists ache over sustained periods of operation.

We took it to the loose stuff

When we took this buggy onto a loose surface that is where it was really fun. It goes fast on tarmac and you can do some cool skidding stops but on the loose stuff you slide around here, there and everywhere making it really fun to keep under control and not in a hedge.

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What we like:

• Good speed from a reasonable powerful motor
• Modern stylistic design which you can change
• Great fun on the Dirt with good slides and jumps
• Transmitter is very ergonomic making it comfortable to hold

What we don’t like:

• Battery doesn’t give the longest running time for its 6-hour charge
• Charger gives no indication for when the battery is fully charged
• Build Quality is all made from plastic which isn't the most tactile
• In Reverse it bounces around a lot when you are at full throttle
• On-Off switch is a bit tricky to reach and took a while to locate

Conclusion

The Axxe buggy makes a great entry car to the hobby which will provide hours of entertainment and a challenge to keep it under control. It would be a great gift for those youngsters wanting to get into the hobby or those who haven’t driven RC cars for quite some time.

Where can I buy the Kyosho Axxe Buggy?

The Kyosho Axxe buggy is available from our website in the Blue as pictured which includes free delivery to UK Mainland addresses. We would recommend purchasing a larger capacity battery pack with it to extend its runtime like this one which will work with the standard charger too.

If you want to squeeze even more out of this ‘budget’ buggy, then you can pick up a battery like this one, but you will also need a LiPo balance charger if you opt for this.

Thank you for reading and If you have any questions about the buggy or you want to know more then please do leave us a comment in the section below and we will try our best to help you.