Today I review an awesome RC racing boat. It’s called the Traxxas Waterproof Blast Boat with TQ 2.4GHz Radio System, and it’s an absolute blast to operate. Pun intended! Read on for all the fun details.
Traxxas Blast Features and Specs
The Traxxas Blast is a high performance electric race boat featuring a sleek design (including a 24 inch V shaped hull), a powerful motor (the Stinger 20-Turn Motor), and waterproof electronics (including its sealed receiver box, its Nautica electronic speed control, and its high-torque servo). The Blast also has a brilliant cooling system on board whereby a front facing intake pipe at the stern of the boat constantly gathers water as the boat moves forward and forces it up into the hull and around and around the motor 5 or 6 times before being emptied out the side of the boat. This serves to constantly cool the motor as the Blast cuts through the water. The colder the water you’re operating in, the more efficient the system will be. Very impressive! Other cool features of the Blast include a fully steerable outdrive, built-in foam floatation, and a surface piercing propeller to rival that of any outboard motor!
The Blast is driven by a standard TQ 2.4GHz radio control system, and the battery is a 7.2 Volt Traxxas Power Cell (NiMH with 3000mAh). But best of all is possibly the fact that the Blast’s included battery charger is NOT a car cigarette lighter charger. It plugs into a standard wall outlet, which means no hassle for the end user. The only drawback to this system is the fact that it does take a few (up to 8) hours to fully charge the battery, so that is a bit of a bummer. Still, I’d rather put up with slow charging than have to drive my car around the city (or, worse still, just have it sit there idling) just to charge a Traxxas battery. Keeping all of these specs in mind, let’s now consider the Blast’s performance in testing.
On the Water with the Traxxas Blast
My experience running the Traxxas Blast truly was a blast! I ran it on both a lake and a river (fresh water, of course) and opened it up to its top speed for pretty much the entire time I was running it. The Blast’s controller is nearly identical to those used by Traxxas land based vehicles (read my recent review of the Traxxas Ford GT), complete with soft, foam steering wheel and gun trigger throttle. The steering was highly responsive and the signal always remained constant. I was surprised at first to learn that the Blast has no reverse throttle, but later read online that this is all just as well because going in reverse (especially too fast) could cause the Blast to become flooded. The only problem posed by the Blast’s lack of reverse was when I once had to wade out into some long grass in the water to pick it up and turn it around as I got it in bow first and couldn’t back out.
I also couldn’t find the exact speed and range specs of the Blast, but let me assure you, this thing is fast (see the video below for proof)! And it also got a good 200 feet or more away from me on multiple occasions without any signal interruption. At times I became concerned about possibly having to swim out to recover a stranded boat, but it always came faithfully back to me after every run, and I became more and more impressed with it with each outing. I ran it a few different times because it was just so fun—practically addicting! At the end of your run, you definitely want to make sure there’s no water down inside the boat, and there are a few (make that quite a few) other dos and don’t to owning and running the Blast as well. As I stress in the video overview below, it is highly advisable to give the owner’s manual a very good examination upon first obtaining the Blast. This will not only ensure that you know how to treat your boat right, but it also could considerably extend its usable life. For instance, never run the Blast in salt water!!
At the end of the day when you’re finished running your Traxxas Blast speedboat, there’s a really cool stand that you can place it on for ongoing display in your home. Set it on a desk or in a window and admire its gorgeous design. The stand comes disassembled as 4 separate pieces but easily comes together in a matter of seconds. Once it’s all set up, the final result looks like what you see in the photo above. The way it looks with the Blast sitting in dry dock is shown in the very last picture in this review. I really like being able to display the Blast like this because not only do you get to look at it as often as you like, but you also get to avoid putting everything back in the box after each use. I really appreciate that!
Examining the Video Evidence
Please take a few minutes to see the Traxxas Blast in action. I took this thing to both a lake and a river and pushed it as hard as it would go. It’s only response was to absolutely kick butt! The best footage of this (along with some close-ups of the boat itself) is shown in the video below. I also lay out several of the Blast’s most interesting specs and details in the video. Please enjoy:
Final Thoughts
The Traxxas Blast is the first RC boat that I ever tested and it certainly didn’t let me down. I absolutely loved running this thing and would most definitely like to own one myself. The only thing that even concerned me about it was the question of what I would do if it got stranded way out in the middle of the lake or river. I’m not the greatest swimmer in the world and don’t exactly like going in the water (I usually find it too cold), so I might have been up the creek (both figuratively and literally) had this thing died or lost signal range on me in the middle of a run. Thankfully nothing like that happened at all and the Blast always came back to me nicely at the end of every run. In other words, what’s not to love about this amazing RC race boat? If Traxxas radio controlled vehicles are your thing and you think you might have a good place to run the Blast in (remember, fresh water only), then what are you waiting for??
Highly recommended!!
You can see Best Buy’s complete selection of RC speedboats by clicking HERE.
