XB Mad Bull

This would be the car I won at yesterday’s company Christmas party.

Let me insert a story here.

Back when I was in 8th grade, I had a science teacher named Mr. Carlson. Among the various chemistry experiments we did, he was open to us students performing our own experiments (many of which took place outdoors). There were a few that involved balloons and tracking, and one that involved radio controlled cars.

For the car experiment, he invited all the students to bring in their cars and we’d do some time trials at the track. Well, not knowing much about radio controlled cars… I ended up bringing my cheap-ass little Radio Shack car that had been sitting in my closet for I don’t know how long. This thing was barely worthy of being called a “radio controlled” car. The remote had one button. And the car, once turned on, would just keep going forward until you pressed that button… which would send it into reverse, and to the right.

Yeah.

Needless to say, I got taunted mercilessly. In particular, I recall Jerome Wiliams laughing his ass off at my car, when compared to the monstrous RC car he brought it (that seemingly ran on gasoline).

And now? After many a year, I finally have an RC car to call my own.

I can’t help but think that somewhere, somehow, Jerome is watching… and nodding his approval.

And that somewhere else, there’s a kid with a cheap-ass Radio shack car that I can run over. With this car.

Awww jeah!

A few sidenotes: Big thanks to Ben, who helped document the unwrapping with his camera (and took some great video clips to boot). In addition to the 8 AA batteries required for the actual remote control, the car itself has its own battery. According to the packages, the car battery would attain a 90% charge after an hour; I had the thing plugged in for about 20 minutes before I lost patience, and wanted to give the car a whirl.

In the videos below, the first few attempts were mine. And just as I handed the controls over to Chris… everything goes to hell.

I’m fairly confident you’re gonna see some more video tomorrow.