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Keith McCord ReportingEvery holiday season there's always a toy that seems to rise above all the others, a toy that every kid just has to have, and that every parent worries about trying to find. We found such a toy and a Utah company may be the only place you can find it!
It's called the "Picco Z"; a tiny remote-controlled helicopter. It fits in the palm of your hand, weighs almost nothing. Our graphics folks doctored it up a bit so we have a mini Chopper 5.
It's been around for only two months and by Christmas they'll all be gone.
"Oh it's huge. We sell thousands of these a day and our other highest selling products, we might sell 50. Yeah, these are huge."
Orem's HobbyTron.com is betting that the Picco Z mini helicopter, new from China, will be this year's "must-have" toy. HobbyTron is one of the country's largest suppliers of remote-controlled toys. They have everything from cars to tanks and planes and everything in between. When the company's buyers saw this at a toy show earlier this year, they knew it would be a hot item.
"Yeah, we made the bet a couple of months ago. We knew that lots of other people were going to run out. We knew we had a line to buy some more, that other companies didn't have a line on in China."
HobbyTron.com bought 50-thousand of these choppers. There are boxes and boxes of them, ready for shipping, in a warehouse in Orem.
What makes the Picco Z so popular is that it's cheap-- less than 40-dollars. Other remote controlled models will cost you well into the hundreds. Also, it comes assembled so you can fly it right out of the box. And here's the best part for mom and dad, it's extremely durable.
"A lot of RC helicopters that you'll find, break really easily. These you can crash into the wall, crash it into the floor, and it'll keep going."
HobbyTron employees crashed these time and again for us and they kept flying.
The choppers come with three different frequencies, so you can fly three of them in the same room without interfering. It has a range of about 100 feet.
HobbyTron expects to sell out of them by Christmas.
