Arrma Mojave Grom BLX Remote-control Car Reviewed

The lure of remote control cars had been gnawing away at me for years now. Somehow as a child I managed to score a pretty awesome RC truck (a kids toy nonetheless, but there was less junk around back then), the phenomenal Tyco Ricochet in red and purple (hilariously good fun), some cool little car I picked up in Canada that had customisable wheels and other minor parts, and even – after saving my pennies – an RC hovercraft I remember precious little about. These instilled in me a keen interest in RC which I proceeded to act upon in the most half-hearted fashion. As an adult I used my kids as an excuse to pick up the cheapest RC cars from Argos and ran them to destruction, I tested Kobitix adorable little FPV racer, and until recently I did little else.

Thanks in no small part to Wheelie Yellow, the nostalgia got the better of me and I started researching cars. I wanted something cheap and cheerful but unquestionably decent and my search led me to RCGeeks where I browsed Blackzon and FTX off-road cars dispassionately. They all looked wrong, ugly, unrealistic, ungainly.

And then someone recommended the Arrma Mojave Grom on a Reddit thread I had chanced upon, then another and another. Intrigued, I looked up the Mojave Grom, found it was available in pink/teal and that was my fate sealed. Of course I tried to kid myself that I hadn’t already made my choice. I watched many, many videos featuring the Grom being put through all sorts of trials. I antagonised over battery options- I didn’t really understand the market, the chargers, the connectors. I browsed optional extras, would I need wheels, skid plates… this is all adding up!

After some deliberation I picked the Mojave Grom BLX, an upgraded version of the short-course Baja-racing-style truck which includes a brushless motor, 2S/3S cable esc (we’ll get to what that means), some crucial metal drivetrain upgrades and – of course – the teal/pink bodyshell. If you’re new to the hobby and plan to share your driving experience with a young child (or several, as transpired in my case) then I would strongly recommend avoiding this specific model. It’s treacherously, dangerously fast and most kids have all the driving finesse and self control of a Nissan Juke driver. Which is to say: none whatsoever. Cars with brushless motors and geared for speed can best be described as four-wheeled missiles and they will absolutely become an airborne projectile at the slightest provocation.

I had settled upon Modelsport as my supplier, since they replied to emailed questions promptly and gave me some sage advice on battery options. I decided upon a spare set of on-road tyres to save wearing out the off-road ones (these required gluing, an adventure I will cover later), some small Fastrax skid plates (the whole-body skid plate I wanted had gone out of stock), two 3S “Gens Ace” batteries (the Spektrum “smart” 3S batteries were painfully expensive) with Mojave Grom compatible IC2 connectors, a “Gens Ace” charger (nice and small, with USB-C input), and an adapter to convert the charger’s XT60 into an IC2.

The full list is as follows:

• Arrma 1/16 MOJAVE GROM 223S BLX 4X4 DT with Batt/Charger Teal
• RC Overhaul On-Road Tyre with White Rim, 1/18 Mojave
• Fastrax Arrma Grom/Granite/Mojave Stainless Steel Armor Skid
• Gens Ace XT60 Female to EC2 Male Adapter
• Gens Ace Imars Mini USB-C LiPo 2-4S, NiMh 2-12S 60W G-Tech
• Gens Ace LiPo G-Tech 3S 11.1V 2200mAh 35C with iEC2 (GROM) x 2

I was very much diving into the deep end, and I will admit that most of these extras – the batteries included – are very much non-essential for getting started or dipping a toe into the hobby. The skid plates, however, proved to be absolutely totally 100% required and have taken quite a beating over the last few days.

If I were making a recommendation I’d suggest the Mojave Grom Mega, the brushed sibling to the BLX which can be snagged with an additional Spektrum 2S battery (compatible with the supplied charger so you don’t have to buy another) for around £170 right now. I did find the Gens Ace Imars Mini charger a fair bit quicker and less fussy than the tiny Spektrum S10 G2 supplied with both the BLX and Mega but the Spektrum “Smart” batteries are much less fiddly (no trailing balance plug, an extra connector to ensure each battery cell is charged to the same voltage) than the Gens Ace batteries.

Ordering & shipping

I ordered everything from Modelsport, partly because they had everything in stock but mostly because their website includes curated lists of “Spares” and “Tune-ups” which made picking compatible batteries and parts (for a beginner like me) much, much easier than it otherwise might have been. I had somehow missed that batteries were available in “Spares” so I had originally searched by filtering the batteries category for “IC2 connector” and emailed Modelsport asking if they were compatible.

Since I picked Gens Ace batteries I would need a separate charger, the tiny USB one included for the supplied Spektrum smart battery does not balance charge and you might have a bad day if you hooked up a Gens Ace battery to it. I picked the Imars Mini charger since it was mini, and I planned to be able to charge on the go (note: it transpired the 3S batteries lasted much longer than I expected). It was not directly compatible with the Grom-compatible batteries, but a £4 (ow) adapter cable fixed that.

After ordering, Modelsport had my order processed and shipped within an hour and a half and I had it in my hands the next day. Yay!

Out of the box and into the fire

Everything came packed in an outer box with the charger, batteries, wheels and spares packed alongside it. The car itself was zip-tied into its own box with the charger, batteries, remote and instructions stowed below.

The first order of business was to charge some batteries. The supplied S10 G2 charger – a tiny little thing with a single status LED that takes USB Type-C in one end and connects the battery to the other – refused to work with my mains USB-C power supply. The LED flickered briefly like it was trying to start up, and this repeated in a loop. Looking at the manual it seems it requires a 5v, 3A capable supply, something my Anker Prime claims to provide via both its USB Type-C and Type-A ports. It did not work with either. Thankfully hooking it up via the supplied USB Type-C to Type-C cable (it has an adapter for old style USB ports) to a portable battery let me charge the LiPo and, in fact, could be used to charge on the go for gratuitously long days of racing or just one, last, run.

At the same time I set up the Imars Mini, connecting a 3S LiPo to it via the XT60 to IC2 adapter, and plugging in the balance connector. This had absolutely no trouble running from my Anker Prime and emitted a series of beeps (the meaning of which I am still to look up) before settling into LiPo charging mode.

The little Spektrum S10 G2 seemed to draw a steady 14W charging a 2S LiPo, while the Imars Mini drew over 30W charging 3S. It should be thoroughly unsurprising, then, that the 3S battery actually charged faster than the supplied 2S. I’m almost tempted to stow the supplied battery away and stick to the Gens Ace ones, but it’s nice to be able to charge a couple in parallel.

The final step was to secure the Fastrax skid plates, these are attached by removing two hex bolts from the front and back of the car (easy with the tool supplied with the car) and screwing them back on through the metal plates. (I remain skeptical that two screws is enough for these.) Looking at how much of a beating my skid plates have taken, I would call it a hard requirement. No matter how cautiously you think you’re going to drive, this car is far, far too much fun not to go full beans.

Going bananas

With the batteries charged, the skid plates installed and a cursory glance over the quickstart guide there was nothing left to do but fire up the car.

My first impressions? OH WOW.

I had been very keen not to just dip a toe into RC, and get something that would be truly exciting to drive. I think I overcorrected a little, spent too much and henceforth ruined any and all RC toys for both myself and my kids. The Arrma Mojave Grom BLX is absolutely bananas; even a 2S battery on 50% is enough to launch it off a skate ramp and into orbit. It’s also a little more than enough for 6-7 year olds and inexperienced drivers. Thankfully a misspent youth playing videogames, and some experience with at least a handful of RC cars meant I picked up the Grom very very quickly. I think this is helped in part by the gyro, since this car handles like an absolute dream. In inexperienced or younger hands, though, it tends to become ballistic and fire straight into whatever is in front of it. I may investigate making a 3D-printed trigger restrictor to limit the top speed below 50%, or just grab a couple of cheaper, slower, sacrificial cars to placate the inevitable crowds of kids.

Despite far too many complaints online that the Mojave Grom, with its low ground clearance, was not good on grass or offroad terrain I found quite the opposite. It blasts over sand, dirt, wood chips and short grass and howls across the well trimmed local sports-field like a banshee. It does, however, absolutely love to roll. Forget to slow down for a corner, or clip some small rut or stone and the Grom will either cartwheel or roll, and if you’re going fast it’ll go far.

Crashes are inevitable, and so it’s reassuring that nothing me or my kids have subjected this poor car to has yet resulted in any significant damage (famous last words). After a few short days the bodyshell is scuffed, split and dented, the skid plates are bent and the front bumper has seen better days but it still blasts along with every bit as much enthusiasm as if it were fresh out of the box. The wear and tear proudly displaying just how much fun we’ve been having. I can’t really describe, nor even show you how incredibly fun this thing is to drive- you really have to try it for yourself.

That said we’ve taken it anywhere and everywhere from various very-local off-road almost-tracks, the local skate ramp, a somewhat less local dedicated RC track (which, of course, was beset by kids with scooters), a full skate park, an even bigger skate ramp, a dusty basketball court (drifted like a dream), the road outside (a cul-de-sac, so relatively safe), the back garden (a very tight and challenging space to practise drifting and control), various areas of grassland, dirt tracks, asphalt paths and even the top of a kids slide… one of those enclosed tubes… where we drove it around the tune in a loop-de-loop and accidentally launched it over the side of the climbing frame (thankfully we didn’t take it to the face and the park was otherwise empty.) We went to the local – empty at this time of year – splash pool and it howled through stinky stagnant water and needed a good thorough wash. The painted pool bottom was slick, a dream for drifting. We’ve torn down sun-dried tracks, sending up exaggerated clouds of dust and debris, and even found an off-road, unpaved dirt pump track that it absolutely blistered along.

From these many, many little snippets of driving I can venture two bits of sage advice:

This thing is dangerous. Don’t let your kids drive it around people. Don’t drive it around dogs.
This thing is hilariously good fun and a good excuse to stretch your legs. Buy a couple of batteries and you’ll be out for an hour just blasting it around anywhere you can. The 2300mAh Gens Ace 2S at 50% is probably the best choice for fun/runtime balance.

I can also venture that I almost never drive the Mojave Grom on 100% power with 3S batteries, I keep it at 50% which is more than spicy enough. I also try not to let the kids drive with anything but 2S and ideally at 50-75%, but they don’t listen nearly as much as they should for a toy this potentially dangerous.

One thing I have found chucking three or four batteries a session through the Grom (especially running on grass) is that it overheats and will shut down the motor until the ESC has time to cool down. The fan inside the Grom is pretty mediocre and serves only to keep the motor cool- I’ve added a 3D printed fan shroud to help it do this – while the ESC has no active cooling, and there’s very little ventilation in the Grom’s bodyshell. If you’re running multiple batteries, and bear in mind I tend to stick to 50% power, you might find it stops periodically to cool down (as indicated by a rapid flashing light on the ESC, versus the slower blink of a battery reaching voltage cut-off.) This is, notably, also in the UK in fairly mild weather conditions. It’s not quite full blown summer yet.

There are certainly modifications you can make to the Grom to assist with cooling, but thermal shutoff is a good reminder to pass the remote to someone else, or find a new spot to race around.

Spare parts, tyres and skid plates

The separate front and back skid plates from my purchase list above were actually a last minute swap out for a full skid plate that had gone briefly out of stock. These plates take an absolute beating and I’m quite concerned that they’re held on with only two screws. As such I ordered the full one (secured with four screws front and back), which is yet to arrive, and we’ll see how that fares.

As for wheels/tyres, these can get expensive depending on how fancy you want to go. When I first picked up the Mojave Grom a set of “Desert Claw” tyres caught my eye mostly because they looked cool. Since the Grom itself caught my eye for looking cool, you can bet I went back and grabbed a set of those.

Now I’m looking at metal roof skids (okay I ordered some! Argh), since the plastic ones are wearing away very, very quickly and the bodyshell is starting to get some holes in it.

Grab and go

The short-couse truck, small-wheeled style of the Mojave Grom makes it extremely easy to chuck into a backpack along with some spare batteries, alternate wheels and tools. It’s a compact, grab and go car that drives like a ballistic missile. It’s also, if you let it, a hole in the ground into which you’ll end up pouring money. I’ve already spent more than the price of the truck itself on batteries, spares, wheels and skid plates and I’ve only had it a handful of days.

And, uh, that’s before my middle child broke a dogbone in the drivetrain – shearing off a little pin that transfers power from the differential to one of the wheels – prompting me to install the upgrade kit I’d spent… too much… on.

Do I regret picking one up? Absolutely not. But I do regret not picking up a couple of cheap bashers to keep the kids happy (mine, and the others that crowd around every time I fire this thing up in a park.) Clearly I’m not alone in my desire to fling an RC car around every surface I can find, though, since a couple of dads have approached me looking for advice.

The bad

Like it or not, the Arrma Mojave Grom is a bit of a magnet for kids but it’s also- especially with a heavy metal skid plate installed- absolutely recklessly unsuitable for letting inexperienced drivers have a go anywhere but a wide open, empty field. If you take this out and about you’ll probably have a few stressful near misses before you get used to telling kids: sorry, no, this thing is dangerous.

And it’s not just the danger to people and pets, if you let an inexperienced driver bash around then you’ll grit your teeth as they hammer the throttle full beans – even on 2S this is outrageously fast – and drive the car straight into something solid and unforgiving. I think the sheared drivetrain pin was the result of middle-child still hitting the throttle while the car was wedged very firmly underneath a railing.

This is coupled with parts availability being a bit spotty. I picked up a ~£50 drivetrain upgrade kit which isn’t considerably more than the manufacturer front + back metal replacement kits. Now it’s installed in my car, out of stock, and I’m praying it doesn’t also break. If you don’t mind having to wait for parts, and perhaps even enjoy the quiet, methodical process of tearing down your car to diagnose and repair it, then you’ll get tons of fun out of the Mojave Grom. If you don’t want Hoonigan levels of absurd RC power then you’re probably better off just picking up a Blackzon Spryte for yourself, and one each for your kids.

Out of the box I also had some trouble with the steering not self-centering fully, and it’s still giving me trouble. A servo replacement may or may not help, but for the time being I’ve just learned to compensate with continuous steering input.

Overall

If you want to dive into RC cars in a big way, but still want something you can chuck in a bag, then I couldn’t recommend the Arrma Mojave Grom enough. It’s an attention magnet in parks and public spaces, and I think people are genuinely surprised at just how fast it can go and how much of a bashing it can take. It genuinely feels like you’re watching a very tiny desert racing truck and it’s as much a spectacle to watch as it is to drive. People will come up and ask you about it, I think every dad is really just one nudge from slipping over the precipice of an RC car obsession and the Grom really does sell the experience well.

I picked up my Mojave Grom up from Modelsport – regrettably I am not affiliated with them in any way.

If you’ve got younger kids, or a tighter budget, then grab some BlackZon Spryte trucks- RC Geeks have these for just under £40, with two spare batteries and some double AAs for the remote nudging it to £49. You can get much worse for your money though unfortunately you’ll have to buy three to get free shipping… what a shame!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026, Toys.