After 20 hours of traveling and queuing I had to choose between drinking and gambling or attending the first official CES event of 2007, CES Unveiled and am I pleased the geeky side of my head won that argument.

The CES show opens good and proper on Monday but tonight they gave us a bit of a preview of what to expect. There were 30 or so exhibits to have a look and play aroud with (the main show is host to something like 2,700 spread over 65 miles of carpet) and the one that particularly caught my eye was the BladeRunner Recon remote control helicopter.

We’ve written about a few remote control helicopters in the past but the BladeRunner Recon is the coolest one yet. The 3 channel controller makes it very responsive and easy to manoeuvre (though one of the guys at Interactive Toy did manage to crash a similar helicopter into my head twice). What makes it so cool is the video camera built into the nose and tiny LCD screen in the controller.

You can also connect the controller to your PC (USB) and save your spy flicks for later viewing. The BladeRunner Recon will be available in the fall of 2007 and will be priced at the $200 mark, if it’s anything like the prototype it will be worth every penny.