Remote control for toy car factory defect?

[edy]

I bought a remote control car a few years ago from Staples. It was sitting on my shelf at work and never powered it up, I just liked the look as a display model.

Anyways, my kids are old enough to play with it now so I brought it home and installed batteries. The car and remote both would power up fine but the remote had to be held very close to the car to work. Also, it would give intermittent signals... instead of continuous. For example, pressing throttle would make the car move but in short pulses rather than continuously. Same with steering... it would make the wheels jitter one direction or the other but not stay continuously in that direction.

So I decided to open the remote up and was surprised to find this dog's breakfast on the PCB! This is frustrating and I am pretty sure it was failed manufacturing because:

1. Bought it new in box (could have been a repackaged return)
2. Never turned it on until a few days ago
3. Gave no obvious indication of a failure, it just behaved like a weak battery

Could a 9V inserted reverse polarity have caused this much damage? I never smelled the magic smoke and don't recall ever inserting it backwards. The battery compartment does not protect against reverse insertion but even so would not the circuit have protection? I see a diode right on the input.

QUESTIONS:

1. Does this thing look beyond repair?
2. How does it even turn on and function (albeit poorly) with this blown component?
3. How do you go about even figuring out what belonged there?
4. Could this have left the factory in China like this?
5. Could I have been a complete and utter idiot and put a 9V in what was supposed to be a 2 AA compartment that was missing the conducting strip on the other end of the chamber to make them series? No, I can't imagine I could have been so stupid.

[poot36]

Clean all the black soot from the board and then measure all the components in that area for shorts.  Does the toys box say what batterys it needs?  Most of the smaller remote control cars do use just 2 AA batterys but not all.

[amyk]

It looks like a tantalum cap blew